Re: Detroit Rock City Panel Discussion 7/17/13
Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2013 6:04 am
I apologize now, for any misinformation. I do not know all the bands that were mentioned, or hardly anyone that was mentioned tonight. Some names might be wrong, oops.
Nice evening, maybe about 50 people there for the panel. Had black chairs set up in the Blue Room. Screen pulled down at the front of the stage with a 16mm projector in back.
Blackwell came up to the mic, thanked us for coming and introduced what they were going to start off the night with. 16mm footage of MC5 shows and some Stooges shows from '68/'69 that hadn't been seen before. It was probably about 5 minutes or more of footage. Lots of tight pants and flow-y/sequined shirts and jackets, MC5 had a bunch of American flags as their backdrop on their stage. Footage of Iggy showed him very young in some weird, brown leather pants. Falling all over the place and it wasn't long before he was shirtless. Footage went back to MC5, and then cut to some naked guy in a shower, then to a diner, and then to some MC5 footage sitting around a table drinking.
Footage over, screen goes up, the 4 panel members take the stage at the table with mics set up. Blackwell was first, then Steve Miller (author of the book, Detroit Rock City, and member of the hardcore band, The Fix), third was Jerry Vile (guitarist of The Boners, and part of Fun magazine, which later became Orbit magazine, famously featured on Quentin Tarantino's shirt in Pulp Fiction), and last on the panel was Scott Richardson (member of The Chosen Few as well as Scott Richardson Case, which later became SRC).
Blackwell was the host and directing most of the conversation through the evening. He started out with Scott since he was the eldest and his "time" as part of the Detroit music scene was the 60s. He discussed being the first band to play in the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, and the Flint, MI Fest which was held in a high school and the stage was some tables tied together. He told of the origins of the band, The Chosen Few, which had Ron Asheton and I think, for a short time at least, Iggy Pop. Apparently Scott had gone to Discount Records in Ann Arbor and Jim Osterberg (Iggy) was stocking the shelves, Scott had originally gone to talk to the manager but he was out, Iggy called up Ron and he came down to the record store, and friendships were made and The Chosen Few was formed. The band only lasted a year and a half and they recorded one album, of which there are only 3 copies (I think). Ben had them play a song from the album, Inflamed. It was a great song and really quite awesome. You could see Scott closing his eyes and listening, you could tell it was taking him back to the short time the band was around. At the end of the song they pointed out that Ron Asheton played bass.
Question was asked whether or not it seemed like a birthright to get a job working on a car manufacturing line due to living in Detroit. Scott answered that music or crime seemed like the only way out. I don't think much else was said about this question, the topic turned into dealing with the Vietnam War draft. Jerry said his Dad had told him, "As long as you aren't gay, or go to Canada (to avoid the draft), I don't care what you do." Scott told a story regarding the draft and that before he got on the bus to go to the draft offices, he took some high quality, prescription grade speed and was out of it by the time the bus got there. He was the last one off the bus and was holding on so tight to the seat in front of him that he couldn't let go. He ended up with a Bill Cosby look alike psychologist that asked him some questions and one of his responses was that he "was not confined to this planet."
Steve then told a story of the first time he heard MC5. He and his brother were walking through a park and heard some loud noise coming out of a building in the middle of the park. He and his brother went to investigate, saw these hippies doing soundcheck and yelled into them asking who they were and if they had any music out. The drummer told them they were MC5 and they had a single out "Kick out the Jams, motherfuckers". As a young kid, he and his brother thought this was so cool, and that was their first intro into MC5.
Scott talked about Goose Lake Festival, the 120,000 people and the LSD (he was real excited about the LSD). It was the Woodstock of Detroit, but very little press about it because the organizers weren't giving out press passes. All sorts of drugs were everywhere and cops had agreed not to come in and bust anyone, however, they were waiting outside the gates to get people for drugs. Goose Lake Festival was the last big festival in Detroit, that type of event didn't translate well to the city. During the talk about the festival, Scott had a good quote, "No such thing as an ex-Detroiter."
I guess I'll stop there, it's all I've finished up until Blackwell pointed out that it will be made into a podcast. If you don't want to wait until the podcast, I can write down the rest of my notes if you want. So far, the above is only about 1/4 of the notes I took. The songs were amazing. I was so excited to hear the White Stripes song at the end. Well worth the hour drive down, and the ticket price, just to hear that song. I was shocked that a couple people got up and left during the middle of the song, and some others were talking?!?! I couldn't fathom doing either of those when being given the opportunity to hear such an awesome and rare song. Oh well, their loss. Fantastic evening and very glad Meg and I went, very entertaining. Glad I bought the book and had Steve sign it for me, excited to start reading it tomorrow.
Nice evening, maybe about 50 people there for the panel. Had black chairs set up in the Blue Room. Screen pulled down at the front of the stage with a 16mm projector in back.
Blackwell came up to the mic, thanked us for coming and introduced what they were going to start off the night with. 16mm footage of MC5 shows and some Stooges shows from '68/'69 that hadn't been seen before. It was probably about 5 minutes or more of footage. Lots of tight pants and flow-y/sequined shirts and jackets, MC5 had a bunch of American flags as their backdrop on their stage. Footage of Iggy showed him very young in some weird, brown leather pants. Falling all over the place and it wasn't long before he was shirtless. Footage went back to MC5, and then cut to some naked guy in a shower, then to a diner, and then to some MC5 footage sitting around a table drinking.
Footage over, screen goes up, the 4 panel members take the stage at the table with mics set up. Blackwell was first, then Steve Miller (author of the book, Detroit Rock City, and member of the hardcore band, The Fix), third was Jerry Vile (guitarist of The Boners, and part of Fun magazine, which later became Orbit magazine, famously featured on Quentin Tarantino's shirt in Pulp Fiction), and last on the panel was Scott Richardson (member of The Chosen Few as well as Scott Richardson Case, which later became SRC).
Blackwell was the host and directing most of the conversation through the evening. He started out with Scott since he was the eldest and his "time" as part of the Detroit music scene was the 60s. He discussed being the first band to play in the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, and the Flint, MI Fest which was held in a high school and the stage was some tables tied together. He told of the origins of the band, The Chosen Few, which had Ron Asheton and I think, for a short time at least, Iggy Pop. Apparently Scott had gone to Discount Records in Ann Arbor and Jim Osterberg (Iggy) was stocking the shelves, Scott had originally gone to talk to the manager but he was out, Iggy called up Ron and he came down to the record store, and friendships were made and The Chosen Few was formed. The band only lasted a year and a half and they recorded one album, of which there are only 3 copies (I think). Ben had them play a song from the album, Inflamed. It was a great song and really quite awesome. You could see Scott closing his eyes and listening, you could tell it was taking him back to the short time the band was around. At the end of the song they pointed out that Ron Asheton played bass.
Question was asked whether or not it seemed like a birthright to get a job working on a car manufacturing line due to living in Detroit. Scott answered that music or crime seemed like the only way out. I don't think much else was said about this question, the topic turned into dealing with the Vietnam War draft. Jerry said his Dad had told him, "As long as you aren't gay, or go to Canada (to avoid the draft), I don't care what you do." Scott told a story regarding the draft and that before he got on the bus to go to the draft offices, he took some high quality, prescription grade speed and was out of it by the time the bus got there. He was the last one off the bus and was holding on so tight to the seat in front of him that he couldn't let go. He ended up with a Bill Cosby look alike psychologist that asked him some questions and one of his responses was that he "was not confined to this planet."
Steve then told a story of the first time he heard MC5. He and his brother were walking through a park and heard some loud noise coming out of a building in the middle of the park. He and his brother went to investigate, saw these hippies doing soundcheck and yelled into them asking who they were and if they had any music out. The drummer told them they were MC5 and they had a single out "Kick out the Jams, motherfuckers". As a young kid, he and his brother thought this was so cool, and that was their first intro into MC5.
Scott talked about Goose Lake Festival, the 120,000 people and the LSD (he was real excited about the LSD). It was the Woodstock of Detroit, but very little press about it because the organizers weren't giving out press passes. All sorts of drugs were everywhere and cops had agreed not to come in and bust anyone, however, they were waiting outside the gates to get people for drugs. Goose Lake Festival was the last big festival in Detroit, that type of event didn't translate well to the city. During the talk about the festival, Scott had a good quote, "No such thing as an ex-Detroiter."
I guess I'll stop there, it's all I've finished up until Blackwell pointed out that it will be made into a podcast. If you don't want to wait until the podcast, I can write down the rest of my notes if you want. So far, the above is only about 1/4 of the notes I took. The songs were amazing. I was so excited to hear the White Stripes song at the end. Well worth the hour drive down, and the ticket price, just to hear that song. I was shocked that a couple people got up and left during the middle of the song, and some others were talking?!?! I couldn't fathom doing either of those when being given the opportunity to hear such an awesome and rare song. Oh well, their loss. Fantastic evening and very glad Meg and I went, very entertaining. Glad I bought the book and had Steve sign it for me, excited to start reading it tomorrow.
