Wayne County
JJ Johnson – Drums | Later Henry Padovani on additional Guitar.
Be it onstage in plays like ‘Pork,’ or fronting first Queen Elizabeth then The Backstreet Boys and finally The Electric Chairs, Wayne County rolled up burlesque, deviant sex, campness, parodies, cross dressing and plenty of bad taste into one compact package.
While part of the early US punk club scene alongside the New York Dolls and watching his peers like Patti Smith, Television and The Ramones get recording deals, Wayne became disillusioned with his lack of progress.
A call from old sidekick Leee Childers, now managing The Heartbreakers, got Wayne County and Cherry Vanilla to England where he was immediately appreciated by the nascent London punk scene who loved the fun and outrage. Numerous singles and 3 albums over 1977-1979 at least gave Wayne a recorded output but no commercial success. In 1979 the band split with Wayne wanting to become Jayne. Jayne County still plays and DJ’s to this day.
A genuine legend that, like Patti Smith, takes in the New York of Warhol, early punk and not least a pioneer and icon to trans individuals and the freedom of choice over who and what a person is!
For the purposes of this feature, Jayne is called Wayne, for no other reason than for the time period we cover, that’s who she was. Get over it!
Jayne’s Facebook Page | Clinics and resources for trans and non-binary people
Like Cherry Vanilla and The Heartbreakers, Wayne County straddled the US/UK punk scenes. A player at legendary haunts Max’ Kansas City and CBGB’s and peer of bands like Patti Smith, Blondie, New York Dolls and The Dictators and Ramones, this exhibitionist transvestite with a penchant for large Dusty Springfield wigs was already a veteran of the US scene.
He had already done the rounds for some 10 years to little success with his controversial graphic scatological act with an array of props and costumes. Born in Alice Georgia, in the deep south, his name was taken from a state in Michigan – Wayne County – as a tribute to the MC5. From women’s impersonations, he went into Dj’ing, then acting in some very alternative plays like Birth Of A Nation and Pork.
Left – Pork. Above Mainman publicity pic for Queen Elizabeth
His first band Queen Elizabeth (with Jerry Nolan on drums) recorded an album in 1971 that was shelved. With Queen Elizabeth he faked crapping into a dog bowl and used a dildo that squirted milk. At the same time, he became involved with staging and appearing in leftfield theatrical productions like the scatological centred Pork (with Cherry Vanilla) about Warhol superstar Bridget Polk and Femme Fatale with Patti Smith.
While playing at The Roundhouse in London he met Bowie, and like Cherry Vanilla, was signed to Bowie’s company Mainman. In 1974 allegedly $240k was spent on an album and film called Wayne At The Trucks that was a parody of New York’s S&M clubs (the trucks were at the foot of Christopher and under the train tracks along the Hudson. Guys would get into the holds of empty parked trucks and have late night orgies) that never got released happened and $240k they spent filming Wayne At The Trucks which was a parody of New York’s S&M clubs. It was later released in 2004 with extra tracks. Check out Fucked By The Devil which was redone and renamed as Paranoia Paradise later on
Being DJ at Max’s and having his manager run the club obviously helped Wayne and his backing band The Backstreet Boys get three tracks on the compilation with again Cherry Vanilla among others. Tired of attracting just a cult following, Wayne on the advice of Miles Copeland checked out the UK Punk scene in 1976. Like Cherry Vanilla, a group was cobbled together for a debut at the Roxy Club. When favourable reviews followed, The Electric Chairs became permanent.
Having played to rednecks as a cross-dresser, worked smaller clubs for years and hospitalised ex-wrestler Dick Manitoba from The Dictators with a mike stand after being heckled, the London punk scene held no qualms for Wayne. But then again he needn’t have worried. His outrageous, stage act and lyrics coincided perfectly with the nascent punk scene and swapping Max’s and CBGB’s for The Roxy Club and Vortex was no big deal. Along with The Heartbreakers and to a lesser extent Cherry Vanilla, Wayne County & The Electric Chairs were the Americans in residence bringing fun, energetic stage shows and history with them.
Wayne County – You Look like a Girl / Rock n Roll Enema 1976 from Amos Poe and Ivan Kral, shot at CBGB’s
Wayne described his show as “…more or less a freak show with rock music behind it.” and that “I just wanna have a rock ‘n’ roll band really” Ripped & Torn #6, 1977
Wayne County is one of the few rock singers you can call truly unique. Onstage he can be a brassy street tart, a human dustbin, Patti Smith or just plain (?) Rocking Wayne County…Wayne disappears after announcing a number called ‘Toilet Love’, and two minutes later another apparition appears, this time covered from head to foot in garbage!…Corn Flakes packets, old newspapers, beer cans and a copy of The Sex Pistols’ Anarchy In The U.K. fanzine adorn Wayne’s red-hooded bin liner…
Then it’s Patti Smith time, which sees Wayne decked out in Patti rags and black wig, intoning a breathless stream-of-consciousness rap about Jim Morrison’s cosmic pubes and being gangbanged by a team of football players. Wayne finishes and races off-stage again to emerge for the fourth time as…himself, in shades and a faded denim jacket with ‘DC5’ scrawled on the back and the sleeves ripped off. Kris Needs, Zigzag, April 1977
Signing with Safari, Wayne County & The Electric Chairs released 3 albums and a slew of singles with little mainstream success. A problem for Wayne, along with punk moving on was that, yes the more raunchy songs and theatrics got the publicity, but when he tried to turn more serious it became more of a challenge. Add to that that the world was not really ready for a transvestite singer and hit singles, then it wasn’t really on the cards!
In July 1979, not long after the release of their third LP Things Your Mother Never Told You and their first John Peel session, it was reported in the music press that he had been fired as he had spent more time on beginning a sex change operation than being with the band.
The Electric Chairs went on for a little while longer without him and managed one single and that was it.
In an open letter to Sounds in July 1979 Wayne complained.
“Safari records told me that they would pay for my entire sex change operation. Then only halfway held up to the promise. They would not give me the rest of the money to finish my operation until I got commercial enough to sell more records…I have been stabbed in the back with no regard for my feelings or artistic opinions.”
He also said The Electric Chairs had stolen the name when they carried on.
Wayne throughout his life has made many claims – from Bowie ripping him off to being an originator of glam before The New York Dolls and being a punk before punk existed. All these things are true to varying degrees but Wayne lacked that extra bit of oomph or the breaks that turn these traits into legendary possibilities which of course is what artists like Bowie, the New York Dolls and Sex Pistols incorporated and did. Or perhaps Wayne was just too leftfield and people took bits that became acceptable. Whatever the truth, It’s a testament to Wayne and The Electric Chairs that a lot of the music he made still stands up today as quality punk rock.
I think one of the main contributions I made was, that I paved the road for others to travel on. I think of myself as a trailblazer. Like Lewis and Clark. A Punk Pioneer! And the fact that I am Transgender, makes it all the more special! No I never had mass appeal, but I am still going strong and I am an established artist. Still touring. Still recording. Still breathing!!! Still kicking ass and still saying FUCK YOU., to the rest of the world!!! I pride myself on being an original and staunch individual. Still chipping away at that fucking WALL!!! Causing trouble! Defying the government and stirring up the mischief! Throwing cow shit in the face of authority and screwing the establishment! Being a bad example for the kids and upsetting all the parents! He He!!!
Jayne we love you!
The question is, without all the theatrics and props how does the music hold up? Well, the music is a hotchpotch of influences with a heavy dollop of the obscene initially. Wayne’s influences are there for all to see by his choice of cover versions of Night Time by the Standells and I Had Too Much Too Dream by the Electric Prunes.
He was a DJ who played US garage rock. He was also the first person in the US to play Anarchy In The UK. However, the rest of his music is more difficult to define incorporating standard rock and boogie-woogie piano (Fuck Off) to some real meaty classic punk tunes (On The Crest) to the more considered and developed/experimental/atmospheric Waiting For The Marines.
Likewise a run through the song titles indicates what you will be getting – Mean Muthafucking Man, Toilet Love, Cream In My Jeans right through to a more thought provoking and elegantly constructed tune like Things Your Mother Never Told You off the final album. The fact is that Wayne owes a lot to his backing band the Electric Chairs who rarely failed to deliver and provide the oomph.
Still, three albums and a clutch of singles is not a bad haul over a two and half year period. Though guaranteed publicity, Wayne’s antics and suggestive lyrics also meant any kind of success eluded the band!
It all starts here!
Max’s Kansas City ’76 – Pt. 1/ Pt. 2
(Max’s Kansas City Records 1976)
Before the Electric Chairs were the Backstreet Boys (and to be on the nail before this there was Queen Elizabeth who had an album recorded by Mainman but unreleased till many years later) and this was their first single name checking the legendary venue and some of the many bands that played there. This was off the Max’s excellent compilation album. A nod tunewise to Sweet Jane.
Stuck On You / Paranoia Paradise/ The Last Time
(Illegal June 1977)
A seven half minute cover version of an old Rolling Stones song might seem a strange and tame way to kick off a punk rock recording career and it was! Safer ground on the flip side with the excellent Paranoia Paradise (originally titled Fucked By The Devil) and Stuck On You. A precursor to the shocker that was ….
Fuck Off / On The Crest
(Sweet FA Records Nov 1977)
“… If you don’t want to fuck me baby well baby fuck off.”
Yes indeed! While the music sounds like some boogie woogie tune till the ramalama punk ending kicks in the lyrics and obscenity are pure over the top punk. Pity the a side overshadows On The Crest. It’s an excellent out and out punk rocker and is recommended!
Released on Sweet FA after Safari had trouble releasing the record!
Eddie & Sheena / Rock’n’Roll Cleopatra
(Safari February 1978)
Click on image right for a larger image
“Eddie & Sheena…starts off as a tongue in cheek 50’s rock’n’roll ballad after we learn that Eddie (a Ted) and Sheena (a punk) have married and ‘named the little brat Elvis…Rottennnnnnnnn!’ It explodes into a mad race as they ‘pogoed the night away'” Summer Salt, Fanzine, 1978
Very apt song given the Punk/Ted wars of the time!
Blatantly Offenzive EP
(June 1978 Safari)
Just in case you didn’t get it before here’s Fuck Off again but available on a shit brown coloured disc and including Toilet Love about some dodgy S&M club in New York (you can guess the theme) and a gratuitous Mean Muthafuckin Man. Nice version of Night Time tho! Blatantly offenzive is an apt description!
Trying To Get On The Radio/ Evil Minded Mama
(August 1978 Safari)
Hard to explain this single. At first glance I thought it was the Radio Stars! A dig at the powers that be that ban songs off the radio. A squeaky clean song song with pianos, violins and well that’s it. The back cover features a list of radio stations who had banned Wayne. File under novelty record. The B side features an uncredited Levi Dexter of Levi & The Rockats who also went on tour with Wayne County when the Punk/Ted war was still raging.
Levi Dexter: It’s the B side of the single “Trying To Get On The Radio”. I wasn’t credited on the label but this is my very first recording. Wayne County had recorded “Eddie & Sheena” and there were plans to release it as a single. The song told the story “Eddie was a Teddyboy, Sheena was a punk and they have a baby and name it Elvis Rotten”. There was a video project for it and Dibs was on the 45 picture sleeve with some punk chick. If the Teds had found out we would have got a good kickin’ and would have been banished from the Teddyboy scene. With the Ted/Punk war still raging we were booked to open for the Wayne County & the Electric Chairs “Eddie & Sheena tour”. The papers said “First Punk/Ted tour expected to be a bloodbath”. It wasn’t. Those that had an open mind enough to go had a great time. It marked the end of the Ted/Punk war. After that everyone got along pretty good as long as the punks stayed out of the Ted clubs. Punk Globe
Thunder When She Walks / What You Got
(Illegal Feb 1979)
What was it with Illegal Records back then? As the picture cover shows it’s Wayne from Mid 1977 which is exactly when these recordings date. They did the same with Menace with I Need Nothing? What You Got is shortened from It Ain’t How Much You Got That Counts It’s What You Learn To Do With What You’ve Got. Yep its another song laced with sexual innuendo.
Berlin / Waiting For The Marines
(June 1979 Safari)
End game and a different sound, look and feel to the band reflected in the picture cover. Berlin was where Wayne was virtually exiled due to visa problems, home to many a transsexual at a time and where she was awaiting her sex change operation.
Waiting For The Marines is one of JJ’s (The Chairs drummer) favourite tracks…
… for its atmosphere and at the time it’s groundbreaking man/machine type approach to the rhythmics, dynamics, production, and the lyrics, which was about soldiers in the jungle waiting to go into battle. Punk77 Interview, 16.1.01
The Electric Chairs
Safari February 1978
Its hard curbing my enthusiasm for this album…Influences abound here… Eddie & Sheena starts off as tongue in cheek 50’s rock’n’roll ballad…Blues, quite strongly, and even doo wop show their faces, 28″ Model T being a hilarious vocal harmony number about a…car. The one group written song is Big Black Window that slides along supported by a crawling bass riff, Max’s Kansas City is done again… giving a name check to some of the artists who gig/gigged there….Wayne turns fearsome for Rock’n’Roll Resurrection, about dead rock’n’rollers like Hendrix, Joplin and Brian Jones ‘Rock me Jesus/roll me lord/ wash me in the blood of rock’n’roll’… Squeezer Jools Holland appears on Hot Blood, adding slick bar room piano backing……Val Haller – Bass & JJ Johnson – Drums really know their stuff, always spot on on all the songs…Cook is perhaps the main ingredient always keeping a grip on riffs but also making space for solos and hooks…this band have humour (and) skill… Pete Maggs, Summer Salt No3, Fanzine, 1978
Punk77 says: Can’t argue with the review above. It’s a fine well balanced punk rock album with a mixture of musical styles and reworks of older Wayne County songs but hangs together well.
Personal fave is On The Crest.
Storm The Gates Of Heaven
Safari August 1978
No longer The Electric Chairs but Wayne County & The Electric Chairs and now featuring two guitars. Henry Padovani after exiting The Police went straight into the band. Greg Van Cook was sacked and Ex Backstreet Boy Elliot Michaels was brought in. Though the cover would suggest a return to theatrics and transvestites, the album was more complex as the NME review shows. The cover of Too Much To Dream Last Night was released in Germany as a single and became a hit prompting the band to record some TV shows including the one below.
Analyse this record and it begins to sound like a total farce. But just listen to it and it’s fun, angry and committed, it’s witty, it’s tacky it’s awful and finally and somehow it’s brilliant…and the Electric Chairs now with Eliott Michaels and Henry Padovani on guitars do a great job carrying the album along on pure surging rock. Graham Lock, NME see below. Click for larger image.
Things Your Mother Never Told You
Safari May 1979
With the more adventurous David Cunningham of the Flying Lizards at the helm (Val Halla the bassist would join that band afterwards). Freed from the rock ‘n’ roll boogie, the ribald and the over top entertainership this LP is a combination of a group and its leader in transition. The latter literally as Wayne was now firmly on the road to being a ‘she’ and Jayne.
The sides are separated into ‘Them’ & ‘Us’ indicative of how Wayne viewed his place in Rock and his feelings as a transsexual. For me, not his best album but it does contain one of, if not his finest song, the title track Things Your Mother Never Told You. Punky, rocky, even a little reggaeish but sung like a punk Marlene Dietrich diva and fucking catchy.
It’s disc 3 on Spotify opposite
Wayne appears in three films from the time all doing live performances bar one.
Appears as the character Lounge Lizard in the film ‘Jubilee’ by Derek Jarman and performing Paranoia Paradise before being suffocated.
‘Punk Rock Movie’ by Don Letts doing Fuck Off at The Roxy Club.
‘Punk In London’ performing at The Vortex Club.
If punk meant being yourself and standing up for yourself and what you believed in then Wayne/Jayne was one of the most honest exponents. Whatever label you put on it he stood up for what he believed in and had the guts to confront prejudice be it musical or sexual and do what he wanted to do. I have no idea of what it is like to feel trapped by the sex you are born with or the need to want to change it surgically to feel at peace.
Below is a selection of quotes on sex, gender and beliefs.
On wanting to be a woman…
I got a transsexual feeling
It’s hard to be true to the one that’s really you
I got a scandalous feeling
It’s hard to be true when they point and stare at you
Conditioned to portraying the mask of masculinity
Another blend of different shading
I am what I am
I don’t give a damn
Man Enough To Be A Woman
Since early childhood I’ve always felt cheated. I’ve always leaned towards the female role.
I guess my stance is for freedom for the individual – people remaining open to change and being aware…and for me rock’n’roll is a way of expressing it, keeping that spirit alive. NME, 7.10.78It’s an inner yearning [to be a woman]…I can’t explain why, but it hurts. I feel pain – it hurts me to have a male body, to be treated like a male. ..All I know is I feel more comfortable if I’m physically a female. NME, 7.10.78
Reaction…
The reaction from when I mentioned Wayne County went something along the lines of …”What, that fucking queer!” A typical reaction? I dunno, but things like that can’t stop County from being in and being the mainstay of a down to earth shit hot rock band. Pete Mags, Summer Salt #3
I want people to know I’m very serious in what I do…First they hate you, then they laugh at you, then they start to listen. I’m still at the laughing stage, but I think it’s beginning to change…
Sounds, 8.4.78The point is I’m a human being, it doesn’t matter what sex I am, I’m Wayne County…I had to create an alternative lifestyle for me or I couldn’t have lived. Ripped & Torn #15, November 1978
I see myself as a seductive older woman, like an expensive uptown whore rather than a downtown low-class slut. Sounds, 2.6.79
Sex…
You don’t get sexually turned on while taking the hormones (sex change process)…I’d rather have companionship than sexual partners…It’s not a must in my life. NME, 7.10.78
Unusually Record Mirror, viewed as bottom of the four weekly music papers of the time, that was divided into rock & disco and normally liked to display half-naked women in music where they could, featured Wayne in a full-colour fashion centerspread in October 1978. Must have confused those heterosexuals!
On the operation…
The whole operation won’t be finished for another two years. There are other things cosmetically I want done first so when I get the final thing I’ll be a beauty…I don’t think it matters as long as I look gorgeous. Sounds, 2.6.79
Well, Cherry Vanilla and I had been performing on the NYC stage for some time. I started performing in Atlanta in 1966 and then performed in NYC. in underground plays and anti AmeriKan be ins. My first performance in a staged production was in 1969 in Warhol superstar Jackie Curtis’s play called ‘Femme Fatale’, named after the Velvet Underground song. The play also starred Patti Smith.
I met Cherry when she came to audition in my own play that I wrote called, ‘World, The Birth Of A Nation’ (The Castration of Man) She got the part of a necrophiliac, and carried around a shoe box containing a dead puppy. She would dry hump the dead puppy and say’ OOhhhh please don’t die little puppy, please don’t die!’ Then when anyone else in the play would die, she would crawl over to them and dry hump their dead body, moaning, ‘Please don’t die little Spot, please don’t die!!!’ She was also a nurse and the play took place in a hospital. Lots of dead people for her to fuck!!! She played either Tilly Tons, Bertha Blimp, I think it was Tilly Tons.
Anyway, Cherry and I were both into Rock and Roll, or Rock music as they say now! Usually the most rough and ready, dingy, wilder music like the Velvet Underground, MC5 and The Doors. By the time we were doing Andy Warhol’s ‘Pork’ we were good friends. We had a super wild time when they brought ‘Pork’ to London’s Roundhouse. We were the toast of the town, although the British press ripped us apart! How dare we run around the stage naked, simulating perverted sex, and talking about different forms of animal shit and how each one smelled different! And how dare the women in the play curse and use foul language and squirt lemon juice out of their pussies!!!!!!! And how dare the cute guys paint their fingernails, put glitter on their eyes and pubic hair, and wear women’s hi-heels and ribbons tied around their cocks!
Pork 1971
It was ‘alternative’ theatre at its worst or BEST!!! AND no wonder David and Angie Bowie, came along almost every night studying us like a textbook!!! David ripped off all of our ideas! Most of the guys also had SHAVED EYEBROWS and David immediately took that for his future production of Ziggy Stardust!!! And this was YEARS before David’s fave play, ‘Hedwig!’ Oh well, birds of a feather flock together!!! Then of course David’s manager hired all of us to work for David and make him appear as freaky as us, cause David was so straight laced and withdrawn. The Ziggy Stardust ‘character’ was all an act stolen from Wayne County and the cast of Warhol’s ‘Pork!!!’ So, anyway, Cherry and I eventually formed our own bands and started using our own ideas ourselves instead giving them all to David Fucking Blowie!!!
There was already a flourishing underground music scene going on in NYC way before Legs MC Neal and John Holmstrom came to NYC and formed ‘Punk’ magazine. Wayne County had been performing for years before all of this began to take place. Punk magazine just came upon an already existing scene and tagged it ‘Punk!!!’ And it stuck much to EVERYONE’S HORROR! The Ramones, Blondie, etc, everyone hated being called Punks. But to no avail, the term started making the news and we were stuck with it!
Dee Dee Ramone once complained, ‘We are not a Punk band we are a Rock and Roll band.’ The term Rock and Roll in AmeriKa had a different meaning than what the English used for it. In England, it was a term for old 50’s bands or singers, like Jerry Lee Louis, Chuck Berry or early Elvis. So the Ramones were actually playing as early as 1974. Wayne County had been playing in 1972 with his band Queen Elizabeth. Not named after the Queen of England but after a queen in Atlanta who was modeling women’s clothes at one of Atlanta’s biggest department stores. One day Queen Elizabeth was changing her clothes and the manager walked in on her and screamed, cause Queen Elizabeth had a great big cock!!! So I just had to name my band after her!!!
So what I am basically saying is that NYC had this big music scene going forever and Punk magazine came along and called it PUNK!!! And my band (Wayne’s!) was doing the same outrageous things, singing the same outrageous songs and wearing the same outrageous clothes in 1972 as I was in 1977 and on! So to the ASSHOLES that say Wayne County/Jayne County was not Punk, I say+++ FUCK YOU IGNORANT HOMO AND TRANS PHOBE SCUMBAGS!!! And idiot arty farty bands like Television were NEVER Punks and never will be!!!. Except for a few uninformed, uptight, journalists who don’t know their shitty anal canals from their canary turd brains!!! (I hope you are not going to censor me!!!)
So around 1976, Cherry and I started hearing all these great things about a Punk movement taking place in England! Cherry and I are both Anglophiles and worshiped all the British bands from the 60’s! We were thrilled to hear about this, as the NYC Punk scene at the time was so BORING!!! Patti Smith was mystical live, but basically a Hippy but with a new twist. And Television. Oh, that awful band! ART ROCK at its worse! In fact, one of the few bands that really ‘rocked’ out were the Ramones and Wayne County and The Backstreet Boys! Cherry and I wanted something more outrageous! Remember, we had worked to make Bowie seem outrageous, but we needed the real thing! And the British Punk scene was more theatrical, and we really loved that! We both come from theatrical backgrounds anyway. So mix that with Rock and Roll and there you have it!
The NYC scene was as dull as a dishrag, but the music was more diverse! But I like the more rougher, rock sound like the Ramones or Pistols. I went before Cherry did, and I can’t remember the dates on that! But needless to say when I got to London, I fitted more in there than I did on the NYC scene! In NY they were much too too serious! I was an outrageous freak, so to speak, and I immediately felt right at home in London!
The kids really did it right! Dressing up and all. Blood down their white shirts, with rips everywhere! The spiky Richard Hell hair cuts, and of course the Pogo! I read back then that the Pogo originated with Patti Smith, cause she did that on stage all the time. The same with the spitting! I heard that when she went there, the audience were copying her on stage at her gigs, and it soon spread and before you know it, a new dance was born. The Pogo! Not since the Twist had we had such a fun dance! I detested all that fucking spitting! I used to spit also and stick out my tongue and do fake farts on stage. Kiss saw me do all that when they played their first ever gig with me in NYC back in 1972!
Wayne with Kiss and right Wayne’s favourite band!
Fun was something the Arty Farty bands had forgotten about! The only reason that I would jump up and down at a Telivision or Talking Heads concert would be to wake myself up!!! Telivision get the credit for opening up CBGB’s. but that is one big fat LIE!!! It was Wayne County’s ‘Queen Elizabeth’ who did that. They and their cohorts have tried to re write NYC music history with their lies and deceit!!! Wayne County played FOUR WHOLE MONTHS before Tellalievision did!!! Tell A Lie Vision! Transphobic assholes!
I got copied a lot; always have. I guess that comes with always being ahead of everyone else. I was never afraid to try new things, on stage or off!!! Anyway, I was totally accepted by the British Punks. They knew my history and knew I had been doing all that shit for YEARS!!! And I got so much more respect in Britain and Europe! I felt truly appreciated, and that is of the utmost importance for an artist!
But I must give credit where credit is due. Miles Copeland brought me to jolly ole England and booked all my early gigs. Well, Leee felt the same way as I did. The Heartbreakers rocked out and we were fed up with all the arty farty bull shit in NYC. The Heartbreakers went down a storm in London! And of course everyone knew Johnny the guitar player from the New York Dolls. The London Roxy bands all rocked out! Fast paced, raw energy, and attitude. Johnny liked it because the audiences there in England really loved and understood the more raw, rockin’ shit. They could jump up and down and have FUN!!!
Oh my Isis! NO! I didn’t think that the British punk bands were a cheap imitation of The Ramones!!! No more than I never thought that the Rolling Stones were a cheap imitation of Chuck Berry!!! I prefer the Stones versions! I am an Anglo Phile. I LOVED the London punk bands. The Ramones themselves were really upset though! One night I was DJing at Max’s Kansas City, and I was playing The Damned and the Pistols. The first singles and no one else had them! Dee Dee Ramone came running over to the DJ booth hysterical! Screaming, ‘Why are you playing these fucking English bands??? They are just ripping us off!!!’ I feel that the British bands gave the sound a new dimension! The Brits are BRILLIANT at giving their own interpretation of different forms of music, and most of the time their versions are even better than the original!
The Buzzcocks are a perfect example! The Damned were simply incredible and they rock to the highest mountain! The Pistols were brilliant, even if the sound was basically lifted from the New York Dolls and The Heartbreakers. They put in a special burst of energy and FUCK YOU attitude that the American bands left out!
But saying all that, the Heartbreakers were one of the best Rock and Roll outfits around. It was Johnny’s attitude that gave it a more ‘Punk’ attitude. In AmeriKa, Punk could mean different sounding bands, but in England, most of the bands were of the Ramones ilk. I don’t think that Punk was as much the music as it was the fuck you attitude!
The Heartbreakers and Leee Black Childers, were on top of the world in 1976 77 London! Not since Swinging London or the Glam movement had they had such a good time! Track records recorded them but paranoid, junky Jerry Nolan fucked up the mixes something horrible!!! I LOVED Jerry to death. He was in my band Queen Elizabeth before he went to the Dolls! He was an amazing drummer and human being! But he was a paranoid, fucked up junky! And he would be the first to admit it!!!
The Heartbreakers and Jerry Nolan left
Anyway, I had actually been to the Roxy Club years before when I was in London with Blowie for the taping of his ‘l984 Flubshow’ for the Midnight Special telly show in NYC. It was being taped at the Marquee Club on Warnore St. (Please forgive my bad spelling!) I say ‘Flub’ show because when the show was shown on AmeriKan telly, the letters to ‘Floor’ got fucked up and instead of 1984 Floor Show, it came out the 1980 FLUB show! Boy, Lisa Robinson from Creem and Rock Scene really loved that! She slammed the show mercilessly! After all she had already seen the show when it was being done by Wayne County, John Vacaro, Charles Ludlum, Jackie Curtis and The Cockettes!!!
I remember, that the Roxy looked ever so familiar! Then someone told me that it was originally a Gay bar, called Shagmyrama, or something like that. I had been before, when I was in London with David Bowie, when he did his show at the Marquee for Midnight Special. I remember seeing the drag duo, Hinge and Bracket there! I used to go there with Mainman exec. Leee Black Childers. Bowie used to go there, way before he shaved his eyebrows and started dressing like the cast from Pork.
So, anyway, The Electric Chairs was a name I came up with for any British band that I acquired! It was never supposed to be one set of people! I thought up the name while I was touring Europe as Wayne County. I thought it would get us a record deal, cause it sounded more like a real band. There were three different drummers, three different guitar players, only me and the bass player remained the same thru the whole thing!!! Plus I own the name.
So anyway, a lot of the material we were doing was material from some of the other bands I had, like, The Backstreet Boys and Queen Elizabeth. I wrote a lot of them myself. I play a little keyboards so I would write the songs then hum and tinkle the tune, on the keyboards, until the band picked it up! Any new songs I did when I had The Electric Chairs, I wrote with the band or just the guitar player. But some of the songs I came up with, where I thought up the entire song, arrangement etc. myself, I got full credit. The Electric Chairs were really just a backup band for me and my antics! They never contributed much at all, just gave me a lot of headaches!! They got on star trips and started demanding all these outrageous, ridiculous things! The press only wanted to speak to me! They were jealous, so it broke up the band! And the drummer smoked a lot of pot, so he was paranoid and nervous all the time! That was the second drummer for the EC.
The first Chair’s guitarist, Gregg, was a junky and as dumb as you could come up with. I had to fire him because he started hanging out with this junky chick, and she was very jealous of me. Gregg played with Marianne Faithful for a short spell, then she realized how fucked up he was, then dumped him. Also Ray Davies of the Kinks came to see us at Dingwalls and was knocked out by Gregg’s brilliant guitar playing. But then he came back to see us another time, and Gregg was terrible! All junked out on bad junk that his new junky girlfriend had given him! After I was forced to fire Gregg from the band, he went all the way down. You see, I was the person who was keeping Gregg propped up the entire time. Without me there being really strict with him, he would do junk, and fuck everything up! He had to be kept on a short lease and his junky girlfriend was as much of a mess as he was, so he went down really fast!! I even thought he was dead for the longest! I even dedicated my book ‘Man Enough To Be A Woman’ to him, cause I really did think he was a dead as a doornail!!!
Well, the first gig was at the Roxy, and it was kind of a dive, but a good dive! It had real atmosphere. Very trashy. I performed my Patti Smith impersonation, as Ratti Smith, doing a warped version ‘Horses’ chanting horses, horses, horses. giraffes, giraffes, giraffes, piss ants, piss ants, piss ants, etc. etc. etc. It was a hoot. It told the story of Johnny. Johnny goes down to the locker room, and lets the football players all jerk off on him. Then he jumps up, all covered from head to toe with sperm, saying, ‘Hey, I ain’t no queer man! I just like to get jerked off on by football players!’ It was a ridiculous parody and quite insulting, actually!
Then the other thing I did was. stick my head into the bass drum at the end of a song. I played a gig in Boston with the Dead Boys where Stiv Batters ripped that off of me! Also at the Roxy, I did ‘Toilet Love’ with the condom and garbage wig and trash bag dress, with old Roxy handbills glued all over it. Also, I vomited on stage. Besides all the jumping about, vile language and gestures. No, I did not eat dog food out of a toilet and pretend that it was shit! I had stopped doing that by then!
Theatrical? Moi?
The Roxy was mostly young kids, all dressed up in their ‘Punk’ attire. Some bought, but mostly hand made. There were a lot of Bowie haircuts, left over from the Glam thing, as well. And of course the garish make up on the boys as well as the girls. The fashion sense there was also very theatrical. They were really all out. But that was good because it added to the atmosphere. People really tried to do something different and wore mostly home made Punk clothes. Some were in store bought stuff. But Punk was never supposed to be about store bought clothes. You were supposed to shop at thrift stores and second hand shops. I hated it when the fashion people hijacked the movement! Step right up! Get your ready made Punk gear! Spend all your money on these ‘Punk’ clothes and be ‘in!’ That was shitty cause it ruined the original Punk spirit! It made Punk out to be just another excuse for the Vampires and Leeches to make money off of it. Punk was about not having a lot of money and doing it yourself!!! The posers stepped in and ruined it all!
I really noticed when I got to London to play the Roxy, that they were still suffering Glam identification! He He. But I loved it. They looked like Punks, but some of them still had their orange Bowie hairdos! Which shaved eyebrows, that I of course taught Bowie to do! So it was a double whammy for me! And of course that graduated into the ‘Cosmetic Punk’ thing.
They were actually called Cosmetic Punks. The ones, both male and female, who wore heavy black lipstick and make up. Of course that went on to become the ‘Goth’ look! And Oh Isis!!! The London Punk Movement owed so much to the Glam movement! Most of the earliest Punks had been Glammers! Both movements were anti-establishment, and they stressed down on being an individual and blurring the sexes. I played more than one gig at the Roxy, so sometimes I get them mixed up. One was with X Ray Spex, and the other was with Siouxsie and The Banshees. I got along like a house on fire with Siouxsie, but Pollly Sterifoamcunt was a real nasty bitch! Well, she was just nasty and obnoxious to us backstage at the Roxy. I wanted to slap her ugly, piggy, reincarnated face of a frog, face!!! Hypocritical, religious fanatic. Religious extremist!
Wayne County and Cherry Vanilla Roxy Club flyers by Barry Jones
One moment from the Roxy I do remember well was, watching this young boy, take a razor blade and cut his wrists!!! Blood was all over the table, and no one did nothing! Hee Hee. Another one was me going into the men’s room and being told by some cute Punk, that I was in the wrong toilet! That made me feel good, to say the least!!!
Well I don’t think the Roxy was at the bottom!!!!!!! Honey, you should have seen CBGB’s!!! Now that was a fucking TOILET!!! But a good fucking toilet!!! He He!!! I loved Hilly to death. He was a great person. Loved, Loved, Loved him!!! The Roxy had real Rock and Roll Spirit!!! You could feel the vibes!!! (Isis, that is so Hippy!! Hee Hee! Groovy man!!!) The atmosphere was incredible. And there wasn’t much sex going on in the place, cause the kids were mostly on that horrid, nasty drug called sulphate. It was really bad, rough speed that would send you bouncing off the walls, ceiling, and toilet stalls! Although I did catch a few kids here and there having sex in those, scuzzy toilets!
Check out The Electric Chairs at the 4:30 mark – Don Letts’ ‘Punk Rock Movie’
I am so pissed off at that Don Letts! Just because my father was in the hospital DYING FROM CANCER and Don couldn’t get a new interview from me, I was totally left out of that stupid movie ‘Punk Attitude.’ Just because I couldn’t do the fucking interview didn’t mean he had to leave me out! Where is his sense of creativity? And all these years, I haven’t asked him for one cent from that Punk film he did at the Roxy! Well, now I want to be PAID!!! So pay up Don. I need a facelift!!! Jayne
Sex was supposed to be overrated and actually got in the way. Sex was even out for a while. And if you did have sex, you didn’t make a big deal about it! Mainstream Gays always make a big deal concerning sex. The Gay Punks did not! It wasn’t important, just in the way. If you had to do it, hurry up and get it over with so I can get back to writing songs and playing gigs! OR just having a wank!
That happened to me years before when I was in London with Bowie for the Midnight Special taping. I was shocked at how brazen British youth were! They would get drunk and say things like. ‘ Hey, you wanna suck on my knob!!!’ Or is that Nob??? Anyway, I thought they were talking about the newest flavour of pop sickles! You know those ice bars you get at the little shops on the corner! Or they would say, ‘I’m really randy, I need a nice wank.’ I had no idea what the fuck they were saying, and I missed many opportunities!
I kept thinking to myself, ‘Wow. the name Randy is really popular in this country!’ ‘I wish the heating systems were!!!!’ And I was freaked out by the word WANK!!! I thought it meant a glass of water! But I got really excited when one of them said that his mate was ‘leading me up the garden path!’ I thought I was going to get a good banging with Mother Nature all around me! And I thought taking the piss, was a strange, sexual term for drinking urine! I thought the British had some strange customs indeed!!! But I, of course, soon caught on! Oh, and ‘shag’. In America, is a rug! When one nice, drunken lad from Birmingham, offered to ‘give me a good shag’, I declined, saying a rug would be too much trouble getting into my suitcase. And I didn’t want to declare it on my customs slip going back into New York.
I used to sneak peeks at Sting’s penis. Stuart’s penis was a lot larger, cause I only saw it once but I saw Sting’s penis more than a few times. And that ass!!! Gorgeous ass!!! Once he was undressing in front of the mirror and I saw his penis in the mirror and his ass in the flesh! OOO! It was a real treat indeed! I remember that well cause it was at the Paradisio in Amsterdam! Well, I was SICKLY AND TWISTED in love with my guitar player Gregg, so I mostly spent all my free time, screaming, stomping my feet, yelling, crying, and slitting my wrists!!!
Punk77.. There’s a passage in Henry Padovani’s book that describes the scene in reverse.
The next tour was with Wayne and his band.. [at] the Paradiso, in Amsterdam…That night, everyone was peeping on each other. We had hidden to try to see Wayne change his clothes and Wayne had done the same to try to see Sting naked. We, of course, were wondering whether Wayne had one or not. We got caught by the manager Peter Crawley and we never found out. The Secret Policeman
The reaction at the Roxy was phenomenal! And no, no abuse at all! I was well loved by the Roxy crowd. And they all knew who I was. A lot of the Punks had been Bowie, Glam fans! The place was packed. You couldn’t move! And the place was full of all the Punk celebrities. Members from just about all the bands were there. They loved me, and besides some of the Punks were gay or bi in those days, whether out or not. In the beginning, Punk was not so homo or trans-phobic. That happened later when the movement was taken over by fake punks and skinheads!
And many in all the diff. bands were Gay or Bi themselves. I won’t say any of the names, but one of the Clash, one of the Pistols, and the singer of the Buzzcocks of course. and quite a few more. I even had a short affair with one of the guys in Menace! Not to mention, my crush on Mark P!!! I used to sit on his lap and nibble his ear!!! And of course Gene October and his little ‘to do’ with Billy Idol. And Walter Lure of the Heartbreakers. Oh, it goes on, believe me!!! You see, I was so open about myself that a lot of the Punks would confide in me! But when they were around other people they would pretend to be totally straight! So of course, I found out all sorts of things about everyone!!! Chris Spedding, even gave me scabies!!! That rat!!! (Did I spell his name right?) He had a huge coke problem and couldn’t get it up! And of course Dee Dee Ramone was a rent boy! And most of the managers were all Gay as well!!! And a lot of the record company guys!
Something funny though! Everyone in the New York Dolls were straight!!! He He. That is funny. David Johannsen ‘flirted’ with bisexuality, but that was all. Some of the Cramps are Gay, I ain’t saying which ones cause it would be disrespectful to Gay People!!!!!
The Mumps were very Gay. All of Blondie are straight, but Debbie has been known to swing the other way on occasion! And I don’t think she would mind me saying that. I love Debbie. What an angel!!! A true star! One of the most beautiful and talented women of our time!
Same with Theo from the Lunachicks. Oh shit, she is GORGEOUS! If I was a straight male, Debbie and Theo would be my type!!! That awful art band, Telivision, has two Gays. Same thing with Talking Heads! And Motorhead, oh the fucking list goes on and on! Not sure about the Damned, I don’t think any of them is Gay. But I have heard that one of them is a Tranny Fucker! Oh, well of course the singer from the Buzzcocks and Magazine. And many more! and of course I was totally ‘out’ about what I was! A drag queen trapped in a transexual’s body!!!
So was Sid Vicious! He even picked up a tranny on the road who looked like Nancy! He actually called Nancy on the phone while in bed with the tranny!!! The conversation went something like this.
SID— ‘Hey Nancy I picked up a transvestite and she looks exactly like you’, NANCY — ‘ Does she have tits?’ SID — ‘Yes, she’s got great tits.!’ NANCY — ‘Well, she’s not a tranvestite, she’s a transsexual!!!’ That is a famous story!
Sid Vicious followed Johnny and Leee around like a puppy dog. Leee even managed Sid’s band the Flowers Of Romance for a short period! Sid was extremely paranoid about being ‘possibly’ Gay. Leee and Johnny would give him ‘pep’ talks to give him more confidence. Sid even approached me at a gig, asking me if I thought he was Gay!!! Very strange! I didn’t know if he was taking the piss, was coming on to me, or was being deadly serious! I do know he had a lot of misgivings about his sexuality. And of course, Nancy zeroed in on all that and used it to her advantage! I actually liked Nancy to a degree. We always got along fine. I even let her borrow money for ‘food’ several times.
I get angry when I hear or see these so called modern day Punks. They have no idea what it was all about or was supposed to be about! There was no homophobia in the early London Punk Movement! That came later with all the bandwagon jumpers. In fact most of the big Punk artists of the early had Gay experiences or were Gay but just did not make a big deal out of it. The press would have latched on to that and that would have been all you heard!! And no one went out of their way to ‘meet each other!’ It was just, well whatever, if I do great and if I don’t who cares. Plus Johnny Rotten had started an anti-sex cult that existed within the Punk Movement.
JUNK — Johnny Thunders did NOT introduce junk to the kids in London! Everybody was either on sulphate or junk when I got there and Iggy was a known junky! Also, everyone knew about Lou Reed’s junk problem. And they all knew about the junk songs of the Velvet Underground. If anyone in London made junk cool, it was Iggy and Lou Reed, and that is also highly debatable! And the Hippies learned it from Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithful!!! And the book by William Burroughs, called ‘Junky’ was highly popular among the art punks! And besides, it was Nancy Spungen who got Sid on junk! Then Sid made it super, cool for all the young punks!
I think Johnny was just doing what he had always done since the New York Dolls. So blaming that one on Johnny is stupid and moronic. Someone doesn’t know their punk or rock history!!! Talk is cheap but getting the facts right is spot on! It is easy to just be lazy with your fact-finding and settle for just making up stories about something you know nothing about! I don’t know who made that one up but they should be ashamed of themselves! May Johnny’s ghost come back to haunt them!!! And anyway, good, clean, well behaved rockers are BORING!
You can’t blame artists for kids taking drugs! I think Johnny could have been an excuse for taking junk, but makeup will make you look just as ‘cool!’ The people who take junk have a choice. That’s like blaming Kurt Kobain for teen suicides, David Bowie for turning people Gay or Eminem for Gay bashing! Or blaming the telly for all the ills in the world, which people do all the time!!! People can take in, from all that influences them in life, but ultimately, it is THEIR choice and they have only themselves to blame! Johnny can’t be blamed for some kids doing junk! They did it to themselves! I read a book on sex changes went out and changed my sex! Then I saw a fat person on the street, then ate myself to death. I listened to some Hip Hop then went out robbed a bank, raped a woman then murdered someone!! None of it was my fault!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Therefore, books should be banned, fat people should be put in prison and all Hip Hop artists should be hung!!!!!!!
I was never into junk, cause I was such a speed freak! But it has certainly played its part in Rock and Roll Babylon! And Lou Reed’s junky song, ‘Waiting For The Man’ is a classic piece of rock history. Too bad Lou had to die like that! He was so much better when he shot junk and fucked transsexuals [see picture left of Lou and trans Rachel who he had a relationship with] anyway! Now that we have this weird ‘POD’ person, going around impersonating him, we can only dream of the good ole days when he was sleazy white trash, and writing good songs!
Same goes for David Bowie! He was better when he was, snorting coke, shaving his pubic hair and fucking transvestites! Now he is rich, old and BORING!!!
Well, Miles Copeland got mad at us cause we gave ‘Fuck Off’ to Safari instead to his Illegal record company. I’m glad I gave it to John Craig at Safari cause he has always paid me my royalties, and I have never gotten a penny out of Miles Copeland for all those tracks I did for him!!! But I must give credit where credit is due. He brought me to jolly old England and booked all my early gigs. He booked me all over Europe. He booked that great gig in Paris, with Generation X, The Jam, Stinky Toys and The Police! During my version of the Stones ‘The Last Time’ Lenny Kaye came out and played guitar! It was amazing. I wonder if anyone filmed the fucking thing! DAMN!!!
Peter Crowley and I really misjudged Miles! His company got really big and The Police got huge!!! We were shocked! Of course The Cramps have a lot to say about Miles Copeland. But then again The Cramps are one of the most nastiest, horrible, mean, rude, little turds around! I mean not in the good Punk way either! But to people they should respect! They are also THIEVES and closet Gays. They are bitter and a must to avoid. Real ASSHOLES! But as a band they are FANTASTIC AND INCREDIBLE! Love the band, hate the idiot members!
Like the Ramones, I love them but HATE that far right wing Fascist, KKK, Aryan White Nation member Johnny!!! He was a fucking PIG!!! Mentally off, paranoid and hateful. Mean, bitter and a racist, homophobic, Jew, Black, Hispanic hating PIG!!! Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead!!! So is Hitler and Mussolini!!!
When we broke up the last band I had they [The Electric Chairs] tried to go on without me, but it was a total disaster, cause I was the band! Without me it was nothing. They bombed on their asses, and embarrassed themselves really bad! Plus the half baked manager, Bob Black, that I had at the time, broke us up by telling lies to me then running back to the band and telling them lies! He had been saying, that if he couldn’t manage both Wayne County AND The Electric Chairs, then he would break the band up.
The Electric Chairs 1979 but no Jayne!
He was a real sleazeball. He was also a closet homosexual who on occasion liked to fuck trannies. He was really into German trannies and fucked one of my tranny friends when we were in Berlin. He even missed the plane out of Berlin, cause he was up all night doing drugs and fucking my tranny friend. Her name was Miss. Alice and she was hot! He had a big nose so she thought he had a big cock!!! I never found out for sure cause he wasn’t my type. If he had been, then Miss. Alice would be in Tranny Heaven now!!!
I think one of the main contributions I made was, that I paved the road for others to travel on. I think of myself as a trailblazer. Like Lewis and Clark. A Punk Pioneer! And the fact that I am Transgender, makes it all the more special! No I never had mass appeal, but I am still going strong and I am an established artist. Still touring. Still recording. Still breathing!!! Still kicking ass and still saying FUCK YOU., to the rest of the world!!! I pride myself on being an original and staunch individual. Still chipping away at that fucking WALL!!! Causing trouble! Defying the government and stirring up the mischief! Throwing cow shit in the face of authority and screwing the establishment! Being a bad example for the kids and upsetting all the parents! He He!!!
See You! Rock till you drop! Jayne XX
An interview with the drummer from the Electric Chair’s JJ Johnson aka John (JJ) Johnson from 16.01.01. I like interviews with drummers, as so often they are a forgotten band voice, yet more often than not they offer a unique viewpoint and I don’t mean looking at the band from behind!
Here JJ gives his views on Wayne County, The Electric Chairs, the early days of Punk rock in general, and what they did after the split.
What was Wayne’s aim with the Chairs? To be honest a transvestite singer singing about toilet love was not going to take you to the top! Did he straight away tune into Punk? What did he/you make of the Punk scene?
Wayne County and guitarist Greg Van Cook arrived in London from the New York scene around the same time as fellow American bands like Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, Television, Talking Heads, Cherry Vanilla, among others, and teamed up with British bass player Val Haller and then later myself with the aim of forming a Punk rock n’ roll band, initially, I think, as a continuation of gigs and shows Wayne & Greg had been doing in New York. The band regarded Wayne as a unique, energetic, fun, live performer so, as regards getting to the ‘top’ we had no illusions about that, as we were more concerned with playing wild gigs and tight musical arrangements. Besides, we were too busy dodging missiles and gob! (Laughs).
I think Wayne specifically came over to England to catch the Punk/New Wave scene as did a lot of American bands at that time. I got the impression that Wayne felt totally at home with the energy, craziness, and the then original dress sense of young Punks, especially as Wayne had a reputation for wearing a few interesting creations of his/her own! (Laughs) With regard to myself as a British musician, it was a breath of fresh air. Punk was experimental, innovative, challenging, humorous, sometimes dangerous, sometimes revolutionary, brilliant and fun. Musically Punk took things back to basics and opened doors in many ways, like the rise of small independent record labels, and created platforms for numerous bands, Punk changed attitudes and musical language.
Did you view yourselves for want of better words a novelty punk band?
I think the original idea was to be a trashy Punk rock n’ roll band, centred around Wayne’s unique performances with a deliberate sense of humour, and things developed from there. There was humour in the music too, and occasionally the general humour got misread, leading to a few wild scenes and some moral indignation. From what I remember from the vast majority of gigs (especially through 77) and based on the wild responses of the audiences at that time, a good “Chairs gig” had the potential to transcend that ‘novelty’ band tag bollocks.
Did Wayne’s sexuality affect the band and its later efforts to produce serious music?
Well obviously due to Wayne being Wayne, and the band being themselves, there were numerous bizarre reactions both inside and outside of the music business. These created their own events and hurdles, possibly taking Wayne and the Chairs a longer period of time to secure a permanent record contract, unlike many bands at that time. I think the band’s main focus throughout was on extensive touring and doing good live shows. With regard to ‘serious music’, it just seemed to be a natural progression, a need to move on, trying new ideas, just Wayne and the band being ourselves. Besides, the adrenal, gobbing, pogoing rush of 76-77 Punk only lasted about a year, and musical attitudes had gone through a lot of changes through 78-79.
How did the London audience relate to the band? Gobbing? violence? Did you notice a difference outside of London?
We did some brilliant gigs at London venues like The Roxy Club, The Marquee, The Roundhouse, The Electric Ballroom, The Music Machine (now The Camden Palace), Dingwalls, Hope & Anchor, The Nashville etc. The majority of London audiences were pretty wild and amazing including their dress sense; they wanted change, you could feel it in the air, I felt part of it. On the subject of gobbing, we had our fair share of it. I knew the gob was hitting its target because after a few gigs the cymbals and metal fittings on my drum kit had turned green (Laughs). Punks seemed to be holding competitions amongst themselves for gobbing accuracy. Unfortunately the downside of this was when some punk gobbed into bass player Val Haller’s mouth leading to him developing hepatitis, putting him and the band out of action for several weeks.
As regards violence, at a fair number of gigs there was a small male faction of the audience that would attack the band and get steamed up, possibly about Wayne’s stance/performance, or to try and fuck the band up. Generally from what I saw at the majority of gigs, it was just mad, high energy, pogoing, gesturing, fun, but sometimes it often went beyond that. There were differences with audiences outside of London, although it’s hard to generalise. The North had its own scenes and bands, North and South often competed against each other. Manchester had venues like The Electric Circus and later the Russell Club, Liverpool had the amazing Erics Club and its brilliant audiences, Birmingham had Barbarellas Club, so like the majority of provincial towns we played, apart from a couple of gigs the reactions were pretty wild, but most of the gigs were wild, in different ways.
How did other bands relate to the Chairs? What did you think of other punk bands and who did you rate?
Some bands were hostile but it was generally a pretty friendly but competitive scene, especially in 1977 other bands were too busy posing and were fairly hard to communicate with, maybe because Wayne & The Electric Chairs didn’t fit into the usual band format, or because of some of the bizarre reactions to the band when we played live. But we usually met a few good bands/people and had laughs, so I don’t know whether other bands related to us or not, we were too preoccupied with gigging/touring at the time. What bands did I like? Well, apart from the obvious ones like the Pistols, I liked The Damned, for their sense of humour, A.T.V., X-Ray Spex, The Adverts, The Banshees, The Buzzcocks, and Magazine among others. One of the American bands I liked was Pere Ubu, especially for their early single ‘Final Solution’.
Strangest moment / worst moment / funniest thing written about the Chairs?
(Laughs) There were many strange moments, (pause) but on second thoughts, they were All strange moments, (Laughs). Out of the many live gig and record reviews, some were good, amusing, or slag offs, one of them would be a live review in punk fanzine ‘Look North’ of Wayne and The Chairs playing Reading Festival in August 77, it was pretty accurate and hilarious, especially as the gig descended into a mad mud bomb exchange between the band and the audience, leaving the stage about a foot deep in mud and my drumkit and band equipment looking like mud sculptures.
How did you see Punk changing as 1977 turned into 78-79?
After the initial amphetamine, pogoing, rush of late 1976 through 1977 things seemed to be hanging in limbo, with a feeling of where does it go from here? I think the media, some of which were initially resistant to Punk in the early days, decided that Power Pop would be the next new youth movement, but despite massive hyping of Power Pop bands, it faded very quickly. Through 78 other bands and scenes came through like The Gang Of Four, The Mekons, The Delta Five from Leeds, or Joy Division and Magazine from Manchester among others, which I liked. So things were pretty diverse and changing all the time way into 1979, when Two Tone came through with bands like the Specials, and The Beat.
Were you involved in the filming of Jubilee and what did you think of the film?
Wayne had a co-starring role in Jubilee playing the part of Lounge Lizard, and Wayne and The Electric Chairs performed the song Paranoia Paradise in the movie, in a scene where Lounge Lizard is watching him/herself and the band on a T.V. set and singing along to the song, so it was a very brief appearance by the band. When I saw the film I didn’t get the historical flashback bits, it was pretty disjointed and fairly camp but there were some good and humorous scenes. Adam from the Ants, who had a starring role was really good. I think my favourite scene was Jordan dancing around the bonfire, and then later performing Rule Britannia, but having now seen the film a few times over the years it sort of makes more sense.
What did Wayne make of English Punk?
Well, from what I saw, I got the impression that Wayne was well into the energy and craziness of Punk, but I can’t answer that, you will have to speak to Wayne or rather now Jayne.
What can you remember about the Roxy Club, the audience, atmosphere and bands?
We played The Roxy Club several times, I can’t remember the particular gig you referring to as some gigs and events are a blur. What I do remember is downstairs where the bands played there was a low stage. If you were on stage, to the right was a tiny DJ booth with Don Letts spinning discs between bands. He was also filming bands on a small Super 8 camera and filmed us on one gig for his Punk Rock Movie.
To the left of the stage was the entrance to the upstairs foyer. The room was pretty dark, the audiences were usually wild, especially the front row of pogoing, gobbing punks, with others hanging around the outer walls. Upstairs was a large circular foyer and bar where people hung out, but the main thing I remember are the bands most of which were raw, fast, new, humorous, original, driven, compelling, the atmosphere and anticipation was usually electric, especially from early, and through most of 77.
What was your favourite Chairs song and why?
Possibly the early track on Illegal Records, It Ain’t How Much You Got That Counts It’s What You Learn To Do With What You’ve Got, which the title was understandably shortened to What You Got, I like the breaks, dynamics, and humour of the track and despite the sexual innuendo of the song, the title was relevant to the band as we often operated with basic musical equipment and resources, and also because the song usually got a great response from audiences. Another track would be Waiting For The Marines, for its atmosphere and at the time its groundbreaking man/machine type approach to the rhythmics, dynamics, and production, and the lyrics, which was about soldiers in the jungle waiting to go into battle.
How did the Chairs end?
Probably as chaotically as it began, maybe due to intensive touring pressures, communication started to break down. Also I think, musically, we were pulling in different directions around the time of making the third album, Things Your Mother Never Told You. After a tour and recording a John Peel show around the end of 1979, Wayne and guitarist Elliot Michaels flew back to New York and formed another band.
Nevertheless, VIVA PUNK!
© Copyright: Drumpunk/ / Punk77
January 16th 2001.
Check out JJ’s website for more details on his career and The Electric Chairs…
“A brief history of early Punk and beyond, with stories and punk reviews charting the rise of British /anglo/American punk rock from 1976, to new-Wave and others, based on the biography and Discography of JJ Johnson aka John Johnson. Then, Drummer, percussionist and later keyboard player, singer/songwriter, producer, filmmaker and co-founder and ex-member of The Electric Chairs who was also part of, or performed with, The Mystere Five, The Flying Lizards, The Skids. Thomas Dolby, G.B.M and others.”
TalkPunk
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