- Well , I was born in Los Angeles California, but my family soon "migrated" to Orange County, just south of L.A. Fullerton to be precise. orange groves, track houses and the John Birtch Society... middle class fucking America. Fullerton is the home of Fender instruments and their dumpsters provided my friends and I with lots of stuff to start a garage band with. this was back in 1969-70 and my heroes were the BEATLES and COUNTRY JOE and the FISH. but as times changed and my friends and I would go see local bands, my tastes changed. so that when we started playing music, literally in the garage, we did covers of BLUE CHEER, NEIL YOUNG and JETHRO TULL(?). I was the drummer, and since no one else wanted to, I also took the job of lead singer. we knew nothing of authentic Rhythm & Blues, so we did covers of covers if you get my meaning. true garage punk-junk. and bliss! eventually the other guys interest's changed (not mine though) so I stared hangin' around with the boy who lived across the street from my best friends garage. his name was GREG and he was a bedroom wanna be guitar player. he would play guitar and I would sing. In his bedroom. he and I became inseperable so that in '72 when bowie's "ziggy" came out we decided to re-ignite the old band, with Greg as lead guitarist. I was Ziggy totally. red hair and shaved eyebrows. the lot!
Anyway, I moved to San Francisco to further my education in the fine arts. I was a wanna-be "Jackson Pollack". this was all fine and good but boredom soon set in. Big time! then I heard the RAMONES were playing at a North Beach club, the SAVOY TIVOLI, close to the San Francisco Art Institue. I went alone as no-one was interested in coming along 'cuz no one knew who the Ramones were except me! It was autumn '76 and my little brother had played me their first album just a few weeks before and I was curious as hell . So I paid my buck- fifty or whatever and together with about 10 other people had the sonic- life changing experience of a lifetime! they were amazing and I couldn't believe they could put so much energy out for like 10 fucking people! and DEE DEE was something else! I was so stoked at the idea of another band that I immediately phoned Greg and he too was good to go. a couple of weeks before I'd sent Greg a CRIME poster with a picture of Hitlers face on it and over the face was printed the word BANNED! He was real interested in what was going on in San Francisco so I went back down to So Cal and helped him move up, and on the way we stopped and I bought a set of drums I saw advertised in some record store (1959 Ludwig kit-white pearl-150 bucks!) so we were set! I decided I didn't want to sing this time, but instead concentrate on playing the drums. San Francisco consisted of only 2 interesting bands who were (more or less, although I didn't know it at the time) the remainder of the Ramones audience that night. These were the NUNS and CRIME. We instantly became the third! all we needed was a singer and a bass player. I was totally floored with this "Marilyn-type red head" who also atended the SFAI and she would dress in these vintage 50's clothes in stark contrast to the other painters at school. she seemed the perfect candidate for the job of singer. Plus I was totally in lust with her. She was the most fascinating girl I'd ever seen! so I made a play for her and popped the big question. "do you want to sing in our band?" she said "No, I wanna be an actor. I know nothing about rock and roll." perfect!! we set a mike in front of her, turned on the P.A and left.... when we returned she said "Yea, I'll be your singer. My voice sounds so great this loud!" We had ourself a singer but still needed a bass player. Penelope suggested this other student at SFAI named Jonathon Postal. OK, we had ourselves a band now so we started to rehearse in my loft which I shared with 3 other painters and so our first gig is credited to have been played in my "wearhouse", actually it was just one of our many parties but this time we provided the enterainment. we did covers of early STONES and a few STOOGES numbers. Penelope still looked like a red headed Marilyn Monroe and we didn't have a name.. I credit Jonathon with our name. We dicked around with different names like the Refrigeraters, Vomit, and the Open Sores until Jonathon came up with the AVENGERS stating it would be the name everyone could understand... the most comman garage band name on the planet. we said why not and it stuck.
Jonathon never fit in the band and he had very definate ideas of what we were to be that did not jibe with ours. for one, he had long curly hair and fancied himself Gary Valentine, bass player for BLONDIE at the time. This was NOT what we were, so his days were numbered from the git-go. when Penelope and I met Jimmy in july 77 we knew he was our boy! Jimmy used the line from JAILHOUSE ROCK where ELVIS says in essence "I can play guitar (bass) better 'en him!" Jimmy was hired on the spot, right in front of City Lights Books. The problem was how to get rid of Jonathon. He refused to go! We had to physically evict him and he went kicking and screaming and swearing revenge! Jonathon in fact got us our first real gig at the MABUHAY in june 77 playing an all nite party for the NUNS who had opened for BRYAN FERRY at WINTERLAND. That show established the AVENGERS as the "new kids on the block". the AVENGERS were the first REAL punk band from San Francisco!
- Had any of you been in bands before?
- The first band I was in was called MAX. At our first gig (at the local jr. high school) we were billed as THE MAX DANCE BAND! cool huh!? I was also in a "glam band" back in '72 called HEAD OVER HEELS and the line up was ME (vox) GREG (guitar), TIM RACCA (guitar),WARREN McKAY (bass) and TRACY POUGUE (drums). We played high school dances(twice!) and were refused entrance to RODNEY BINGENHEIMERS ENGLISH DISCO in Hollywood as we were 16-17 years old! Our song list included songs by BOWIE (of course), Deep Purple, the Velvets, SLADE (!), and the New York Dolls! the irony was that several years later RODNEY often said that the AVENGERS were the "greatest rock and roll band in the world!" he probably still thinks so! I'm just guessing.
- What made you pick drums in the first place?
- I allways wanted to play drums. but my folks bought me a guitar instead. shit! all the guys in the neighborhood had guitars so my best mate's mom (I'll allways be grateful to her) just went out and bought a set of drums and said "you guys can't have a band with 16 guitar players! Here you go!" Naturally I jumped on 'em and claimed them for myself. I later paid her back the hundred bucks she paid for them. I was born to play drums! Joe Strummer once told me I was "... a great fucking drummer!". drummers got big ego's and I'm no exception. we all admired each others style of playing and favorite drummers include Maddog (from the CONTROLLERS), Chuck Bisquits (D.O.A.), Nicky Beat (WEIRDO'S), and myself who, unfortunately, hasn't played much lately.
- The Avengers' debut gig was at your ''warehouse party''? Was that where you and Greg lived?
- I was attending the SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE and my buddies and myself rented a huge loft space south of the city and split the rent and painted and partied and took lots of speed. I started the band and that is where the equipment stayed and we began to rehearse. Greg didn't live in our loft space, but instead lived in his Chevy van until, very soon after moving to S.F., he met a women and moved in with her. her name was Laura.
The "Warehouse gig" was, as I said, one of our huge party's where we happened to be providing the entertainment. We were getting our "chops" down and showcasing our "singer". I remember thinking that it was cool Penelope sang "I WANNA BE YOUR MAN" in the same way PATTY SMITH did "GLORIA", that cross- gender kinda thing. We also played "THE LAST TIME", and "MERCY MERCY" by the STONES'. the audience were young artsy-fartsy party people. you know, friends!
I think it's important to note that our first real show (at the MAB, june 11-77) was the showcase gig for the AVENGERS and we played ONLY original material. this was partly due to PENELOPE taking a trip down to Hollywood and kickin' it with the SCREAMERS for a few days. PENELOPE was from Seattle where the SCREAMERS (then known as the TUPPERWARES) were also based. She had been their "body guard" in Seattle prior to her moving to San Francisco and they were good friends. upon her return from Hollywood (where the SCREAMERS were the darlngs of the fledgling Hollywood scene-AND RIGHTLT SO!) she announced that"we must have our own songs!" we agreed. Problem was no one had ever written a song before! So we set about trying to write some. I believe it was me who wrote the first 5 or 6 songs as I had no problem trying! mabey they weren't the ultimate in PUNK ROCK compositions, but they were at least ours! The songs included "I WANT IN", "FUCK YOU", "VERNON IS A FAG", "MY BOYFRIEND'S A PINHEAD", "TEENAGE REBEL" and" CAR CRASH". 4 out of 6 songs written entirely by your's truly. We ended the set with me (ego nutcase) doing a typical rendition of "SEARCH AND DESTROY". This was after we had finished our set as the AVENGERS. Needless to say, we were the highlight of the evening, it now being 4 in the morn! DIRK DIRKSON, the proprioter and M.C. was duly impressed and asked us back the following week even though half the time GREG was playing one song and PENELOPE was singing another! definately the way to begin any punk-rock career!!! The audience was made up of R&R enthuseists and displaced freaks and young gays out to have a bit of fun. They fuckin' loved us! and we them! we shut 'em all down! PUNK ROCK HAD FINALLY ARRIVED IN SAN FRANCISCO! and PENELOPE was the FACE! screw the NUNS and CRIME!
- You rehearsed at Iguana Studios, right? What was that?
- Greg's apt. was in Frisco's leather bar "South of Market" area and just round the corner was a rehearsal space above the bar "the stud" which most of the "old school" rock bands ussd beacause they had reasonable rates and we could keep most of our equipment there. IGUANA STUDIOS was run by 2 great guys and it soon became a kinda focal point for the various bands comprising the "new" San Francisco scene. I believe we rehearsed maebe 2 or 3 times a week... as often as we could afford. Since we generaly wrote our songs in the "bedroom" we'd set-up and have a go at new tunes and Penelope would get the vocals together at "high volume". Friends would sometimes hang with us and so rehearsals could become spontaneous parties. All the bands were curious about what the other bands were up to so people would come round and "spy" on us...and we them.one fave anctedote was when NEGATIVE TREND came round with their new singer ROZZ whom they had decided to spring out of the audience and push the old singer (don vinyl) outa the way mid-song, so they were excited to show him off to us before they pulled this stunt on friday. We kicked into WANNA BE YOUR DOG and Rozz proceeded to throw himself around the studio like some wild animal and broke his arm in the process. So the first show with their new singer had Rozz in a cast and us in stiches! Wonderful!!
- Can you tell us something about the song writing process with the Avengers, did you write together at rehearsals or?
- Writing songs in the begining was difficult but so much fun! There were no limits excepting our knowledge of chords and such. Especially for me who knew just the basic chords and bar chording. Our references and influenes at the start were the RAMONES (like everyone else!) the DAMNED old garage-trash bands like the MUSIC MACHINE and a few riffs Greg brought with him from his previous band. Simple stuff. The magic was in the presentation. i.e. LIVE! We'd write songs together in Gregs room or Penelope's little apartment. We'd get the music sorta done then Penelope would write some words and try to fit 'em into the song. She got lots'a help from me with the melodies and phrasing etc.eventually she was able to put her own unique style into our songs. We had a good laugh attempting to compose songs and one in particular, WE ARE THE ONE, was an early "political" toungue in cheek favorite we wrote together just after Jimmy joined the band. I had words to a song, I BELIEVE IN ME. so we wrote that song too the same afternoon. When we recorded I BELIEVE a few months later for the E:P: Penelope ad libbed all the verses (first punk-rap song?) and it worked beautifully so she ad.libbed that song to fit the gig everytime we played it. Still one of my fave tunes.
- The first EP - what was your deal with Dangerhouse like and who approached who?
- We'd met the DILS and they had their troubles in L.A. Because they were percieved as "piss stained commies" or some such non.-sense and weren't taken to so kindly down south where the "scene" was a bit more glitter and trash and, well, more Hollywood, so they had decided to move up north where politics was not a dirty word (yet) and their temporary drummer was Rand McNally, one of the DANGERHOUSE boys, and they were set to produce their first batch of singles with the DILS, BLACK RANDY and the RANDOMS and he simply asked us if we wanted to do a single too and we said YES!! We'd recently been down to hollywood for the first time to play a "Punk-Rock and fashion show" with BLONDIE, the VOIDOIDS (who took the money and fucked-off!) DEVO, the WEIRDO'S and us. Sounds great but it was a true nightmare! they stuck us into the headliners spot after Blondie (?) and Blondie refused to move their equipment (even though Penelope knew Jimmy Destri) so we tried to set-up our equipment in front of them and folks were leaving never having heard of the AVENGERS and this "punk juggler" was throwing things in the air and they were hitting me on my head (you know, punk juggler, i.e. "someone who cannot juggle!") and the union stage crew were telling us we had 15 minutes to set-up, play and get the fuck outa there before they closed down the venue (hollywood palladium) and I was fuckin' furious but somehow we managed to set-up and start playing and my bass drum is sliding out from under me and I'm getting madder and madder and finnally I'd fucking had enough (in the middle of the 3rd song, CAR CRASH) and litteraly exploded out from under my drums everything going everywhere and me flying off stage and into the audience the rest of the band with their mouths hangin' open and the "red sea" parted and strait into the dressing room I ran where "the furious one" proceeded to completely trash the place and we had to lock ourselves in (the dark) while the police and others were at the door demanding to get in and everone saying I was a hero and to get our equipmnt back the promoters stole as payment for damages took a week, so we stayed with the SCREAMERS where our "enemies" BLONDIE were also staying and we had a blast there in Hollyweird where we met all the scenesters - and were duly admitted into the "club" that was the "Hollywood scene". Micheal Kowalski (our "manager") managed to get our stuff back useing death threats and black magic in the process. Micheal (R.I.P.) is the subject of a song available on our "died for your sins" compilation .
- Why was there a different cover for the 2nd pressing?
- The E.P on DANGERHOUSE which consisted of WE ARE THE ONE, I BELIEVE IN ME and CAR CRASH was recorded at KITCHEN SINK STUDIO in october 1977 and we had the artwork for the cover finished and good to go. JEAN CAFFEINE a friend, made a paste-up collage of people with their hands on their hearts (sans heads) and was brilliant ,but DANGERHOUSE opted for a photo of the band taken by our personal photographer MARCUS LEATHERDALE over which they'd printed the words dangerhouse several thousand times stating something about "subliminal advertising" and we were furious (there's that word again) and to top it off they claimed to had "lost" the artwork. SO in protest I decided to submit a new cover just to get some satisfaction and that was our "target" cover which I'm not sure is any better than the original cover . But hey, I got mine!
- Tell us something about recording it in Kitchen Sink studios?
- Kitchen Sink was the studio Dangerhouse used for their first productions and located somewhere in Hollywood. Not sure exactly how many of their releases were recorded there. The studio came with an engineer whose name escapes me. Ian something or other. This Ian was an old hippy with a scarf on his head and a beard and strait as hell. I believe someone from the Dangerhouse crew spilled a coke on the console 5 minutes after our arrival which didn't go over too well with him. It was a 16 track studio but we only wanted to use 8. The recording was live and in the case of I BELIEVE IN ME the tracking vocals ended up on the finished product. Penelope did an over-dub vocal on the flip-side song, CAR CRASH. And took great pains in doing the vocal for WE ARE THE ONE it being the first ever recorded vocal of hers. She was really nervous and you can hear that on the finished product. We were really pleased though at the results and today that little record is worth big-bucks!
Fun Fact; everyone in the studio that afternoon (the entire Dangerhouse crew plus, BLACK RANDY and JOHN DOE, I think,) sang on the chorus of I BELIEVE IN ME. We should have credited everyone, but didn't.
- Do you know how many copies were pressed all together?
- I'm not at all sure as to the number of E.P's pressed by Dangerhouse. No idea at all! you'd have to ask Penelope. A couple thousand originally. I really don't know. what I do know is that those "boys" owe us a few bucks! for sure!! The record has been recently re-released but I haven't heard word one (or seen dollar one) from mr. David Brown. Our single, by the way, remains the best selling record in the dangerhouse catalogue and was available on Frontier Records too for a while (where's the bucks?)
- You supported the Sex Pistols on their last show on January 14 1978, what do you remember about that night? That must have been the biggest show you ever did?
- Sometime in december 77 we received a phone call from HOWIE KLEIN a transplanted New York journalist with his fingers in the pie of the fledgling San Fran scene, and someone I seriously resented as an oportunist and low-life scumbag out to make a name for himself. Anyway, this asshole calls us and says in effect, "how would you guys like to open for the SEX PISTOLS at WINTERLAND for their last show of the american tour?" of course we said, FUCK YEA!" and asked how much we'd be payed and the reply was "a hundred bucks, take it or leave it." he went on to say.. "any band in town would be happy to play for nothing, don't be foolish. you're lucky to get paid anything!" well, that didn't go over too well with us but naturally we wanted to play. The NUNS would also be playing but we'd be playing the slot just before the PISTOLS which suited us just fine as I felt the NUNS were shit and Howie Klein was working with them and I thought it strange we got to play just before the pistols instead of the Nuns and knew they resented the fact. I found out later that this english guy named RORY JOHNSTON who worked for MALCOLM McLAREN and was co-ordinating the pistols U.S. tour from L.A had seen us play at the Whisky a go go and it was he, and not howie fuckin' klein who actually insisted we open for the Pistols or we'd never have gotten the gig. Like I said I hated this Howie Klein piece of shit and he hated us right back! Especially me! I made it very clear that I hated his guts and he was friends with Jonathon Postal, championing his new "boy band" the READYMADES and allways giving the AVENGERS very bad press just trying to paint us as a joke, or worse, he'd just neglest to write anything at all preferring to write great reviews for CRIME and the NUNS and later the very cutsy and mediocre Readymades.
So, january 14th finnally rolls around and the anticipation is eating us alive as the hype surrounding the Pistols tour is in the news and on the streets daily. STEVE JONES and PAUL COOK had arrived in town the day before choosing to fly instead of taking the bus with JOHN and SID later stating their annoyance with SID and near hatred for JOHN ROTTEN. So these clowns are on the local rock radio station and their interview is down for all to hear in the form of "big tits across america" and you've all heard that rubbish, right? We were somewhat amused, these guys being the fucking SEX PISTOLS but who I really admired and was sincerly interested in hearing from was JOHN LYDON, but he was somewhere en route with SID.
What I remember most is a rainy afternoon and I'm on stage completely alone, setting up my drum kit for a forthcoming sound check. Winterland is a huge cavernous former ice skating rink taken over by BILL GRAHAM (another absolute scum bag and enemy of the people) in the sixties to cash in on the hippy thing. So I'm setting up and who do I see sitting and staring out into the empty arena not 5 or 6 feet from me but the one and only JOHN ROTTEN ! Well, thinks I to myself, nows your big chance, fuckin' say something fool! but the scowl on that boys face is enought o scare the shit outa, I would think, anyone so I'm trying to work up the guts to introduce myself prepared for the dissing of a lifetime when who bounces up to me grabbing my t-shirt, but SID VISCIOUS! Sid simply says "I gotta have your t-shirt mate! "I'm weaing a home made hammer and sycle flag t-shirt belonging to the Dils so it ain't mine to give away and so I reply" I'm wearing this shirt tonite and it doesn't belong to me" and he gets real pushy saying "Come with me I'll trade it for one of mine" and I say "no thanx" still wanting to talk with Rotten and not this spoilt brat and he says "fuck you mate" and fucks off and naturally Rotten finds this all so distasteful and he too fucks off shaking his head in disgust. So I never spoke to Rotten.
The whole event was taking on this other worldly atmosphere with Malcolm announcing that any local punk band who wants to play will be able to play and Bill Graham adamently saying "no fucking way!" The evening wore on with the Nuns doing a typical Nuns set (yawn!) and then it's our turn and we walk out to meet 6000 spitting- obscenity screaming -suburbanites who had heard about punk and were trying their damndest to "act punk" and Penelope nearly falls flat on her ass slipping on someones slimy gob and I sit down and hit my snare drum once, and the sound in my monitor is so loud I nealy fall of my stool! I had NICKY BEAT from the WEIRDOS as my "drum roadie" and he fixed the sound and we looked at one another and simply laughed -the whole thing being so fuckin' absurd. People were throwing stuff at us and screaming "fuck you!"and flippin' us the bird, so we launch into our set which we played especially fast that night, due to nervousness alone, but we played a killer set and SLASH magazine wrote about us being heros in the face of so much nonsense. It was unreal! a fucking circus! and us having never played (and never would again) in front of so many people! we were used to playing to crowds of 5 or 6 hundred! but I think all of us enoyed the experience, and that show being the Pistols "last ever show", it's down in the history books.
The AVENGERS were in thier dressing room, the NUNS in theirs and the PISTOLS had their sorta v.i.p. room, sheilded from everyone so we did not mingle with them. The nuns were into heroin and SID, who'd been carfully "guarded" durring the whole tour was let loose to fuck himself up as he pleased and the NUNS who were into smack were only too happy to help SID get his dope and they got high together and you all know the story of what essentially happened to him after the last show in San Francisco - he O.D'd that night, was hospitalized, flew to New York and never really recovered, rapidly spiralling downhill to his death a little over a year later. I wasn't at the party after the show with the "elite" junky punks (we were essentialy a drug-free band) but several "friends" were and the reports were sordid and disgusting. This was NOT what PUNK was about for me.
I'm not saying the AVENGERS were goody two shoes (although we were accused of being snobs) because I soon found myself a hopeless addict lost in my own downward spiral of misery and junk. More on that later. Back to the show - the PISTOLS came on stage and performed a lack luster show, SID being high and JOHN cynical and disgusted about what was happening to his band, the first, and possibly ONLY true punk band. I was fascinated. They sounded terrible and SID was trying to be JOHN. John had given up and didn't seem to care any longer. So they finish their set and come out for their one encore which is NO FUN and then JOHN's true colors came out. I have NEVER (nor will I ever again) witnesse a performance so real, so honest and so full of desperation as that encore. I allways liked ROTTEN but now I really knew who he was and what was so different about him and every other performer before him. His performance gave me chills. It was the best live performance I have ever seen. It was so moving and real and terrably depressing and the bravest thing I'd ever wittnessed. I suddenly really got it! What it was that made this punk thing so diferent and it was JOHN ROTTEN. I credit JOHN LYDON with being the orginator of what I believe punk is (or should be) and that is to say, absolute honesty. or as close as one can get we being mere mortals and all.. and I thought about that young man up there in front of the world fronting what was at the time the NEXT BIG THING and it was all falling apart around and insisde of himself and he put everything he had into that one stupid song and it was so fucking real and beautiful! And perhaps this sounds a bit melodramatic or whatever but I was truly moved by his performance and I have had nothing but the highest regard for this man ever since. You can take all your definitions of what punk rock was (is) and who started it etc. etc. but the truth is I knew without a doubt that night exactly what punk was and the truth is Punk is nothing more than ... assets and deficits in equal measure. We had wittnesed the death of the "individual" and punk was simply the last true scream of defiance at the wittnessing of this death. So-called punk rock music and punk are really 2 very different things and what I believe punk is to me is a belief I will live and breath and carry till the day I die. Not self-destruction, but true love of oneself.
well now I've gotten preachy and boring and I will not mention this stuff again in this interview. So take it or fucking leave it, that's the truth as I live it."...and the fucking wisdom to know the difference!"
''I made a play for her and popped the big question; "Do you want to sing in our band?"
She said "No, I wanna be an actor. I know nothing about rock and roll."
Perfect!! We set a mike in front of her, turned on the P.A and left.... when we returned she said "Yeah, I'll be your singer. My voice sounds so great this loud!"
Penelope and Danny. Photo from Search And Destroy No:3 1977.
''Steve received a phone call from Malcolm telling Steve to pack up and
fly back to England as monies were now needed for Sid, Sid having just that
day killed Nancy Spungeon.'' Avengers and Steve Jones in the studio.
- We were approached by Rory Johston after the show and he asked us if we had a manager and we said NO and so he said well, now you do and the first thing he did was arrange for STEVE JONES to produce a record for us, STEVE now wanting to be a producer so we went into the studio with him and laid down 4 tracks one of which he wrote the bulk of and he was into the spectoresque "wall of sound" thing and we set about laying track upon track of guitars (steve is in there somewhere) and I think we were all enjoying ourselves although he definately had a concept to shoot for and that was not exactly the AVENGERS so it was tuff to conform to. Especially for me I think as I was no Paul Cook. My style was much more flambouyant, being from the school of KEITH MOON drumming whilst PAUL COOK was more of a "meat and potatoes" kinda drummer and Steve set about trying to make me change my style but I simply couldn't (or wouldn't) but we generally got on just fine. GREG especially enjoyed himself. Peneope was skeptical and somewhat intimidated by the studio environment and Steve not only didn't understand singers but he also knew nothing about women. And really, one of the best things about punk-rock was women getting involved in rock and roll as never before and definately being the equal to men and I was very proud we had a female lead singer in one PENELOPE HOUSTON. Penelope really struggled this time but in the end she did a great job I think, writing some of the verses to Steve's song 1-2-3 BABY. our version is way superior to the PROFESSIONALS.
we also recorded our "hit" THE AMERIKAN IN ME, and WHITE NIGGER (which Greg and Steve changed for the sessions) and a strange song we were working on entitled UH OH! We never got the chance to realy finish that one as prior to us being finished in the studio STEVE received a phone call from MALCOLM telling Steve to pack up and fly back to England as monies were now needed for Sid, Sid having just that day killed Nancy Spungeon. Fucking Sid was fuckin' up things for everyone! So we never completed those sessions properly and the songs remained in the can for a long time. In fact it wasn't until the demise of the band that in Hollywood Penelope and I went into some studio to re-do the vocals and mix the songs and the result of that was the WHITE NOISE release which also included a song we did with BRAD KUNT, Gregs replacement, called CORPUS CHRISTI which I especially liked but over-all I don't like the record as I think the mix is terrible, Penelope's vocals being too up-front (the "new" Penelope starting to come thru...) and we having no real producer to speak of. Penelope's new manager RENE DALDER is credited with the production although he did little more than book and pay for the studio time. Penelope and I were at odds as to how to mix the stuff and the results are mediocre at best when, if done properly, could have been a killer record. Still could be! Whatever!!
the original "working mixes" Steve did befopre he bailed is what you hear on the first and only "real" AVENGERS album which, sadly, remains out of print due to litigation between the AVENGERS and CD presents ltd. who released the original "pink" album. although I believe we are at this time free to re-release the album, Penelope (I believe) has the tapes and should release the album again as it's far superior to "...died for your sins" or any other bullshit release Penelope has been involved with. "AVENGERS "deserves to be available again so write to Ms. Houston on the "so called" official AVENGERS web site and tell her to fuckin' do it! she claims the record is still in litigation but I have my doubts. Come on, tell us the truth Penny!
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