THE GERMS
Later that year (1977) Donna was replaced by Cliff Hanger, but they probably never played any gigs with this line up. The fourth drummer was Don Bonebrake (later with X), who also played with The Eyes. He did some gigs as well as the recording of 'Forming 2' and 'Round And Round'. Nicky Beat of The Weirdos then helped out as a drummer for a few early 1978 shows and the 'Lexicon Devil' 7''ep. Bobby Pyn became Darby Crash and the Germs changed their sound to fast tight punk rock/hard core. Compare the two first ep's and there's a huge difference.


Don Bolles was a member of the Phoenix Arizona band The Exterminators, but when he heard that the Germs needed a drummer he drove all the way to LA to join the band. Nicky Beat set up a drum kit in the Masques' bathroom and auditioned Don. He couldn't really play drums but they knew he must be dedicated to the band so Nicky taught him some basic stuff. He quickly became a great drummer and stayed with the band until 1980. He played on the Cruising soundtrack and the (GI) album.

In 1979 they recorded their only album, with Joan Jett producing. The album has always been referred to as (GI), although that was not the intended title. Since the Germs had been banned from most clubs, they did gigs under the name (GI). To show that it was the same band they wanted the album to be released by 'Germs(GI)' but the people at Slash spaced the "(GI)" away from "Germs", and therefore "(GI)" looked like the title of the album. Some european copies credits Darby's boyfriend (yeah, Darby was a fag, but So What? so are you) Donnie Rose as playing keyboards.

The last studio recordings the band did was with producer Jack Nitzsche, for the soundtrack to the somewhat controversial film 'Cruising', starring Al Pacino as an undercover cop looking for a murderer in New York's homosexual underground nightclubs. Out of the 6 songs recorded only one ended up on the Columbia soundtrack LP. The rest of the songs were unavailable for several years, as Lorimar owned the recordings and for some reason didn't want to release a Germs EP. They were finally released on the 'Lion's Share' bootleg LP in 1985, and on the (MIA) CD in 1993.
DON BOLLES AT THE WHISKEY RIOTDon LORNA BACKSTAGE AT THE WHISKEY BEFORE THE RIOTLorna

Germs gigs were always chaotic, with Darby cutting himself with broken bottles and throwing himself into the audience. When they played The Whiskey around Christmas 1979 there was a riot. Don Bolles was 2 hours late because he had been arrested, and the audience were tired of waiting. When the Germs finally played they were hailed with bottles and glasses. The club tried to stop the show by turning off the lights, but some guy set fire to the stage instead. When a bouncer tried to grab the guy Pat hit him with his guitar and ran backstage. He then came back and hit the bouncer again, this time with a bottle. The band was banned from the club, again.

In the early summer of 1980 Darby fired Don and replaced him with Rob Henley, who couldn't play to save his life. This line up only had one rehearsal, and this was without Darby, who was in Europe at the time. Lorna quit the band and The Germs were no more.
DARBY AND PAT AT THE WHISKEY JUNE 1977
Darby wanted the fact that he was homosexual kept secret. He always left gigs with a girl under his arm, or had girls pose as his girlfriends. To say that this had anything to do with his suicide would propbably be wrong, though.
THE GERMS CIRCLE
Darby was obsessed with circles and the colors black and blue. Circles were used on the (GI) LP cover and many gig posters, as well as the Germs' Armband, worn by the members.
A lot of fans and friends to the band had a 'Germs Burn', a cigarette burn circle on the left wrist. Not all of them wanted one.

PAT SMEAR FROM SUPER PUNK MAGAZINE 1980Pat

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