A day of Elvis-sized proportions. Thanks to everyone who has left a message or checked in. You expect people of this stature to be around forever for some reason. We're all realising just exactly what these people and their skewed worldview did to us all those years ago.
I hear also that Dewey Martin (update 7/2 - thanks PJ) of the Buffalo Springfield has also checked out. Can't find any links for that though.
Uncomfortably numb covers the general state of your reporter tonight. If you go to The Cramps website, all you'll see is black. A sea of the stuff. Somewhat fitting under the circumstances.
16 comments:
Hello Lindsay,
I can't be the only old LOTC member that went straight to your site right after I heard about Lux. So hello to anyone who remembers the old days.
I made friendships through the LOTC that despite time and transatlantic tide have lasted to this day. It's only fair to give some credit to Lux and The Cramps for that.
Cheers to all,
Todd Beckett
Formerly of Austin, Texas, now an out-of-work librarian in Missouri
Hey Todd,
Yeah, there's been a few old hands checking in today. Great to hear from you. Where in Mo are you? Thanks for dropping by.
best,
L
hey Todd, hey Lindsay,
LOTC member 354 reporting in. I heard the news from T Tex Edwards and came straight here. Sad day. Lux was our Elvis. Todd, we still have your Lux t-shirt by the way.
Randy & Donna Reeves
Dallas
You're not the only one. It was a lifetime ago, but I was LOTC member 346.
Lyndsay, thanks for turning me on to IRN BRU in 1983. You won't remember, but I dragged some yank friends with me to meet you when we were goofing around in your neck of the woods.
You said it yourself at the time that the London bands didn't measure up - you were right of course.
Special Kind Thanks to Lux for letting 10 of us underage fans into a show in Chicago - I remember him standing on the street patiently writing down all our names. What a guy.
John/Huns/Chicago/Iowa/London/Dublin
Hey, thanks for the messages. Brother Randall and Sister Donna, I thought about you guys as soon as I had it confirmed. John, I do indeed remember despite it being forever. I'm sorry you got hooked on the bru. I was a three bottle man myself in those days.
Gracias folks...
Lindsay,
I'm in the St. Louis area, about 50 miles west of downtown St. Louis with a lovely wife and two lovely children.
PS That's me, Todd, in post above.
Hey Todd,
Wow, you're not to far from Springfield then... please send me your actual e-mail address via the masthead contact.
I've been hovering around since the news started to break on Wednesday night - hard to know what to say other than to repeat what others have said about how, as well as giving us all a great deal of pleasure (and great memories) with their records and gigs, Lux and Ivy turned a lot of us on to a whole world of great music, movies, books etc. and we should all be very grateful for that. The LOTC played a big part in that too in putting us in touch with like-minded sickos with whom we could share the virus (Hi Todd!)
Thanks Lindsay, thanks Ivy and thanks Lux
Liam, Belfast
Hi Liam,
Thought you might show up here. This thread is rapidly becoming the virtual equivalent of the wall outside Graceland.
Here's my reminiscence, originally posted on the Raulsclubfoot site, of the first and only Cramps show I ever saw; I'm sure Randy and Donna can expand upon my comments:
Re: [raulsclubfoot] Re: RIP Lux Interior
Hey,
Anyone remember The Cramps show at Duke's? We pulled Lux off the
stage, jerked his pants down and threw him back on stage. After we got
done with him those signature vinyl hip huggers were around his knees.
It must've taken him by surprise. I was told he vowed never to play
Austin again. [They avoided Austin for well over a decade after that incident - that's why this was my first and only Cramps show.]
Lux also threw the mike at a vocal and disgruntled Barry Gavin,
smacked him right slap on the face, then yanked the mike back into his
hand yo-yo style without missing a beat. Neat trick.
I attended the show even though I had been grounded for staying out
too late and hanging out with degenerates like you all. I snuck out of
the house, walked all the way from Oak Hill to downtown and back home
to the ranch again after the show was over. And I didn't even get
caught. No kidding. I wasn't going to miss that show.
The Cramps were my fave band and my friendships with fellow fans both
here and abroad are some of the longest lasting and most rewarding I
ever had. For some reason Cramps fans bonded tighter than most.
So thanks Lux and God bless.
And a fellow Cramps fan replied:
I remember that show!!! dang how did we stand the heat at dukes? we danced all
night in a club without AC. AHHHH Youth........
PS Duke's Royal Coach Inn was a bar catering to a largely male blue collar Hispanic clientele -- sort of like, for instance, a certain docker's pub in Scotland I once visited with our host -- that explicably "went Punk". (My high school buddy who attended the show with me told me that as a child his mother would send him there to escort his drunken father home.)
In the 60s it was the famed Vulcan Gas Company, host to the 13th Floor Elevators and other psychedelic luminaries. The eponymous "royal coach" was a large,lurid painting of same that hung above the bar.
Todd
I'm hoping Luke Riches of Horsham will find his way here soon. While we're waiting let's watch this fabulous interview; it's the next best thing to seeing him in person:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHc3aJd9hm8
Dewey Martin's death reported in the LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-dewey-martin6-2009feb06,0,6541056.story
PJ
Todd - yeah, let's turn this thread into the wall outside Graceland for us LOTCers. One memory I have of the Cramps at Duke's in Austin that time was that it was not long after Bryan had left and they were touring with that girl from the Mad (?) Anyway, Ivy was going around before the show with a cigarette, burning out Bryan's eyes in all the flyers, which still had him pictured.
Todd,
so let me get this straight? You want to take credit for being the reason the Cramps didn't come back to Austin for over a decade? Good job you're living in St louis now - though I hear there's a lynch mob heading your way from austin right now.
Liam
Liam,
There was more to it than just Lux's involuntary exposure. Brian Curley of, among other things, Lester Bangs and The Delinquents and Evilhood Wildlife, provides this vivid recollection of the same show:
DUKES ROYAL COACH INN fuck we need a club that cool again,remember orange
tommys,sally norvell just loved 'em,so THE DELINQUENTS had been doing a month of
wed. night gigs at dukes that month so we had played a few nights before the
cramps,as i remember barry gavin usually got what he deserved,he and santiago
just loved to hassle any out of town bands.so the week of the cramps show the
toilet in the ladies restroom had been stopping up and flooding the back hallway
with overflowing crap,so at the end of the back hallway which also served as the
backstage area,sat this mop and bucket full of yecchh! for the encore lux came
back onstage with that mop and sucked it like a lollipop,licked it,bit down on
it and let it spin from his teeth,oh vomit,imagine the horror of us local yocals
who knew where that mop had been and what it had been used for all week,cleaning
up overflowing shit and piss!!!!!after the show we talked with ivy and lux and
mentioned how
unhealthy that mop might be to him.the next day he went to brackenridge and got
all kinds of shots,needless to say,the funniest part was when the doctor told
lux,"SIR,I REALLY DO NOT RECOMMEND PUT FECAL MATTER IN YOUR MOUTH IF YOU WANT TO
LIVE MUCH LONGER"!!!!!!!!the cramps left that day for the next show on the
tour,oh,those good ol' daze,hey i love all you fuckers,adios,brian salvador
curley c/s RIP LUX YOU RAWKIN CRAZY FUCK!!!!YOU WILL BE MISSED!!!!!
Damm I was standing next to Barry that night, I thought he was going to jump on stage and kick his ass.
Guess we wuz to ripped.
Post a Comment