Los Angeles punk / new wave
and club scene 1980-83

(This site was created
in 1994 - updated in 2008.)

CONTACT
BILLY EYE

TVparty presents found articles circa 1980-85 written by Billy Eye and Judy Zee from Data-Boy, a gay entertainment magazine published in Hollywood.

These articles chronicle the avante garde bands coming up through the Los Angeles Punk and New Wave club scene during that key period. They read like a diary in the lives of these young clubgoers and the burgeoning scene they covered.

In the early eighties, young people in Los Angeles were flocking to makeshift clubs in droves to see new up and coming bands. Live new music, not DJs, was what they wanted to experience. These writings provide a sketchy look at the underground club scene in Los Angeles during the time that groups like X, The Go-Go's, Black Flag, The Minutemen and Wall of Voodoo entered the public consciousness.

Billy Eye reported on the Downtown & Hollywood punk art/rock scene, an insular, hardcore world of dark dives like the Brave Dog and Al's Bar, floating clubs like The Veil as well as established Hollywood icons The Starwood, Roxy, and Odyssey1.

Judy Zee also covered the Hollywood scene, while writing about Westside happenings in clubs like The Whisky, Blackies and Club 88 - she was one of the few female rock columnists on the scene at that time.

Performances by The Go-Gos, Fear, U2, Grace Jones and Talking Heads are reviewed along with other obscure but influential LA rockers - particularly two up and coming bands, one that made it (early-MTV fave Missing Persons) and one that didn't (Red Wedding, the only openly gay punk band).

It's a look at what nightclubbing meant in Los Angeles in the early eighties.

INTRODUCTION
by Ronald Reagan

More about Billy Eye
and Judy Zee

INTRODUCTION

10-7-80 The first article, The Masque, Punk bands, Darby Crash & The Germs, The Garage

10-21-80 The Toasters, Great Buildings, The Go-Gos

11-2-80 New Wave nights in Hollywood, T.S.O.L, Shandi, The Smog Marines

11-16-80 Grace Jones, The Nobodys, Billy Sheets and the Elites, The Talking Heads

12-1-80 Hollywood Boulevard 'punks'

12-27-80 End of the year wrap-up, The Naughtie Sweeties, Dead Kennedys, Fear, punk riot in the OC

12-27-80 David Bowie as The Elephant Man

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1-05-81 Devo, Rock Against Racism

1-19-81 John Hiatt and The Toasters at the Starwood

2-03-81 Wendy O Williams, London aka Motley Crue, and Live Nude Girl

2-17-81 The Veil, Darby Crash death, Phil Seymour and The Textones

3-5-81 New wave night at the Odyssey, Ray Manzerek

3-19-81 The East LA scene, Hey Taxi!, The Rentz, The Plugz, The Detour, Human Sexual Response

3-19-81 Judy Zee on LA radio in 1981

4-02-81 Tonio K & Romeo Void, Oki-Dog, Flippers, A week in the LA clubs

4-16-81 XTC, Wall of Voodoo, Madame
Wong, and The Pop

4-30-81 U2 and Missing Persons

5-14-81 Billy Eye Rock Awards, Manakin

5-28-81 Missing Persons at the Topanga Corral

6-11-81 The Brat, Parapalegic Infants in Downtown LA and U2 in Santa Monica

6-25-81 Performance artist Adore O'Hare, downtown clubs, Red Wedding

6-25-81 Missing Persons in Westwood

7-09-81 Los Illegals, The Brat in Hollywood, Al's Bar, Johanna Went, Jerry Lee Lewis

7-09-81 John Cale live at The Whisky

7-23-81 Brave Dog, Stiff Little Fingers with Missing Persons, The Grandmothers

8-06-81 Bow Wow Wow, Malcolm McLaren, Mad Society, Ian Hunter , and the new psychedelia

8-22-81 Missing Persons, Jean Pierre Rampal

9-07-81 Filming at the Brave Dog, Red Wedding, Atomic Cafe, The Stains, Los Illegals, East LA bands

10-06-81 KROQ of the '80s, hardcore EPs, Missing Persons at The Whisky

10-20-81 West Hollywood & the end of The Starwood

4-7-82 New Wave Theatre, Aphotic Culture, The Waitresses and The Plimsouls

5-07-82 In the clubs, The Spoons, Nick Lowe, Madame Wong's West, Angry Samoans, Motley Crue

5-21-82 Interview with Terry Bozzio in 1982

8-27-82 Missing Persons, Red Wedding at the Whisky, Dream Syndicate, The Untouchables, The Go-Gos, Orange County hardcore

1-12-83 End of the year, Minutemen, Fear, Gun Club, Theoretical party, KROQ, Missing Persons

3-14-85 Red Wedding closes The Odyssey in 1985

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