Well, then. Now you've heard everything, right? Well, Mary was a girl in one of my English classes, as I recall. I didn't hang around with her, else she'd have known that me and Becky and a ragtag band of no counts did indeed check Devo out when they played at the Midnight Movies on campus. I think they played after the movies, which really assured a captive audience. They were certainly different and a real gas. When Mary wrote asking me to do something, I took a cassette and press stuff to Terry at Max's (Peter was in England), who immedately booked them at Max's. Then Mary sent some cool silkscreened posters and I took them over to Max's too. That's all! I got in free to the show and got a personally autographed 45 for my hard ass PR work. Seriously, I just delivered the goods, like any Ohio fan club prez would do for another Ohio fan club prez. The rest is history! Betcha didn't know! Ha!A Devo Addendum.. found some pix from O-Hi-O!
Great stuff Miriam!! I wonder if those Devo members' phone numbers still work? Hmmm... Pere Ubu was the first band I ever saw in a club. They played in DC December 1980 1 week after John Lennon got shot. I was 16.
ReplyDeleteI'm a pretty forgiving guy, Linna... but there's no way I can forgive you for helping put Devo into our nation's musical fabric. You're dead to me.
ReplyDeleteLook, Mondello, I had no clue I was a pawn in a Devo takeover scheme. Dictatate penance and I wil ldo your bidding. I've been trying to do good work for the past several decades to dilute this checkered past! How much longer must a girl suffer? Brian H- how could you have been 16 in 1980 when you're 18 now? I must have missed that day in math class. X
ReplyDeleteMary didn't keep her word with a free T-Shirt? Dissapointing.
ReplyDeleteThe bargain dvd of this decade would have to be Devo's Live 1980 performance for 10 aussie buck's. 2 thumbs up from me.
Delivering the goods Miriam.
Kudos.
Chesson! I just found the Devo snapshots from Mary, circa Kent 1976. Wanna see?
ReplyDeleteHi, Miriam & all...
ReplyDeleteMy name is Michael, and I have been working closely with DEVO since the 1990s....as their archivist/webmaster, etc.
Thanks for posting your Devolved historical items! Great stuff. I forwarded it to Mark Mothersbaugh & Jerry Casale of DEVO, and here's what they said:
Mark said:
"ha! very wonderful stuff! once booji boy learned how to write his name he became very good at signing things when he got a chance."
Jerry said:
"WTF? That's not how it happened at all. I met with Hilly at CBGB's and somebody at Max's (maybe Peter) and pretended to be our manager when I travelled to NYC with Linda Waddington, my GF, in 1976. Gregg somebody from New York Rocker set us up and I booked Devo into the clubs."
So there you have it - 2 perspectives on these items from DEVO's history...
Check out the DEVO web sites if you get a chance:
www.clubdevo.com
www.devo-obsesso.com
www.myspace.com/devo
www.mutatovisual.com
-Michael Pilmer
for DEVO, Inc.
Hey Michael! Hmmm, a bit baffled at JC's refutal.. I didn't say I booked Devo. I just delivered Mary's tape, and subsequent posters, too. This shouldn't rewrite the band's history, but it's true. JC says he met with PC in 1976. I did not know that-- PC must have already been hep to their tip (?) Mary's letter is dated Jan '77-- she couldn't have known that JC had already met with PC, since in the letter she's asking for help. Say, I found some neato Devo pix from KSU days. Would you like me to post them? Questipn for the guys-- was that early demo tape ever released? I hope Jerry is amused by the fact that his fans were trying hard to move their career along in '76-'77. They certainly didn't need any help from the peanut gallery for long. Hey, where's my free T-shirt ($5 value). Best wishes to all, M
ReplyDeleteHi, Miriam
ReplyDeleteI would love to get those photos! Can you email them to michael@clubdevo.com? The early demo tapes were eventually released as "Hardcore DEVO Vol. 1" and "Hardcore DEVO Vol. 2". Hard to find CDs these days.
Duty Now,
-Michael
Wow.
ReplyDeleteMiriam, yesterday I was meandering around on the internet & followed a Facebook link from my husband's (ex-member of Devo) newsfeed, found your site, checked out the pix from the good old days and discovered this blog, had fun reading and recognizing all the old Akron and Cleve-o names, then wondering if you were going to mention your connection to the Devo debut at Max's ... and then – holy crap, is that my handwriting, and did I really write to you that cringingly earnestly on behalf of those guys?
The answers of course are yes and yes, and I remember it pretty well. I still say that the NY trip – which apparently Jerry arranged on his own - whatever – would have been a pathetic whimper of a thing if not for you and the crew you brought to Max’s that night. The crowd was thin, and would probably have stayed in a kind of stunned silence, if it wasn’t for – well, it seems like you brought in about 20 people, but maybe it was less – anyway, enough to make a quorum - yelling for Booji Boy and singing along to all the songs and cheering wildly like you’d been their fans for years and been waiting for them to come to NY. It was contagious and the whole place lit up. And was there also a car out front with Booji Boy’s face painted on the hood?
Anyway, the result was a boffo debut. Happy Max’s management, happy audience, I can’t remember if there were any critics or record label people, but there would have been happy there too. I know I was hugely grateful, but also in my early 20s and a moron, so I probably was acting too cool to gush. And even reneged on the t-shirt? Oh my.
If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t get nuttin’ for my efforts either. The sad yet predictable story of a female band-appendage.
Mary King
Miriam...I am an archivist at Kent State University. How could I take a peak at your DEVO Kent photos?
ReplyDeletejprufer@kent.edu
@ Mary King...
ReplyDeleteI am working on a website for the University and city of Kent dealing with all the great music that happened. The site is FAR from finished but your reviews show up in the gallery's of these two shows:
http://www.personal.kent.edu/~jprufer/website2/70/EarthWindHome.html
http://www.personal.kent.edu/~jprufer/website2/70/Ellington74homeSoul.html
Jason Prufer
Miriam: I saw the photos you added to this thread...of DEVO in concert wearing rubber masks. I am working on a DEVO project now and could really use high-res scans of those. They are incredible! Can you please email me? michael@devo-obsesso.com. Thank you!!
ReplyDelete-Michael Pilmer (for DEVO, Inc.)