Love/Hate frontman Jizzy Pearl recalls what it was like “back in the day” on the Sunset Strip
Love/Hate frontman Jizzy Pearl recalls what it was like “back in the day” on the Sunset Strip
Apparently, Love/Hate and former Ratt, L.A. Guns and Quiet Riot singer Jizzy Pearl gets asked quite a bit what it was like “back in the day.”
The following was posted on Love/Hate‘s Facebook page yesterday:
“I’ve often been asked ‘What was it like Back in the Day?” The Sunset Strip you mean? Well, think of it as Mardi Gras with tattoos, There was Industry, fantasy, there was live music 7 days a week every night. You could still park for free anywhere near the Strip then, either just off Doheny or up in the Hills above it all, you could pretend you were Jim Morrison staggering home in a haze of wine women and song. A quick stop to Turners for some rocket fuel and then off to the races!
You flyered from one end of the Strip to the other, either starting at the Whisky and working your way up to the Rainbow and Gazarris or back again, you stapled your flyers over your buddies band’s flyers on every telephone pole you passed and then when you returned your flyers would be invariably covered up by someone elses. Or you handed out flyers to passerby who discretely dropped them on the sidewalk a polite distance away. By the end of the night the sidewalks were carpeted in pink, yellow and green paper, COME SEE US AT THE WHISKY OR THE TROUBADOUR!! Everyone wore the same uniform, leather jacket and tight black jeans, accessories courtesy of British Imports of course. Who could last, who could hang, where was the after-party and so on and so on every single night. Literally, every night.
The Rock clubs were Legion, there was the Cathouse, Bordello, Red Light District, Xposeur 54 and the King of them all, Scream. People have no idea how amazing the old Scream was, that being the original Scream at the Park Plaza hotel in Downtown L.A.. Less than Zero was filmed there for you uninitiated. A giant theatre palace with theme players and day-glo bikini dancers, there was loud music, fog, mayhem, debauchery, plenty of rooms to network. And the Queen of it all was Dayle Gloria, she did it all. Yes yes I know you’re thinking the Highland Ave Scream was cool too but nothing compared to the Roman Spectacle of Park Plaza. I was hanging with the Lost Boy vampires, I got hit on by a Bangle, it was all fun n games and everyone got hurt.
The Cathouse was on Santa Monica Blvd., also Bordello same location. Also English Acid, same. At one time the Cathouse was at this amazing place called the Cave near where the Beverly Center now stands. The inside was like an actual cavern, with long foam stalactites I often knocked into when the beer flowed like wine. Skid and I would stand outside the door too broke to pay admission until Riki and Taime would grudgingly let us in. Many a drunken night was spent contemplating our future, “What Future?” you ask, no future then just dreams–just the present, just that one night and anything goes.
Madame Wongs West was another club on Santa Monica Blvd. nearer to the beach. A multi-tiered multi-room club with an upstairs and downstairs, multiple bands playing at the same time so you could literally go from room to room and hear all sorts of killer music. We played there many times during our “We think we’re the Cult” phase—with our long black peacoats and black Bolero hats we were the Children of the Corn. And I was Malachi. It was in 1987– I remember sitting in a booth by myself and the rest of the band were sitting in a booth just adjacent to mine and some nameless A&R guy was haranguing them in a loud voice– “YOU GUYS ARE GREAT BUT YOU NEED TO GET RID OF YOUR SINGER!”
Try raising your glass in a toast to That.”