I Was a Teenage Collector's Item!

"Your regrets aren't what you did, but what you didn't do. 
So take every opportunity." - Cameron Diaz

That's me in the red circle. I must have been about 21 or so.

(English follows below) 僕の昔のバンド、「The Rotters」一発屋バンドが解散した後、僕は他のバンド「Wuffy Dogs」を結成した。

かれこれ３4年以上も昔 まだカリフォルニアにいた時のこと。

そのバンドもあまりぱっとせずに１枚のシングルレコードを作って解散した。

それがなんと、夏にシングルレコードが１枚約16.6万円の値段が付く希少盤となっている！ (#8: http://www.discogs.com/lists/Most-expensive-items-sold-in-Discogs-Marketplace-for-August-2015/257975) 4曲のうちの３曲は僕が書きました！ 写真に僕が一番右。芸術家は死んで有名になるが、俺様はまだ生きているぜ!

When I was young, I was the lead singer in a "One-Hit Wonder" Punk Rock Band. The band's name was "The Rotters." We played with the Dead Kennedys, Fear, Black Flag, the Germs, Angry Samoans and a bunch of other 1978~79 Los Angeles Punk Band's whose names I can't remember. I've written about it here: I Was a Teenage Punk Rocker - Why Dedication Beats Fanaticism Anyday! Even for Punk Rock or Success in Any Field! (If link doesn't work, copy & paste this into your browser: https://modernmarketingjapan.blogspot.com/2015/12/i-was-teenage-punk-rocker-why.html)

I'm glad I did that and played in that band. It was a great experience.

(Left to right: Johnny Brewton, Peter MacKenzie, Bob Rogers, me (crouching with rifle). Dead on the ground was our dear friend Arya Sabahi.)

The Rotters played lots of shows with famous bands and we had, actually, more than one song released on 7 inch analogue vinyl single... I once saw the first pressing of our debut single on sale in a record store for $750 (USD). That was about 30 years ago. It sold on Discogs auction for $1240 a few years later.

I have heard that our second single is even more valuable. 

After that band broke up, I floundered in a few other bands, but never really did anything that was as exciting as the Rotters... 

I thought... 

Until a while back... 

I opened up my Facebook and my jaw dropped to my socks! My old friend who was the drummer in another band project we had made in the early 80s had tagged me in a post showing where a record we made back in those days had sold at auction for $1,350! What the hell? (It would later sell for $1680 on Discogs.) The Wuffy Dogs featured the original guitarist for Berlin (Take My Breath Away), the original drummer for M.I.A., and two former Rotters.

I couldn't believe it! "The Wuffy Dogs" makes the Top 10 list for the most expensive items sold on an Internet music auction site!? What? 

The Wuffy Dogs hit #8 for the Top Ten most expensive records sold in August 2015? Wow! Check it: http://www.discogs.com/lists/Most-expensive-items-sold-in-Discogs-Marketplace-for-August-2015/257975

In brief: A few years after the Rotters broke up, my friends and I made this band, called the Wuffy Dogs (Barbara Woodhouse). It was my university room-mate Peter MacKenzie (Who was the original guitarist for the band Berlin "Take My Breath Away" but quit that band because they didn't want to rock n roll... He'll never hear the end of that mistake from me!) and my older brother, Bob (The Rotters) and a really talented young drummer named Johnny Brewton (Later to become the drummer for MIA) and me (The Rotters). We never played live but I was convinced that some of the songs I had written could be radio hits (again) so I conned my friends to get together and record some tracks.

The recordings were done at some local studio (I forget the name) near my home. We recorded 4 songs, I wrote 3 of them and sang (screamed) on those 3 too. Pete wrote the "Radio-friendly" single and sang on that.

When the recordings were done, I tried to get us aired on KROQ in Los Angeles, but there was no fire. Nothing was happening with this record. I was kind of surprised. It seemed so easy with the Rotters.

We pressed about 250 or so of these records and I threw most of them away when I moved to Japan in 1983.

I hear that record collectors today call this particular record one of the "Holy Grail" of 7-inch records from those days. Why? Two former Rotters and the later the original drummer for M.I.A.! Peter MacKenzie was famous for quitting an extremely famous pop band (Berlin - "Take My Beath Away) before they became huge and had a Billboard #1 single!

But, back then, when we made these records, I couldn't give them away! Now, , someone paid over thirteen-hundred dollars for one!? (Actually saw it on another auction at $1,780!) 

WTF?!

I was so happy to see this news! It was the best present I have received in years. Thank you so much for allowing me to brag!

To think that the effort we made over 30 years ago finally gets some recognition today... Unbelievable!

As my dear friend, Ken always says, "Dream as if you will live forever. Live as if you will die tomorrow!"

Thank you, er, destiny or fate, or just plain good luck, and being in the right place at the right time and making the effort.

Folks, live without regrets! - Mike in Tokyo Rogers

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OH MY GOD! Somebody has actually put up on Youtube one of our songs! (I think this is one of the worst best songs I ever wrote - I Must Be Lou Reed was another one) "Things Dogs Do." Anyone who would pay big money for this must be outta their minds!!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5VbgTxFxSY

* As one of my dear friends pointed out, even after all these years, it's nice to still be wanted.

Belinda Carlisle Naked, The Ramones, Rodney Bingenheimer and Me - Another True Story

It's another true episode of shit that happened way back in my previous life. This is wild stuff and unbelievable craziness... But it is all true.... 

It's a story about the time Belinda Carlisle (the lead singer of the Go-Go's) stood right in front of me half naked and exposed her bare womanhood... 

It's a true story about how I first met the Ramones and became good friends with Joey, and got high with Dee Dee Ramone. 

It's a story about how my band got kicked off the Rodney on the Roq radio show! Yet a year or so later, I would become Rodney's assistant.

And it's all true.

Rodney and the Ramones

OK. This is a long convoluted story... So, I'll try to make it short....I was in a punk band named the Rotters in 1978. We had a hit song called "Sit On My Face, Stevie Nicks." (or "Nix.") I was the lead singer. 

Anyway, at that time I was a university student and fell in love with Punk Music from watching a TV show ranting on the evils of a disgusting music in England called punk rock.

So my friends and I (who watched the same show) decided to make a punk band. Since we were university students, studying cinema, it was a simple thing to get into the recording studio at the university and record for free. We did. The students hated us, but the instructor, Richard Simpson, liked us so much he said he'd make us a master for free so we took him up on the offer and the master was made. 

Fast forward a few days. The Dickies were playing at the Roxy. The Go-Gos had their debut show that night as the opening act for the Dickies. We figured Rodney would be there so we took a few singles with us and went to the show. Rodney had already heard a cassette tape version of the song and had told me, "When you make a 7-inch, bring it to me and I will play it." (I cannot recall how I had gotten that cassette into his hands earlier).

The Go-Go's played first (there might have been another band - I can't remember.) Even though the Go-Go's were sloppy as hell (look whose talking!) I liked them. When the Dickies played, their lead vocalist, Stan Lee, pulled out a roll of dollar bills (it was a roll of cut up newspaper in the size of dollar bills with one dollar wrapped around the outside so it looked like $100 dollars). Stan screamed out to the audience, "I have some money here to give to any girl who will come up here on stage and show me what sex really is!"

Immediately Belinda Carlisle jumped up on stage, screamed like a banshee, and pulled off her shirt exposing her breasts for the audience and entire world to see.... She wasn't standing more than 4 feet right (about 2 meters) in front of me!

It was a, er, "exciting" moment for me. 

I fell in love with Belinda Carlisle right there on the spot. I really knew I could really respect her and her questionable moral values. Really! Though, I considered that, when she became my fiancee, I was wondering how I would explain to my parents how I first met Belinda? 

But I digress....

Later on, Belinda would become a goddess. I had screamed to her "I love you!" when her top was off... But she never called me on the phone after that... No problem..... Her loss!

Anyway, later, Rodney was sitting at a table in the back with Belinda, so we found him and re-introduced ourselves and gave him our record. He seemed genuinely interested and kind and said he would play it.... But, you know how that is.... You can't be sure it will be played until you hear it with your own ears....

You can imagine our shock, surprise and happiness when, on the very the next Rodney on the Roq show, we heard our song, "Sit on my Face, Stevie Nicks" on air. Rodney would later tell me that "Sit on my Face" was the "most requested song in the history of the Rodney on the Roq show."

So, after that, we decided that we'd go to KROQ uninvited and just show up and try to get on Rodney's show. Of course we brought more 7-inch records with us.

We drove down to KROQ (in the Pasadena days) on the night of Rodney's show. We had no idea how to get in, but I knew that the front door of KROQ would be locked so we drove around to the parking lot on the back of the building.

I didn't know exactly what I was looking for as we drove around the parking lot. I was looking for a sign or something as to the rear entrance of KROQ when I looked up and on the second or third floor of this building were four guys standing at the top of the stairs. They were wearing black leather jackets and looked like punks. I shouted at my friend who was driving the car, "Stop! This is it!" As the car stopped, I grabbed some records and jumped out of the car and ran full speed up the stairs to where those four guys were standing.

As soon as I got to the top, those guys looked at me like, "Who are you?" and didn't say anything. I didn't say anything either as the door opened and a heavyset guy allowed those four in. He looked at me with a stink-eye, but since I was wearing a leather bomber's jacket and had a hand a handful of 7-inch records he shrugged his shoulders and waved me through the door.

I would soon realize  - and this will blow your mind - that those other four guys were the Ramones! No kidding. What luck, What incredible timing!

Thank you, god!

When I walked into the studio Rodney looked at me and said, "Who are you?"

I replied that I was the lead singer of the Rotters and he soon remembered me. He welcomed me into the studio. I then asked if my band could come in too and he said, "OK!" So I called the other guys and we were interviewed on air at the same time as the Ramones. During the Ramones interview, Rodney asked us, live on the air, "You guys like the Ramones, don't you?" 

The guitarist and writer of "Stevie Nicks," Phester Swollen, and I said in unison, "Uh… er… we like the Sex Pistols" (I do like the Ramones, but, at that time, The Pistols were my favorite band.) 

Anyway, I guess that was a faux paus and the guy who let us in told us we had to leave and kicked us out. But the damage was done. Sit on my Face became a big hit and that would be the first time I met Joey Ramone, who would become a very good friend years later - when the Ramones came to Japan and met me again and found out that I was playing in Japan the same kind of music that Rodney was playing in L.A.

Things are hazy after those early days... Later, after my band fell apart, I'd go work as Rodney's assistant. Which was tons of fun. 

Like I said, years later, Joey and I would become good friends. Maybe because I was one of the very few who supported the Ramones on Japanese radio. There is one thing about Joey Ramone that I think only his good friends must know: Joey was a really polite guy and I think he must have had good parents. Why? Because every year Joey would send me a Christmas card. It struck me as odd that this rock n roller god would be sending Christmas cards to people... But Joey always did. Think about that; only people with proper upbringing and manners do the little things like send friends Christmas cards. I was so surprised to get those. How many people do that?

There was another time that the Ramones came to Japan (It must have been 25 years ago or so) and they asked me to come to the show and bring young girls, so I did. I brought my famous TV announcer friend, George William's younger sisters. They were hot! I think they were 18 or so at the time. After the show, as I was talking to Joey, I overheard, Johnny angrily scream at the top of his lungs, "Stop pulling on my neck!" Then I heard George's pissed off little sister shout back, "Stop grabbing my tits!" 

I looked at Joey and nervously said, "Gee, Joey. I guess it's time to go."

That was the last time I ever saw Joey Ramone.

Oh, and Dee Dee Ramone? Oh, Dee Dee loved me! You see back in those days, I was living in Ventura county and we had MUCH better weed - at much lower prices - than the dirt in L.A. people were smoking... So every time Dee Dee and the Ramones came to KROQ, Dee Dee didn't want to go on the air, he wanted to hang out in the back room with me and the, er, "peace pipe" and "expand our horizons." I used to worry that he should be talking on the radio and not in the backroom getting stoned with me (I was always stoned anyway)... But it seemed like no one cared....

Oh, let me make it clear here too; I have never seen Rodney drink alcohol or get high... He was a tea-totaler. That kind of surprised me that he was so straight... But he is.

Dee Dee and I were stoners. It was the late 70s, early 80s, OK? That's what people did back in those days. So off my back!

So, that's it. My claim to fame was getting high with Dee Dee Ramone. Also the first time I ever spoke to Belinda Carlisle was when she was half-naked... And Joey Ramone used to send me Christmas Cards...

Rodney? Well, Rodney was - and is - Rodney...

Rodney wouldn't hurt a fly. 

Rodney must have been standing in the middle of all that crazy rock n roll and whirlwind of madness and wondering, 

"Wow! Look at this beautiful house and this beautiful wife! (He doesn't have a wife).... Well, how did I get here?"

I wonder, today, how I ever got there.

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Go-Go's - Cool Jerk '90 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9V7tAlpzoY

The Rotters are a long (and quite hilarious story. Read it here: The Rotters Biography - https://www.last.fm/music/The+Rotters/+wiki) My name was "Nigel Nitro."

If you liked the above post, you might get a chuckle from:

My close "working relationship" with Charles Bukowski. This article was quite popular, thank you. Looking back, though, I kind of screwed that one up because I should have added the name of U2's Bono to that article's title; "Charles Bukowski, Bono and Me."  

Also, a while back, I wrote about the time I met "God" in person and even sort of had lunch with him at a restaurant in Los Angeles!...  And who could forget the time I met former president H.W. Bush and the hijinks surrounding Daddy Bush, Diana Ross and me?