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November
2003
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The Queer Side Of
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Plus Special
Interviews With
Jayne County & Zecca Esquibel |
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Glam / Glitter / Punk Rock |
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David
Bowie led the vanguard in popularizing Glam Rock, with his "Ziggy
Stardust" period in the early 70's, and such albums as "The
Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars" (left),
"Aladdin Sane" (above), and "Hunky Dory" (shown
at right).
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Above, early press kit photo, and right, Bowie going down on Mick Ronson's...er...guitar, as shown on the cover of "Rock on the Wild Side," by Wayne Studer, which by the way, I recommend you track down for a good overview of the gay music world. He also has an incredible site on the Pet Shop Boys which shouldn't be missed. Click to get there. and click below for a sample of Bowie's queerer lyrics...and some more pics of this show's artists
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Jobriath landed a record contract on a major label and was poised to become the first openly gay rock star, but it just didn't happen... He released two albums, in 1973 and 1974, and while critically successful, that was the limit of his career. However, his influence resurfaced in 2001 when in the movie "Velvet Goldmine," the album by that story's rock singer was modeled after Jobriath's first album. See both album covers below. |
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In 1973 PBS aired a series called "An American Family," and America watched the Loud family and reality TV at its earliest. During the show the oldest song, Lance Loud, came out of the closet to become the first openly gay real person on TV. He went on to form a rock band, The Mumps, and to become a writer, contributing to many great rock and pop culture publications including Rock Scene, Details, Circus, and later, to The Advocate.
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Above, Paul Zone with Wayne County
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Among the members of 1972's group The Fast were Armand Zone and his two gay brothers, Paul and Miki. By the late 70s they had evolved to an influencial punk group in New York. Miki and Armand both died of AIDS, in 1986 and 1996, respectively. |
Paul and Miki Zone went on to form Man2Man and in 1986 had the high NRG hit "Male Stripper," commercial success at last |
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In the late 70s Zecca Esquibel (above) became keyboardist of Cherry Vanilla's band and they rode the punk/new wave wave in both the US and UK. The pics above and left are from a 1978 show in Brussells and are courtesy of Philippe Carly at www.newwavephotos.com
In 1981 Zecca and Sherri Beachfront became Get Wet, and their self-titled LP spawned the quite gay song "Morton Street." At left is Zecca today, as taken after our interview in May 2003. |
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Jayne County From the jacket of her book, "Man Enough To Be A Woman." It says, "Wayne County was the weirdest, fiercest vision ever to appear on a rock & roll stage. As early as 1972, this dragged-up Lenny Bruce was astonishing New York's blasé rock scene with her filthy lyrics and demented stage antics. Andy Warhol and David Bowie paid court to her, and for the emergent punk generation she was an inspiration. When it came to attitude, nobody could beat Wayne County." |
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Above left, where it all started, Max's Kansas City in New York, and a collage of pics of Wayne and Jayne; and below some of the album from which I took music for this show: "Let Your Backbone Slip" (1995), "Man! I Feel Like A Woman" (CD single, 2001), "Deviation" (1995), and the brand new "So New York" (2003)
Above, recently
Jayne has been doing a number of shows
Above, please check out Jayne's great website. Maintained by a UK fan, Shaun Morris, it's a marvel of completeness, with an extraordinary degree of information and history, at www.jaynecounty.com
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