Absolute power to the Dictators ! ! ! The Coolies/ The Rock & Roll Machine @ the Powerstation 26/8/2002.

Indeed absolute power to the Dictators. What can I say this was one hell of a Monday night. The Dictators are one of those bands that symbolize the early 1970's NY punk scene. As Skinny told me when the tour was first announced. The Dictators were 'the' band in New York between the Dolls and the Ramones.

I had heard the Dictators a little growing up punk in the eighties, I probably remember that 'master race' song the most. Even so by the time the show rolled around I was super stoked on the latest album and looking forward to the Dictators 'saving rock & roll' .

This was the first time I had been to the Oracle (Powerstation) and it's a fairly decent sort of a venue. Anyhow I guess there would have only been a couple of hundred people or so, so it was far from packed.

Shouts out to Al the promoter (see photo) for the press pass. Cheers and thanks for getting the Dictators out here and hopefully it didn't cost you too much.

We'll kick things off with the Coolies who were really really good. Check the photo. This is the second time I've seen them with their new drummer and they were great but perhaps not quite so punk as in the past. In fact definitely more new wave as Sjonel was playing keyboards rather than the bass.

Best of all they never stopped and started so that's got to be good. Make sure you catch the Coolies if you haven't seen them or haven't seen them for awhile cause they've got some new material and it's all good.

Pretty soon after the Rock & Roll Machine started rocking it was time to head upstairs and interview the Dictators.

Plenty of people in the audience probably walked past Andy Shernoff and Handsome Dick Manitboa on Queen St earlier in the day without batting an eye. They look just like typical American tourists and are just as friendly.

Andy is proudly wearing his newly purchased 'All Blacks' ball cap and polo shirt and HDM has a 'New York Yankees' replica baseball top on. These guys are keen sports fans, when we enter the lounge HDM is excitedly filling the boys in on the latest NBL Baseball results.

Ross 'the Boss' and J P Thunderbolt have got much more of a Rockstar look going on as you can see in the photos. There were a few other cats at the press conference but it was hardly the same as Yassar Arafat taking the rubbish out or something.

The Dictators are nice guys for sure but they are also survivors. Anyone who has read Please Kill Me or anything else about that New York scene knows there was a lot to survive. We'd be giving them respect for that alone but when you realise that these guys have recently released XXXXXXXX which is such a damn fine record, you just have to take your hat off to them.

Andy Shernoff doesn't say too much during the interview but you can tell the Dictators is his band. I talked to him at the after party and I'd say his vision has played a huge part in what we see tonight.

It was by peoples reaction to our outlandishly extroverted behaviour that we first suspected other people were not quite so well prepared for this press conference as Matt Alien and I were. (translation: 'we were fucking out of it by this stage, shit was starting to happen!!') More Heineken's please.

With that in mind I thought to myself 'start with the drummer' , he'll get the joke ! ! I introduced myself to J P Thunderbolt and what else can I say? The guys a G C, no doubt about it. In fact I was getting on so well with him that I decided I better turn on the dictaphone.

Mr J P Thunderbolt.

GONE: What do you do when you aren't playing drums for the Dictators J P ?

JP: I'm an actor!

GONE: No shit! ! What have you been in?

JP: I've been in episodes of the 'Foreign Order' and 'The Sopranos'.

GONE: Who did you play in the Sopranos?

JP: I was a guy in a rock club when Christopher B…. (?) murdered his girlfriend and yeah I was a body in that scene. I do a lot of extra work and I get the occasional line.

GONE: That'd be all right . I know cunts that just about get by on that in Auckland. Good honest labour.

JP: It's Union labour!!

GONE: Tony (Soprano) will be getting a cut of that then anyway !!

JP: Laughs. The last thing I did in a motion picture that I had lines in was a Val Kilmer/ Mira Sovino (?) movie called 'at first sight'. It came out about two years ago. I was a waiter in that. I came up and said "a glass of red or white?"

GONE: Where has this little tour taken you and where are you off to from here?

JP: We just finished up over in Australia. Were going home for a week and then we go to Spain. Were going to play this big festival in Spain. Yeah it's us, the Backyard Babies, Turbo Naygro and the Hellacopters. In fact Spain had a lot to do with the Dictators getting busy again. We kind of took off there about 5 years ago. We never really stopped playing though you know? I'm not the original drummer, the Dictators kind of went through drummers every 2 years or so before me. When the first record came out I was in high school and I remember reading about them in ROCK(?) magazine in 1975? Anyway, honest to god, true story, I remember looking at the magazine going "Oh I'd love to play in that band!" So to play with them now is still a dream come true.

GONE: Who were some of the other drummers?

JP: Originally it was a guy named Stu-Boy King, and then it was Richie Teeter and then there was a guy named Mal, then there was Frank Farino and then I was in there for a while.

GONE: When was that?

JP: The mid '80's. I did a couple of reunion Manitobas Wild Kingdom shows with them. I was also playing myself with an avante garde composer named Reece Chatham who does kind of Glen F(?) kind of stuff. I also played with this guy Timmy Capello who was umm did you ever see Tina Turner live footage from . . .

GONE: Nah but Matt over there (Alien) just read Ike Turners biography and it sounds like there are 2 sides to every story. Unpolitically correct laughter from both.

JP: Laughs. Well I'm not going to bite on that! Then I played in a lot of bands in the '80's you know, but I've basically been playing with these guys since 1985.

GONE: You guys must all be pretty good mates then?

JP: Good mates? Yeah we have a laugh. We have a job to do though you know? And sometimes the times between the jobs can be joyous and sometimes you know it's like a family. You snipe and back fight, everybody yells at their brother and sister sometime!

GONE: Thanks J P.

JP: No problem.

handsome Dick Manitoba.

GONE: New York sounds like a small town, everyone knows every one else.

HDM: Yeah there's 8 million people but you don't live with 8 million people, you live with a couple of hundred in your block or in your neighbourhood. So you get to know people. It's like over here there's a bunch of small towns, there just heaps of them in New York and it adds up to 8 million people ! !

GONE: What do you do when your not on stage being Handsome Dick.

HDM: I got a bar, "Manitobas", 99 Avenue B, New York City.

GONE: You want to hear our secret Rockstar cocktail? You can't tell anyone cause it's a secret.

HDM: Umm Okay.

GONE: Double Midori/ Double Whiskey. Straight glass. No Ice.

HDM: What sort of whiskey, bourbon or scotch?

GONE: Scotch.

At this point handsome looks at me and finally makes his mind up, coming to the conclusion that I am indeed a drunken fucking idiot and replies . . .

HDM: Yeah? Whats with the Midori?

GONE: The chicks love it. It's like cheap speed only more expensive over the bar.

HDM: Yeah umm okay?

I decide to conclude the HDM interview as I am extremely thirsty and it is almost time for the Dictators to hit the stage.

The whole time we have been interviewing the band the Rock & Roll machine have been playing downstairs. This is their first gig since they 'dumped' their drummer, Small Paul. He had been doing a pretty good job if you asked me but nevermind that's change for you.

Anyhow it's there shit and there were rumours of an executive decision anyway and so henceforth the machine must be changed.

Then again if you want to make it and you can, perhaps you should get yourselves the man who is arguably New Zealand's finest drummer. I am referring to Mr Rich Mixture, the multi instrumentalist drummer from my all time favourite NZ band, SHAFT!!!

I caught the first two songs or so and they were fucking great but then again I have always loved the Rock & Roll Machine. I managed to get a couple of photos so check them out. They continued to be great by all accounts after we went upstairs to talk to the Dictators.

For our overseas readers who haven't heard the Rock & Roll Machine, I can safely say that if you like the Datsuns and the D4 you will most probably like the R n R Machine too.

They are all kind of similar in a way. Very retro. Very 'now'. Musically they are similar I guess and Karyn's bass playing is amazing. That said at the moment there is one big difference and that is the energy and the power of the performance. Having seen the Datsuns & the D4 recently this is definitely the case.

The Datsuns were that powerful before they went overseas and always put on the same level of performance whether they are playing to 20 people or 100. The D4 have definitely gone up about 5 levels. Musically I am probably a bigger RnR Machine fan than D4 fan but the D4's show was way more powerful.

I have only seen the Rock & Roll machine after Matt Stroobont broke his Calcanius (heel bone) jumping off a speaker stack. By all accounts the Rock & Roll machine used to put on a fucking wild show but Matt hasn't really jumped around that much since.

While we are on about broken Calcaniuses, I though I'd spin this yarn for all my friends in Auckland who are missing my partying stories.

I broke my right one and cracked my left one on New Years eve 1997. I have broken a few bones but this was way the most painful, fuck was it sore. Owwl.

It was still daylight and I was at a party in Nelson drinking 75% Rum and a tab was just coming on. My mate Sheridan put the Beach boys on the stereo and stuck an old malibu surfboard out over the balcony whilst these other dudes were holding it. He was right out on the end partying it up, hanging ten ! !

I remember telling Sher to be careful but I guess the tab must have come on or something cause about 5 minutes later I was up there trying to hang ten when the cunt snapped ! ! !

I dropped like a stone about 3.5 metres onto concrete and then yowchh. My old school Vans (genuine '80's not reissue) were not up to absorbing that and my heels just gave. The pain shot up my body and as the saying goes ' fuck it hurt ! !'

Anyway I had a few more shots of rum and a few other goodies and we put my heels in a wheelbarrow of ice. I foolishly decided that I'd wait until everyone went to town to go to hospital because I figured I'd be tripping a lot less by then.

What a dumb cunt. Next thing I knew I'd passed out, it was about midnight, I was still tripping and no one was around. Merry fucking new year. I had to crawl up to the house and it took about an hour.

It was hard work and luckily I had just read Sir Charles Uphams biography (Kiwi war hero, won 2 VC's in WWII). It was fucking hard work in fact but I was kind of thinking this is a piece of piss cause at least I'm not in Crete and gonna have to kill a dozen Nazi's to get off the Island let alone get to a hospital !

I got up to the party and everyone was mostly unconscious and I saw Tim Nelson (RS team rider) and his face just goes 'Oh yeah OX, sorry!!' They were all shit faced or passed out and had forgotten about me.

Anyhow the moral of the story is I was back racing Downhill in about 3 months and feeling sweet as doing everything I wanted including dancing like a (cool) fool. I even remember a couple of days after I got out of hospital crawling to my mates car to go and see a guy to buy some skunk! That's me being a sport Billy for ya though.

What I'm saying is going overseas and playing every night will be real good for Matt's heel anyway since he usually does fuck all but sit round and play guitar or email folks. I have no doubt that when they get back from there little tour I will be suitably impressed and anyway Matt always tell me the Auckland crowd don't deserve it cause they don't dance fuck all so I guess we'll just have to wait.

Fuck what a little diversion that yarn was ha ha.

Anyhow time for the band interview.

Dictators interview.

GONE: What was your first gig ever?

Andy: Opening for the Stooges, Prince George College, near Washington, DC.

GONE: What were Blue Oyster Cult like, you used to play with them a bit?

Andy: There good guys.

GONE: That movie almost famous, was that meant to be about Lester Bangs and if so was he like that?

Andy: No, no, no!!

HDM: Hollywood gives everything a sort of aura, I mean its just a movie ! You know everything gets a little bigger.

GONE: What about Lou Reed?

Andy: He's a creep!! Laughs (reference to a Dictators song lyric). No he's good people.

GONE: Mark 'the animal' Mendoza, who used to play with you guys and later in Twisted Sister, have you seen him lately?

HDM: Haven't seen him in years.

Ross: Yeah, he's still alive. I heard he drives an armoured car in Long Island, New York.

GONE: A question for you Handsome. That incident in 'Please Kill Me' (book) with Wayne County was . . .(nb: Wayne and Handsome had a scrap way back in the day)

HDM: This is all I've got to say about it. The bad news made page one. Four years ago we kissed and made up. He DJ's at my bar, were friends you know? When you make up no one wants to know but when you fuck up and things are all fucked up it's page one. It's good news now, were friends and he apologised to me and ahh 20 years later we shook hands and I hired her to DJ. Jayne is a great DJ, she works in my bar sometimes, now aint that something. I must have given eight hours of stories for that book and he chose those because they were the most ridiculous and sensational.

Ross: That whole incident did polarize people though. I mean there were 2 different camps there in New York for awhile. It was terrible.

GONE: Was that in like '77?

HDM: Way before , 1975 I think.

GONE: Were there any bands around that were just amazing but never recorded or fell apart because they were total fuck up's?

HDM: Your asking us about history, we were all drunk and fucked up ! ! That was that whole book (Please Kill Me). History as told by drunk people !!

Ross: All our friends, just about, are dead.

Vaughan:When are you putting Manitoba's Wild Kingdom back together?

HDM: We do some of those songs. This is Manitoba's Wild Kingdom. It's like Superman and Clark Kent.

Andy: It's the exact same band.

Vaughan: What's the difference then?

HDM: This guys got good questions. He's an astute fan.

Andy: We are minus one guitar player.

GONE: Ross, I have another question here from Mr Matt Alien. Will you ever play guitar with ManOwar again?

Ross: I'll never never say never again so it's quite possible.

GONE: I heard your stuff when I was punk teenager in the '80's and stuff but what must be so satisfying for you guys is how good your latest stuff is. Many bands do revival tours but that latest album is as good as anything out just lately.

Andy: Thanks man, we think it's the best album we've ever made.

GONE: Thanks guys.

The Show !

The show was brilliant, I got a ton of good photos but there are probably around six or so that really stand out. I loved the show, they played a real long set and people loved it. The sound was great and these guys certainly know how to put on a show.

I think I recall 'I am right' and a special tribute cover of 'Blitzkrieg Bop' for their friends the Ramones as possible highlights. To be honest the whole set was a highlight.

HDM is quite a front man, in the pro wrestler sense of the word. Literally. He took off his Yankees top after a song or so to reveal his 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin pro wrestler tee shirt.

J P was all class and Ross showed his heavy metal pedigree with some amazing lead breaks. All the while Andy was holding things together and looking like he was having a ball and was already booking a ticket back here.

Alan (the promoter) got me up on stage to take photos for a minute or so and they come out pretty good. Check out the pic's of J P beating things up or Ross wielding his mighty axe. My rapid fire war zone photo technique was in it's element. I probably looked pretty stupid though so I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Okay folks that's about it, the Dictators even turned up to the after party for a few drinks to see the evening out. Here's hoping they come back real soon.

photos by ox