AN INTERVIEW WITH PHIL MARCADE part 1
1. THE SPAGHETTI INCIDENT?
©
Phillis Stein
PENELOPE S : WELL, FOR STARTERS, HOW DID YOU MEET JOHNNY THUNDERS ANYWAY ?
PHIL MARCADE : I met Johnny in boston in ‘73 at a party after a new york dolls show. We were introduced by Frenchie, the dolls roadie. I had this roommate named Bruce Balboni who bragged to Johnny about his cooking skills. Spaghetti it was. He gave Johnny our phone # promising a real italian spaghetti dinner with the «real» tomato sauce and all. Those Italian guys you know. A couple of months later The Dolls were playing Boston again and much to our surprise Johnny did call to invite himself and Sable Starr for dinner at our place. What a joke, we couldn’t believe it, there he was in his platforms and pink frederick’s of hollywood stretch toreador pants. Blew my mind I tell ya . . . That’s when we started to become good friends. Later on that month I hitchhiked down to N.Y. and stayed at his apartment for about a week.
P.S : HOW DID YOU COME TO WORK FOR THE HEARTBREAKERS ?
P.M : By ’75 I had moved to N.Y. I ran into Johnny and Jerry Nolan at
Mother’s on 230 street. They had just started their new group with
Richard Hell and Walter Lure «The Heartbreakers». I needed a place to stay and I ended up moving in their rehearsal space on Grand st. by Chinatown. Having no job and no money I gladly picked up on the offer to roadie for them. It was more like a joke than a job. These were exciting times, and The Heartbreakers were great company to be around and party we did. Sometime in ‘76 Johnny took me to a friend of his to get some grass. That was Steve Shevlin, who I soon befriended and not before long Steve and I started a band. He played bass. I played drums. We got this mexican guitar player named Jorge and called the group «The Senders». After a few months I dropped the drumming and became the singer. We had Tony Machine on drums and then Lil’ Moe Trucks a.k.a. M.T. Heart.
©
Phillis SteinPENELOPE S : WELL, FOR STARTERS, HOW DID YOU MEET JOHNNY THUNDERS ANYWAY ?
PHIL MARCADE : I met Johnny in boston in ‘73 at a party after a new york dolls show. We were introduced by Frenchie, the dolls roadie. I had this roommate named Bruce Balboni who bragged to Johnny about his cooking skills. Spaghetti it was. He gave Johnny our phone # promising a real italian spaghetti dinner with the «real» tomato sauce and all. Those Italian guys you know. A couple of months later The Dolls were playing Boston again and much to our surprise Johnny did call to invite himself and Sable Starr for dinner at our place. What a joke, we couldn’t believe it, there he was in his platforms and pink frederick’s of hollywood stretch toreador pants. Blew my mind I tell ya . . . That’s when we started to become good friends. Later on that month I hitchhiked down to N.Y. and stayed at his apartment for about a week.
P.S : HOW DID YOU COME TO WORK FOR THE HEARTBREAKERS ?
P.M : By ’75 I had moved to N.Y. I ran into Johnny and Jerry Nolan at
Mother’s on 230 street. They had just started their new group with
Richard Hell and Walter Lure «The Heartbreakers». I needed a place to stay and I ended up moving in their rehearsal space on Grand st. by Chinatown. Having no job and no money I gladly picked up on the offer to roadie for them. It was more like a joke than a job. These were exciting times, and The Heartbreakers were great company to be around and party we did. Sometime in ‘76 Johnny took me to a friend of his to get some grass. That was Steve Shevlin, who I soon befriended and not before long Steve and I started a band. He played bass. I played drums. We got this mexican guitar player named Jorge and called the group «The Senders». After a few months I dropped the drumming and became the singer. We had Tony Machine on drums and then Lil’ Moe Trucks a.k.a. M.T. Heart.
PHIL, WALTER, OCTAVIO, JOHNNY at a Benefit show for WAYNE COUNTY
2. DAWN OF THE SENDERS
P.S : SO WHEN DID WILD BILL THOMPSON JOIN IN ?
P.M : The next year 1978 after Jorge went back
to Mexico. But in between the two we had a couple of months with no guitar
player and Johnny was on leave with The Heartbreakers. Back from England he
joined in with his pal Henri-Paul for a handful of gigs.
P.S : HOW WAS THAT?
P.M : Oh, that was great. We were very surprised
that Johnny insisted on learning our songs. Did a beautiful job with them
really and I didn’t think he’d want to bother. I think we played
six gigs between Max’s and Hurrah’s. Then he resumed his Heartbreakers
gigs and Wild Bill took over.
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