From the downbeat, Gents Afterdark — an arresting mixture of rooster-crested glam-punk, ‘80s romanticism, and the pop trash littered upon the sidewalks of the Sundown Strip — had been at all times a band on the sting.
From the dead-end bars the place they got here as much as standing on the crumbling precipice of fame — prematurely of GAD’s farewell efficiency at HoCo Fest 2023 on Friday evening — guitarist Robin Johnson fills within the gaps.
* * *
Robin Johnson grew up in Minneapolis, Minn., weaned on a gentle weight loss program of AM/FM radio. By the point he relocated to Tucson along with his household in 1975, his lifelong fascination with music had already been piqued.
“After seeing Judy Collins on the Guthrie Theater (Minneapolis) with my mother and sister, my subsequent live performance was The Jackson 5 in 1974,” Johnson recalled. “By that point, I had turn into an enormous Elton John fan. ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Highway’ (1973) was the primary document my mother purchased me.” In the course of the Nineteen Seventies, Elton John reached the apex; charting 7 consecutive No. 1 albums (within the U.S.) between 1972-1975. Actually, a herculean accomplishment. “Though I admit, the final Elton John album that I ever purchased was ‘Captain Unbelievable and the Brown Filth Cowboy’ (1975).”
Round that point, Johnson found the vaudevillian freak present/shock rock of Alice Cooper and his younger thoughts was blown asunder.
“After seeing the ‘Welcome to My Nightmare’ tour on the Met Middle (Bloomington, Minn.) throughout midsummer of ’75, I grew to become an enormous Alice Cooper fan. Later in August — as my mother, sister and I traveled throughout the nation — I learn all the things that I might get my fingers on about Alice,” Johnson stated.
Quickly his obsession would take a unique slant.
* * *
“As soon as I received to Tucson, my uncle took me to get a guitar,” Johnson enthused, “a Yamaha nylon string entry-level acoustic. I took classes, in a classroom, at Randolph Recreation Middle from Jim Klingenfus.”
Johnson realized to play widespread folks songs torn from the pages of the American songbook: Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ within the Wind,” “Leaving on a Jet Aircraft” by John Denver and others.
“It was stated that I used to be considerably of a ‘pure.’”
“Round this time, I met my first good friend in Tucson at Naylor Jr. Excessive Faculty. He sat behind me in homeroom. He lived close to me. We shared a love for music and guitar. He was into KISS, I used to be into Alice,” Johnson recalled. “He had an actual Gibson Les Paul Customized. Black, no much less.”
* * *
The following 12 months Johnson would transfer to a brand new neighborhood. And in related trend, he would turn into quick associates with a brand new child in homeroom this time at Mansfeld Jr. Excessive Faculty.
“He was an awesome, if not half-crazy man, named Fred Cross,” Johnson stated. “His older brother Eric was a drummer. Fred needed to play bass, however had no gear.” After Johnson and Cross secured jobs at El Parador Mexican Restaurant & Cantina — the place they each labored as busboys — Cross’ mother agreed to co-sign a mortgage so Fred might get some tools from the Chicago Retailer. “So Fred now had a shitty bass and a small, however first rate, amp rig.”
Johnson’s childhood dream of taking part in lead guitar in a band inched one other notch ahead.
“The three of us began taking part in in my storage on the nook of ninth and Campbell. By the point Fred and I joined Eric as college students at Tucson Excessive, I had written a pair instrumental songs. We performed one at a expertise present within the auditorium, dropping to a few who had been lip syncing to Peaches and Herb’s ‘Reunited,’” Johnson stated. “I used to be pissed off.”
When he reached the lectern to simply accept the second place plaque, Johnson jeered, outraged that an act that didn’t show any actual expertise had gained. He left the auditorium in a huff, pitching the award within the garbage can on the way in which out.
* * *
The following 12 months, Johnson met drummer Rex Estell by way of his cousin Nathan who performed collectively within the band Z9. That group was fronted by Ariel Bagby, a precocious 16-year-old vocalist.
“I knew Rex from shopping for weed and hanging out in his close by residence on tenth and Martin,” Johnson reminisced.
Estell would play an vital function in Johnson’s musical improvement; introducing the burgeoning guitar hero to seminal punk bands (Ramones, Intercourse Pistols, Buzzcocks, Tv, and lots of others), together with power-pop masters (Low cost Trick), and guitar virtuoso Jeff Beck.
“Beck’s ‘76 ‘Wired’ album blew my thoughts and altered my life,” he stated.
After cousin Nathan stop Z9, Johnson received the gig. However not in contrast to the intrinsic nature of rock ‘n’ roll itself, chaos and upheaval would quickly comply with.
“The bass participant was an ex-junkie loudmouth named Jeff Latowick,” Johnson stated, venomously. Briefly order, Johnson ascended the ranks to turn into the band’s driving power. He then satisfied Estell to interchange Latowic for Cross.
* * *
Flatly rejecting the excesses and bombast of Nineteen Seventies rock, when punk started to germinate it did so on the fringes, away from the conventions and mores of mainstream society.
“In the course of the summer season of ’79, there have been solely three punk bands in Tucson. It was us, The Pedestrians, and The Suspects,” Johnson famous. “All of us began taking part in downtown at Pearl’s Hurricane Bar on East Broadway. I’m joyful to say that I nonetheless know 90 % of these folks immediately; those nonetheless residing, that’s,” Johnson commented.
“After one in every of our gigs, Brian Smith of The Suspects — who beloved the sound of our band — got here as much as us with a proposal,” Johnson stated. Smith, a gifted author, was very excited about forming a band that penned unique materials. “Having simply seen Brian transfer like a motherfucking badass on stage with The Suspects, we agreed.”
Bagby — Johnson’s girlfriend on the time — received the boot.
That evening in 1979, The Tablets had been born.
Not like battle, rock ‘n’ roll holds no prisoners; it solely leaves casualties strewn behind.
* * *
What started as a scrappy DIY motion — as increasingly bars had been not cautious of reserving acts like The Tablets — the native punk scene quickly reached crucial mass. “The music scene was loopy again then,” Johnson famous. “Out of the blue, everybody thinks, ‘Hey, I can try this.’”
Radiohead’s Thom Yorke expressed it greatest when he sang the heart-rending line, “Anybody can play guitar they usually will not be a nothing anymore.”
“Some had been good, some terrible. As for The Tablets, we at all times had our eyes set on main label success,” Johnson affirmed.
The Tablets debuted at The New Deal, a dive bar on East thirty sixth Road. There was a line of punks that serpentined out the door.
In a scene all too acquainted, that evening a neighborhood guitarslinger was in attendance: Mark Smythe from a band known as Isaiah. “He had John Lennon’s voice and performed lead guitar like a motherfucker,” Johnson enthused. “Mark was all of 23 and completely hated it once we wouldn’t cease calling him ‘Grandpa.’”
The quartet quickly morphed right into a quintet.
As quickly as The Tablets reached preventing weight, they launched a four-track, self-titled EP. Regardless of the music “DC-10” receiving airplay domestically on KWFM and “She Mentioned Goodbye” showing on “KWFM On The Air” (1980) — a compilation that featured tracks by The Serfers, Bob Meighan, Chuck Wagon & The Wheels, and different bands du jour — Smythe stop the band proper after the document got here out.
Kali, the Hindu goddess of change, had made different plans.
“I used to be tremendous pissed off at him for fairly some time,” Johnson stated. Smythe’s departure left the band in a lurch. “We needed to play our sold-out document launch celebration with simply the 4 of us. We pulled it off, although. Mark truly confirmed up on the gig like some type of prick. Swilling beers, smoking Marlboros, and holding courtroom. It was irritating.”
* * *
The Tablets took hiatus in the summertime of ’81. Brian Smith went to New York for a time. When he returned he had two musicians in tow. That pairing was unsuccessful. But it surely did serve to infuse life blood into The Tablets remaining lineup.
Enter Barry Smith.
Barry Smith — Brian’s older brother — is an completed violinist, saxophonist, and keyboardist. His fashion and musical prowess added new dimensions and expanded the attain of what had been a solely guitar-driven sound.
But, The Fates hovered overhead.
“Whereas rehearsing for a serious reset gig on the Evening Practice on North 4th Avenue, Rex suffered a horrible automotive accident,” Johnson imparted. “He almost died. I fainted once I noticed him on the hospital.” Estell’s accidents had been so profound they’d require years in restoration. Torn, the band needed to decide.
“By then the gig was set and marketed. We turned to a good friend,” Johnson commented. “We knew Winston Watson from our previous rehearsal area.” Watson had been a longtime member of Snowblind.
“It was arduous for him. He beloved these guys.”
“We had an up-and-coming vibe and he noticed the place the wind was blowing,” Johnson asserted.
Watson acquiesced.
“Our first gig was a catastrophe.”
“The opener was a passé cowl band. They sucked. However they supplied the PA. So we needed to put religion in an inexperienced soundman. A lot of the present we needed to stand onstage, ready,” Johnson stated, pensively. “It was terrible.”
Regardless of their lower than stellar debut, the band bought virtually 700 tickets; garnering respect from the house owners of the membership (Doc and Shag).
Regardless of showing on the marquee as The Tablets, for all intents and functions, that they had morphed into Gents Afterdark.
* * *
Circa 1982, Gents Afterdark relocated to Phoenix — the warmth dome to the north — taking a kick on the can.
“Phoenix was at all times a unique story for us,” Johnson mirrored. “We received a pad in central Phoenix; eight bedrooms and a crippled AC unit. We entered a time the place we performed each weekend someplace: Tempe, Phoenix and again to Tucson. We had been in a position to make a residing as our entourage grew bigger.”
One fateful evening Gents Afterdark had been taking part in The Mason Jar — an erstwhile Phoenix venue that lives on in scarlet infamy — Alice Cooper was within the viewers to see what the excitement was all about.
“Alice despatched his private assistant over and we met him. My idol.”
Cooper’s PA, Brian Nelson, or “Renfield” as Alice known as him — R. M. Renfield, is the tortured aide from Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” who does his grasp’s each bidding — was additionally very excited about assembly the band. “With greater aspirations than simply carrying Alice’s water, he thought we had a future.” Brian Nelson quickly grew to become Gents Afterdark’s supervisor.
By means of discussions with Cooper and financier Mike Bolton, it was determined that Alice Cooper and Dick Wagner — his longtime co-writer and guitarist — would produce Gents Afterdark’s debut EP.
“Dick was a knob-twirling studio engineer/producer within the mould of Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, Lou Reed, KISS, U2), Alice’s longtime producer.”
In 1975, the Cooper/Wagner penned ballad “Solely Ladies Bleed” rose to No. 12 on the Billboard Scorching 100.
“Throughout pre-production — after rolling up in Alice’s Rolls Royce — it was greater than a visit to have Alice and Dick in our humble bandhouse giving us pointers,” Johnson mirrored. “I believe they really loved hanging in that atmosphere. They’d been there themselves as youngsters — destitute and decided — similar to us. In 1972, Alice Cooper was in all probability probably the most well-known man on the earth subsequent to Muhammed Ali.”
“Moments like these felt like we had been destined for greatness.”
Recorded at Classic Recorders (Phoenix), the band’s debut EP “Gents Afterdark” (1983) was meant to be their calling card to lure a serious label.
* * *
In 1984, Gents Afterdark had been vaunted as “Stars of the Future” in Individuals journal’s tenth anniversary concern. Regardless of such accolades GAD struggled to securely traverse the intersection the place artwork and commerce converged.
“I nonetheless imagine that if we’d been in a position to hold collectively as a band, we’d have discovered a solution to be related to main labels,” Johnson contends, “and located a group that might’ve marketed us correctly in order to beat the ‘differentness’ that induced the foremost labels to balk. We had a lot curiosity from them, at one level, they usually by no means got here by way of; not even with a developmental deal. They’ve at all times been cowards and nonetheless are. However I didn’t know that then.”
Greater than three many years later, Johnson takes a tough look again.
“There have been quite a lot of low moments. I suppose the simplest solution to outline it might be when guys within the band gave up. And I used to be one in every of them. I used to be a jaded 27-year-old in the direction of the tip. I’m positive I might’ve induced all of it with my parade of ladies, laziness and medicines,” Johnson mused.
In 1989, after recording demos for and a protracted flirtation with A&M Data that didn’t bear fruit, Gents Afterdark known as it quits.
* * *
In 2019, 36 years after the band went into the studio to document their debut EP, “Open the Door” loved an uncanny resurgence after touchdown placement on the season premiere of Netflix’s “Stranger Issues” — starring Winona Ryder and David Harbour — the third installment of the nostalgic horror collection.
In October 2019, Netflix reported that over 64 million households had watched “Stranger Issues” (season 3) inside the first 4 weeks of its launch. A document viewership for any Netflix program.
“It might be good to really feel a way of vindication after a few of our previous songs received positioned in movie, tv, and on music streaming providers. I like that individuals are lastly listening to the songs,” Johnson stated. “However on the enterprise finish streaming doesn’t pay.”
On common, Spotify pays artists between 0.003–0.005 cents per stream.
“It’s a drag. We took skinny air and made music. Music that a complete bunch of individuals dig. I at all times thought that movie and tv had been methods for artists to make actual cash,” Johnson stated. “Evidently, that’s not the way it works.”
I’m going
By no means understanding
By no means altering
By no means rising
— excerpt from Gents Afterdark’s “I Go”