Intervju - Andy Panik, Rock City Angels 1. What are you currently up to? I have a new band. We are a glam-inspired Johnny Thunders style riff-ola boogie blues band! We have been playing every Friday night at Canter's in Hollywood to packed crowds for the last 3 months. We also partake in the Hot N Nasty Jam night at Canter's as well. You can catch me at Canter's every Friday night 11 to 2 am jamming rocked out glam inspired Mick Ronson boogie jams. I sing and play bass, Hollywood Phil is on lead guitar and Loren on drums. It's kinda like the Velvet Underground meets Nirvana, Chuck Berry and early rhythm n blues with a dark somber sound. I'm really enjoying my new band. Plus I get to sing as well this time around, can't beat that. Also, I wrote all the lyrics and music. However we are a solid group yae!yae!yae! 2. What have you been up to since RCA split up? Been up to my teeth in rock n roll mister! First as the Angel addicts know me, Doug Banx and Mike Barnes went on to form Rumbletrain. Then Curt and his sleazes from the frothy Seattle forrest derailed the Make-Up Train haha! Then I played the rap game for a while in the 90s. Then I dibble dabbled in the punk nostaglia of the 90s and now I've got my own band to do. 3. Tell us about the early days and you moving from Ohio to Florida! And also those early bands such as The Abusers! I started playing in my own punk rock bands in Cleveland, Ohio when I was 13 years old! My first band was called The Decapitators, then we became The Fucktones and then when I moved to Florida I called the band The Abusers. Our first show we opened up for Black Flag at Finders Lounge in Hallendale, Florida. This was on Black Flags "Damaged" tour. They were awesome and really nice to us even though we were a bunch of little snotty 15 year old punkers from Florida. The Abusers also got to open for Circle Jerks, T.S.O.L., Misfits, Tex and the Horseheads, U.K. Subs, etc. It was great! We got to open for all the cool hardcore bands when they came to Florida and it was a great learning opportunity also. Myself and Bobby knew at a very early age we wanted to rock for real! 4. Johnny Depp was an early member of RCA. What was he like and did you stay in touch with him after he left the band? Johnny Depp is a fuckin asshole! At one time he was good friends with us but we had to kick his best friend out of the band, this big doper named Mike Barnett. He held Bobby hostage one day and hit him with a hammer. In fact Ringo had to kick his ass! So after we dumped Mike, Johnny never spoke to us again. Never returned phone calls for 10 whole years. A total asshole. Now he's Hollywoods pawn, we see his mugg everywhere. Willy fuckin wonka makes me sick! Next question please. 5. The story of RCA could make a great movie. Please tell us a bit about New Renaissance Records and then later signing with Geffen! Signing with New Renaissance in 1986 was cool because it brought us to Los Angeles. Plus the label did great promotion for us. Everybody in Los Angeles knew who the Rock City Angels were before we even got to town because of Ann Boleyn's great publicity work. As for Geffen they can suck my dick! Tom Zutaut, the guy who signed us, was supposed to look after us, but he didn't. He completely fucked everything up. We were on a tremendous roll before we signed with Geffen but as soon as we signed it was over. They buried us alive. 6. Tell us some fun and memorable moments from Sunset Strip and also from the time you spent in Memphis! Ho-ho-ho! The good ol' Sunset Strip baby! I saw the Angels go from nobodies to walking in and cashing big bucks for our brand of DA BLOOZE. Right there on the Sunset Strip. I even got to shake David Geffen's hand the day the Angels inked for the big bucks. Meanwhile...back in the jungle...I mean Memphis. Yeah, we had a great time. I LOVE DA BLOOZE AND THATZ DA PLACE FOR DE BLOOZE MAN! I got to meet the late great blues legend Albert King a couple of times. Actually he was living in the hotel room next to mine at this old blues hotel and cottage called The Coach and Horses. Oh yeah, Memphis rules! 7. Do you remember the first gig you guys played as RCA and where it was? Of course, my rock n roll memory is great! It was 1984 at Flynns in Miami. We were onstage as The Abusers and Bobby goes into the microphone "O.K. WE ARE NOW GOING TO BE THE ABUSERS UP UNTIL THE U.K. SUBS SHOW, THEN AFTER THAT WE ARE CHANGING OUR NAME TO THE ROCK CITY ANGELS!" You see we got the opening slot to open up a show for the U.K. Subs, but we were in the middle of a punk rock vs. glam argument about what we were and what kind of music we were about to play and discover along the rock n roll highway. So we stayed The Abusers until after the U.K. Subs show. At the show Charlie Harper, the lead singer of U.K. Subs gave me and Bobby some interesting advice because he thought we were good. He said "I really like you guys, you sound like The Stooges on "Funhouse", but you need distortion on your guitar". So right after the show we got Taggert Reid in the band. He is an awesome guitarist who plays like James Williamson on stereoids! The rest is now rock n roll history... 8. What bands from Sunset Strip did you come across back in the day and what bands did you play with at the clubs? Great question! We played with sooooo many bands that should have been arena rock giants. In fact we did play with some bands that did eventually become arena gods, like L.A. Guns (lots of times). Umm let's see...Jane's FUCKIN' Addiction like 3 fuckin' times at The Scream Club in downtown Los Angeles, back in the day before both bands got inked up by the big money. We played with a lot of cool bands that never did anything either. Some of these bands were fuckin' great, like Sea Hags and The Hangmen. We also played with Junkyard lots of times and we even played with the Chili Peppers once. Great time man! 9. Are you bitter about all the stuff that happened or didnīt happen with RCA? No, I'm not bitter my friend! How could I be? I mean for instance we toured with Jimmy Page, that alone qualifies in the rock n roll hall of fame right there. I mean, that one event eclipses all my childhood dreams! It's kinda like winning the little league world series and getting a trophy. Also let's not forget all the suffering and ripped off blues musicians that came before us mere hair-metalists. How could I ever feel bitter when my heroes and the reason I rock got completely ripped off? And of course it was completely unfair. So how could I Andy Panik complain about spending 2,3 million dollars to record an album that the radio or MTV never played? 250 000 dollars for a video of the song "Deep Inside My Heart" and it never got played folks! I mean, I sat there all day waiting for it. Seriously, they only played it very very late at night and occasionally on Headbangers Ball. 10. Tell us about the recordings of your debut album! Fun stories, who wrote the songs, where did you find your inspiration for lyrics etc? You ask me about fun stories from the making of Young Man's Blues? Well, I know most Angel fanatics will testify that we went through 2 years of hell making that damn thing. But we made it great! Our first producer was the legendary Jim Dickinson. He had previously worked with the Replacements on their classic album "Pleased To Meet Me". Anyway Jim finished the album, but Geffen didn't wanna put it out. So Joe Hardy (the engineer) finished up the album, but basically we had to start from scratch on a lot of the tunes. The results finally speak for themselves 17 years later. And guess what? You can now also 17 years later get the original Jim Dickinson mix at Rock City Angels. 11. Any messages for all the RCA fans out there? My message would be a big thanks to all the rockin' rollin' Angel fanatics in Europe! Thanks for keeping rock n roll alive! Check out the re-released and re-mastered version of the classic "Young Man's Blues" on Gott Records in Germany. Check out the official Angel website and you can get in touch with me the Panikman directly at andyferst65@yahoo.com Rock City Angels - Official website Observera att Rock City Angels hemsidan stundtals ligger nere.
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