Detroit Rock City Read Online Free Page B

Clemens, the Colonial. We used to have 600 people inside and 250 on the steps waitingto get in. At that place we could pay the bands for six, seven hundred dollars. Alice Cooper would come in for $800, and we packed the joint. Everybody was drunk on their asses. Drinks were a buck apiece. We would take the cover and pay the bands that were playing. We were usually on the bill too, and we would take the rest of the money and party with it ourselves. The guy who owned the joint would take the bar money.
    Neal Smith ( Alice Cooper, drummer ): We had the Eastown, the Grande, and the Sherwood Forest Rivera, with short drives to Ann Arbor and Lansing, so Detroit was a good spot for us to be.
    Pete Woodman ( Popcorn Blizzard, Floating Circus, Bossmen, drummer ): There was a place in Bay City, way north of Detroit, that all the bands played. Ted Nugent came out on his motorcycle.
    Susie Kaine ( Popcorn Blizzard, Floating Circus, keyboardist, vocalist ): Pete’s mom would let the bands stay at the house. Ted would sleep in the woods out back.
    Pete Woodman: He knocked on the door and my mom opened the door and he wanted a cup of coffee or something. She said she’d seen this beautiful guy.
    Jack Bodnar ( scenester ): We lived at Lahser and Lois Lane not far from Southfield High School, and I was this geeky kid. I loved music, going to clubs, going to see anyone who played around town. You could see so much free or cheap music; going to the Grande was $2. When I graduated from high school, I wanted to have this little party in my parents’ basement. It was a cinderblock thing, fairly small. I had invited these twin sisters that went to Edsel Ford High School, and they said, “Can we bring a band?” They were groupies; they hung out with bands. They were flat-out gorgeous girls—long straight blond hair. Mostly they hung with Wilson Mower Pursuit.
    Bill White ( bassist, Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes ): Liz and Ilka, Swedish twins. They followed us around. We met them at the Grande.
    Jack Bodnar: I said, “Sure, bring a band,” because we were just gonna play 45s. This was a straight party, no alcohol—my friends didn’t drink. All of a sudden a van pulls up and it’s some of the guys from the Amboy Dukes and all this equipment.They had a full drum kit that took up about a quarter of the room. They started playing, and it literally shattered some of my parent’s crystal. Stuff came crashing down. It was wonderful. I was suddenly the coolest kid ever.
    Bill White: We’d play a lot of weird places. That very well coulda have happened.
    Rick Stevers ( Frijid Pink, drummer ): We played at some Catholic high school with the MC5, and the school told them not to play “Kick Out the Jams.” Of course they did, and the place tried to shut them down, and in the process shit started getting tossed around, and Dennis Thompson threw his cymbal into the crowd and it hit this kid in the head. There was blood everywhere—can you imagine if that happened now? But Thompson went into the crowd. He was really sorry; he gave the kid the cymbal, and that was it.
    John Kosloskey: We played in Sault Ste. Marie in the upper peninsula of Michigan with the Amboy Dukes at the armory. We were on our way to the show and we got harassed by some local rednecks, and Mosley threw a bottle at their car. These guys called the cops on us. By the time the show ended the National Guard was called and the troops were circling the block where the show was. We thought they were protecting us from our crazed fans.
    Rick Kraniak: Frut were so stoned out. Leo Fenn booked them on a pop festival in Ohio, and they were so altered in their state of smoke that they not only missed the exit; they ended up in a different state.
    Norm Liberman: I seem to think there was a train involved that also held us up.
    John Sinclair: The most the MC5 ever made at the Grande was $1,800. We were on the bill with Ted Nugent and the Amboy