Reformed fandom blog now just here for inspiration.
I blog about music from various decades, fashion/supermodels, astrology/tarot/witchy/cosmic shit, musings about life, the occasional meme.
Just trying to keep it surreal.
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Adam Ant the Ants- Kings of the Wild Frontier (Top of the Pops 1981)
RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT MUSIC WHILE LISTENING TO ADAM ANT (feel free to skip)
A lot of people who I follow on Tumblr are beholden to the music of the 1960s and 1970s, and I get that. It was an amazing time in music. And I’m sure that it might seem odd to people that I post about the Monkees and then a band like Oasis or Adam Ant or Tame Impala. But to me, all of these bands are very connected and important in their own way.
Music is so interconnected that to me, liking something outside of that small parameter of time isn’t that weird. Adam obviously named the Ants as an homage to the Beatles, and his influences are clearly T. Rex, Roxy Music, Motown records, and the same music of the 50s that influenced people like the Beatles.
This particular song uses two drummers playing the burundi style of drumming made popular by Bo Diddley in the 50s, and the guitar riffs not just on this song, but on their first album are a direct nod to “Rumble” by Link Wray, which is also, as we all know, a favorite track of Jimmy Page.
Adam’s fashion sense is also a mix of the sort of freak clothes that the GTOs and the dandies in the UK in the 60s wore, but obviously with more of a punk/ugly aesthetic.
I don’t really know my point except to say that there is good, fun, well-crafted music from every decade. The 60s gets a lot of press for being an amazing decade, but every decade has valid cultural movements that make society change for the better.
Like Syd Barrett wearing eyeliner in the 60s and then David Bowie and the glam kids following his lead, and then Adam Ant and the punks doing the same but twisting it so it was “ugly/pretty”, and then Adam Ant influencing people like Boy George to feel comfortable enough with himself to wear makeup, etc. It’s all important. If the 60s was a renaissance for the women’s movement and civil rights, I’d like to think that these male popstars being so open about their sexuality and wearing makeup and still being considered sexy and desirable and that it was OK to be a little femme was helpful in the major movement in the 80s, the gay rights movement.
And then Adam influenced the next generation of British musicians like Suede and Blur who definitely took a similar approach to gender roles in the 90s.
But like all of our 60s heroes, these are still catchy 3 and a half minute pop songs. This is still a person who has the same influences and background as many people from the 60s. All he was doing was just modernizing it for the times and twisting it around a bit.
I know it’s easy to get stuck in one frame of mind in terms of music, but when you really think about it, whether it’s Jimmy Page in the 70s or Adam Ant in the 80s or Blur in the 90s or Jack White, all of these dudes are all musical peers who are worthy of attention, in my opinion.
Anyway, just started thinking about this last night and wanted to put it out there as a topic for discussion. Keep in mind I’m not singling anyone out, and that the great majority of my followers are open-minded and genius and awesome and I love you all. Just trying to spread some KNOWLEDGE.
It’s really fun and cool how little I tagged most of my old content so now I can’t find any of it.
I’ve combined all of your submissions and a few of my own to make a list of The Monkee fandom’s favorite Monkees Stories of ALL TIME.
I’ve been meaning to post this list for over a year, and it seems fitting to post it today in conjunction with thank-your-lucky-stars Monkees Awards question for today.
BEST MONKEES STORIES
Mike Nesmith yelling “that could’ve been your face motherfucker” and punching a hole in a wall, when Herb Moelis and Don Kirshner wouldn’t let the Monkees play their own instruments on their album.
Micky Dolenz gallantly making a tourniquet for Cynthia Plaster Caster after she sliced her hand while trying to open up a can of dental alginates to use to make Peter Tork’s plaster cast. (Unfortunately this
injury made it impossible to cast Peter that day)
Peter Tork’s mile high orgies on their plane during the 1967 tour
and his orgy organizer button which he wore during the second season of
the Monkees’ television show.
Davy Jones plowing through the studio gate with his car when the guard refused to let him in because of his “long” hair/not believing
Davy worked there.
Mike Nesmith’s Cincinnati (Cleveland?) prank with the elevator that
almost got the guys trampled by thousands of fans until they jumped into
a police car.
Peter Tork telling the draft board that he was gay to get out of going to Vietnam.
Micky Dolenz tripping balls in Hyde Park at 7 in the morning and
singing songs to a couple hundred schoolkids until Jack Nicholson and
Bob and Bert and the cops show up and when they finally make a run for
it, everybody gets trampled.
Peter Tork and Davy Jones getting into a knockout, drag down fight
on the set of the show, with Davy giving Peter a “nutter” and Peter
subsequently punching Davy, who then had to get stitches.
Two Mexican federal agents handing Mike Nesmith a million dollars’
worth of marijuana in a brown paper sack as an apology after the agents
took his camera away because he took photos of a student demonstration.
A member of the Monkees entourage hiding Brian Jones of the Rolling
Stones in the Monkees’ hotel in England after he was busted for drugs.
Two seventeen-year-old girls bribing pizza delivery guys for their outfits to deliver pizza to the Monkees’ hotel room.
Mike Nesmith sending John Lennon a telegram that ended with “God is Love, Mike Nesmith.”
Davy’s salad story
When Mike had a party with a houseful of people and asked Davy if he wanted to go get a burger. Davy declined, but later learned Mike
left his own party to hop on his private jet and fly to get his favorite burger just cos he had it like that.
The time when Micky was invited to the recording of Sgt. Pepper and he thought it was going to be some big psychedelic party so he shows up
all crazy in paisley print bell bottoms and like tie-dyed underwear in
the middle of the day, and he just finds the Beatles sitting all calm in
folding chairs.
The game of “Killer,” that required the actors, producers, some of the inner-circle to play-act a spectacular death scene on demand.
The Monkees nearly sabotaging their own show before it could even
begin, by invading the network affiliates’ dinner at Chason’s
restaurant.
The pilot of the Monkees Express having to come on the PA system on
the plane, asking some of the passengers enjoying the party-pit in the
rear of the plane to please come forward so he could get the nose down.
Micky getting mobbed while doing his Christmas shopping.
Bert Schneider sitting in the audience at the Cow Palace, seeing his
band on stage for the first time and not quite believing what he had
created.Raybert scoring the lowest rated pilot in the history of the network—and figuring out how to fix it.
That girl that mailed herself to Davy
Davy flying to a hospital in Phoenix to visit two little girls who
had been hit by a car when they were out buying Monkees albums
Spending a weekend locked in a hotel with Jack Nicholson and drugs to write Head.
Micky building that scale model plane in his living room, then having to disassemble it because he couldn’t get it out the door.
I feel like the grainy Youtube screencap is the best medium to capture these years since most of the footage is from old copies of VHS tapes.
I’m trying to document what it was like to live in these eras so people my age and older can reminisce about the good old days, and so the youths now can get an accurate glimpse of these particular decades that aren’t taken very seriously in terms of pop culture or fashion/aesthetics, or are relegated to the same stale pop culture references over and over (there was more to the 90s than Nirvana and choker necklaces, I promise. The 1980s wasn’t just bad neon clothing and Madonna. The 2000s was an amazing time for music and ballsy fashion choices, etc.) I’m also going to try to avoid really obvious pop culture moments.
As I’ve said before, I feel like the last 30-40 years was spent analyzing and hyping the 1960s. I call this the “baby boomer industrial complex” and obviously it was magical and rad time in history for pop culture (I mean I run a Monkees blog like I get it), but I think now it’s time to take back the narrative from the boomers and show that other decades were just as exciting and strange and important.
The Wild West of the Early Internet: a look at late 1990s-early 2000s Anonymous Groupie Message Boards
This is the first-part of a new series where I look back at what the world wide web and life was like during the early years of the internet.
The ‘very early internet’ (early-mid 90s) was mostly populated by nerds on usenet forums, but once AOL started sending CDs in the mail and anyone could build a simple website on Geocities, Tripod, Angelfire, etc, the floodgates opened and the internet became a refugee for even more nerds, bored teenagers, fandoms, slash fanfic, chatrooms, message boards, a safe place for every disenfranchised or judged subculture in “real life" to congregate, and of course porn.
This was well before Google Image search was invented in 2001, thanks to our true hero Jennifer Lopez and her green Versace dress, so in order to see photos on the internet, for example, you had to go to websites where people had to upload their own photos and whatnot. This was also pre-Wikipedia, so anything that was online had to be put up there by some nerd that had to go to the trouble of building their own website to host that information. It was a fun time, to be honest! Anything was possible! The internet was a blank-ish canvas that we all filled with whatever we wanted the entire world to see and learn about.
One of the coolest things to happen around this time was anonymous groupie message boards and websites started cropping up, and anyone around the world in the comfort of their own homes could read what it was like to bang Bret Michaels (”If you do hook up with him, chances are he’ll keep his hat or bandana on.”) or how how big Trent Reznor’s dick is (According to the famous penis chart “average but a good fuck”)
These boards were very pro-woman, anonymous, and feminist. It was like having many wild older sisters from around the world giving you advice. They just wanted you to have a good time and be safe and know what you were getting into.
The Penis Chart on Metal Sludge, for example, was very open about who was bad in bed, which rockers treated women terribly, and who to stay away from, which dudes had small dicks, which ones gave AND received, and who was into what freaky stuff so ladies could be prepared. Sisters looking out for other sisters! It put some of the “power” back in the hands of women; if they didn’t have a good time or weren’t treated with respect, everyone on the internet knew which band guys sucked in bed….a real ego deflater for musicians.
The late 90s/early 2000s was a sort of renaissance for groupiedom; many of the 80s hair metal bands were finally back on the road after grunge killed their career for a few years in the 90s. They were popular draws again due to the Behind the Music shows on VH1 that had just started airing, which brought them a new/younger audience, and they were easier than ever to access.
There was also a new wave of rock & metal bands who embraced the hedonistic party way of life (top bands/artists mentioned by groupies in this era: Limp Bizkit, Disturbed, Godsmack, Papa Roach, Buckcherry, Orgy, Kid Rock, Marilyn Manson, Tool, Korn, Eminem, Kid Rock, Incubus, various pop punk bands, boy bands.)
Eventually Groupie Central and Metal Sludge would see old school groupies and dudes in bands participate and send in messages, and give interviews. Then magazines like SPIN and channels like VH1 would talk about them, which made things a little too mainstream and took away a lot of the anonymity and feeling of community that made them so appealing in the first place. Groupie Central eventually included IP address of posts, which basically killed it instantly. Metal Sludge is still around, but the rest are mainly accessible via archive.org.
As for groupies today, it’s probably easier to be a groupie now thanks to social media. Dudes in bands definitely scope Instagram, Tinder, and Twitter for conquests and message girls directly.. Obviously anyone can send a DM on Instagram too. However, as we’ve also learned, it’s much easier for celebs to get caught and for things to blow up and become a trending topic for the entire world. A lot of them have policies where groupies have their phones taken away while they “hang out”, or even sign a NDA. My how times have changed!
Anyway, let’s take a look at much simpler times:
OLD SCHOOL GROUPIE WEBSITES:
Metal Sludge:Originally a site about metal, of course, it became famous for two things 1)The Long and Short of It– The World Famous Penis Chart where mostly hard (ha) rockers were ranked and measured by their shortcomings, bedroom performance, and how they treated conquests, and 2) Donna’s Domain, where “Donna Anderson”, an anonymous groupie who was NOT Nikki Sixx’s then-wife Donna D’Errico (as people mistook her for ALL THE TIME) was a sort of a ‘den mother”/ Dear Abby to all of the groupies and musicians who messaged her. She answered lot of reader mail with very snarky commentary. Donna’s Domain on Metal Sludge contained two other things beside the Penis Chart: The Groupie Chart & Donna’s Ho Bag archives. This site is still active in some form, tho not much groupie talk happening.
Groupie Central: Besides Metal Sludge, Groupie Central was the most famous site that had information on banging musiciansand was billed as the “first web site for groupies.” Like, EVERYONE read this site.
Groupie Central had it’s own message board where groupies shared penis sizes, tips, etc, but it really was known the first place on the internet to have tons of information on actual groupies, including the “Groupies, Wives & Lovers” section that not only had which dudes the girls slept with, but it featured fairly complete biographical information on the women that showed they were more than just the dudes they slept with. Groupie Central also had a comprehensive list of groupie-related movies, TV shows, music videos and album covers that featured the ladies, an advice column, gossip (this section is rad), etc. The Awards Show Reports from 1999-2001 are fun reads, so check them out.
Groupiedirt: I don’t remember much about this site, it seemed to be around during the same era as Groupie Central and unfortunately, the message board isn’t even accessible via archive.org. Bummer. You can see from the archived site that Pamela Des Barres was “looking for a few wondrous groupie girls for her new book, “She’s With the Band…,” so yeah, it was a very cool time when new groupies and old groupies shared stories and info on the regular. Rad.
Rock Groupie.com:Groupie Central had a lot of fights because the forums were “moderated” or “censored” and eventually the mod lost interest and it was turned into Rock Groupie. Fun fact: Model/muse Bebe Buell was an active participant at both forumswhich of course resulted in a lot of drama.
THE STORIES
I’ve combed the archives of these sites to find groupie stories about guys (and maybe some ladies) that I think my readers would care about, stories that haven’t already been discussed ad nauseum (I think by now we’ve all read many times what Led Zeppelin/Bowie/Steven Tyler/The Stones/Guns N Roses were like in bed, for example).
If there’s someone specifically you want to know about, I might be able to find info so message me.
Keep in mind that none of these are FROM ME, I found them from the deep internet circa 1990s/2000s via the internet archive and all should be taken with a grain of salt since anyone can post stuff on the internet yada yada please don’t sue me, this is all for entertainment purposes and should be considered GOSSIP. Most of these stories are from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and early 2000s and may not reflect the behavior of any of these people now.
It took a lot of time to research these stories below so if you break them up and repost on Tumblr in your own fandom, can you at least give me credit and link to my blog? THANKS. For each story I have linked to original source so you don’t think I am just making these up.
If you’re under 18 please proceed with caution as clearly below you will be reading sex stories. Trigger warning for SEX. You might also learn info about your faves you that will disappoint you. I am sorry.
