The Fur Bible

Very short lived project with Kid Congo Powers (his first attempt at singing) and Patricia Morrison after the Gun Club disintegrated. Released only one EP "Plunder the Tombs" in 1985, produced by Jim Thirlwell (aka Clint Ruin aka Foetus).

Scheduled
Saturday 12 October 1985, "Small Hall", 22:45-23:30

Line up
Kid Congo Powers – guitar, vocals; Patricia Morrison – bass; Murray Mitchell – guitar (and saxophone?) ; Desparate (Peter Kablaen)– drums

Set list
01 Unknown

02 Headbolt

03 Unknown

04 Unknown (cut)

Recordings
I have a lossless (flac) radio recording of the above 4 tracks. Unfortunately, it's in mono.

Other info
Morrison and Powers played Pandora’s 1984 with the Gun Club, Desperate joined them shortly after Pandora's 84. Mitchell was an ex-roadie (and occasional guitar player) with Siouxsie & the Banshees who had played Pandora's 83. Gun Club main man Jeffrey Lee Pierce also played Pandora’s as the Jeffrey Lee Pierce Quartet.


Article from festival booklet




Article from Oor (1985-20)

The Legendary Stardust Comboy

The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, born Norman Carl Odam on October 10, 1947 in Lubbock, Texas, is an incoherent rock and roll performer who invented an early example of the genre that came to be known as psychobilly in the 1960s. While often considered a novelty artist, he considers himself a serious performer.
David Bowie has been a fan of the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, who likes to be called "The Ledge", since he heard Paralyzed. Bowie himself has said that the "Stardust" in "Ziggy Stardust" is taken from The Legendary Stardust Cowboy.
In 1985, the Dutch VPRO radio tried to re-popularise the Ledge. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legendary_Stardust_Cowboy)

Scheduled
Friday, 11 October 1985

Line up
Uncertain, but likely: The Legendary Stardust Cowboy - guitar, vocals; Kid Congo Powers - guitar; Murray Mitchell – guitar; Patricia Morrison - bass; Desparate – drums

Recently surfaced video (see below) reveals the backing band to be Claw Boys Claw! However, at the end of the fragment, CBC bassist Bobbie hands her bass to another woman - possibly Patricia Morrison with a giant blonde hairdo/wig?

Set list
01 Indian Wallpaper

02 So mean

03-14 Unknown

The first two tracks are Claw Boys Claw, track 3 is an instrumental during which the Ledge joins them.

Recording
I have a complete lossless (flac) audience recording of the show.


The Ledge backed by Claw Boys Claw at Pandora's 85 as uploaded to YouTube by waaghalsrecords.

Other info
The Ledge appeared as surprise act at the festival, backed by Fur Bible. The Claw Boys Claw played a short warm-up set. Unknown if they were Friday or Saturday, but Saturday sounds most likely: Fur Bible played on Saturday and CBC were likely to be there to see their mates (and ex-drummer) in the Fatal Flowers and L’Attentat. They possibly played the “Mini Box” after 23:30 (when Fur Bible finished their “Small Hall” set), or after 02:00.

Also around this time the ex-Gun Club contingent appeared as the backing band to the Legendary Stardust Cowboy (of 'Paralysed' fame) on a tour of England. (http://www.furious.com/perfect/gunclub2.html)

This is not as strange as it may sound. Fur Bible came to life as a vehicle for another legendary 60’s star: Tex Perkins.

So in the meantime while we were thinking about "now what do we do?", this Dutch promoter, Willem Venema had this idea. He was working on bringing over the Legendary Stardust Cowboy – who – we all knew the song "Paralyzed." The song is a big legendary song that we all loved. He asked us, "Would you be the back-up band for this guy?" And I was like, "That 'Paralyzed' guy? Yeah, sure. That sounds great." And it was just a gig to do. I never met him. I didn't know what he might be like or anything. So he shows up – him and his manager. And he is a total kook. That guy is a total kook. Actually a little bit like Jeffrey but totally charming and loveable somehow - and very talented. It's a really untamed crazy talent, but he has his own vision and it has nothing to do with the rest of the world. And certainly I can appreciate that.
So we got a record and we learned the songs and we just ended up doing this crazy tour of Europe and it was totally fun and funny. And Patricia wore a big Dolly Parton blonde wig. It was totally campy and he was just crazy. What a nut! He did some crazy strip at the end where he stripped down to these horrible flesh-colored big underwear. And he just had all his crazy songs about UFOs and love and him "thinkin' about you while I'm sitting in a garbage can." And great songs. It was totally a gig, but I really loved it. It was a real fun thing and it really broke up this whole seriousness about The Gun Club breaking up and this thing with Tex not working out. It was like, "OK, we can be totally ridiculous." It came at the right time. (Kid Congo Powers, http://www.newyorknighttrain.com/zine/issues/1/kidbible.html)

I saw The Legendary Stardust Cowboy somewhere in the mid 80's in a club in Rotterdam, where he was accompanied with members of The Gun Club. An awesome show and nothing like anything else. The image of a (already) middle aged Ledge stripped to nothing but his underpants and (of course) cowboy boots somehow still haunts me :D. (Robert Haagsma, http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/archive/index.php/t-104564.html)


The Ledge watching Tex & the Horseheads from the side of the stage at Pandora's 85 (Vinyl magazine 1985/11)

Claw Boys Claw

Guitar band from Amsterdam fronted by charismatic singer Peter te Bos that is influenced by garage punk of bands like Gun Club and the Stooges. Gradually, the band's musical style develops into the direction of melodic swamp rock. (http://www.hollandrocks.nl/bio/bz344.html)

Scheduled
Uncertain, most likely Saturday, 12 October 1985

Line up
Peter te Bos – vocals; John Cameron – guitar; Bobbie Rossini – bass; Marius Schrader – drums

Set list
Unknown

Recording
It's unknown whether any audio recordings exist.


Claw Boys Claw (including Teboskins wailing at 8'30") backing the Legendary Stardust Cowboy at Pandora's 85 as uploaded to YouTube by waaghalsrecords.

Other info
Claw Boys Claw played a short warm up set for "surprise act" the Legendary Stardust Cowboy. It is likely to have been on Saturday, because Claw Boys Claw could have been there to see their mates (and ex-drummer) Fatal Flowers and L'Attentat. And more importantly: the Ledge was accompanied by members of Fur Bible, who also played the Saturday.
- edit - The clip above shows CBC backing the Ledge and not just playing a warm-up set?

Claw Boys Claw had previously played Pandora's 84, with a line up including Allard Jolles who played Pandora's 85 as singer/guitarist for L'Attentat.

Years later, Fatal Flowers' bass player Geert de Groot ended up in Claw Boys Claw (1991 - 1999).

Claw Boys Claw on stage at Pandora's 85 (photo by Marcel Snoek - huge thanks to Jeroen)

The Gun Club

The Gun Club was a rock band from Los Angeles in the 1980s led by flamboyant singer/guitarist Jeffrey Lee Pierce. They injected punk rock with doses of blues and country music. Pierce's wailing vocals were an ideal delivery for his songs, which generally had a spooky, haunted quality. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_Club)

Scheduled
Saturday, 22 September 1984, "Grote Box", 22:30 - 23:30

Line up
Jeffrey Lee Pierce - guitars & vocals, solos on Bad America, Eternally is here, Gila monster, New Mexico and Give up the sun; Kid Congo Powers – guitar & all other solos; Patricia Morrison – bass; a drummer – drums (according to Andy Sztehlo: "Terry Graham. Who left the band midway through the European tour, leaving them well in it. I think it's called sarcasm, Jeffrey's comment that it." (http://www.limbos.org/gunclub/gunclubd.htm)

It was on this tour that Terry Graham disappeared in Paris. The story is that he was tired of Pierce's dictatorial attitude. Also, he wasn't seeing a financial return after having given four years of his life to the band. After playing Manchester, he had found that both a collection of video footage he had been taking of the band and the camera it was being recorded on had been stolen backstage. He had also discovered that the band had en-masse decided to move their base of operations over to London without telling him. It was a lousy position to be put in and was the last straw at the wrong moment. (http://www.furious.com/perfect/gunclub2.html)

Set list
01 The Spurs / Intro
02 Brother and sister
03 Sex beat
04 Bad Indian
05 Eternally is here
06 Bad America
07 Stranger in our town
08 Gila monster, New Mexico/Preachin' blues
09 Fire of love
10 Sleeping in blood city
11 Goodbye Johnny
12 Give up the sun
13 She's like heroin to me
Thanks to Magnix for providing the complete set list.

Recording
A complete audience recording exists. Tracks 05 - 08 and 10 - 12 have been officially released on Danse Kalinda Boom – Live in Pandora’s Box (originally in 1985, reissued on Flow Records, 2006). Note that all of the vinyl versions and most of the CD issues list an incorrect date: 3 September 1983. The Gun Club was supposed to play Pandora's 83 but was cancelled at the last moment.



Tracks 04 - 09 and 13, were all released on the vinyl bootleg Moonlight Motel (Superb Productions, 1985), taken from a radio broadcast.



I recently found reference to a bootleg 7" single without picture sleeve or label information which was supposedly released. It features Bad Indian on one side and Fire of Love on the other, both tracks recorded at Pandora's 84. Get an mp3 rip of it here: http://symphonyofghosts.blogspot.com/2009/01/gun-club-live-pandora-7in-bootleg.html

I have 04 - 13, taken from various radio broadcasts and Danse Kalinda Boom, total time 47'30".

Other info
Kid Congo Powers and Morrison went on to form Fur Bible who played Pandora's 85 alongside the Jeffrey Lee Pierce Quartet and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, whom Powers joined afterwards.

For some reason, the double cd re-release of Danse Kalinda Boom (Flow Records, 2006) fails to get the complete show at Pandora’s. Disc 1 is the same as the original release and disc 2 is an Australian show from 1983. Remember: disc 1 is only 35 minutes long…, at least 3 more songs were recorded. Why not restore the complete show? Or even: why not add the Jeffrey Lee Pierce Quartet show from Pandora’s 1985?

The end of the year saw a major European tour during which Kalinda Danse Boom was cut live at Pandora's Music Box festival on September 22nd 1984. It's a good powerful set but at around 35 minutes, it's way too short. I know that a version of Bad Indian I've been told is brilliant has been cut from the start. I wonder what happened to the rest of the gig? (http://www.furious.com/perfect/gunclub2.html)


Article from festival booklet


Powers on stage at Pandora's 84 (Oor 1984/20)




Interview with Pierce and Powers discussing Pandora's. Photo possibly from Pandora's (Vinyl magazine 1984/11)

Jeffrey Lee Pierce Quartet

In 1985, Jeffrey Lee Pierce put the Gun Club on hold to record his first solo album Wildweed. To promote the album he toured under the moniker Jeffrey Lee Pierce Quartet.

Scheduled
Friday, 11 October 1985, "Dance Hall", 21:00 - 22:00

Line up
Jeffrey Lee Pierce – vocals, guitar; Romi Mori – guitar; Dean Dennis – bass; Nick Sanderson - drums

The tour supporting the Wildweed LP was done by a different band than the recording. This saw the first appearances of Nick Sanderson and Pierce's then-current paramour Romi Mori. At this time, Romi was playing guitar, as she had done previously in a Japanese Runaways covers band. They toured under the name The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Quartet, including Dean Dennis of Clock DVA. As they toured the US, the record label was giving Jeffrey a lot of hassle over the disbelievability of a Japanese girl as a musician. The band were also getting a lot of racism from their audiences, presumably taking the rebel flag seriously. (http://www.furious.com/perfect/gunclub3.html)

Set list
00 Midnight promise
00 Hey Juana
00 Wildweed

Recording
Midnight promise was broadcast on radio, along with an interview. Hey Juana and Wildweed were released as bonus tracks on Wildweed (remaster), Flow Records, 2005.



Other info

JLP on stage at Pandora's 85 (Sounds, 26 October 1985)

Dennis and Sanderson were previously in Clock DVA, who played Pandora's 83, and the Anti Group, who played Pandora's 84. They are the only artists appearing at all three Pandora's Music Box editions.

After Clock DVA split in the mid eighties, the remaining members continued to record as experimental collective The Anti Group, a period that also saw Dennis tour as part of the Jeffrey Lee Pierce Quartet - predictably, he describes his time with the former Gun Club singer as ‘punishing and debauched.’ (http://www.cyclicdefrost.com/blog/?p=1059)

In 1985, eager for new adventures, Dean & Nick joined the Jeffrey Lee Pierce Quartet for the Wild Weed tour. This was to be a punishing year of broken down buses, hysterical laughter, sweltering heat and alcohol abuse. (http://www.sonicgarden.com/sonic-web/artist.cfm?artistid=31206)

Pierce was planning to use Murray Mitchell (who played saxophone and guitar on the record) on guitar. Eventually, this didn't happen because Romi Mori joined the band. Mitchell was guitar roadie (and occasional player) for Siouxsie & the Banshees (who played Pandora's 83) and ended up playing guitar in Fur Bible, also on Pandora's 85, along with ex-Gun Club members Kid Congo Powers, Patricia Morrison and Desperate.

When the album is out, Pierce is going on the road again. A European tour is planned, but Sweden is unfortunately not included in the planning.
"I'm going to use the rhythm-section from Clock DVA and Murray Mitchell, who played saxophone on the record, will probably be playing guitar. Or else it will be a Japanese girl I know on guitar. She's better than me and besides, she'd look great on stage, something like an oriental Kid Congo." (From Swedish magazine Schlager 1985/4, http://www.thegunclub.net/interview.html)

Article from festival booklet