L.A. Rockin, Part 1 — Island regular heads west
Wow, has it really been about six months since I was last on Fort Myers Beach. Fla., and Hollywood, Cali.? Yep, it sure has, and there’s really no other place to go after treading on the sacred soil yes, you’ve guessed it, The Rainbow Bar and Grille to pour down a few beers in celebration of being back to two of my favorite places in the U.S. again.
It can be too rock and roll at times, as it took a good while for myself and Fort Myers Beach girl Megan Potts to locate Norton Avenue, which is where we would be staying the home of the late Lizard King, himself, Jim Morrison of The Doors. The road is secretly pocketed away, about three blocks off of “The Sunset Strip” and Roxbury Avenue, but after about two hours, we finally found it, and it was time to crash out.
Now, if you go anywhere on The Sunset Strip for food, be sure to get yourself to Ralph’s or Rock ‘n Roll Ralph’s it’s known as a legend, where all the main LA hair bands got their groceries, including a little fivesome known as Guns N’ Roses.
After some tasty dishes, the night was spent back at The ‘Bow again (The Rainbow Room), as well as The Key Club, to check out old-school rockers Little Caesar and The BulletBoys with my cool new-found friends, Jessica and Linda.
Little Caesar tore the place up with their biker-like rock especially frontman Ron Young. I look forward to seeing them back home when they play Sheffield, U.K. Talk about taking over the town of Hollywood, Little Caesar!
The latter band, The BulletBoys, featured my buddy Troy Patrick Farrell on drums, who is always a pleasure to see and hang with, and frontman Marq Torein, who I haven’t seen since interviewing him at a famous drummer’s house close to Fort Myers Beach back in April 2006.
“Smooth Up In Ya” ensued, and many more late-’80s, early-’90s classics from these ‘Boys. Marq was simply on fire with an exceptionally tight band in force as well
In between these bands, I also caught some of “Nightmare” downstairs, who was an Alice Cooper tribute band, fronted by another good friend of mine who goes by the name of Nick Fuoco, performing the classic old ’70s material, such as “Under My Wheels” and “Go To Hell” love it and sounds very like the original group, too!
Now, it’s unreal who you can meet at times in the ‘Wood, as I was just sitting there having a beer when a sorta familiar-looking geezer walks up to Lemmy’s end of the Rainbow and starts up a cool conversation with my buddy, Scotty, who is like a cross between Lemmy from Mtorhead and Dog The Bounty Hunter in the image-and-looks department.
The London accent sounds way too familiar to me and he looks like someone in my record collection.
I get to chatting with him and ask his name.
“Nigel, pleased to meet you.”
The penny drops as I ask, “Is your second name Mogg, by any chance?”
“It is, mate.”
Awesome, none other than the original bassist of The Quireboys, one of my all-time favorite bands who I try and see every year. He tells me he has a new band that will be playing the U.K. soon called “The Peckham Cowboys” and low and behold, they’re playing in my neck of the woods early December killer!
After a fine conversation with Nigel, it was off to the Whisky-a-Go-Go that night, to check out a pretty new band called “Shotgun Revolution,” from Denmark, who were playing for the first ever on this side of the globe.
The band comes across like a mix of Buckcherry, Nickelback and the sounds of the south, all mixed into one decent group. I am expecting this band to get pretty big if they play their cards right, with a decently supported tour or three in the near future, playing some cookin’ songs like “I Don’t Care” and “Just Gettin’ High.”
After a good ol’ conversation with these boys, and a few CDs handed my way to review, along with a fully signed set list, too, it was back to The ‘Bow to meet up with a couple of my ace chums, Francis Ausley and Nick Baranov, from local metal band Rattlehead, whereby we lark around, sink a few shandies and irritate the hell outta the locals with the sounds of Barry Manilow, The Three Degrees, George Michael and other easy listening hogwash from hell you know it makes sense!
I even bump into the current Heaven and Earth’s bassist, too, and the following night, Rick Richards, guitarist of The Georgia Satellites.
I am such an old ham for hair bands (not that you’d realize it), and ended up rubbing shoulders with a dude who was in a band I have an album for called Dirty Blonde, who goes by the name of Mark, and what a vocalist he turned out to be later, too, upstairs in the Rainbow.
Now, who is that fine-looking lady who wanders in and sits down next to me? It turns out to be none other than Shelby Blackburn, an ex-wife of a famous Southern Rock Star, but is a radio journalist in her own right.
She tells me her daughter, Brooklyn, fronts a rock band called “Picture Me Broken,” which we both end up checking out at The Whiskey.
They have an alternate rock edge that borders on emo at times man, this chick can really sing, not to mention scream like Angela Gossow from Arch Enemy pure dynamite indeed.
Glenn Andrew Milligan is the editor and creator of the online webzine METALLIVILLE.com, the premier site for concert coverage, promotions and one-on-one interviews with some of the biggest rockers and celebrities in all metal history. Visit Metalliville.com for a free online subscription.
Look forward to the second part of Glenn’s recent LA Romp in the next issue of the Beach Bulletin!