CJ RAMONE TOURING IN EUROPE IN AUGUST, 2009.This is last and sixth page in this story...
Sometimes you are lucky to meet great people by accident.
August 29, 2009... Even Hannu Jokinen of Woimasointu Records and Timo Pullinen (http://ramones.fi) are still younger than 80 years old, they had strength to ask if we can visit at Wild At Heart club in Berlin.
Marky's old band Marky Ramone & The Speedkings recorded a live show at the Wild At Heart Club in Berlin on December 31st, 2001. It was later released as a 10' and CD. Woimasointu also released an EP of this show in 2002 with group's singer-guitarist Nick Cooper re-singing each song in a different Scandinavian language. I translated Blitzkrieg Bop into Finnish with the help of Severi (Nukkekoti/ Klamydia). Others who contributed include Andre Dahlmann (Norwegian translation), Kenneth Bergdahl (Swedish) and Valgaröur Gudjönsson (Iceland).
Hannu, Timo and I sit down to have beers at Wild At Heart. There were only few people. I noticed one nice looking couple sitting 15 meters from our table and man having T-shirt of Manitobas club. I commented to man how great it is to see someone wearing in Berlin T-shirt of great Manitobas club. Club is in New York and run by Handsome Dick Manitoba of The Dictators. I also told him I know a bit with Handsome Dick Manitoba. Lady sitting with him was wearing Dead Boys' T-shirt. She asked if I know also with Cheetah Chrome of the Dead Boys. I told yeah. She asked me to come and sit down them. They asked my name. I have found out how untypical is my Finnish name, and it is easier to show from some card. Lady immediately recognized my name and said how often she had visited my Ramones site and how she had planned to order my books many times.
Sometimes you are lucky to meet great people by accident. Her name was
Michele Lanci-Altomare and his Mick Black (Michael Fields). Michele had
lived in Los Angeles, New York, Boston etc. and Mick in Berlin. When she
lived in Boston, she became friends with Cheetah Chrome.
Now they are living in Minneapolis (USA) and Michele told she is working Voyageur Press book company. One
project she is involved is Cheetah
Chrome's autobiography titled Cheetah Chrome: A Dead Boy's Tale From The
Front Line Of Punk Rock. It comes out in summer of 2010.
Cheetah
Chrome was a lead
guitarist of the Dead Boys which became important part of the NYC punk
scene in 70's, after moving to New York City at the encouragement of
Joey Ramone, the Dead Boys quickly gained notoriety for their outrageous
live performances. Few of their important songs are Sonic Reducer, Ain't
Nothin' To Do, Not Anymore, (I Don't Wanna Be No) Catholic Boy and Ain't
It Fun. Cheetah is still active in punkin'. He also played at the Joey Ramone Birthday Bash in 2004, 2006 and 2008. I told Mick and Michele of some of my meetings with Cheetah. Like from 2006 when was great experience attend Joey Ramone Birthday Bash rehearse. Tommy Ramone, Richie Ramone, Joey's brother Mickey Leigh, Cheetah Chrome, Wayne Kramer (MC5/DKT), Richie Stotts (The Plasmatics/ King Flux), Andy Shernoff (The Dictators) etc. were having a practise.
Hannu, Timo and I were happy when Michele and Mick decided to come with
us to the hostel boat. We had lot experiences to share. They both had
seen the Ramones first time already in 1970's. Michele thought she had
experienced in all around 100 shows where at least one Ramones member
has played
(Ramones shows and solo shows). In addition to Larry Retard (who had AMP
Records) she is one of the only people I know who had seen Dee Dee
Ramone And The Chinese Dragons show. I think Dee Dee And The Chinese
Dragons toured only few years around 1989-1991. They released single
What About Me/
Chatterbox. What About Me is in my opinion one of the best tracks
Dee Dee wrote after the mid 80's. You can read more and see photos of Dee
Dee Ramone And The Chinese Dragons from my second book Rock In Peace:
Dee Dee And Joey Ramone. Not seen many photos in other books or
sites of Dee Dee Ramone And The Chinese Dragons... Michele was also laughing to memories how funny it was when Dee Dee had in some show bigger beard. Dee Dee wasn't shaved for a while..
I did show to Michele, Mick, Timo and Hannu, Bad Chopper DVD recorded in Japan where Dee Dee's wife Barbara sang as a guest. It was great to watch together and in general spend many hours together and get to know really cool new people.
Mick Black told he plays in few bands, rock'N'roll group called Thee 30 Second Crash is his main band (he is bassist).
Hannu and Timo had next day earlier flight. After I had returned to Finland, I slept one night in airplane station because next morning I had to pick one packet from duty close of airport. It was We're Outta Here box set signed by Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, Tommy, CJ and Marky in 1997. Read stories of that signing day from this location on my site.
Box set was by auction company from collection of Ira Herzog or Ira Lippy (both are longtime Ramones supporters). So it is genuine for sure.
-END-
Text written by Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone. Also most of the photos are taken by me. In all, I spent around 40 hours doing this report... I like to do extensive reports and archieve events what you can't experience later (all tours are different). I hope you did enjoy of reading and seeing this.
As I said before, trips like this gives me strength to go on also with this my site founded in 1995.
GO TO MAIN PAGE OF MY RAMONES HOMEPAGE.