My trip in NYC and Toronto in May, 2005

Copyright 2005 -> Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone

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This report is written in 2005.

Photos:
Upper: Barbara's friend Emily, Dee Dee's wife Barbara Zampini, another Barbara's friend Mark, Dr. Donna Gaines, Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone and Andy Shernoff.
Lower: Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone, CJ Ramone and Arturo Vega. CJ and I hung out at Arturo's historic loft for about four hours. Joey and Dee Dee lived there with Arturo. When Ramones signed first record deal deal, there were in a loft only Tommy, Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Arturo.

I decided together with David Kelly to go to the Continental club. Joey Ramone did there his last live appearances in 2000. Thanks to Trigger (owner of the Continental), people has seen there a lot of special shows where Ramones members has played.
Cheetah Chrome of Dead Boys was playing there that night, like also one year before when I was in NYC. We decided to visit in a backstage, and there we met also The Dictators bassist Andy Shernoff, Joey thought of Andy in the group as one of his best friends. As you may already know he played bass on Joey's solo album. Joey and Andy collaborated and wrote a few Ramones songs together, like Ignorance Is Bliss, I Won't Let It Happen and one of my favourites, It's Gonna Be Alright etc. Later during this my trip in New York it was really great to do long interview with Andy in his house. Andy was hanging out with Barbara's friend Emily whom I was met also in Los Angeles in 2004. Emily plays in Frantic RomantiX.
Show started and soon it was nice to hear songs like Not Anymore and Nothin'. After 20 minutes I and David decided to order some more drinks and then we were watching show together with Andy, Emily, Barbara and her friend Mark and Dr. Donna Gaines. When we heard first chords of Dead Boys classic Sonic Reducer, I took Barbara to the wild hellacopter dance with me.

I was decided with CJ Ramone earlier that we do long interview to my third book. Interview took place at Arturo Vega's loft with his help. CJ and I hung out at Arturo's historic loft for about four hours. Like many of you knows, it's at Joey Ramone Place street and in that loft also Joey and Dee Dee were living in the 70's with Arturo etc. When Ramones signed first record deal deal, there were in a loft only Tommy, Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Arturo.
Arturo Vega was the Ramones creative director since 1974, he designed the Ramones's eagle logo and most all of the Ramones art, shirts, special collections, etc. He worked as the Ramones lighting director. With the Ramones he worked on 2 261 shows, and only missed 2 Ramones shows altogether. He definitely is/was one of their closest friends.

Updated later:
You can read that CJ Ramone's long interview and Arturo Vega's interviews from Ramones: Soundtrack Of Our Lives. CJ Ramone's interviews and comments are a total of 12 pages. Some subjects CJ covers are:
- CJ describes how the audition for the Ramones went.
- First shows and reaction by the fans after some people thought it was his fault Dee Dee quit the Ramones.
- About choosing songs for the Acid Eaters album.
- How did he feel when Johnny and Joey didn't speak to each other.
- CJ Ramone's last memories of Joey, Dee Dee, and Johnny and their friendship.
- A gathered collection of information regarding CJ Ramone's solo activities since 1990.



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