RAMONES: STORY OF THE 2ND ANNIVERSARY EVENT OF THE RAMONES MUSEUM

STORY OF THE 2ND ANNIVERSARY EVENT OF NEW THE RAMONES MUSEUM.
BACK

Ramones Museum located in Berlin, Germany, celebrated its 2nd Anniversary on October 29-31, 2010. Special guests included Danny Fields (Ramones manager in early 70's), Arturo Vega (Ramones creative director), Monte Melnick (Ramones' long time tour manager) and George DuBose (official Ramones photographer and album cover designer etc.).

First I do write background information of every one of those men. And then comes story written by Ramones fan Jan Beddies. Thanks Jan. (He had taken photos with his cell phone and because of that photos aren't so sharp.)

Danny Fields,
is the first Ramones' manager (Tommy was first as well). Danny did personally show never before seen images of the Ramones, including photos from their earliest career steps such as buying their first P.A., going to London, UK in 1976, visiting Washington, USA, and hanging out at the Sunset Marquis in Los Angeles, USA.
Danny not only worked with the Ramones, but also with the MC5, Stooges, New York Dolls and The Doors.

Monte Melnick,
- I will be presenting a PowerPoint lecture on the Ramones and will be signing the new German edition of my book On The Road With The Ramones, titled Auf Tour Mit Den Ramones, wrote Monte Melnick for me before this event.
- Monte was babysitter, nurse and shoulder to lean on in one, putting up with the endless touring and driving from one show to the next. For our 2nd anniversary, Monte Melnick will be present and will reflect his career with the Ramones, tell funny stories and incidents, show never before seen photos and hang out with the fans - just like in the old days!, continue Florian Hayler who run Ramones Museum in Berlin.

Arturo Vega,
Arturo has become one of the main supporters of the Ramones Museum, contributing some of the finest Ramones memorabilia that would have never seen the light of day.
Arturo Vega was the Ramones' creative director since 1974, he designed the Ramones' 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.
Arturo run Ramonesworld.com.
You can find lot of his Ramones stories from my books Ramones: Soundtrack Of Our Lives (2009), Rock In Peace: Dee Dee And Joey Ramone (2004) and Heaven Needed A Lead Singer: Fans Remember Joey Ramone (2002).

George DuBose,
George Dubosehas photographed and designed nine albums with the Ramones. In all George has photographed and designed over 300 album covers, has collected around twenty gold and platinum albums for groups as diverse as REM, The Go Gos, and Melissa Etheridge. George DuBose has also worked with many other artists also, like with Tom Waits, Madonna, and The B52s.
He also took photos of other Ramones related things, for instance he took the promo shots of Dee Dee's when he started his rap career as Dee Dee King.
George DuBose has released a great book entitled, I Speak Music - Ramones. The book has 104 pages and about 60 of them include previously unreleased photos. You can read George DuBose's stories about how the various concepts came about and how these remarkable photos were executed. You can find his long interview with lot rare photos from my Ramones: Soundtrack Of Our Lives book.

STORY OF THE 2ND ANNIVERSARY EVENT WRITTEN BY RAMONES FAN JAN BEDDIES
The second anniversary of the Ramones Museum was really great. On Friday (2nd event day, October 29th) I met there Martino Pasina and Marco Zuanelli (check out Marco's great book: Gabba Gabba Book from the Italian Fan Club and a guy from Norway, Arnfinn.
Arnfinn was a bit disappointed. His favorite Ramone is Dee Dee and Florian Hayler and Arturo Vega wrapped all the Dee Dee stuff on Thursday to make space for some new things (Danny Fields photos, a pair of Joey.s jeans etc.). As Arnfinn said that to Arturo, they both went backstage and Arnfinn could wear Dee Dee.s leather jacket. He was high for the rest of the weekend.

Danny Fields showed his pictures. That was very funny. There were a lot of pictures never published before. And Danny had a very funny style to talk about the early days of the Ramones. As Danny mentioned, that Monte Melnick was together with the Ramones for 22 years and organized all 2263 shows, Monte said with a smile on his face "and that was really terrible".

Danny had written below of one photo: .In the memory of my great friend and partner in the management of the Ramones from 1975-1980, I dedicate this exhibit of my work in the Ramones Museum to Linda Stein.. After Danny´s speech, I had the chance, to watch all the pictures once again with a explanation from Arturo. There was for instance one picture from their first video shooting. They played some songs in a front of a white curtain with RAMONES on it. Arturo said that the Ramones had at that time a competition with The Heartbreakers. And so Arturo wanted to be sure, that so Ramones style was very cool on that video. But today it looks like they are playing in front of a shower curtain, Arturo said.

Second day was Monte Melnick.s day. On this day the German edition of his book On The Road With The Ramones got published. He had a PowerPoint presentation and spoke about 60 minutes. Surprise guest of the day was photographer George DuBose. And so Monte talked about each album and George talked about doing the pictures for that album (he worked in nine albums). Of course Arturo joined Monte.s presentation too. He explained how he designed the Ramones Eagle logo etc.

All in all it was very funny, very cool and great to meet Ramones fans from all over Europe. And we had the opportunity to talk to Danny, Monte, Arturo and George. They were very friendly, signed all of our stuff and had photos taken with us. Everybody had a lot of fun there. Marco Zuanelli got a signature from Arturo under his Ramones tattoo. And now there is an Arturo Tattoo on his leg too.

On the last night there was a concert of a German punk band called Kotzreiz (barf reflex). The songs were very funny, but the boys were a bit too drunk. After 45 minutes the show was over. But who cares, it was a great weekend.

Text and photos by Jan Beddies.