Always seeking better ways to digitize your San Diego youth, the Che Underground blog today attempts a new delivery mechanism: a downloadable PDF file encapsulating more than 70 high-resolution pages of mid-’80s, mod-friendly flyers courtesy of Ken Fugate.
Every page of this magnum opus is a Proustian gem featuring performances by the Tell-Tale Hearts, the Morlocks, Manual Scan, the Trebels, the Nephews, the Nashville Ramblers, the Sovereigns, 39 Steps and many more. (I’m especially excited by the flyer hailing the debut of the Town Criers.)
“I scanned them for Tony for the Secret Society [Scooter Club’s] 25th anniversary,” Ken writes. “I have more flyers that I haven’t scanned. They are from my wife Debbie’s and my pack-rat collection.”
One man’s pack rats are another man’s literary lions! Mucho kudos to the Fugates for their generous donation.
Great, Great post. Thanks to Ken and Debbie! Anyone who was at the SSSC 25th Anniversary can attest to the treasure trove of pics and flyers that were available to view -- more please!
I agree with Ray about the memory jogs on these venues and the way the flyers were made. Primitive as they are, it’s clear to me that people wont be collecting modern e-mail poster images to remember bands in the way we (and future generations) treasure this stuff here:-) I have a few dozen Soverigns slides, I’ll post a few as soon as I get them scanned.
As for the bands: the 39 Steps included Mike Limm while he was at UCSD, they released one tape of pretty good demos, one track of which was on the “Sound Affects” tapes. Threw the Looking Glass was from Los Angeles, good guys, they were regulars at the Cavern and so on and played at New Generation etc several times. the J-Walkers were an LA horn based soul band -- they are on the “American Heart & Soul” album alongside the Nashville Ramblers etc and played New Sounds II, the Fan Club was another UCSD band, heavily Weller influenced, featurng Roddy Bogowa (residingin New York and a respected film maker), who previously had The Odds who released a really good single- The Fan Club did a killer version of “Temptation Eyes,” the Tracers included Matt Comeione, soul/Style Council sort of mod band. Matt played on several cuts with Manual Scan including “Jungle Beat ’85” and produced albums by Englands The Risk.
Few details on My Three Sons but Chardon Square was one of the great Mod bands of the era, releasing two highly collectable singles, of which “65 Film Show” is a certified classic. Featured Perry Tollet formerly of the Targets (great EP) and Paul Tollet was always around with them. He ran Golden Voice Concert Promotions for awhile and is now one of the men behind the Coachella Festival. Also, just to mention it. Chardon Square didn’t play that Rain Parade gig at the New Generation, Manual Scan did. Not a huge crowd, but a real memorable gig (I have a tape), particularly as it was the one time we did Pink Floyd’s “Time”/”Great Gig In The Sky (outro)” , which went over huge with Rain Parade, one of my all time favorite bands -- awesome guys, awesome music.
I love the “Shout at the David” poster for Mänual Scän.
So is this PDF approach working for everyone? Any technical glitches retrieving the file?
I’m kind of excited about using this to distribute flyers and ‘zines within files that aren’t too huge.
E.g., Jason Seibert sent me a PILE of classic punk flyers, and I’ve been puzzled how to share ’em. This seems like a very workable solution!
PDF-a-go-go! These are so cool -- I remember the Through Looking Glass show -- was quite the Alice fan back in the day and remember this flyer. And another flyer for the Morlocks I forgot about -- gosh, I sucked at hand-lettering, thank suitcase for over 1000 wonderful, perfectly executed fonts that I can use in a blink of an eye -- and no long hours of scrubbing with a sharpie! I remember doing that watch with the face. Thanks for sharing these!
This might be an opportune spot to issue another appeal for graphics help.
When it comes to flyers, there are many great contributions in the queue … Most of the files are awfully large or otherwise problematic to upload and display well online, which adds up to hours of downloading from e-mail, Photoshopping into submission and uploading to the blog. (Figure 20 minutes per flyer, conservatively … A batch of 30 flyers can eat a full work day!)
Having the contributors pack ’em into nice PDF files like Ken did might be just the ticket. Can folks do this themselves? Alternatively, do we have some graphics-savvy souls who are game to help?
A couple of other Poway bands on those flyers: the Tracers and Outrage. Robb from Outrage was the Nephews’ bass player in the later years. He’s also the one who organized the Bonniwell Music Machine revival for one show in L.A. and a European tour in 2004 that I got to play on.
Matt,
I can compact those fliers for you no problem. I can do these between work and home easily and quickly.
I also have some flyers from the 79-80 period as well as all the Q-Subs, MR Archives, Snare and 3 oddball zines: Away From The Numbers, BambooHead and Bulletin X.
Flem and I were looking them over tonight and recollecting and such about some of the gigs. Good times!
Dave Doyle: To quote “Almost Famous,” you are a golden god!
I’ll contact you privately to effect the transfer. Thank you!! 🙂
Slight correction to what Bart said. It was “Time/Breathe Reprise”, not “Great Gig in the Sky.” I can do many things. Singing like a black woman is not among them.
Wow, I am truly grateful for this awesome addition to the Che Archives! I can’t wait until I have the time to sift through them and blow my mind!
Kristen Tobiason, my darling, let’s meet in the front row to PDF A-Go-Go!
Does anyone know what year the Threw the Looking Glass/Manual Scan/Medicine Man gig at New Generation happened? It’s Page 8 in Ken’s PDF …
Here’s a link to the (mostly Hair Theatre) flyers I’ve collected: http://www.flickr.com/photos/polalyn/sets/72157620697320011/