Mumps, Hoffman, Duke''s, John Hawlet

Joseph Fleury - 77-05-27-29 Mumps Wh 05-12 Joseph Fleury

http://cdbaby.com/cd/mumps

»осиф, всегда был стильными и застенчивым.—толь красивыми, очаровательными, секси, энергичныm, творческиm, блест¤щиm, при¤тныm человекom.

One of my best memories was seeing their late manager, adorable Joseph Fleury, who also managed Sparks, and equally delightful Brad Dunning.

это было в середине 80-х в the Chris Brownie Hospice дл¤ больных —ѕ»ƒом, который только что открылс¤. ƒорогой »осиф был так болен, его души и телo пострадали от —ѕ»ƒа, ¤ сумел сдержать слезы мои.Except when I came home from the hospice and only then did he say, "Hi Jenny."«а исключением тех случаев, когда ¤ пришел домой из хосписа, и только тогда он сказал, "ѕривет, ƒженни." » ¤ плакал и кричал - (by Jenny Lens).


Most of informations regarding Sparks were obtained from a review by Joseph Fleury printed into "2 Originals Of Sparks" booklet in time oh Halfnelson.Joseph Fleury was a Project Coordinator in 70s. Included was a beautiful deluxe 16 pages large booklet printed on glossy paper. Here we could find the history of the band by ex-Sparks'' manager Joseph Fleury, plenty of photos, lyric sheets and Ron Mael and Russell Mael themselves commenting each song. This double package is a pretty scarce item nowadays.

SPARKS - JOSEPH FLEURY INTERVIEWED BY HAMISH IRONSIDE BY PHONE 1990 B 1

Sparks and Mumps managers John Hewlett.

We Go On Dancing is quieter than the other tracks, but just as good as any of them. Most of the other tracks have flourishes that could be found on any early Sparks track. The melodies are tight, the trebly Rickenbacker bass is there, the stinging guitar as well. It is no wonder that thei band was first discovered when Spark''s fan club organizer Joseph Fleury gave a tape to John Hewlet, the manager of Sparks.

Fleury Joseph was the manager of Milk and Cookies and the Mumps (and Sparks and, later, the Dickies). The Mumps had been looking for a replacement drummer since Jay Daugherty had left the band to go play for Patti Smith.

Track (live rehearsal) from Swinging Madisons'' reunion, 1990
Speaking of AIDS, Joseph Fleury''s condition in that regard was what drew us all together to re-form various bands to do a benefit for his medical costs in 1990. The Swinging Madisons had been broken up for some 4-5 years, a hastily re-formed version of Mumps (Lance Loud, me, and Paul Rutner, with Robert Mache & Ron Gomez from the Swinging Madisons) also played after 10 years broken up, Bleaker Street Incident, Phranc Folksinger, Redd Kross, and what I think may have been the first public performance of Kid Congo Powers & Sally Norvell as a duo called ''Congo Norvell.'' We all drew together for Joseph, who had been Mumps'', the Swinging Madisons'', and Sparks'' manager - what a tangled web we weave! It was a fantastic sold out show (see a few pictures from this show at the Swinging Madisons pictures page), but tragically, Joseph died about a year later. Horrific.

A track from Kristian Hoffman''s first solo demo - 1977
Our then manager Joseph Fleury thought I should have a solo career concurrent with the Mumps, or write songs for other people. All I can say is I listen to these wildly unwieldy compositions and I know a song is trying to emerge, but whether it did or not is another question entirely. What were we thinking? I was in a strange Sparks- and Kinks-damaged cul de sac, and that coupled with my absolute first recorded vocals - scary!!! - kept this in that crowded, dusty closet till now. The sound quality is so bad, and my performance so questionable - although I love the song ''Could This Be Art'' and it did become a Mumps concert staple. - KH

David Bowie:"I also met in New York with one of the fan club members, Joseph Fleury. Joseph was following my lead and had formed a fan club for a great band called "Sparks" (formerly "Halfnelson"). Their first album was produced by another musician I admire, Todd Rundgren. I bring this up because eventually, Joseph went on to become Spark''s manager. Nice to see a fan come full circle!"

Joseph Fleury, one of Sparks'' earliest fans ever, who later ran the British Fan Club and even became their personal manager for a few years, described the demo album as follows:

"The Halfnelson demo LP consisted of twelve tracks, all very interesting, if a bit dated. Russell played bass on many of the tracks, as Oswald joined in later on in the recordings, while Ron</A>''s use of organ as a key instrument was much more prominent. After this, Oswald and Mendelsohn were kicked out of the band."

Oswald and Mendelsohn later formed a band called Christopher Milk and I still have an EP with four songs by John Mendelsohn</A>''s The Pitt, which sounds, in retrospect very much like the original Halfnelson demo.

Rumour is, that about one hundred copies of the demo were hand pressed onto vinyl (financed by the band) and the album was sent out to record companies. None of them reacted positively.

Ron Mael about this: "We still thought that what we were doing at the time was really regular stuff. It wasn''t until we sent it out that we discovered we''d been deceiving ourselves."

Joseph Fleury: "The album turned up on bootleg some time later, called "California Folk Songs" and it was really psychodelic. Tomorrow meets Syd Barret meets Frank Zappa."

Kristian Hoffman :"We were the pick to click, and with former Mumps manager Joseph Fleury at the helm, we moved to California to record with Earle Mankey, eat at El Coyote, and plant our pointy-toed shoe print firmly in the sidewalk of rock history. We were now opening major concerts for Sparks, the Cramps, the Go-Gos, and Madness, in addition to our bicoastal headlining club tours". - http://www.kristianhoffman.com/swinging-madisons-history.htm

The Dickies
For a brief period of time between 1977 and 1978, both the Dickies and Mumps were the hottest thing going on in LA punk.
Led by singers unafraid to be completely stupid, both bands were about as out there and unhinged as you could get while retaining a touch of pop sensibility and cleverness to their furious-paced songs.

Many of us believed that when the Dickies got the major label deal (on A&M) that it should have been the Mumps. On the other hand... why NOT the Dickies? They were an entertainment machine and worked hard, played hard and put LA punk on the very mainstream radar, along with bands like X, who got signed to Elektra.

The Dickies always attended all the Tropicana parties, the Famous Lobotomy Apartment parties, the Canterbury parties and hung out with everyone at Duke''s.

Above is Leonard in Duke''s and behind him in profile is former Mumps and Sparks manager, Joseph Fleury. Joseph and his business partner, John Hewlett managed the Dickies for a while as well.

Sadly, both Joseph and the original Duke''s location are both gone...but neither is forgotten. Joseph was a sad casualty to AIDS, and Duke''s at the Tropicana, and the Trop itself were sad casualties to West Hollywood gentrification.

Yeah - Duke''s still operates. On the Sunset Strip, next door to the Whisky. And the Whisky is a shadow of its former self, a pay-to-play venue these days.

But in those halcyon LA punk rock days of the 70s, as Rodney likes to say, "It was all happening" there.

Kristian Hoffman first met Lance Loud in Mr. BakerТs art class at Santa Barbara High School. Lance was pinning dead avocado leaves to the neck of a huge papier mache sculpture of a dodo bird. This vision set the tenor for many of their subsequent adventures together.

Even though they recorded a pre-release version of the Rolling Stones playing УBrown SugarФ at Altamont, and claimed authorship of that revered composition until УSticky FingersФ was released, LanceТs and KristianТs shared obsessions for the Velvets, the Stooges, The
Kinks, Sparks and the Small Faces might never have led to forming a УrealФ band had they not run away to New York City as teenagers and witnessed the explosive birth of the New York Dolls. This was all the encouragement they needed.

It wasnТt enough for Kristian to just design the famous УBendover GirlФ insert for the DollТs first album - Kristian and Lance HAD to form a band. So conscripting S.B.High School alumnus Jay Dee Daugherty, along with shy Vermont transplant Aaron Kiely and D.C. guitar god Rob DuPrey, the Mumps were born.

Mumps rehearsed, wrote a set of crazily varied glam pop kitsch ditties, and opened for Cherry Vanilla at Trude Hellers for their live debut to a crowd that included David Bowie and Tomata DuPlenty.

But it wasnТt until their friend Richard Hell dragged them down to the Bowery to the then unknown club named CBGBS, that Mumps found their spiritual home where they could grow and blossom into one of the most popular and revered acts of the late 70Тs NYC punk movement.

Jay Dee Daugherty was famously seduced away by Patti Smith amid tears and recriminations, and Aaron Kiely returned to Vermont. But the new Mumps with heartthrob Kevin Kiely on bass and rock solid Paul Rutner on drums emerged more powerful than ever.

Mumps found their real voice with critically lauded compositions like УCrocodile tearsФ and УAnyone But YouФ.

Mumps combined LanceТs hyperkinetic energy and impromptu witty asides with dayglo thriftstore/pimp finery, a methedrine rush of crazed leaping, falling and posing, a catalog of bitingly sarcastic yet hummable originals, and a scorching rock assault that belied the preciousness of their Britpop forbears to make their shows inimitable blasts of barely contained musical chaos.

Regular weekends at CBGBS and MaxТs opening for Television, Blondie, the Ramones, and other popular art rock congregations of the time like Isis and Orchestra Luna, plus incessant east coast touring, led to ever increasing popularity and soon they were headliners.

Malcom McLaren told Mumps УBesides Richard Hell, you are the ONLY interesting band in N.Y.!Ф and returned to London to retrofit Mr. HellТs look and attitude and a dash of the Mumps crazed panache onto the still glam boogie Sex Pistols. John Cale wanted to produce УBefore the AccidentФ, but Mumps vetoed the early Sparks-flavored composition in favor of going to California to record УCrocodile Tears.Ф

As the first NYC УpunkФ band to play Los Angeles, Mumps were welcomed with open arms (and beds!) by all of the L.A.undergroundТs congnescenti and nascent punks-in-waiting: the Screamers, the Germs, the Zeros, and future members of the Go-Gos, the Bags, the Dickies, and the Gun Club. The Mumps unquestionably inspired a legion of aspiring L.A. musicians to take their rock dreams more seriously and get out there to DIY. Playing with the Dead Boys, the Quick, Devo, Cheap Trick, and Van Halen(!) quickly brought Mumps the kind of screaming adulation they also received in Philadelphia, Boston, San Franciso, and Washington D.C.

The rapid release of Mumps first single УCrocodile TearsФ produced by the saint of L.A. Pop Earle Mankey led to nationwide underground radio play, and rave reviews in England and France.

With John Hewlett (of 60Тs brit outrage-mongers УJohnТs ChildrenФ) and Joseph Fleury (who also managed Sparks) as managers it seemed the juggernaut was unstoppable.

But somehow, as nearly all of Mumps contemporaries went on to label deals and internationally released albums, the Mumps remained curiously unsigned. Was it LanceТs flamboyantly outrageous open sexuality? Was it that the Mumps were too УpopФ in a market increasingly geared to punk-by-numbers? Was it that the Mumps were perceived as cashing in on LanceТs notoriety from the controversial PBS documentary УAn American FamilyФ? Was it that MumpsТ live shows could be inspiringly energetic, but of maddeningly inconsistent technical prowess?

It mystifies and rankles to this day that Mumps were never given a chance to give their best compositions the studio treatment afforded even the most marginal NYC outfits like the Tuff Darts. But at the time it just caused Mumps to turn inward and blame eachother. Your first band is like your family - and you fight and blame the way brothers do - not like УprofessionalФ musicians. So even though Mumps returned to New York to a second wave of adulation even greater than the first - the first audience of artists and musicians and East Village bohemians had given way to genuine hordes of screaming salivating panty-throwing teenage girls, as documented in so many articles of the time - Mumps became disillusioned with their lot and doubtful about their future.

After a self released second single, УRock and Roll This, Rock and Roll ThatФФ received wide critical praise and admirable sales, but still failed to inspire a label to sign them, Mumps agreed that if a scheduled demo session for Sire records failed, they would call it quits. Without the manifesto statement of an album to back them up, and help them position themselves alongside their contemporaries as artists to be reckoned with, Mumps felt the battle was no longer worth it.

Seymour Stein, for reasons unknown (although Lance insisted at the time a single unperformed blow job was to blame), passed on a demo of songs that inspired such teen tribal rioting at our live shows that even Mumps themselves were alittle scared.

Of course the two hours in SireТs basement with a studio hack did not quite capture the voodoo that made the girls go wild, but wasnТt it the labelТs duty to see beyond that? But they didnТt - and so, unceremoniously, Mumps passed into history.

But with the explosion of the internet and the 1995 release of the УFatal CharmФ compilation, it was apparent that a whole new generation of pop/punk aficianados were ready to lap up what the major labels had denied them - and now weТre ready to prove once more that Mumps can still make you Scream - and Scream Again!





0fficial site - http://www.mumpsmusic.com/
http://kristianhoffman.com/
http://www.thestivs.com/Pop/New_Wave/album_MUMPS_Fatal_Charm.html

John Hewlett discography - http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:John%20Hewlett:1927069237:page=discography

punk scene -http://punkturns30.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_archive.html

70s, Punk scene
Hristian Hiffman
The Ultimate Sparks Collection
Mumps web site
Mumps