Pagans

"I was playing in a band called Inner City during 1977.

We had a female singer, Pamela Moore, who went on to sing backup for Bob Seger and Meatloaf. On Mondays, (an off night from the band), I hosted a jam session at a club in downtown Willoughby, Ohio called Fottenbottens. A couple of the jammers would be Mike and Brian Hudson. Brian, at the age of 14, played drums for me which was his first gig and Mike would come and sing. My older sister, Judy, had been friends with Mike and Brian's aunt, who had lived on the street where I grew up (off of E. 185th).

Mike told me he was going to start a punk band called The Pagans, and that he was looking for a lead guitar player. At that time, (circa 1975), punk and new wave were new and the style seemed the same to me. I told him I would play guitar for him for a while to get his group going. I thought he had good ideas - he wrote well, and I was curious to see what this new music was all about.

Many have asked me how as a Christian I could have been in a band called the Pagans. Well first of all, I was in the Lost Souls and that band wasn't about losing your soul. The Lost Souls was a 1960's band that did originals and cover tunes by the Kinks, Beatles, etc. and had a fun time in high school. The Pagans was just a name to me. Also, that was a different time. If you look, for example, as to how Halloween has evolved into an actual Pagan feast while it seemed to us to be more about getting candy and dressing up like hobos or something silly. I wouldn't join a band called the Pagans today, because paganism has become an actual practice. Paganism could have been happening at that time but I wasn't aware of it. To me, the Pagans were always supposed to be a little bit funny in a good way sort of like the Ramones, anyway...at least that's how I saw it.

I was in the band for a year and a half and played with groups such as The Dead Boys, the Rubber City Rebels, Devo, Pierre Ubu, The Wild Giraffes and The Nerves. A few of the gigs stand out in my mind. The Pagans headlined at the Willowick Community Center and the Wild Giraffes opened for us. There were about 350 people there. The Wild Giraffes were an excellent original band with nice harmonies, good melodies and hooks; kind of a 60's retro, New Wave band. The teenage crowd danced and enjoyed the group. The Pagans came on to a packed house, and we played our usual numbers and after two songs cleared out the place. Everyone left after TWO SONGS! The Band was visibly upset, but because I had a couple of disastrous gigs with Milk, I wasn't nearly as upset.

Another great job was playing at the Mistake, a small club that was in the basement of Cleveland's legendary Agora. While we played downstairs, Devo and the Dead Boys played upstairs. After the gig, a few of the Dead Boys came and jammed with us. All in all, I enjoyed my time with the Pagans and I've been happy when I have seen their success. I also felt good having my song "Boy Can I Dance Good" on their albums.

I quit the band because of the extreme direction they were headed and I didn't feel comfortable with that. Within two days, they replaced me with Mike Medoff and kept going. In about two weeks, they had signed with Johnny Dromette, of Drome records, but it never would have worked with me in the band for the long run. Still, for the time I was with the group, it was a good experience. "

    Den