Well, at long last, a venue for a Busted Statues retrospective. The Boston band first appeared in 1983. The original members were Diane Bergamasco (bass), Bob L’Heureux (vocals), Michael Mooney (drums) and Bob Moses (guitar/vocals). All the members were friends, former girlfriends, photographers and Mission of Burma crew (deacons) and shared many musical inspirations, friends, and experiences with Burma.
After the final Burma shows, Busted Statues took Burma’s place in the rehearsal space shared with Human Sexual Response and Salem 66 below Little Stevie’s Pizza on Mass Ave. They followed the familiar Boston indie trail from recording at Radiobeat with Lou Giordano and Mick Miller (two of those early tracks ended up on future Matador Records founder Gerard Cosloy’s first record, Bands That Could Be God, on Radiobeat Records; to live shows and Mystery Girl madness on WBCN, WMBR, WZBC and WERS; college-radio tapes (including “Heart Upside Down,” which the compilation Let’s Breed included and noted was the summer hit of 1984); Chetstocks and no-pay Rat gigs and many nights at TT the Bears; sessions at Fort Apache South in 1988 (including “Red Clouds," the band’s only single); and an appearance at a WBCN rumble with full ensemble including Andrea Parkins on accordion, Chad Crumm from the Chicken Chokers on fiddle and Volcano Sun David Kleiler on lead guitar.
The version of “A Light in August” here was recorded by Steve Barry at Q Division in 1988. These recordings featured Brian Gillespie on drums, and were meant to form the first album. It was never released, and none of the tracks have appeared in any form. Chad Crumm plays fiddle, and Andrea Parkins (who later played with Bob in The Fire Eaters) plays accordion. This line-up played out several times as well.
“Red Clouds” was co-written with Burma’s Clint Conley (as was an unreleased song called “Sands,” also recorded at the Fort Apache sessions). David Kleiler plays guitar (note the wailing siren sounds), though the lead guitarist at the time, Corey Loog Brennan, is pictured on sleeve (go figure). The melody gets the treatment Clint no doubt intended on the first Consonant release in the song, “What a Body Could Do.”
The rendition of “Allure” here was recorded at a reunion in 1999 stimulated by an anniversary concert for WMBR's Pipeline at The Middle East in Cambridge. The show later featured Clint Conley playing guitar on “Red Clouds” along with Bob and David.
There are many Busted Statues songs missing. We released radio tapes that never appeared elsewhere, songs such as “Steep Lullaby” and an instrumental called “Bangkok.” (Anybody have these tapes? We would love to hear them – we think?)
Diane went on to thrill many as the bass player in Mindgrinder. Brian played and toured with Thrill Kill Cult and organized the massively percussive Concussion Ensemble. Bob L’Heureux took a turn toward country with The Almighty and folk-influenced rock with The Willows. Bob Moses next fronted The Fire Eaters, an eclectic ensemble that featured accordion, the Indian vina and jazz drumming, and then switched to bass to play with Peter Prescott in Kustomized, releasing three discs and various singles and compilations on Matador Records (see Trouser Press Guide to ’90s Rock (Ira Robbins; Simon & Schuster/Fireside), and Rolling Stone, July, 1995.
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