About the Gun Club....
The Gun Club were a rock band from Los Angeles in the 1980s and 90s, led by the flamboyant singer, ex-rock critic and Blondie fan Jeffrey Lee Pierce. They were one of the first bands to blend punk with blues, country, and other American roots musics.
The band was formed by Pierce and Kid Congo Powers and initially called the Creeping Ritual. They went through several lineup changes before settling on "The Gun Club," a name suggested by Circle Jerks singer Keith Morris.
Kid Congo left before the first album to join The Cramps but would return for Las Vegas Story. Other notable members include bassist Rob Ritter and drummer Terry Graham, who had both previously been in The Bags. Rob left after the debut album to form 45 Grave, and changed his name to Rob Graves. Later, Patricia Morrison, then known as Pat Bag, one of the founders of The Bags, joined to play bass on two LPs Danse Kalinda Boom and Las Vegas Story before leaving to join The Sisters of Mercy and then The Damned.
Their first album, 1981's Fire of Love, is regarded as a classic by many rock critics. One critic has written that the "album's lyrical imagery is plundered from voodoo, '50's EC comics and the blues," 1 while another notes that "Nobody has heard music like this before or since."[1] Fire of Love sold well and arguably received the best reviews of any release from the band.
Along with The Cramps, X, Blasters, Tex and the Horseheads, Blood on the Saddle and other bands, they set much of the tone for the Hollywood rock scene in the 1980s.
In 1992, Pierce returned to his musical roots by recording an album of mostly pre-war blues songs with the British blues Guitarist Cypress Grove.
Pierce continued leading various incarnations of the Gun Club up until his untimely death in 1996, culminating in the brilliant last album, Lucky Jim.
Romi Mori and Nick Sanderson went on to found the band Freeheat, with ex-members of Jesus and Mary Chain Jim Reid and Ben Lurie, but are now defunct. They recently had a child together, Sydney.
Kid Congo continues to record and tour under various incarnations, the latest being Kid Congo and the Monkey Birds.
The Gun Club helped influence the so-called cowpunk or punk blues scene that developed in their wake and a wide variety of bands ranging from the Blasters, and Social Distortion in the 1980s to The White Stripes, 16 Horsepower, Flat Duo Jets, The Starvations and the Starlite Desperation today. And alot more.... their legacy continues.
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i need to get that dvd!!! jeffey lee Pierce was one of the guys who made me want to pick up a guitar and play! anyway, our fist album's just out, some songs are online check them outplease all the best Michel
The Gun Club was a powerful supernatural influence and inspiration for my 1980s horror punk/death rock band, Lurking Fear. Can't wait to see Ghost On The Highway documentary DVD!
I was fortunate enough to see the Gun Club live at Jeffrey Lee Pierce's intense, wild, wicked best (December 1982 at The Blue Note in Columbia, MO with hot, beautiful bass player Patricia Morrison looking like Vampira!) and his woe-is-me, wasted worst (August 1984 in Lawrence, KS).
The last time I saw the Gun Club was in 1989 in San Francisco on Haight Street. I met the band (including original lead guitarist Kid Congo Powers(!) at a record store and that night at the I Beam I saw Jeffrey Lee Pierce and the band put on an impressive, passionate, strong show.
Jeffrey Lee and everyone in the Gun Club deserved so much more than they received from an ignorant, indifferent music industry, the media, and the public. Jeffrey Lee's lyrics from "Sex Beat" summend it up best: "They're stupid like I told ya, They're stupid like ya saw, They're stupid as the simple thought of ever thinking at all..."
I hope the Gun Club knows that there are many of us out here lurking in the shadows, driving down dark highways, who have loved and appreciated the Gun Club and its music for many years! Jeffrey Lee, your short life was not in vain. You have touched so many souls and made a difference in countless lives. You are badly missed but well remembered. Ghost On The Highway, may you and your music continue to haunt us.
Craig Daniel Dalrymple, Lurking Fear Lead Vocalist
Yes, I would give you my love So my soul would not starve But it could never move the honest rock Of what you really are, You're a ghost on the highway! You're like straw and meaningless I hate you, but I love you! I'll carry that to the end...
Excerpt from the Gun Club song "Ghost On The Highway" from Fire of Love CD, originally released in 1981. Lyrics
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