First of all, let me say that this is a work in progress as there is so much to add. So bear with me and check back regularly as I'm constantly adding to this blog. (Last revision 1/21/2019)
Before it became my punk rock mecca in 1980 and 1981, the Starwood was a fashionable club in the 60's known as PJ's and it catered to the stars of the Hollywood television and film industry at the time. During the early and mid 70's, it transformed into one of the leading rock clubs in Los Angeles when it was renamed the "Starwood". It was located at 8151 Santa Monica Blvd and sat on the corner of Crescent Heights where there is currently a strip mall type deli.
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| Looking at the Starwood from the corner of Santa Monica Blvd and Crescent Heights |
For the two years leading up to its closure, the Starwood stuck to its mainstream acts on the weekends but they needed to fill the slower, mid-week slots with something else. Owner, Eddie Nash, allowed his staff to fill these nights with punk rock and new wave performers. My friends and I always searched through the Calendar Section of the L.A. Times for the Starwood advertisement with all of the upcoming shows.
I was able to collect a number of the advertisements, and I have added the relative flyers and tickets that were distributed back then by both the club and bands performing there. Many of these images are mine, but there are other tickets, flyers and photos that I have added from other contributors to create a comprehensive chronological collection to give the reader a true idea of what was going on at that time.
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| Jan 9, 1980: The Last and The Go-Go's |
This show would have been listed in the first Starwood ad of the year in the Sunday Calendar section of the LA Times dated January 6, 1980 (not pictured here). Although their ads ran every Sunday in the Calendar section, the Starwood listed all their shows for a full month as of the date of the ad and so we would see many of the dates and shows every week leading up to the show.
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Sunday, January 13, 1980
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| Jan 13 - Feb 9, 1980: Starwood Ad |
This ad was found in the Sunday, January 13, 1980 Calendar section of the LA Times.
The Plugz and the Gears played together on January 15th.
The Textones featuring Kathy Valentine (pre Go-Go's) performed on the 16th with Mick Smiley. The Textones had only been together for about a year but were gaining notoriety.
The Plimsouls performed on January 21st with the Great Buildings. They had been together for nearly two years by this time and were working on releasing and EP with what would become their hit single, "Zero Hour". The Great Buildings was made up of a few members of the band "The Quick". They were friends with members of the band, The Dickies and actually steered a few of the band members toward the Dickies including frontman Leonard Graves Phillips. Without the band the Great Buildings, the Dickies may never have existed.
It's also interesting to note that KROQ-FM DJ, Rodney Bingenheimer (Rodney On The ROQ), was spinning records there at the Starwood every Tuesday and Wednesday and continued to do so until the club closed in 1981.
Some of the bands that played during the dates of the Starwood ad but were not shown in the ad had flyers and tickets for their shows there...
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| The Twisters and Tripper ticket (this show appears in the Starwood Ad) |
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Sunday, February 3, 1980
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| Feb 3 - Mar 1, 1980: Starwood Ad |
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| Feb 7, 1980: Alternate "Weekly" Ad |
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| The Alley Cats, Sue Saad and The Next (Not in the Starwood Ad) |
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| Feb 12, 1980: The Go-Go's promo for the show |
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Unfortunately,
I don't have any Starwood ads for the latter part of February and
nearly the entire month of March, 1980. The following tickets and flyers
represent some of the shows that happened during this time period at
the Starwood.
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| Feb 26, 1980: Starwood Ticket for The Last and The Gears show |
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| Feb 26, 1980: The Gears version of the flyer |
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| Feb 26, 1980: The Last version of the flyer |
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| Mar 4, 1980: The Bags and Alleycats flyer |
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| Mar 10: 1980: The Twisters and Kingbees Newspaper Ad |
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Sunday, March 30, 1980
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| Mar 30 - Apr 26, 1980: Starwood Ad |
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| Apr 9, 1980: The Gears version of the flyer |
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| Apr 9, 1980: The Weirdos version of the flyer |
At the time of their show at the Starwood on April 9th, the Weirdos had an EP and a few singles out including the hit "We've Got The Neutron Bomb". The Weirdos were already veterans of the LA music scene starting out in 1976 and would break up a year after this show. Playing with them were the Gears from Huntington Beach. The Gears had already recorded a number of demos in 1979 and released their album "Rockin' at Ground Zero" right around the time of this show in 1980.
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| Apr 15 & 16, 1980: Starwood Ticket for The Pop and Alley Cats show |
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Sunday, April 20, 1980
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| Apr 20 - May 21, 1980: Starwood Ad |
On Tuesday, April 22nd, The Robert Stoddard Band played with the Textones. Textones founder and guitarist, Kathy Valentine, had moved from Austin, Texas to Los Angeles in late 1978 where she formed the band. While in the Textones and during the time period of this performance, she had written two songs, "Vacation" and "Can't Stop the World" which she would take with her when she joined the Go-Go's eight months later in December, 1980. Her first show with the Go-Go's was New Years Eve, 1980 at the Whisky.
The Bags and FEAR played together on Wednesday night, April 23rd.
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| Apr 23, 1980: Starwood Ticket for The Bags and FEAR show |
Bates Motel performed on April 28th and was made up of members who would later be part of the band Sparks as well as the band Gleaming Spires who had a hit the next year in 1981 called "Are You Ready For The Sex Girls". Also performing that night on April 28th was a band from Richmond, Virginia called "Single Bullet Theory" who had released a self titled record a few years before in 1977.
X and The Last played two consecutive nights on April 29th & 30th.
Phil Seymour was a multi talented musician who's primary instrument was the drums. He played with many bands who are seen scattered throughout these Starwood ads including the Textones and 20/20 who performed with him two nights, May 2nd and 3rd. He had even performed with Tom Petty at the time.
The Plimsouls were becoming increasingly more popular and were favorites at the Starwood back then.
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| May 7, 1980: Starwood Ticket for The Kingbees and The Blasters show |
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Sunday, May 18, 1980
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| May 18 - Jun 14, 1980: Starwood Ad |
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| May 20 & 21, 1980: Starwood Ticket for Gang of Four and Plugz show |
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| May 20 & 21, 1980: Plugz version of the flyer |
On May 27th, The Bags and the Crowd played. It was around this time that Penelope Spheeris filmed the Bags for her first feature film, the Decline of Western Civilization. They had one single out at the time called "Survive". The Crowd was a Huntington Beach band who had been featured on the compilation album "Beach Blvd." that was released in 1979.
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| May 27, 1980: Starwood Ticket for the Bags and Crowd show |
Joy Division was supposed to play on Monday, June 9th as a part of their American tour. But on the date of this ad, May 18th, lead singer, Ian Curtis took his own life the day before the band was supposed to leave for America, and as a result, the band did not tour and did not play this show.
On June 10th and 11th, the Alley Cats played.
Also, interesting to note that Quiet Riot and Dokken were playing there as "The People's Choice"... Funny!
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Sunday, June 1, 1980
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| Jun 1 - Jul 9, 1980: Starwood Ad |
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| Starwood Calendar for the Month of June, 1980 |
The next night on June 4th, Bates Motel (Gleaming Spires) performed with opening band Allnight.
On June 6th & 7th Phil Seymour and the band 707 played both nights. It was just about this time that 707 released their first record which contained the hit "I Could Be Good For You".
Interesting to note that since Joy Division cancelled their U.S. tour and hence their show at the Starwood on June 9th, this ad shows that the Starwood filled the date with the Textones and Dyan Diamond.
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| Jun 10 & 11, 1980: Starwood Ticket for the Alley Cats, Wall of Voodoo, and The Offs show |
Geza X and the Mommymen opened for Fear on June 17th. (more about this show in the next section)
On June 24th Wayne County of Wayne County and the Electric Chairs performed. (more about this show in the next section)
The Go-Go's played on July 8th and 9th.
Also interesting to note that the Plimsouls played the Starwood quite often.
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Sunday, June 15, 1980
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| Jun 15 - Jul 5, 1980: Starwood Ad |
Geza X and the Mommymen opened for Fear on June 17th. Geza X produced records for many punk bands at this time including the Dead Kennedys, the Germs, Black Flag, the Avengers and the Weirdos. Fear had one single out at this time "I Love Livin' In The City" that was released in 1977. It was also just a little bit before this time that Penelope Spheeris met the band while they were handing out flyers and she asked them if they wanted to be in her movie "Decline of Western Civilization". Filming of Fear for the movie happened right around this time.
On June 24th, self-proclaimed transgender, Wayne County, of Wayne County and the Electric Chairs performed. Wayne County had been performing since 1976 and although the band was from the United States, they were actually more popular in England and Europe. They had a number of albums and singles out by the time they played the Starwood, and they had even appeared in the Don Letts film, "The Punk Rock Movie". Interesting to note that Wayne had recently changed his name to "Jayne County" and had either made that change since the previous ad on June 1st or had clarified it with Starwood booking to make sure that they got his name right before the performance.
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| Jun 25, 1980: Flyer for the Falcons |
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Unfortunately, I don't have all the Starwood ads for the two month period of July and August of 1980. The following tickets and flyers represent some of the shows that happened during this time period at the Starwood.
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| Jul 29, 1980: Ad in Newspaper for FEAR |
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| Jul 29, 1980: The Crowd's flyer for the show with Fear |
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| Jul 30, 1980: The Gears backstage at the Starwood |
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| Aug 4, 1980: Flyer for The Twisters and Beachy & The Beachnuts |
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| Aug 5, 1980: Starwood Ticket Wall of Voodoo and Human Hands show |
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Sunday, August 17, 1980
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| Aug 17 - Sep 6, 1980: Starwood Ad |
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| Aug 31, 1980: Black Randy promo card |
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| Aug 19, 1980: Starwood Ticket The Gears and Suburban Lawns Ticket |
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| Sep 5,6, 1980: Flyer for the Rubber City Rebels |
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Sunday, September 7, 1980
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| Sep 7 - Oct 18, 1980: Starwood Ad |
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| Sep 9, 1980: Ticket for Wall of Voodoo and BPeople show |
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| Sep 9 1980: Flyer for Wall of Voodoo and BPeople |
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| Sep 10, 1980: Flyer for Human Hands and The Last |
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| Sep 17, 1980: Flyer for The Crowd and The Weirdos at the Starwood and others |
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Sunday, September 28, 1980
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| Sep 28 - Nov 8, 1980: Starwood Ad |
Darby Crash of the Germs was doing his solo thing and played with the Chiefs on October 1st. This was one of only a few shows that Darby did as "The Darby Crash Band". Pat Smear of the Germs and Lucky Lehrer of the Circle Jerks played in this line up. This show was just a little over two months before he died on December 7th, 1980.
October 7th the Human Hands and Geza X performed together.
The Go-Go's and the Plimsouls are found again on this ad.
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| Oct 7, 1980: Flyer for Human Hands and Geza X |
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| Oct 14, 1980: Adolescents Guest List (submitted by Eddie Subtitle) |
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| Oct 14, 1980: Ticket for The Crowd and Adolescents show |
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| Oct 21, 1980: Flyer for The Gears and The Mentors |
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| Nov 4, 1980: Flyer for Alley Cats with the Circle Jerks and Middle Class |
Sunday, November 9, 1980
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| Nov 9 - Dec 31, 1980: Starwood Ad |
The next night, November 12th, the Suburban Lawns played. Their single "Gidget Goes To Hell" had been out for a year before this show.
The next week on November 18th Black Flag headlined a show with Eddie & The Subtitles and the Minutemen. From a flyer perspective, this is an interesting show for Black Flag. Greg Ginn's brother Raymond Pettibon had created the bulk of the artwork for Black Flag's flyers and record covers. In 1980, he had developed the new 4 bar Black Flag logo and their trademark font for their name. They had just released and distributed all of their records from the 2nd press of Nervous Breakdown and that particular pressing with the light blue ink and large artwork on the back was the very first item released by the band that had the new logo and font. For more information on the Nervous Breakdown EP Pressings and Versions click here: Nervous Breakdown EP. Black Flag's second record "Jealous Again" had also just been released and SST was eager to promote it and created their own version of the flyer (the 4th). The four Black Flag flyers below show two different versions of the Black Flag font as well as the new 4 bar logo. Although there are other flyers with the new font and logo for other venues previous to this date, this would be one of the last times that a flyer was made by Ray Pettibon without the new logo.
November 19th, The Mutants and The Offs played. Both bands were from San Francisco and had been featured on the album "Can You Hear Me? Music From The Deaf Club" that had just been released earlier in the year and featured live music from a number of San Francisco bands. The Dead Kennedys also appeared on the album performing Police Truck and a few other songs.
Other bands listed on this ad include The Blasters, X, D.O.A. and the Surf Punks. Oh Yeah... and we can't forget "the people's choice"... Quiet Riot!
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| Nov 11, 1980: Ticket for FEAR, the Screws and 45 Grave |
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| Nov 11 1980: Flyer for FEAR and the Screws |
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| Nov 11 1980: Flyer for 45 Grave, FEAR and the Screws |
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Sunday, November 16, 1980
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| Nov 16 - Dec 31, 1980: Starwood Ad |
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| Nov 18 1980: Pettibon Flyer #1 for Black Flag, Eddie and the Subtitles and The Minutemen |
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| Nov 18 1980: Pettibon Flyer #2 for Black Flag, Eddie and the Subtitles and The Minutemen |
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| Nov 18 1980: Pettibon Flyer #3 for Black Flag, Eddie and the Subtitles and The Minutemen |
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| Nov 18, 1980: Black Flag on Stage at the Starwood |
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| Nov 18, 1980: The Minutemen at the Starwood |
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| Nov 18 1980: Pettibon Flyer #4 for Black Flag, Eddie and the Subtitles and The Minutemen |
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| Nov 18 1980: SST Flyer promoting the new record at the show |
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| Nov 25 1980: Flyer for The Plugz |
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| Nov 18-19, 1980: Ticket for Black Flag, Eddie & the Subtitles, The Minutemen, The Mutants and The Offs |
Sunday, November 30, 1980
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| Nov 30 - Dec 31, 1980: Starwood Ad |
December 2nd, The Gears, The Crowd and Mad Society played. The Gears and the Crowd were from the southern California beach areas and Mad Society was a band made up of kids all under 12 or 13 years of age. They were only together for 11 months so, seeing them here in this Starwood ad is a rarity.
The infamous last Germs show happened at the Starwood on December 3rd, 1980. Darby Crash killed himself with a drug overdose four days later on December 7th. Middle Class and the Screws were the opening acts. Middle Class is considered by some to be the first "hardcore" punk band to come out of California as their "Out of Vogue" EP was out in 1978 before Black Flag had officially released their Nervous Breakdown EP in early 1979. See the history of Black Flag's Nervous Breakdown EP here:
http://blackflagnervousbreakdown.blogspot.com/2014/05/black-flag-nervous-breakdown-early.html
On December 9th, Fear and the Circle Jerks played with the Adolescents opening. The Circle Jerks had only been together for a year and had their album "Group Sex" out for about the same amount of time. By the time the band did the show on this date, they had just signed a contract with I.R.S. Records to do the album "Wild In The Streets" which was released in 1982. The Adolescents had been together for less than a year and had their single "Amoeba" out which was getting airplay on KROQ. Their self titled "blue" album had not been recorded and released yet and wouldn't be until the following year.
The Dickies played with the Great Buildings on December 23rd. This was the first punk show I ever went to. The Dickies had already been playing for about three years and had already released two albums an EP and about nine singles. The band was in true form with its original line up of band members including Chuck Wagon who would die from suicide six months later. The Great Buildings was created from members of The Quick who wrote the song "Pretty Please Me" which was later covered by both the Dickies and Red Cross. Original members of the Great Buildings went on to become the Rembrandts.
The Surf Punks, although not really punk, were also a fun band to see and they played New Years Eve.
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| Dec 2, 1980: Flyer for The Gears, Crowd and Mad Society |
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| Dec 3, 1980: Flyer for The Germs final show |
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| Dec 3, 1980: Set List for the Germs final show |
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| Dec 3, 1980: The Germs on Stage and Darby's final performance |
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Sunday, December 7, 1980
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| Dec 7, 1980 - Jan 3, 1981: Starwood Ad |
This Starwood ad came out in the L.A. Times the same day that Darby Crash died... December 7, 1980. The Germs played their last show four days prior on December 3rd as can be seen on the previous ad.
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| Dec 9, 1980: Ticket for FEAR, Circle Jerks and Adolescents |
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| Dec 9, 1980: Flyer for Adolescents, Fear and Circle Jerks |
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| Dec 9, 1980: Flyer for FEAR, Circle Jerks and Adolesccents |
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| Dec 9, 1980: Circle Jerks on Stage at the Starwood |
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| Starwood Show is the last one shown on this flyer |
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Sunday, December 14, 1980
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| Dec 14, 1980 - Jan 17, 1981: Starwood Ad |
Black Flag played two nights and if it wasn't violent enough inside, each night the riot squad was there to clash with the punks after the shows.
The Plimsouls had just released their EP called "Zero Hour" which was getting regular airplay on KROQ in Los Angeles. They were a club favorite and played everywhere in the greater LA area including the Starwood.
20/20 was a locally popular power pop band from Hollywood. They played all the local clubs and even played at one of my high school dances in 1982...
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| Dec 16, 1980: Ticket for Eddie & The Subtitles, Mau Maus and Castration Squad |
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| Dec 16, 1980: Flyer for Castration Squad |
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Sunday, December 21, 1980
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| Dec 21, 1980 - Jan 31, 1981: Starwood Ad |
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| Dec 23, 1980: Ticket Stub for the Dickies and Great Buildings show |
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Sunday, December 28, 1980
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| Dec 28, 1980 - Jan 31, 1981: Starwood Ad |
When I was at the Dickies show the previous week on December 23rd, I was given a discount ticket for $1.95 to see the Blasters and Adapters on December 29th. It seemed that the Starwood was a little late in booking bands toward the end of December likely because of the Holidays and possibly because they were being threatened by the local authorities that they were going to be shut down because of problems with the local residents in the neighborhood and recent clashes with the police. I think they gave out discount tickets to the regulars who were attending shows in December to entice them to come and help the club hit "critical mass" during the nights leading up to New Year's Eve. I really think that the Starwood was afraid that there weren't going to be very many people showing up. I didn't end up making it to the Blasters show, but I still have the ticket. The Blasters' album "American Music" had just been released a little earlier in 1980 and they had started to become a local favorite and an early foundation for the second wave of Rockabilly. They played at the Starwood often in 1980 and 1981.
December 30, 1980 - Black Randy and the Metrosquad played with Human Hands and Speed Queen. Black Randy had a few singles out including "I Slept In An Arcade" which was released a little more than a year before this show date. The Metrosquad featured some revolving backup singers called the "Blackettes" and included frontwomen from other bands such as Exene Cervenka of X, Alice Bag of the Bags, Lorna Doom of the Germs as well as Belinda Carlisle and Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's.
Surf Punks played on New Year's Eve as written previously about the Starwood ad printed on Nov 30th.
Other notables shown on this Starwood ad are the Plimsouls, John Hiatt, 20/20, and Gary Myrick & the Figures.
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| Dec 29, 1980: Ticket for the Blasters and Adaptors Show |
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| Dec 30, 1980: Flyer for Black Randy and the Metro Squad, Human Hands and the Speed Queens |
Sunday, December 28, 1980
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| Jan 4 - Feb 7, 1981: Starwood Ad |
The page from BAM Magazine shown here illustrates the violence that impacted virtually every Black Flag performance regardless of where they played. Fists are flying in the "slam pit" in the center photo and in the bottom photo you can see Tony Cadena, lead singer for the Adolescents on stage overlooking the melee below him in the crowd. The punk who is seen crowd surfing just after a stage dive is Myke Bates, a founding member, guitarist, and songwriter for Uniform Choice which was formed a little more than a year after this photo. The writer responsible for the article in BAM Magazine, Mitchell Schneider, was very unimpressed with all the young Huntington Beach punks, referred to as "HB's" by Henry Rollins in his book, Get In The Van". They were like piranhas... after one of them took a bite, all the others followed the scent of blood and swarmed whoever was at the receiving end not even knowing who the person was or why he was receiving the ass kicking.
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| Jan 6 & 7, 1981: White Flyer for Black Flag, Middle Class, Social D., the Adolescents and China White |
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| Jan 6 & 7, 1981: Pink Flyer for Black Flag, Middle Class, Social D., the Adolescents and China White |
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| Jan 6, 1981: Flyer for Black Flag, Social Distortion and the Descendents (no Middle Class) |
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| Jan 6, 1981: Social D's Flyer for Black Flag, Social Distortion and Middle Class (no Descendents) |
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| Jan 6, 1981: Starwood Marquee |
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| Jan 6, 1981: Black Flag on Stage at the Starwood |
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| Jan 7, 1981: Dez of Black Flag |
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| Jan 30, 1981: BAM Magazine Article about Black Flag show on Jan 6th |
Sunday, January 11, 1981
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| Jan 13, 1981: Ticket for Suburban Lawns (courtesy Christy Pulliam) |
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| Jan 14, 1981: Flyer for The Toasters |
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Sunday, January 18, 1981
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| Jan 18 - Mar 4, 1981: Starwood Ad |
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| Jan 20, 1981: Ticket forAlley Cats, The Gears and Gun Club |
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| Jan 20 & 21, 1981: Ticket for two nights |
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| Jan 20, 1981: Flyer for Gun Club |
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| Jan 20, 1981: Flyer for Gun Club |
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| Jan 20, 1981: Flyer for Alley Cats, the Gears and Gun Club |
Sunday, January 25, 1981
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| Jan 25 - Mar 7, 1981: Starwood Ad |
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| Jan 27, 1981: Ticket for the Circle Jerks, Crowd and Mad Society Show |
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| Jan 27, 1981: Flyer for Circle Jerks, The Crowd and Mad Society |
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| Jan 27, 1981: Flyer for Circle Jerks, The Crowd and Mad Society |
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| Jan 27, 1981: Flyer for Circle Jerks, The Crowd and Mad Society |
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| Jan 27, 1981: Mad Society's Flyer for Circle Jerks, The Crowd and Mad Society |
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| Jan 27, 1981: Circle Jerks on Stage at the Starwood |
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| Feb 3, 1981: Ticket for The Weirdos, Middle Class and Agent Orange show |
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| Feb 3, 1981: Flyer for The Weirdos |
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Forming in 1975, the Weirdos were one of the first firmly established
punk bands in Los Angeles. They had already released two EPs and two
Singles one of which was the timeless classic punk staple, "We've Got
The Neutron Bomb". They went on to record a number of other records before they disbanded later
in 1981.
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Sunday, February 8, 1981
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| Feb 10, 1981: Ticket for The Adolescents, Eddie & The Subtitles and 45 Grave show |
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| 1981: Tony Cadena and Casey Royer of Adolescents on stage |
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| Feb 17, 1981: Flyer for FEAR, China White and the Chiefs show |
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| Feb 17, 1981: Ticket for FEAR, China White and the Chiefs |
Sunday, February 22, 1981
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| Feb 22 - Mar 28, 1981: Starwood Ad |
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| Feb 23, 1981: Ticket for Human Sexual Response and BPeople |
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Sunday, March 1, 1981
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| Mar 1 - Apr 11, 1981: Starwood Ad |
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| March 4, 1981 - Memo to Starwood Patrons handed out at Wall of Voodoo show (image courtesy Michael Colacion) |
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Sunday, March 8, 1981
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| Mar 8 - Apr 25, 1981: Starwood Ad |
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| Mar 10, 1981: Flyer for the Circle Jerks, Crowd and Mad Society show |
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| Mar 12, 1981: Guest List for the band "X" |
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Sunday, March 15, 1981
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| Mar 15 - Apr 25, 1981: Starwood Ad |
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| Mar 17, 1981: Flyer for Weirdos, Middle Class, and Agent Orange show |
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| Mar 17, 1981: Agent Orange's flyer for Weirdos, Middle Class and Agent Orange show |
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Sunday, March 22, 1981
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| Mar 22 - Apr 20, 1981: Starwood Ad |
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| Mar 24, 1981: Adolescents flyer for the Adolsescents, 45 Grave and Gun Club show |
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| Mar 27-28, 1981: Boxboys flyer for their show with Gary Myrick & The Figures |
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Sunday, March 29, 1981
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| Mar 29 - Apr 20, 1981: Starwood Ad |
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| Mar 31, 1981: Flyer for FEAR, China White and the Chiefs show |
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| Mar 31, 1981: Flyer for FEAR, China White and Chiefs show |
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| April 1981: Starwood Calendar |
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Sunday, April 5, 1981
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| Apr 5 - May 2, 1981: Starwood Ad |
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| Apr 7, 1981: Flyer for D.O.A. and the Crowd show, |
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| Apr 7, 1981: D.O.A. on stage at the Starwood |
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| Apr 21, 1981: Flyer for the Circle Jerks and T.S.O.L show |
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| Apr 24-25, 1981: Flyer for Motley Crue show |
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| Apr 24, 1981: Motley Crue on stage at the Starwood |
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Sunday, Apr 26, 1981
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| Apr 26 - Jun 6, 1981: Starwood Ad |
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Sunday, May 3, 1981
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| May 3 - Jun 6, 1981: Starwood Ad |
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| May 5, 1981: Flyer for Weirdos show |
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Sunday, May 10, 1981
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| May 10 - Jun 6, 1981: Starwood Ad |
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| May 12, 1981: Agent Orange's flyer for Agent Orange, the Crowd and 45 Grave show |
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| May 12, 1981: Agent Orange's flyer for Agent Orange, the Crowd and 45 Grave show |
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Sunday, May 17, 1981
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| May 17 - Jun 20, 1981: Starwood Ad |
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| May 19, 1981: Flyer for Alice Bag Band, 100 Flowers and 45 China White show (Alternate Flyer) |
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| May 19, 1981: Flyer for Alice Bag Band, 100 Flowers and 45 China White show |
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| May 19, 1981: Police at the Starwood |
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| May 20, 1981: Flyer for BPeople, Human Hands, and Johanna Went show |
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| May 20, 1981:Starwood Ad |
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Sunday, May 24, 1981
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| May 24 - Jul 1, 1981: Starwood Ad |
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| May 25, 1981: Flyer for A La Carte and Motley Crue show |
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| Jun 1, 1981: The Starwood Marqee with all the bands coming in the month of June |
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| Jun 2, 1981: Circle Jerks on stage at the Starwood (photo: Brian Tucker) |
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Sunday, June 7, 1981
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| Jun 7 - Jul 18, 1981: Starwood Ad |
June 9th, Fear, The Chiefs and the Ozienares. The Decline of Western Civilization would be released less than a month later on July 1st where John Belushi from Saturday Night Live saw them and lobbied for the band to appear on the show on Halloween.
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| Jun 9, 1981: Flyer for FEAR show |
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| Jun 9, 1981: Flyer for FEAR, Chiefs and Oziehares show |
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| Jun 9, 1981: Flyer for FEAR, Chiefs and Oziehares show |
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Sunday, June 14, 1981
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| Jun 14 - Jul 18, 1981: Starwood Ad |
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| Jun 16, 1981: Flyer for China White, Mad Society and the Stains show |
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| Jun 16, 1981: Stains flyer for China White, Mad Society and the Stains show |
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| Jun 17, 1981: Kommunity F.K. flyer for Geza X, Kommunity F.K. and Wild Kingdom show |
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The Starwood closed down later the year in October, 1981 due to a number of challenges.
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| The old Starwood sign inside for the "Hot 100 Club" |
Content written by Hanson Meyer
Here are some links to other sites with information regarding the Starwood:
http://www.tvparty.com/homeroom1/10-20-81.html
http://gogonotes.blogspot.com/2008/11/starwood-1973-1982.html
The surf punks were one of the best and most crucial punk bands..if this page is still active email me an tell me why they seem underrated..joshthekook at gmail dot com
ReplyDeleteI agree that the Surf Punks were a great band. I bought their album "My Beach" when it came out back in 1980. I remember hearing them on KROQ in Los Angeles and thinking that they were funny and wore my record out.
DeleteAlthough they had the word "Punk" in their name, the band was not considered a punk band back then and never played shows with any of the LA or OC punk bands of that time... They did play some of the same venues such as the Starwood and Cuckoo's Nest, but they always played on nights considered "new wave" and not "punk". Besides, they had long hair and that was a No-No at any punk shows... I literally saw guys get their long hair torched with lighters at some shows.
The truth is that the Surf Punks appealed to a very small Pop demographic in and around the LA area with songs targeted towards Malibu Beach and Surfing and they were not commercial enough to make it nationally at the time. They were Malibu surfers who were also good musicians that probably got drunk one night and decided to write some funny songs and record them... thank god they did, because "My Beach" is still a favorite album of mine.
Hi! I love this blog! Thanks for posting so many great memories from the 80's; loved The Starwood!
ReplyDeleteThank You... I was a regular at the Starwood during this era, representing the South Bay and KXLU contingent. The Starwood epitimized the transition from disco/pop era to alternative music era for me. My senior year in High School we first went there, first just to meet girls at the disco, but quickly seduced by the Starwood music scene. Subsequently,attended many of the Starwoods Punk shows, and an occasional Metal show, such as the legendary ACDC demo show for their AM Records contract. Following local garage punk bands to Hollywood, and drinking and raising hell there was a rite of passage, and soon it came to a sudden theatrical end. Important how you cited band and performer evolutions because it illustrates what an innovative and fluid beginning for alternative music, and the quality of nearly all these bands were so good its a shame they all couldnt gain the national recognition they deserved.
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