It all started with an idea and an eMail.

A long while back I started posting my Clash photos from the various shows I had attended over the years 1980-1982. My photos of the Clash @ The Palladium NYC 1980, the Clash @ Bonds NYC 1981, and the Clash @ Asbury Park Convention Hall 1982. When I was taking photographs I was more a fan with a camera. I wasn’t officially there as a journalist, but I have always been a documenter. A photograph by nature is a documentation of an event in time. Being a college student back then, if I had the money to spend on film and developing, or at least for the film, I would certainly take my camera to every show I went to. “In those day” (god did I just say that?) anyone could bring a camera into a venue and take photographs. Not so much now unless you’re press, or are sporting a camera phone or small digital number. But back then it was all allowed. No problem. So I have lots of “documentation” of bands I saw through the years. The Clash being one of them.

On March 7, 2009 3:45:30 PM PST I got a very interesting eMail from a gentleman named Daniel Garcia. It was a brief, yet rather interesting eMail, to say the least. Continue Reading > > >

“In the beginning the gods created the Pony (or the Poney to some) … they saw it was good. Maker and breaker of many a hopeful lot. Time passed and many a legend was born and sent out into the world to make good. Some did. Some didn’t. But time is a funny thing …. ha! Just when you expect just another R&B clone, fate deals you a joker. Enter … “The Human Element.” Why the Pony? And why such a place for their very first gig? These and many other questions can only be answered … in time!”

First entry in The Human Element scrapbook … Joe Streno 1986

Post Updated: 06/07/2009 added photo of The Human Element T-shirts.

Continue Reading > > >

This is a public service announcement.
With guitar …
You have the right to free
Speech as long as you’re not
Dumb enough to actually try it …

Strummer/Jones

Updated 6/2/2011: Twelve “lost” photos added to live and party photos.

In 1982 while most of the first-gen punk bands withered on the vine and died, The Clash were starting a world tour behind their fifth album “Combat Rock”. As a long time Clash fan … it’s not one of my faves. But it’s certainly not their worst. It did yield some hits with “Rock The Casbah” and “Should I Stay Or Should I Go?” Like it’s predecessor “Sandinist” it was another verba-sonic experiment in the Clash recording laboratories. Both albums at least yielded a few nuggets. And now they were ready to play it all live. Continue Reading > > >

Okay. Since I started writing about Gary and The Junior Smoots band. I’ve been getting mondo hits on my blog. One of those hits was from Kenny Douyotas (Junior Smoots band drummer) himself. He left a comment.

Wow, I can’t believe I found this, why no pictures of me? The drummer never gets any respect…..

Oh Kenny … we all respect you.  I eMailed him back and he sent me his phone number. So we chatted and played catch-up. One of the things he told me was he had a mix-down of the three songs that Smoots recorded in the studio. Plus he had some other tunes from a sound check, taped direct from the soundboard. The studio tunes he had already digitized, and the other tape he still had to digitize. Continue Reading > > >

UPDATE: Junior Smoots @ The Fast Lane … NOT Junior Smoots @ The Harbor Inn … D’oh! Thanks to Bruce St. Laurent (Smoots Sound guy) for pointing out what should have been obvious to me.
These are live shots I took of Junior Smoots And The Disturbers at the Harbor Inn in Brielle, NJ Fast Lane, Asbury Park, NJ. The photos were taken one night in August of 1982. I would imagine it was the Harbor Inn. If anyone knows differently leave a comment below. Or just leave a comment for the hell of it. Continue Reading > > >

I remember being there. I was high up almost touching the sky. Nothing could bring me down short of a bullet to the brain or some other grand misstep. I’d never been this high. Not to see a show at least. Not to see HIM. It was like an out of body experience. I’m here … and I’m somewhere else …

It was a beautiful sunny post-summer Sunday. September 22, 1974 to be exact. Having just finished my senior year at Linden High School, followed by a summer of “workin’ in Daddy’s garage,” then moving into a Rahway apartment with my sister, sliding right into my first semester at F.I.T. as a photography major … it was a welcome respite. Continue Reading > > >