| 10/20/2001 | Dee Dee Blackhill convicted of forgery. Sentenced to 10 years Federal Prison to be served in the Terre Haute, Indiana Federal Prison. |
| 5/01 to 10/15/2001 |
Many beers Many Gigs Many Smokes
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| 4/26/01 | Did Dream Street gig...Dee Dee was so drunk he doesn't remember it. |
| 4/22/01 | So we show up at Balboa Park for the Earth Day gig on a Sunday afternoon. It's the first weekend after Joey Ramone's passing and we are kinda bummin'. We roll into the park and everywhere you look are these friggin' New Age, Hare Krishna, fucked up granola people with Birkenstocks driving VW buses with damn solar panels. Holy Shit. Not exactly the corner of Bowery and Bleecker. Thankfully all of these Timothy Leary wannabes dig their punk rock and The CBGBs delivered. We had all of these neo-hippies rockin' and groovin' in their sandals. Turn On, Tune in, Drop Out. The set list was extra heavy on the Ramones stuff in respect to Joey. Special thanks to The Planet 103.7FM for inviting us to play on their stage at the event. Rosie Martinez rocks. Props to opening acts SunFleur and The Rock Dogs. |
| 4/15/01 | The light has gone out of New York Rock 'n' Roll. Joey Ramone passes away, but his music and message live on. The CBGBs salute Joey and give The Man the respect he deserves. I Remember You. |
| 4/2/01 | Hopefully we've put this legal snafu shit behind us. We inked the deal with Hilly Kristal and the CBGB OMFUG club in NYC for the legit rights to use their name. We'll be treating Hilly and his people fair and square. They are the dudes we are paying homage too, to say nothing of 'paying the rights for usage'. Now we gotta get a gig at CBs. Be sure to drop by CBs on your next trip to NYC and drop off our flyer and plug us. Or just fuck the commercial crap and get a beer there and enjoy yourself. The place rocks. It's a fucking rock 'n' roll museum exhibit. |
| 3/17/01 | This time The CBGBs roll into the heart of friggin' suburbia and rock the house with old school NYC punk rock. It's St. Patrick's Day. The beer is flowing, the corned beef is tasty and the chicks fucking dig Dee Dee. Dee Dee emits this special aura that draws soccer moms and their 13 year old daughters to him like like punkers to a Clash show. The party was hosted by one of the band's fans and everyone had a kick ass time. Poway still doesn't know what the hell hit 'em! |
| 3/09/01 | This gig at the Playhouse in San Diego was a punk rock E-Vent. Playing with Five Star Degenerate and other local punk bands, we rocked the house. Scotty Rocket absolutely shredded that night! It was actually amazing since a) we are the oldest damn punk rockers in San Diego, and b) all of these 20 something punkers were completely into the old school action. Great to know that the kids get the 'history' component of what we are trying to do. But there was one drunk chick that kept wanting us to do some Dead Kennedy's..... clearly she doesn't completely get the whole CBGB/NYC part of it.... but she's close and we're cool with that. This Playhouse gig is getting pretty cool. Great club, cool stage, quality sound guy. Tell Cary to pick up the damn phone and book us at the Playhouse again! |
| 2/25/01 | This gig was like a fucking hijacked script from The Blues Brothers. In the depths of Santee is the famous Driftwood Lounge: a classic roadhouse with a bizarre marquis behind the stage and rednecks galore in the audience. The only thing missing was the damn chicken wire fence. We ended up rocking those dudes and had a fuckin' BLAST! Dee Dee and Rocket stuck around after the gig mingling with the locals, scoring the cool 'rock star' free beer, and getting completely shit faced that evening. The next day a wild ass fight breaks out at the club and now the entire ball of wax is closed down for live music. What the hell is happening to the fucking local music scene in San Diego? It's going Punk! Hey ho, let's go!! |
| 2/21/01 | Just to give you the inside punk dirt.... The CBGBs have been running into some legal tangles. Turns out the attorney that represents the CBGB night club in NYC caught wind of our existence. Originally they were considering shutting down our website and not allowing us to use their name, but saner punk brain cells rose to the occasion. We've worked a deal where the club is going to give us legal permission to use their name. We've added a number of features to the front page of our website to give their lawyer a woodie. During conversations we floated out the idea of The CBGBs performing at CBGB in NYC and it was well received. The seed has been planted.... |
| 2/16/01 |
We had a gig at The Playhouse and we kicked some royal ass at this show! This place is a total dive bar loaded with bikers wearing leather jackets with the letters UMF which stand for Ugly Mother Fucker Gang. Bitchin' place for our first gig... totally punk. A regular club on the San Diego circuit, The Playhouse has a decent sound system and a cool sound man named Richie that turned out to be a huge CBGB fan.... the dude was firing off Ramones trivia left and right. The stage is actually outside with the audience inside the bar, both separated by a metal roll down door. Thankfully we did not have to pull the door down in Blues Brothers chicken wire style. Overall we kicked some ass at the show and the crowd dug it. Dee Dee must have been kicking his bass drum like his EX-wife was inside it. This one groupie chick named Kathy took some pictures of the band which we hope to get on the site soon. Kathy ended up hooking up with with Dee Dee that night and she took him back to her place after the gig. Fuck! It's great to be a rock star! |
| 1/29/01 | First rehearsal with The Lecher. The guy rocks and he looks like a common criminal. Perfect! Johnny starts booking gigs. Dee Dee gets drunk. The Lecher commits lewd acts. |
| 1/28/01 | Bleecker leaves the band. Dude gets an opportunity to move up the ladder in the Mafia. Travel, nice perks, less dirty work, but still a punk. Dee Dee calls The Lecher to see if he might be able to fill in on guitar. |
| 12/22/00 | The boys record their first demo. Phil Spector was unavailable, so a drunk Dee Dee fills in as executive producer. Bleecker is chief audio engineer. Johnny tries picking up on Dee Dee's wife. Dee Dee pops Johnny. Johnny goes to ER. Bad scene. |
| 11/10/00 | Johnny goes under the knife with the local neighborhood urologist to help him hit the high notes in the Blondie songs. |
| 10/23/00 | First CBGBs rehearsal in El Cajon. Jimmy Bleecker responds to the ad. This guy is a monster of a man, standing 6'10", 350 lbs, and built like a friggin' rock. Turns out Jimmy is quite the bad ass. He's from NYC's lower east side and earns extra jack as a hitman for the Mafia. Perfect! (oh yeah, the dude rages on guitar..... highly skilled on the Ramones chainsaw guitar style thanks to Scarface influences). Johnny buys a carne asada burrito at Roberto's. Dee Dee gets drunk. Bleecker gets tossed in jail. |
| 10/2/00 | Dee Dee and Johnny meet in person over beers at Poppy's, a dive bar in San Diego's industrial Kearny Mesa area. The boys discuss the project, talk about chicks/beer/rock'n'roll/chicks/beer/rock'n'roll and watch Monday Night Football. Seattle vs. KC. Elvis Grbac QBs the Chiefs to a 24-17 victory. Elvis Costello is a ground breaking artist at CBGB in the late 70's. Coincidence? Sign from God? Johnny gets drunk. Dee Dee gets drunk. |
| Late Sept 2000 | CBGB idea starts to really burn a hole in Johnny's brain as a great opportunity to pay tribute to the underground rock club that started it all. Johnny calls Dee Dee. Dee Dee says, "No shit! That's what I tried to tell you!" They decide to make the project happen. Johnny puts an ad for a guitarist in the San Diego Reader. Dee Dee gets drunk. |
| August 2000 |
Johnny and Dee Dee hook up through an ad at SDMusician.com. Johnny was originally thinking of putting together a combination Kajagoogoo / Sparks / Quiet Riot 80's tribute band. Dee
Dee slaps Johnny upside the head. Well deserved. Conversation turns
to the The CBGBs concept. Both Dee Dee and Johnny agree it's a great
idea, but are already in other projects. Both agree to stay in touch. |
Punk Groupies Wanted.
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