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MISFITS HISTORY
_/__/5_: Robo was born in Cali, Colombia.
01/05/54: Mr. Jim was born in Lodi, NJ.
06/23/55: Glenn Danzig was born in Lodi, NJ.
03/18/56: Bobby Steele was born in Teaneck, NJ.
08/17/57: Franche' Coma was born in Lodi, NJ.
04/21/59: Jerry Only was born in Lodi, NJ.
09/15/64: Doyle was born in Lodi, NJ.
__/__/71: Glenn and Mr. Jim were in a cover band called Whodat And Boojang
with Stevie Lin and a guy named Jerry.
06/__/71: Manny and Mr. Jim graduated from Lodi High School.
06/__/73: Glenn Danzig graduated from Lodi High School. He had also spent
some time at Bergen Technical High School.
__/__/74: Glenn wrote "Bullet."
06/__/76: Franche' Coma graduated from high school in Florida after spending
his first three years at Lodi High School.
02/__/77: Jerry began playing bass. He received the guitar as a late
Christmas present. During the late 1970's and early 1980's he
played a Rickenbacker with Rotosound Round Wounds and a pick.
03/__/77: Glenn and Jerry met through Manny and The Misfits were formed. It
was Jerry's first band.
04/18/77: The Misfits performed their first show at CBGB's audition night.
Songs played include: Bullet, Hollywood Babylon, West End Avenue
She, In The Doorway, Harpies In The Night, Feline Nursery. Jerry
has stated that this was the date of the first show, although in
an interview in December of 1982 (Forced Exposure #5) he was quoted
as saying it took place on 4/25/77.
06/__/77: Jerry Only graduated from Lodi High School.
08/__/77: Franche' Coma joined the band. His stage name was chose by Jerry and
Glenn. At his first few shows the band played a few songs as a
trio with Glenn on keyboard and the rest of the show with Franche'
on guitar. Franche' played an Explorer Ampeg V4 guitar and used
Fender 8's or 9's as strings. He used medium or thin picks.
10/__/77: Mercury Records offered 30 hours studio time at C.I. Studios in
return for naming one of their sub-labels Blank Records and
releasing a Pere Ubu album on it. Mercury had the option of
releasing the music on their Blank label if they liked it.
11/__/77: After Manny left the band, The Misfits needed a drummer for their
upcoming recording session. They began rehearsing with Mr. Jim of
Continental Crawler, who eventually became their full time drummer.
01/__/78: The Misfits spent about 10 days recording 17 songs at C.I.
Recording Inc, including 14 for the STATIC AGE album. Mercury
Records decided not to release the album.
06/__/78: The BULLET EP was released, featuring the new band logo designed by
Glenn Danzig.
__/__/78: VICTIMS 7" was released on Plan 9 records.
10/__/78: Franche' Coma left the band during the Detroit and Canada tour due
to his touring paranoia. The band returned to New Jersey to get
Rick Riley of The Victims to take his place for the remaining
two shows. They taught him the songs in the truck on the way up.
Mr. Jim left the band soon afterward.
11/__/78: After answering a newspaper advertisement placed by Glenn, Joey
Image was visited at Libra Studios in Manhattan by Glenn and Jerry
during a drum rehearsal. He auditioned with them at Jerry's garage
and was asked to join the band a week later. Glenn and Jerry
picked out his stage name. He had wanted to be called Joey Pills.
11/24/78: Bobby Steele auditioned for The Misfits. Glenn had seen his advertisement
in the Aquarian and called him on the phone. Bobby had been nicknamed
Bobby Steele because of his steel leg brace.
12/03/78: Bobby and Joey played their first show with The Misfits. The first
song of the night was "Static Age." During the show, the band
dumped grape koolaid on the audience, mocking the Jonestown
Massacre of a few weeks before. The flyer for this show included
the first photograph of the band with the new lineup. Jerry was
just beginning his devilock hairstyle. The band was supposed to
open for Trixie Sly that night, but Trixie never showed up.
12/22/78: The show at Max's Kansas City was recorded. "Attitude" was later
used on the FLIPSIDE VINYL FANZINE VOL. 2 LP. Bobby's guitar only
had 2 strings left by the time the song was recorded. It should be
noted that the date listed on the LP is incorrect. Later that
night, the band played a second show, which was videotaped, at
Studio Zero.
01/26/79: The Misfits entered the studio to record the HORROR BUSINESS 7"
single. Later that night, they went to a Whorelords (Bobby's
former band) show in New York City.
02/01/79: Jerry Only spent the evening at a party with Sid Vicious. The next
morning he heard on the radio that Sid had died.
02/05/79: The HORROR BUSINESS single was mixed.
03/28/79: The poster for the Max's Kansas City show on this night featured
the first use of the Crimson Ghost by the band. This was the last
time The Misfits performed at at Max's Kansas City, due to the fact
that they were permanently banned after the show. Bobby Steele was
arrested for supposedly throwing a glass into the audience.
07/__/79: Max's Kansas City had a tribute to Jim Morrison night. Glenn sang
and former drummer Mr. Jim played drums.
07/04/79: While hanging out at the Mudd Club, Bobby Steele vomited on John
Lennon's shoes.
08/__/79: Jerry and Glenn spent a night in jail after trashing Mudd Club
owner Steve Mass's room at The Chelsea in New York City. They were
arrested after a police officer noticed them throwing bottles out
of the fifth floor window of the room with Patricia Ragan of Punk
Magazine.
10/31/79: The Irving Plaza show in New York City was videotaped and the Fiend
Club was advertised for the first time. The address was:
Misfits Fiend Club; 145 West 27th St 2E; New York, NY 10001
11/__/79: In preparation for the band's upcoming UK tour, Glenn sent out
several special promo packages consisting of a HORROR BUSINESS 7",
a NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 7", the 8"x10" promo band photo of the
distorted BEWARE cover, the 8"x10" promo band photo taken by Glen
Brown, and a sheet of paper with information on the tour, all in
a purple silk-screened Misfits envelope.
11/21/79: Late in the evening, the band arrived in England for the UK tour
with The Damned. They had scheduled to do 24 shows in 28 days.
11/22/79: Jerry unexpectedly showed up at the home of Dave Vanian, the lead
singer of The Damned, while the rest of The Misfits waited at the
hotel. Although Dave and Jerry had previously discussed touring
together in the UK, the members of The Damned were not expecting
them. The Damned, who already had a tour with a North Ireland band
called Victim scheduled, kindly added The Misfits to the bill.
Although Victim opened first, advertisements for the tour listed
The Misfits as the opening band.
11/24/79: After doing the soundcheck for what would have been their second
show in the UK, The Misfits cancelled the tour because they weren't
getting paid.
11/__/79: With nowhere to go, The Misfits befriended a man named Derek who
promised to be their temporary manager. They were later announced
as the surprise opening act for The Clash, but couldn't play
because Joey left the band and returned to the U.S.
12/__/79: Jerry left the band for a few days to go on a tour of England with
Sid Vicious's mother.
12/02/79: Glenn and Bobby went to see The Jam play at The Rainbow in London.
A group of skinheads started a fight with them before the show so
Glenn grabbed a piece of glass from a nearby broken window to
fight them off while Bobby ran to get the police. Both Glenn and
Bobby were arrested by the Metropolitan Police for threatening
behavior, as documented on their record:
"ON SUNDAY THE 2nd OF DECEMBER, AT HORNSBY ROAD N7
USING THREATENING BEHAVIOUR, WHEREBY A BREACH OF THE
PEACE MAY HAVE BEEN OCCASIONED."
CITING TO SECTION 54(b)METROPOLITAN POLICE ACT 1839
They were thrown in Brixton jail for two days, at which time Glenn
wrote "London Dungeon."
12/03/79: Glenn and Bobby went to Highbury Common Magistrates court after
their arrest.
12/18/79: The band flew back to the United States, having funded the entire
trip with Jerry's father's American Express credit card.
04/__/80: Arthur Googy joined his first band - The Misfits.
07/08/80: Bobby played his last show with the band. It was the only time
The Misfits performed with both Bobby and Arthur in the band. An
audio recording of this show exists but has not been distributed.
10/2_/80: Bobby Steele was informed that he was no longer in the band.
Doyle, Jerry Only's younger brother, replaced him. It was his
first band. He had learned to play guitar from Jerry and Glenn.
10/31/80: The Misfits appeared on the "Uncle Floyd Show" and lip-synched to
the MSP studio versions of "Halloween" and "Vampira". Later that
night, Doyle played his first show with the band at Irving Plaza.
Frank Zappa, who had been invited to the show by Bobby, was in the
audience. Doyle wore a blue Star Trek shirt during the show.
__/__/81: Glenn wrote "Archangel" for The Damned's Dave Vanian. The band
rehearsed with him twice but nothing was recorded. However,
according to some interviews with Glenn, the band recorded all
but the vocal track without him, sometime between September of 1981
and April of 1982. This possibly non-existent recording has never
surfaced.
04/__/81: The new band logo, using the "Famous Monsters Of Filmland"
lettering was used for the first time on the "3 Hits From Hell"
promo poster, although the old logo was used on the 7" itself.
__/__/81: Using Jerry's 200-400W amp and Doyle's 600W amp, The Misfits blew
the roof off the garage during practice one day.
08/__/81: Glenn and Eerie Von Stellman were introduced by Doyle, and Eerie
photographed the band at a nearby cave.
09/__/81: WALK AMONG US was supposed to be released on Plan 9. Center label
stickers for this album, which would have been the first Plan 9
full length release, were pressed. When the contract with
Ruby/Slash was worked out, this album idea was abandoned and a new
set of songs was chosen. This same month, the Fiend Club moved. Its
new address was: P.O. Box 3112; Grand Central Station; New York, NY
10163
11/21/81: The Misfits played a show at On Broadway in San Francisco upstairs
from a Black Flag show at Mabuhay Gardens. The opening act was
a showing of "Plan 9 From Outer Space" featuring The Misfits
bursting through the movie screen at the end of the movie. Near
the end of the set, Henry Rollins came upstairs and joined Glenn
in singing "We Are 138."
12/17/81: The Misfits appeared as the surprise headlining band (replacing
Tenpole Tudor) at The Ritz in New York where The Undead and Heart
Attack were playing. During The Undead's set, members of The
Misfits threw things at Bobby Steele. When The Misfits took the
stage, the audience responded by throwing things at them. Glenn
got angry, as can be heard by listening to his interjections
during some of the songs played that night, recorded on EVILIVE.
This same night, Glenn changed the chorus of "Teenagers From Mars"
to slander Bobby, who was watching from the balcony. Glenn
repeated this at several other shows in the months that followed.
01/__/82: Glenn flew to Los Angeles with multi-track recordings of songs to
be released on the WALK AMONG US LP.
04/09/82: Ruby/Slash's plans to promote the WALK AMONG US album with a show
on this night with the Flesheaters opening were cancelled.
04/10/82: The Misfits appeared on KALX radio in Berkeley before their show at
the Elite Club in San Francisco. They headlined the show with The
Flesheaters, The Undead (California band, not Bobby Steele's band),
and many others playing before them. Various members of the
audience were throwing things at the bands, and one repeatedly
tried to hit Doyle in the head with beer cans. After five songs,
both Arthur and Rocky (Misfits roadie and brother of Jerry and
Doyle) jumped into the audience to stop him. During the fight that
ensued, Doyle attempted to pull the person towards the stage with
his guitar and ended up accidentally breaking the guitar over his
head. He was not killed, and no charges were filed, although the
band did cause a riot to break out.
04/13/82: The Misfits show at Whisky A Go Go was attended by Henry Rollins of
Black Flag (who joined them onstage for the last song) and Earl
from Saccharine Trust, both of whom appear on one of the covers for
the Evilive 7" EP. Also in the audience was Rick James. The
Flesheaters were supposed to be the opening band at this show, but
were replaced by Saccharine Trust.
04/__/82: While in Los Angeles, Glenn and Arthur got in an argument at
McDonald's. The band was running low on money and Arthur wanted
two cheeseburgers, but Glenn thought he should only have one.
After this argument, Arthur decided to leave the band and the plans
to record the Earth AD album (a full 14 months before they actually
got around to doing it) in California were scrapped. During this
week, Jerry, Doyle, and Glenn met Vampira at Vinyl Fetish.
04/17/82: The band played a suprise set of six songs at Whisky A Go Go,
opening for The Dickies. Next they headed over to Al's Bar for
their second show of the night, and later on in the night, they
(supposedly) performed a third show at a small club where they
were hanging out.
05/__/82: On one Friday night during the month, Misfits photographer and
roadie Eerie Von Stellman (then of Rosemary's Babies) rehearsed
with the band and was accepted as the drummer. On the following
Monday he let them know that he had decided to stay with his band
instead of joining The Misfits. During times when the band had no
drummer, Jerry and Doyle would sometimes practice with their
brother Rocky on drums.
06/__/82: Doyle and Eerie Von Stellman graduated from Lodi High School.
06/25/82: The Misfits performed at Irving Plaza in New York with The Necros
opening. Because they still had no drummer, Todd Swalla (Necros
drummer) played for them that night. Eerie Von Stellman, who would
have played at that show if he had chosen to stay with the band,
photographed this show.
07/__/82: Upon returning to the United States, Robo was informed by Henry
Rollins that The Misfits were looking for a new drummer. Robo
called Glenn and was invited to join the band, at which point he
flew in from Los Angeles.
10/17/82: After playing a show at Tupelo's in New Orleans, The Misfits and
The Necros went to hang out in a nearby graveyard. Both bands
were arrested for "grave-robbing" even though they were doing
nothing of the sort. Although they were supposed to appear in
court the next day, The Misfits bailed themselves out of jail and
drove to Florida for their next show. The Necros were still in
jail on the 19th and missed the Florida show.
03/__/83: In an interview with Flesh And Bones, Glenn talked about his plans
to do another solo project: "I'm going to work on something new in
a few months and this time I'll have a hand in producing, which I
didn't have last time... The new record will actually have a band
on it - Al [Pike] from Reagan Youth..." This project ended up
becoming his next band, Samhain.
__/__/83: Glenn wrote "Bloodfeast" and "Death Comes Ripping," supposedly for
his future Samhain project. He later decided to record them with
The Misfits.
04/23/83: The Michigan Union Ballroom show was videotaped, but never
distributed.
06/11/83: After playing 2 shows on the night of the 10th, the band stayed up
until 3 or 4 in the morning of June 11th recording part of the
EARTH A.D./WOLFSBLOOD LP. Glenn slept through most of the session
but was awakened for "Mommy, Can I Go Out And Kill Tonight" to help
time the pause in the middle of the song. This is why Glenn can
be heard singing the phrase twice. The majority of the vocals were
recorded in July. Later on this date, after the Santa Monica
Civic show with Black Flag, Glenn told the band that he was
quitting. He later changed his mind. To clear up the mystery
about this date, the flyers from the show advertise the show as
June 11th, and Henry Rollins in his book "Get In The Van" lists
the date as June 11th in at least 3 different places.
07/__/83: The Misfits entered Fox Studio to finish recording and mixing the
EARTH A.D./WOLFSBLOOD tracks. Future Samhain member Steve Zing,
and producer Spot,
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