The Advocates

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"You were sorta like Cleveland's Warhol or McLaren" I mentioned to Johhny Dromette recently... 

"Ha. I had much more in common with Chuck Barris", he responded. Ahh, yes, the Gong Show. That prompted a memory of Peter Jesperson of Twin/Tone fame telling me "you Clevelanders know how to put on a show." And if that is the case, much of the credit or blame goes to Johnny Dromette.

Johnny Dromette is the name we all know him by. John Thompson is his given name. He was born in 1952 in Cleveland and graduated from Hawken in 1970. After a short stint at Duke University and working at a record store there in Durham, Dromette returned to the Cleveland area and soon opened his own record store, Hideo's Discodrome, in the summer of 1976.

 Located in Cleveland Heights, it quickly became a spot for those that didn't quite fit anywhere else. The store featured great window displays, shocking to the "normal" passersby, had obscure kraut rock and psychedelic records on a wall that weren't even for sale but you could at least look at them and wonder what they sounded like, employed the likes of David Thomas, Peter Laughner, Jimmy Ellis (CLE Magazine) and Michael Weldon (Mirrors, Psychotronic Video) and had in store happenings such as DEVO or the Dead Boys playing live and fashion or poetry nights (where Bernie of Bernie & The Invisbles surfaced).

Around this time Dromette also began to dabble in putting on shows. The biggest three of those became legendary. Taking over the WHK Auditorium on December 3rd of 1977, Dromette staged DEVO IN CLEVO.

The show included Destroy All Monsters and The Styrenes. At one point Jerry Casale (DEVO) grabbed Dromette by the collar and screamed "this is fucked up, man!" It was such a train wreck that David Thomas said to Dromette during the evening "Johnny, you have a disaster on your hands".

This led to the next two shows, both in 1978, being billed as Disasto 2 (headlined by Pere Ubu) and Disasto 3 (headlined by The Pagans), with 3 ending in a riot and also ending with the banning of Dromette from promoting any more shows at the WHK Auditorium.

Other notable gigs of his included The Nerves at The Pirate's Cove, The Cramps & The Pagans at the Real World and The B-52's & The Pagans there as well. Dromette was also managing The Pagans and his carnival barker introductions for the band before they hit the stage were as thrilling as the live set.

Now just using the name The Drome, the store had moved to Detroit Ave in Lakewood near The Phantasy Night Club and stayed there most of 1978 and '79. This is the location that bridged the second and third wave of ClePunk youths to the beginning.

By this point, the first wave of bands and the characters that formed them had mostly moved on. But a new crop of teens were hitting The Drome for the latest Pagans' 45 or the current issue of Mongoloid or CLE Magazine. They were getting their hands on the electric eels Agitated 45 for the first time. The Pagans were playing in store gigs. Nick Knox could be spotted shopping there. Patti Smith made a memorable appearance, standing on the records spouting whatever, but it was Patti Smith! 

It is hard to keep this time line train on the tracks as Dromette had his hands in so much at once. But there was also the label, Drome Records. Dromette managed to issue six 45s on his label. Three still very highly sought after releases from The Pagans, two from X__X and one from The Lepers. This further allowed Dromette to utilize his talents as a graphic artist, designing The Pagans 45s. To this day, he continues to do lay outs for Pere Ubu, The Cleveland Steamers and many more including a lot of work on the wonderful Smog Veil Records archival releases.

At the end of 1979 the store moved to its final location, downtown at 1290 Euclid Avenue. And by the end of 1980, Johnny Dromette himself moved on. Some say a gong could be heard as he closed the shop door for the last time.

Cheese Borger

No city's formative punk years were complete without its own zine.  In the truly underground happenings of the mid to late 70s, a local scene needed the kid who was into it enough to take and gather some photos, write some reviews, interview some bands, throw in some humor, and just as importantly have the strength to persevere and see it through to completion. Some rose to legendary status. Sniffin' Glue, Punk, Flipside, Slash - they all come to mind. Here in Cleveland it was CLE magazine......

At the prodding of David (Crocus Behemoth) Thomas one day while the two were working at Johnny Dromette's Hideo Discodrome, Jim Ellis undertook the critical mission. By the end of that 1977 summer, Jim had published the premier issue. But first, let's look at how he got there. 

Jim was into music early. He entered the world October '58 and was raised in Euclid. By 1968, not quite ten, he was reading Rolling Stone and Hullaballoo , seeing bands like Cream and The Who and grabbing the first Steppenwolf LP (still a favorite he says). As an 8th grader in 1971, he put out his first zine - Zatoons!, where he reviewed albums like Alice Cooper's Killer and The Doors' L.A. Woman. He began playing bass in a band at Saturday night dances in the projects off Babbitt Road. He fondly recalls the great days of the early to mid 70s in Cleveland when he was able to see the likes of Pink Floyd at Blossom and bands like The Stooges, The Dolls, David Bowie and others at the Allen, all at the onset of his teenage years. 

While record shopping in '75 he found the Pere Ubu Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo seven inch and grabbed one. He had heard the Rocket From The Tombs broadcasts on WMMS and was seeing the names Peter Laughner and Crocus Behemoth on bylines in rock magazines he was reading. Fate would have Hideos Discodrome  catch his eye one snowy night in Cleveland Heights as he passed by. Quickly stopping,  he ventured in curious to see what kind of records they had for sale. What he found blew his mind,  an amazing selection and also that Laughner and Crocus both worked there. Returning often, he struck up a friendship with the pair, and soon found himself employed right there along with them.

Returning to the story of the first issue, Jim tells it as "David looked at me and said your're not doing anything, you should do a zine. We had a recent photo of the Dead Boys playing at Chippewa Lake. I remember them getting booed there. Anyhow, we had this photo of them laying on the counter. David stuck it on a piece of paper and then we wrote the article in a few minutes. It's in his handwriting. We had our first page."

Jim continued, "I think the run was 500 copies for 100 bucks, something like that.  I just put in whatever we were doing at the time. I had a friendship with The Residents because of Gary Mollica, so they went in. They were interested in what was going on here and we would trade Cleveland for San Francisco stuff. That's how it all got intertwined back then ,  trading with other bands in other cities. Of course, there was Peter's funeral page. DEVO was featured in the issue. Charlotte Pressler wrote that one. At Swingo's, I knocked out an interview with Willy DeVille, after he had performed at the Agora. Michigan Mom had introduced us to Destroy All Monsters and they were coming to Cleveland a lot. I didn't have a plan. Just did it."

He figured that was it, one and done, until Jane Scott ran a feature on issue 1 in the Plain Dealer. After that, people were sending him money for copies. Inspired, he published number 2 in summer of 1978. Michael Weldon's Psychotronic was born in that issue. 3, 3A and 3B followed over the next couple of years. 3B featured a flexi-disc compilation which includes that amazing track from Dave E & The Cool Marriage Counselors. Jim had been in The Jazz Detroyers with Dave E.  "Such an amazing talent he was. But he had had enough. He was miserable by this point."

Going on, Jim explains, " I was still making trips to New York. I used to love going there, it had always been so much fun. But now it was the no wave.  Everyone had become nihilistic as if it were a fashion.  And it seemed to me that it wasn't just Dave E, but that everyone was miserable.  This was not at all what had brought me here in the first place. I had been drawn in by the art and the musical frontiers that were being crossed. I realized the time for me to move on had arrived."

So that was it until 1995 when Jim got the itch again and released 3X, followed by 4 in 1996. Both included CDs and both issues were snapped up with much enthusiam. But in '97, unbeknownst to him at the time,  he published the final CLE. The issue was numbered 5.  Jim focused on what was happening at that moment in Cleveland and thought he had put together a great issue and soundtrack.

"It was met with total apathy. All anybody wanted from CLE was the old stuff. Once again, I was done."

Jim Ellis' CLE magazine had spread the word of the scene in Cleveland around the nation and around the world, all in the beautiful fashion of how things spread in the late 70s.  As a kid growing up just 30 miles east of Cleveland, in a town called Painesville, my first exposure to this scene was CLE magazine and a Pagans 45.  I was immediately taken in by both and began venturing downtown to see this hidden world for myself.   I wasn't alone.  A slowly growing handful of kids from both sides of town were coming as well, to also see the things they saw in CLE.  And it made us want to do this stuff as well.  And so we did.

 Cheese Borger

   As we discussed the idea of the Advocates page, Mark and I agreed that it would be a great place to put a guy like Jim Lanza.

   So off I went to try and write a decent piece about Jim, starting with emailing him some questions. I figured I would eventually take his answers and cobble together a bio. The pleasant surprise was that Jim's responses stood on their own. So what follows here is our email exchange

----- Where did you grow up, what high school, what were the early influences on you musically?  When did you discover punk rock and the Clepunk scene?

       I grew up on the west side. An unremarkable, but happy childhood jumping ramps on my Huffy bike and playing War with my neighborhood friends. My mom was Irish Catholic and my Dad a hardworking Sicilian. Unfortunately, that meant that I was stuck in Catholic school for the next twelve years. I hated school. In 6th grade, my parents bought a house in a different neighborhood, and that meant I had to start all over again. I went from a very strict school, complete with student beating nuns to a thankfully bit more laid-back one. It seemed many of the kids were a year back and liked to smoke pot. This would be around 1975. They all listened to WMMS and liked Led Zeppelin, Rush, Aerosmith, etc. 

       I had two older brothers. In the summer of 1979, at the age of 14, I tagged along with them to a concert called The World Series of Rock at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. AC/DC and Thin Lizzy were among the bands that played that day. I remember seeing hippy dudes with Journey shirts drinking out of wine skins with hippy girls on their shoulders with no tops on. 

      I started hearing David Bowie on the radio in the late 70’s and liking what I heard. It was probably Ziggy Stardust. I found myself in a school that had typical cliques of jocks and burnouts. I was neither. I mean, I smoked a little pot with my friends, but I was really not into that lifestyle. I did go to some football games, but, it was only to look at girls. It was at this time that Bowie became even more important to me. I was obsessed with everything about Bowie. I loved his androgynous look and his music. I think I was the only one in my high school class that liked him.  Most just thought he was a fag. 

      One night, luckily for me, my mother made my brother Joe take me along with him (much to his chagrin, I am sure). This was the night that I met my brother's friend, Paul Murphy,  at a party that had a huge influence in forming my musical tastes. New Wave was a big part of my initial exposure to this weird music, with bands like B-52’s and Devo, with sprinkles of the Sex Pistols and Ramones. I took a deeper dive into Bowie and also the Velvet Underground and Iggy. 

     Once I discovered this music, I found myself more secluded than ever in school. I latched on to my brother and his friend, going to more parties, etc. I am not sure how or when it came about, but they started to go to shows at the Phantasy in Lakewood. I was still under age and figured there was no way I could get in. I managed to buy a fake ID with my photo and name, but with my new pal Paul Murphy's info. It worked like a charm. Eventually, we heard about a “punk club” called the Lakefront which was on a shitty street downtown in a rundown building. The inside walls were decorated with spray painted band names and the small clientele were quite colorful with Mohawks, shaved heads, blue hair, leather jackets, etc. This is where I truly found my clan. Bands had names like Starvations Army, Pink Holes, Agitated, Urban Mutants, and the Offbeats. 

      I fell in love with this scene. There seemed to be no rules and everyone, for the most part, were cool with each other. We still didn't venture much east of downtown and we didn’t need to. Downtown had other clubs to see bands at like the Pop Shop, Pirate’s Cove, and the Agora. It was around this time that I first heard of the Pagans and the Easter Monkeys.

------ When did you start photographing the Clepunk scene?

      The first concert I had a camera at was that World Series concert in '79. I still have my blurry photos of AC/DC. I began to take photos of punk bands when I started going to the Lakefront and Pop Shop. When I enrolled at Cleveland State, I purchased a nice 35 mm camera, and spent most of my time in the darkrooms of the Photography Department developing and printing my band photos. 

------ When did the radio show start and what years ?  Talk a bit about the show, maybe some guests or other special moment.

      I am not sure how it happened, but, the summer after my last year in high school, I managed to apprentice for Dave Swanson’s show on WCSB. Once I started taking classes, I already had my own show, which was a bit crazy. WCSB was another great influence in my musical education. When you are working a shitty job and trying to pay for school at the same time, it means you're broke. But now, suddenly, I had hundreds of records I could listen to whenever I wanted and I could sign guest lists to get into shows for free. I also moved into a house on East 24th with some other like minded fellows including artist/musician Levent Isik. Our rundown house was across the street from another rundown house that Kevin Ries from the Idiot Humans lived in. Our street was next to East 25th, which also had lots of rundown houses including 1385, which seemed to be the hub for all things punk. It’s where I really got to know some of the people that I saw in bands like Val Seeley, Tim Allee, Larry Lewis, Tim Kelly, Tim Shaw, and Robert "Dick Head" Ritchie. 

      Ahh yes, back to WCSB. I think I had my first show in 1983. I had 3 or 4 time slots altogether. Each one was named after a Cramps album. The last one, the longest running, was called Cheap Heroin. I did not care about what my listeners liked and rarely played requests. My setlists were filled with the bands I liked. I also did not play just punk. If you listened to my shows, you were listening to the Stooges, Birthday Party, local punk bands, Elvis, Billie Holiday, Motörhead, Redd Kross, and of course the Cramps.  

      My shows, especially Cheap Heroin, had an “anything goes” atmosphere. I made a lot of friends and a few enemies from that show. I always wanted to turn it into a circus and started inviting guests onto the show which were never approved by the management. In 1985, I met Cheetah Chrome and we became fast friends. Cheetah was a frequent guest on my show, which usually resulted in a small amount of chaos, and many pints at either Otto Moser's or the 2300 Club. Something Cheetah said on my show also resulted in Jimmy Zero threatening me at a Lords of the New Church show. 

     Ron Sweed, aka the Ghoul, seemed to be on my show more than me at times. Ron was a great guy and personal hero. 

     And for sure one of my favorite guests was the Queen Supreme Geneva Almon Butcher. I met her while I was working at Daffy Dan’s. After printing Avant Garage shirts for Pere Ubu, my next order featured a design of a hand with an outline of a UFO in the palm. Around this design, the text read “I spoke to God through a UFO”. Obviously intrigued, I hand delivered the shirts and met her. The Queen was a hefty, African American, dressed in flowing clothes. She even had her own album! I invited her to my radio show and she arrived with a bag full of clothes. I guess she thought I needed some new duds based on how I was dressed. Geneva was a preacher who had her own church that she was running out of her home. She believed that one day, she looked up into the sky and a UFO landed into her hand and burned into her body. She told me that she was able to predict the future. She never would give me lottery numbers no matter how many times I asked. Geneva would call into every show after that with a weather forecast from her east side home. 

     The last time I was thrown off the station was when the Dead Boys stopped up (minus Stiv and Cheetah, who were hungover in a motel somewhere). Zero, Blitz, and Magnum did not hold off and had a good ol’ time swearing, smoking, and drinking in the studio. I came up with the brilliant idea to call Stiv and Cheetah who were clearly not happy that I woke them up at 4pm. When I asked Stiv to do a station ID, he was more than happy with my request. It went something like,  “Hi, my name is Stiv Bators of the Dead Boys, and when I am in Cleveland, I listen to Cheap Heroin on WCSB, which stands for Woman Cock Sucking Bitch”. Needless to say, that was the end of my radio career. 

------ I fondly recall how you always helped us, the holes, on stage with antics ranging from fire breathing to holding up Freddy's drums or cymbals.  Did you also participate with other bands in a similar manner?

        I always thought it would be cool to be in a band. The one thing that stopped me was not having any talent. Not that it stopped most Cleveland punk bands of course. When I was working at Daffy Dans, I slowly started to buy my own screen printing equipment and made shirts for my band friends for extra income. I think I printed most of the local group's merchandise back then. 

       One Saturday, I was visiting my friend, Dwid,  who sang for a band called Integrity. Dwid lived in the old Film Building on East 21 and Payne Ave. He was having a barbecue inside its loft. After a day of drinking, I noticed a bottle of charcoal lighter fluid sitting next to me. It reminded me of a story my good friend, Dave Araca, had told me about his father. Dave’s father was in the Army and he entertained the troop by breathing fire. They called him “The Human Volcano”.  After taking a few swigs, I spat the foul tasting liquid at a lighter in my hand. The flame reached the ceiling. It was fun. I eventually perfected my hobby by making a torch and I would wear a Mexican wrestling mask. El Diablo was born. 

       Occasionally, El Diablo would make an appearance onstage with bands like The Pink Holes during “Ring of Fire”, and with The Spudmonsters during “Hell in the Flats”.

       One of the last appearances was with The Pink Holes at Peabody’s. As the flame rolled across the ceiling, I noticed it ignited all of the old cobwebs as well. I figured I better stop before I ended up burning a club down. Not as exciting as breathing fire, but I also had fun running the lights for a local Goth outfit called Shadow of Fear. 

     ------  (I've got to jump in here. I was right behind Jim on stage at Peabody's when he spewed that fire and the ceiling and the cobwebs danced and crawled with flame. It could have gone bad real easy. I still recall Jim looking at me and me looking back at him in disbelief.)

----- Tell me about the shows you booked? any besides the Cleveland Screaming series?

      I always liked putting together shows. Instead of just a bunch of bands playing, I wanted to turn them into events. I think my main influences in organizing shows was the DIY attitudes of Chris Andrews, Tommy Dark, Spanky, and Alfalfa.  One of my first shows was called the Cleveland Vintage Motorcycle & Scooter Show. The weekend included 4 venues, a bunch of bands and dj’s.  I organized “Ramonesmania”, which had 4 local bands singing Ramones songs of course. I actually considered taking that one on the road across the US, renting a yellow school bus with various Ramones tribute bands. I was contacted by an all female band from England called The Ramonas and one from Japan. I came to my senses of course and decided not to do it. A similar show had Motörhead cover bands after Lemmy died. I was thrilled that Fraser Sims from Starvation Army wanted to participate.  

      One of my favorite shows was bringing together the surviving members of the Dead Boys for a reunion. This one took the most work. I got a hold of Cheetah after not seeing him for a few years and asked him what he thought of the idea. Surprisingly, he said if I could get the other guys to do it, he would do it. I eventually was able to track everyone down and they all basically said the same thing as Cheetah. I realized nobody had ever asked them. I was able to recruit the Rock Hall to help pay for some expenses and I paid for the rest. The only way it made sense was if I did not pay the band anything. Instead, I made it into a benefit for Stiv’s parents who were going through a rough bit at the time. I mean, am I going to pay each member a thousand dollars in the end for such a legendary band, when they should be making 10 times that? They all agreed. I secured a practice spot for them to rehearse. It was amazing. The first time they played together in 17 years, and it was like they never stopped. The day of the show, I had set up a Q&A at the Rock Hall with the band and a showing of “The Blitz Benefit '', complete with John Belushi on drums. 

      Opening for the Dead Boys that night, I had 4-5 local bands covering songs by bands Bators was in (Lords, Wanderers,etc). The walls of the club featured photos by Theresa Kerakes, Anastasia, and my own. Cheetah and I briefly discussed what we would do about vocals. I had visions of Michael Monroe from Hanoi Rocks and Dick Manitoba sharing lead vocals. Cheetah nixed my dream and said it would just be him and Zero, which made sense. We just draped a leather jacket over the center mic. I set the ticket price at only $10, fully knowing I could charge more. I wanted it to sell out, and I wanted people to be able to afford it. Stiv’s parents were there and loved the attention people were giving them. I foolishly thought we could take this tour on the road and started to contact promoters from New York to LA. Not one was interested. Their loss. I would eventually hook up with the band again at the final days of CBGBS. 

 --------   Talk about the Cleveland Screaming series. Recap each show if you can. 

     The Cleveland’s Screaming series came about purely for selfish reasons. I wanted to see the Offbeats play again. I reached out to Tom Miller to see if he would be interested. His response was “nobody ever asked us before ''. I came up with the idea of a reunion show with some of the old punk bands I used to see in the early 80’s. I stole the name Cleveland’s Screaming by twisting around the lyrics from a Sex Pistols song. I can’t remember all of the bands that played that night. I think the Dark played. The biggest hit for me that night was having Spike in Vain play. They were easily one of my favorite Cleveland bands along with The Easter Monkeys.  To make things weird, I decided to hire a host. Who better than my old pal, The Ghoul. The Ghoul blew off a few boom booms between the bands and did his schtick. I came up with another dumb idea to add to the night. How about a pierogi eating contest on stage!  Unfortunately, it did not go as planned and people were burning their mouths when they tried shoving handfuls into their gobs. 

     The show brought out people I hadn't seen in years. I always thought of the show as the high school reunion I never had. The bands may not have been as good as I remembered, but that was not the point. The point was to just hear those songs played live again. After that first show, I wondered if I could put on another and then another. I think I did 4 or 5 altogether. I used 4 different venues and reunited The Agitated, Starvation Army, Children’s Crusade, The Plague, Offbeats, Knifedance, Dark, Spike in Vain, The 2 Bobs, possibly some version of The Guns, Zero Defex, Pink Holes, Dead Federation, Violent Suburban Marriage, Numbskull, Oral Authority and Cheetah Chrome.

      I always wanted a new band to open each show. That list included Uncle Scratch’s Gospel Revival , Scott Eakin’s band The Driven High and The Chrome Kickers.

     The final show was a weekender at Now That’s Class, which was fitting in a way. NTC was the only club that reminded me of where it all started, The Lakefront. After the last one, I realized I was done. Some of the bands had already played twice and it started to become work. It was the right time to have these kinds of shows. It could not work again. I don’t think there are enough people that really would  give a fuck. My only regret was not getting The Easter Monkeys and the Pagans to play. I was positive Mike Metoff would have had zero interest in a Pagans reunion.  And as far as the Easter Monkeys, I just didn’t think that Mr Chris or Jim would have wanted to do it either. 

--------   Talk a bit about the Nine Inch Nails tour you did?

         A friend of mine was the tour manager for a local band called Nine Inch Nail and asked me if I would be interested in being in charge of their merchandise on the road. The only thing I knew about them was that I was not really into their music. I am a punk at heart and the industrial dance tunes were really not my thing. I decided to do it anyway. I saw it as a great opportunity to see the world. After a few months filling orders in a Twinsburg warehouse, it came time to get ready to kick off the tour. I drove a 12 foot Ryder truck filled with t-shirts from Cleveland to Seattle for two nights at The Moore Theatre. I think both nights were sold out and the venue held 3,000. 

        As the tour went on, the band became more popular and the venue size increased. After maybe 6 shows, I started to appreciate the music. I liked the anger of the first record, but I really liked the album they were touring on called “The Downward Spiral”. Some of it reminded me of Bowie’s Low era. The visuals for this tour were incredible and I met some good friends and future connections. One of the first shows, I noticed a hulking figure watching the show and realized it was Gene Simmons. I have never really been a KISS fan, but I walked up to him and gave him a backstage pass. 

        The fans that followed them were pretty interesting and I liked taking photos of them. When the band played the Woodstock Festival, everything changed. They were probably the most talked about band at the event. Venue sizes doubled and so did my truck size. The amount of merchandise we were moving was mind boggling. One day, I found myself walking around in Chicago with $100k in cash in a backpack from the previous night’s sales. 

        I traveled throughout Europe and Australia with them and was really happy I had made the decision to take the job. Eventually, my job changed to where I was in charge of every aspect of their merchandise and I hired people to go on the tour. I would still travel for some shows of course, but now I was helping design and work with the manufacturers of the merchandise. A favorite item I worked on was a black rubber t-shirt with the NIN logo printed on it. What we did not realize is that they were almost impossible to take off once you started to sweat. Trent was very friendly and approachable as were most of the band. Some of the highlights for me was meeting Bowie, Lou Reed, and Lori Anderson on the tour. It was amazing to see the band’s popularity grow. 

       After NIN, I toured with Marilyn Manson on the Anti Christ Superstar Tour. This time, my job was to document the tour with a film camera. It eventually was released on VHS format. Most people think of Manson as a clown, but what they do not realize is he is extremely smart, funny, and well- spoken. Of course, he has been involved with some nasty drama as of late. 

---------  Were you ever involved with a zine? negative print?

       Not to any great extent. I think I once wrote a review for Negative Print. I contributed many of my photos to a photo based zine that Steve Daycak put out. I approached Negative Print creator, David James, to see if he would be interested in putting together a final issue for the last Cleveland’s Screaming show. I think he only made a hundred or so of them. I remember you made an issue of Hey Daddyo for one of the shows.

       For me, the early punk exposure has stayed with me throughout my life. I still listen to many of the same bands and still try to keep in touch with people I met 40 years ago at the Lakefront. More than the music, the DIY attitude has stayed with me all these years. 

 Cheese 

Prolific Cleveland DJ and Photographer.