OTHER READING MATERIAL


FANS REMEMBER JOEY
Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone announces the release of "Heaven Needed A Lead Singer: Fans Remember Joey Ramone." Says Jari-Pekka, "After Joey Ramone had passed away, I began writing a book to remember and pay tribute to our beloved Joey Ramone. This book was released through my company called Tmi Ramoniac. This book is full of stories expressing much love for what Joey Ramone and the rest of The Ramones family did for all of us. Reading these stories from so many fans and the joy Joey and The Ramones brought to my life is the reason why I wanted to write this book." Get info right here!

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MOUTHING OFF
Joey Ramone is featured in several chapters of a new book called MOUTHING OFF - A Book of Rock & Roll Quotes. With funny and truthful observations
from hundreds of rock, punk, and metal figures, this book was written with the music fan in mind.

Here's an excerpt from Joey:
“Our years in the business managed to take a lot of fun out of things. It’s still fun playing, but they made us miserable. Maybe it was naïve of us to think it was gonna be a little easier than this. Nobody did anything for us. We got treated like shit.”
- Joey Ramone (1996)

Compiled by Rolling Stone/Billboard contributor John D. Luerssen and
published by Brooklyn-based record label/publishing house The Telegraph
Company, MOUTHING OFF hits book and record stores in June. Those who can't
wait can purchased early online at major book e-tailers. (Note: it's
cheapest on Amazon)

LIFE'S A GAS - JOEY RAMONE'S 2ND ANNUAL BIRTHDAY BASH - MAY 19 2002 NYC

Joey Ramone Birthday Bash
The Bowery Ballroom
Text and Photos © 2002, by John Holmstrom

Last year's Birthday Bash at the Hammerstein Ballroom was an amazing event that brought a lot of people together on a Saturday night and got a lot of publicity. This year Joey's birthday was on a Sunday night, without the publicity or the star power (Cheap Trick, Blondie, Damned) of last year. But to many in attendance, it was a better show. The Bowery Ballroom is a more intimate place so everyone felt like they were a part of the show--for instance there was no VIP area. A lot of great, unsigned bands played, which made this more like Joey Ramone's own New York City events. And there was some other really cool stuff, like the T-shirt Guy from The X-Files.

First of all, this event (unlike CBGB's Bowery Electric Contest on the same night) was a benefit. The proceeds were earmarked for lymphoma research. I have to admit I still don't know much about lymphoma cancer, even though Joey died from it, so when Barbara Freundlich of the Lymphoma Research Foundation spoke about it, I was surprised. I didn't know that no one knows what causes it, that only 50% of its victims recover, and that it's on the increase (and no one knows why). Anyhow, to learn more, check out The Lymphoma Research Foundation, 111 Broadway, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10006. [www.lymphoma.org] 1-800-235-6848.

Ms. Freundlich spoke right after the first band, Charm School, who did their usual classy (albeit very short) set of Ramones Meets Blondie punk rock. It kills me that all these bands like The Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs etc. keep getting mentioned as "the latest, greatest New York punk rock band" when authentic punk bands like Charm School keep getting ignored. What's up with that?

The Star Spangles were next. There's a real buzz around this band, a word of mouth thing though, not a fake hype like I was talking about earlier. A lot of people like them. They remind me of the early New York Dolls (with Billy Murcia), 'cause they're rough and sloppy. Next was Coyote Shivers, who're closer to the Stones than anyone else I can think of, but still good stuff. The sound system was having a few problems though, and these early bands suffered from it.

I was asked to introduce the next band: Furious George (starring the evening's emcee George Tabb). So I did my best Michael Buffer impersonation: "Ladies and gentlemen! Are you rrrready? Let's get rrready to rrrrrumble!" George announced that the band was breaking up. (Actually, Furious George lost a lawsuit to the owners of Curious George, so any Furious George merchandise is worth a lot of money now!) They played a few Ramones songs, and the evening started to kick into high gear.

After that, Maureen Wojciechowski talked about her campaign to rename the corner of The Bowery and 2nd Street, just above CBGBs, "Joey Ramone Place." She encouraged everyone to call Rosie Mendez, the city councilwoman who's handling the legislation. (I guess it worked--on Monday, Ms. Mendez said her office had gotten a bunch of calls, but that the bill needed some more paperwork before it could be sent to the City Council to be turned into a bill).

Next Mickey Leigh, Joey's brother, sang some songs from Joey's solo CD with an all-star backing band: Andy Shernoff & Frank Funaro who backed Joey on his solo CD "Don't Worry About Me," Danny Rey (who played on it and produced it), Richie Stotts (ex-Plasmatics) and Dez Cadena (ex-Black Flag). When Marky Ramone showed up, Mickey thanked him for trying to patch up the evening's rivalries. (We don't want to spoil the parties here by bringing up the "We're A Happy Family" rifts that caused these two different events to take place).

Dean Haglund from The X-Files was up next. I never watched that show, but apparently this guy Dean plays a Joey Ramone fan (who always wears a Joey t-shirt), and on a recent episode he gave an intriguing speech about who Joey was and why he meant so much to him. According to Dean, all this happened outside the range of the writing staff, it's something that was just sort of evolved, helped by the production crew and the show's staff. The video of the speech from the X-Files was shown, and afterwards everyone in the audience chanted "T-shirt guy! T-shirt guy!" (It was a Jerry Springer
moment!)

Next was a long break as Ronnie Spector's sound crew went to work. They took about a half hour to get everything together. That's about a half hour more than everyone else on the bill had... And--here's some gossip--her crew also insisted that everyone (all the other musicians who were playing and sharing the dressing room) had to leave the dressing room. Well, it was a nice set. Ronnie said some wonderful things about Joey. He certainly did a lot for her--I must have seen her play a half dozen of Joey's showcases around the city over the years.

The Independents played right after that and they just plain kicked ass. Chris, the singer, slammed around the mosh pit that had formed and started to kick some ass--he's a big guy! The Queers came on right after them and played some Ramones songs and a few of their own. These two bands brought the crowd to a fever pitch. There's just something about great punk rock, y'know?

The Bullys came on next, with Mickey Leigh filling in on bass. They had two bands that were tough acts to follow, but I heard more about The Bullys on this night than any other band. I think that, now rthat Johnny Heff is gone, people are finally beginning to realize how great they are. Ironically, The Bullys followed Joey's set at his last official gig ever, at The Continental on December 11, 2000, and became the last band to perform at one of his events! There were only a few people left in the audience at that point but this was a big deal to The Bullys--especially to Johnny Heff.

Well, it's about time that people started hearing more about real New York punk rock... And this night was a night of authentic punk rock!

I missed the last band, Hotsocky, but everyone told me they were kickass. Finally, Mickey, Charlotte and George came out, thanked everyone for coming, and that was it. Hey, if you missed it, mark it on your calendar now, because this is going to happen every year.

2nd ANNUAL JOEY RAMONE BIRTHDAY BASH A SMASHING SUCCESS

"Joey was one of the greatest rock and roll gods to walk this earth. I propose we make May 19 a national holiday." So says Andy Shernoff, guitarist with legendary rock group The Dictators, and one of the many special guests who participated in the 2nd Annual Joey Ramone Birthday Bash. The event took place at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City on Sunday, May 19th, which would have been the 51st birthday of world-renowned rock star Joey Ramone, who succumbed to lymphoma last year just one month short of his birthday. Keeping a promise they made to him, Joey's mother Charlotte Lesher and brother Mickey Leigh threw a posthumous 50th Birthday celebration on May 19, 2001 - - and the response was so overwhelmingly favorable that the pair decided to make it an annual event.

"It was a magical evening," beamed Lesher. "You could feel Joey's presence in the room, having a great time with his friends and fans. He would have been so pleased." Added Leigh: "Once again, the annual Joey Ramone Birthday Bash was a huge success, turning a negative into a positive and proving that with help from our friends, my brother continues to make a difference in this world, bringing people together, raising awareness and funds to help others beat the disease that took him from us. We hope it will continue to grow bigger each year and remain one of New York City's best and most productive parties. Named after one of his songs, we call the event 'Life's A Gas.' The tank is full."

The evening brought in an income of more than $5,000.00 with net proceeds being donated to the Lymphoma Research Foundation In Memory Of Joey Ramone. Foundation representative Barbara Freundlich's address to the crowd, thanking them for their generous support, was greeted with loud cheers and applause. As the evening progressed, the stage and the audience filled with famous and familiar faces as rock stars and musical geniuses entertained and joined the audience.

The night got off to a rocking start with a brief set by NY scenesters Charm School followed by mod band The Star Spangles and then local favorite Coyote Shivers. The entertainment kept coming with performances by the likes of The Bullys (with Mickey Leigh sitting in on bass for guitarist/NYC Fireman Johnny Heffernan who died at the WTC on 9/11), members of The Independents and The Queers, Furious George, and new buzz band HotSocky. Among the highlights of the evening were an extended set by Ronnie Spector with Daniel Rey on guitar (producer of the Joey Ramone solo CD Don't Worry About Me) and a super-group assemblage including Leigh, Marky Ramone, Rey, Andy Hilfiger, Andy Shernoff (The Dictators), Richie Stotts (Plasmatics), and Dez Cadena (Black Flag). Mickey Leigh (on vocals) and Marky Ramone (on drums) brought the house down when they performed a rendition of "What A Wonderful World," the single off Joey Ramone's album. Leigh also directed the promotional video for that song; the video, which was screened at the Birthday Bash, features actor Michael Pitt (Murder By Numbers, Dawson's Creek, Hedwig and the Angry Inch) and includes never before seen footage of Joey in performance and on vacation. The video can be viewed here.

Marky Ramone enthused: "I was very happy to have participated in this event because it was a musical tribute to one of the greatest rock and roll singers of all time. The vibe was great, the event was wonderful and everyone had a great time." Stotts added: "This was an especially emotional night for me because the band I performed with featured Mickey on lead vocals on a song that Joey and I wrote together. I felt honored that Mickey chose to bring this song to life for the first time publicly before an audience that dearly loved and remembered Joey Ramone." Another highlight was the return of Sean O'Sullivan, the 18-year-old bagpipe player and Forest Hills neighbor of Leigh, and his "Pinhead Pipers" (Sean's friends from bagpipe class). Dressed in kilts and Joey Ramone t-shirts, the Pipers elicited hoots, howls and even some tears with a rousing version of "Happy Birthday To You" while paper "pieces of cake" dropped from the ceiling for everyone in the house. Last April, the Pipers played "Taps" at the CBGB memorial.

In addition to the musical performances, the event split MC duties between journalist/musician George Tabb, former Ramones manager Danny Fields, Punk Magazine founder John Holmstrom, and "X Files" actor Dean Haglund, who flew in from Los Angeles just to be at the event. Haglund screened a clip of the episode from his TV show wherein his character wears a "Joey Lives" t-shirt and extols Joey's merits to a disbelieving boss. Haglund said: "I had a great time - there is nothing like a birthday party to celebrate someone's life."

Partying in the audience were musician "Handsome" Dick Manitoba (The Dictators, Manitoba's Wild Kingdom), NYC nightclub entrepreneur Trigger (owner of The Continental where Joey often held his own rock and roll events), and Maureen W, who is spearheading the movement to have the street in front of famed CBGB renamed "Joey Ramone Way." Said Manitoba: "Every time I hear the crowd shout 'Hey Ho Let's Go' at Yankee Stadium, I think of my friend Joey who is no longer here. Someone who gave the world so much great music should have one great party thrown in his honor every year." Summarizing the evening, Tabb commented: "It was a fun and wonderful evening, and an honor to work closely with Joey's family." Fields felt: "It was like a love fest! Knock one out of the park for Joey. It was just such a good feeling to be there, it lifted me up. Joey left a lot of love behind, and the evening was very intense for me." Trigger observed: "It was quite a beautiful night and Joey's presence was felt in a profound way. There were a lot of hugs and tears and memories, and the songs that will live on forever and ever. There was a lot of love for Joey, with everybody missing him, and a really good energy and vibe. When you hear the songs or when you see the friends and family, it just brings it back that much stronger. We all get busy with our lives and work, but when you see all these great people that were connected to Joey so strongly, the immediate family and the extended musical family, it brings everything up to the surface and just touches your heart."

Two specially designed t-shirts were sold at the event, as well a very special portrait of Joey created by artist Andrew Galindo. The original mixed media on paper work of art stands 5' x 3.5' and was exhibited at the Birthday Bash; it can also can be seen in the "What a Wonderful World Video." The original will be sold for charity, and a special edition of 500 20" x 30" Limited Edition Art Prints were produced, each hand signed and numbered. Both t-shirts and these posters are available for sale via the www.joeyramone.com website with proceeds going to the Lymphoma Research Foundation. Photos of Haglund and Galindo with the poster will be posted shortly on the site, as well as photos of the event taken by Holmstrom. A feature on the entire Bash will go on the Punk Magazine site, www.punkmagazine.com.

Donations may be sent to: "In Memory of Joey Ramone," Lymphoma Research Foundation, 111 Broadway, 19th floor, New York, NY 10006; www.lymphoma.org.

As we go to press we would like to convey our extreme sadness at the passing of Joey's former band mate, Dee Dee Ramone.

TOWER window display, 4th & Broadway, NYC