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341.
Red Star Records Press Kit.
NY: Red Star Records, Inc., c. February 1978. Xerox sheets (25), attached by staple at top left corner together with an original Roberta Bayley 8x10 b/w photograph of Alan Vega and Martin Rev at WTBS-FM’s studios in Cambridge, MA (pictured with Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe and “local radio personality”, Oedipus).
Red Star Records was founded in 1977 by Marty Thau, former New York Dolls manager and early supporter of the Ramones, Blondie and the Heartbreakers. The label’s first signings were Suicide and The Real Kids, as announced on the first page by press agent Miriam Linna (ex-Cramps/Nervus Rex/Zantees): “What you will find in these pages are reviews, articles, and general information about the label in particular, as well as about the first two recording acts which have signed with Red Star - - Suicide and the Real Kids.”
An attached newsletter describes Suicide as “the brainchild of two young men… Alan’s vocals are those of a demented biker in a lost world… Melody-wise, SUICIDE ranges from haunting pipe organs to chainsaws churning in the Dark… The album is possibly the only actual cumulative statement of rock ‘n’ roll music in this decade, and as such will play an important role in today’s music scene.”
The last eight pages are devoted to the Real Kids, formed in Boston by John Felice who, aged 15, had been a guitarist in the original line-up of the Modern Lovers. Slight wear at staple, o/w Very Good.
Together with:
i) a Red Star Records newsletter, also written by Miriam Linna, dated January 25, 1978. Stapled, 3pp. + photo-copy of Melody Maker review. In it, she reports on recent Real Kids engagements, as well as Suicide’s gigs at the Mabuhay in San Francisco and “triple billing with the Ramones and the Runaways at NYC’s 3600-seat Palladium Theatre”, and the growing reaction to them from both the media and audiences;
ii) Red Star Records press release, headlined “Frankies Tear-gassed!!”. Single sheet (slightly worn and torn). Reports on how “Suicide have set the tone by leaving audiences in a riotous state with their first two performances… [in] Metz, France, Suicide were pelted with an assortment of chairs, tables and bottles by frenzied fans”, while “Brussels resulted in the tear-gassing of the 2,000 plus audience by the local gendarmes. The ‘primal metallic’ duo’s set was curtailed by a near-mob scene which ensued at the start of ‘Frankie Teardrop’, when crazed Belgians stormed the stage and pinched the mike”;
iii) stapled 2pp. bulletin printing news that “Those unpredictable Red Star artists, Suicide, will make their long-awaited debut in England supporting Great Britain’s own front line new wavesters, the Clash… As their current tour with Elvis Costello, dubbed ‘Blood 78’, scorches a path through Europe and causes unprecedented audience reactions”. Prints a list of UK tour dates. Very Good.
