Category Archives: 80s

LOST BY THE EIGHT BALL by Peter Nolan Smith

From 2013 None of the cops from the 9th Precinct were happy about the closing of the basement bar next to their station house in the summer of 1980. Even fewer were excited by its re-opening as a French bistro. Evelyn’s Bistro was another sign that the East Village was giving way to a new […]

Stasi East Berlin 1982

In the autumn of 1982 the BSir’s DJ Henri Flesh and I jetted from Hamburg to Berlin’s Tempelhof aerport to see our friends from Helen Wheels play at a concert halle. We checked into a four-star hotel and toured the city. Of course the wall at Brandenburg Gate anda viewing from a raised platform of […]

NICHT FUN by Peter Nolan Smith

In the autumn of 1982 Henri Flesh and I flew to Berlin. We booked rooms at the Hotel Kempenski for a three-day holiday from BSIR, Hamburg’s most popular club, after working the entire summer. That night the French DJ and I went out to the Dschungel in Charlottesburg, where we ran into a pair of […]

A Curse on the White Man

Young men in the 1960s were constantly warned about the dangers of drugs, rock n roll, and sex. Sex not only led you to hell, but to Syphilis. We had no idea what Syphilis was, how you got it, and what you did once you had it other than horrific tales of doctors shoving an […]

Osama’s Brother

Back in 1984 I was visiting friends in London. Vonelli was living behind Harrods. A small studio in which Eric Burdon of the Animals’ wrote SAN FRANCISCO NIGHTS. This landlady was from America. Her daughter was a beauty. Her boyfriend was a Saudi pilot. he bought us champagne. Crystal not Moet. His girlfriend introduced him […]