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Leonard Chess

Leonard Samuel Chess (born Lejzor Szmuel Czyż; March 12, 1917 – October 16, 1969), best known simply as Leonard Chess, was a Polish-American record company executive and the co-founder of Chess Records. He was influential in the development of electric blues, Chicago blues, and rock and roll.

Early life
Chess was born to Polish-Jewish parents in Motal, now in Belarus. He and his brother, Fiszel, sister, Malka, and mother arrived in New York in 1928 from Poland. They quickly went to Chicago to join their father, Joseph, who was already engaged in the liquor business, which was illegal at the height of Prohibition and controlled in Chicago by Al Capone. The family name was changed to Chess, with Lejzor becoming Leonard and Fiszel becoming Philip.

Chess Records
Leonard and his brother Phil became involved in the black nightclub scene on the South Side of Chicago in 1938 running a series of jazz clubs, culminating in the Macomba Lounge. In 1947, Leonard became associated with Aristocrat Records, increasing his share in the company over time; eventually he and Phil would acquire complete control. The Chess brothers moved the company away from black pop and jazz and other genres into down home blues music with artists such as Muddy Waters. In 1950, the Chess brothers renamed the company Chess Records. "My Foolish Heart" (Gene Ammons), "Rollin' Stone" (Muddy Waters), and "That's All Right" (Jimmy Rogers) were among the first releases on the new label. Leonard Chess played bass drum on one of Muddy Waters' sessions in 1951, specifically on the tracks "She Moves Me" and "Still A Fool".

Chess contacted Sam Phillips (of Sun Records) to help find and record new artists from the South. Phillips supplied Chess with recordings by Howlin' Wolf, Rufus Thomas, and Doctor Ross among others. Of these, Howlin' Wolf in particular became very popular, and Chess Records had to vie for him with other companies which had also been supplied with Wolf recordings by Phillips. In time, other important artists signed with Chess Records, including Bo Diddley and Sonny Boy Williamson, while Willie Dixon and Robert Lockwood Jr. took on a significant role behind the scenes. In the 1950s, Chess Records' commercial success grew with artists such as Little Walter, The Moonglows, The Flamingos, and Chuck Berry, and in the '60s with Etta James, Fontella Bass, Koko Taylor, Little Milton, Laura Lee, and Tommy Tucker, as well as with the subsidiary labels Checker, Argo, and Cadet. As the 1960s progressed, Chess's recording enterprise branched out into other genres including gospel, traditional jazz, spoken word, comedy, and more. In the early 1960s, Chess became involved in the broadcasting business as part owner of WVON-AM radio and later acquired WSDM-FM, both in Chicago.

Personal life and legacy

In 1941, he married Revetta Sloan, who was also Jewish; they had three children: son Marshall and two daughters, Elaine and Susie. On October 16, 1969, a few months after selling his namesake label to General Recorded Tape, Leonard Chess died of a heart attack. He was buried at Westlawn Cemetery in Norridge, Illinois.

Music industry historian John Broven has written that "Leonard Chess was the dynamo behind Chess Records, the label that, along with Atlantic and Sun, has come to epitomize the independent record business. ... Leonard Chess set new standards for the industry in artist development, deal making, networking, and marketing and promotion…" He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, posthumously, in the non-performer category.

Film and TV adaptations
Chess was the focus of 2008 movies Cadillac Records (portrayed by Adrien Brody) and Who Do You Love? (portrayed by Alessandro Nivola) which are also fictional accounts of the ascent (and descent) of the label itself and the personnel who were involved or recorded at Chess Records.

He is portrayed by Rob Morrow on CMT's drama series titled Sun Records.

title: Leonard Chess


text:
Steve Beresford

Steve Beresford (born 6 March 1950) is a British musician who graduated from the University of York He has played a variety of instruments, including piano, electronics, trumpet, euphonium, bass guitar and a wide variety of toy instruments, such as the toy piano. He has also played a wide range of music. He is probably best known for free improvisation, but has also written music for film and television and has been involved with a number of pop music groups.

Career
Beresford played in Derek Bailey's Company events and in the groups Alterations with David Toop, Terry Day and Peter Cusack, and the Three Pullovers with Nigel Coombes and Roger Smith. He was also a member with Gavin Bryars and Brian Eno of the Portsmouth Sinfonia.

Beresford has continued to play free improvisation with a number of prominent musicians, including Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, John Zorn, and Han Bennink. He has collaborated extensively with Swiss-American artist/musician Christian Marclay and is member of the London Improvisers Orchestra.

From 2010 he performed various pieces by John Cage, including Indeterminacy with Tania Chen and comedian Stewart Lee, and a performance with Ilan Volkov at The BBC Proms 2012 at The Royal Albert Hall in London.

He has also worked with a number of popular musicians, including Ray Davis, The Slits, Frank Chickens, Ted Milton and The Flying Lizards. In 2015 he performed a duoproject with the upcoming Norwegian singer Natalie Sandtorv at the Blow Out! festival in Oslo, Norway.

He was awarded a Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists in 2012. He is a senior lecturer on the Commercial Music course at University of Westminster.

Beresford's music and his teachings have inspired the musical community in the UK for over a decade. British songwriter and performer Katy Carr cites Steve Beresford's lectures on musical themes associated with Free improvisation, Experimental music, John Cage, musique concrète, Diamanda Galás and The Slits as a source of initial inspiration with regards to the creation of her debut album, Screwing Lies released in 2001.

The authors of the Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings called Beresford "one of the unsung geniuses of modern European music, a constant presence whose contribution is usually unremarked."

Discography

 * 1975 Teatime with Nigel Coombes, John Russell, Dave Solomon, Garry Todd (Incus)
 * 1980 Whirled Music with Paul Burwell, Max Eastley, David Toop (Quartz Publications)
 * 1980 White String's Attached with Nigel Coombes (Bead)
 * 1980 The Bath of Surprise (Piano)
 * 1980 Imitation of Life with Tristan Honsinger, Toshinori Kondo, David Toop (Y)
 * 1981 Double Indemnity with Tristan Honsinger (Y)
 * 1986 Deadly Weapons with Tonie Marshall, David Toop, John Zorn (Nato)
 * 1986 Dancing the Line with Anne Marie Beretta (Nato)
 * 1987 Avril Brise (Cinenato)
 * 1987 Directly to Pyjamas with Han Bennink (Nato)
 * 1988 L'Extraordinaire Jardin De Charles Trenet (Chabada)
 * 1989 Pentimento (Cinenato)
 * 1995 Signals for Tea (Avant)
 * 1996 Short in the U.K. with Palmer, Stagner, Turner (Incus)
 * 1996 Cue Sheets (Tzadik)
 * 1996 Fish of the Week (Scatter)
 * 1997 Two to Tangle with Nigel Coombes (Emanem)
 * 1999 Foxes Fox with Evan Parker, John Edwards, Louis Moholo (Emanem)
 * 2001 3 Pianos with Pat Thomas, Veryan Weston (Emanem)
 * 2002 Cue Sheets II (Tzadik)
 * 2002 Steve Beresford (Kabukikore)
 * 2002 B + B with Han Bennink (Instant Composers Pool)
 * 2003 Live at the Friends Meeting House (Planet Mu)
 * 2003 Trap Street with Alan Tomlinson, Roger Turner (Emanem)
 * 2003 Guarda Avanti with Mike Cooper, Max Eastley, Viv Dogan Corringham, Lol Coxhill (Hipshot)
 * 2004 I Shall Become a Bat (Qbico)
 * 2004 Ointment with Tania Chen (Rossbin)
 * 2005 Naan Tso with Foxes Fox (Evan Parker, Beresford, John Edwards, and Louis Moholo-Moholo) (Psi)
 * 2009 Check for Monsters with Okkyung Lee, Peter Evans (Emanem)
 * 2011 Wels, Mulhouse, Paris & Lyon with Noel Akchote, Andrew Sharpley
 * 2011 Ink Room with Stephen Flinn, Dave Tucker (Creative Sources)
 * 2011 Snodland with Matt Wilson (Nato)
 * 2012 Indeterminacy with Tania Chen, Stewart Lee (Knitted)
 * 2012 Berlin Toy Bazaar with Anna Homler, Richard Sanderson (Linear Obsessional Recordings)
 * 2013 Overground to the Vortex with Francois Carrier, Michel Lambert, John Edwards (Not Two)
 * 2013 Three Babies with Martin Kuechen, Stale Liavik Solberg (Peira)
 * 2014 Passages with Shezad Dawoo (Op.50)
 * 2015 Will It Float? with Russell, Edwards, Liavik Solberg (Va Fongool)
 * 2015 Outgoing with Francois Carrier, John Edwards, Michel Lambert (FMR)
 * 2015 Live at White Cube
 * 2015 Blow Out! with Paal Nilssen-Love, Stale Liavik Solberg (Konsertforeninga)
 * 2017 Kontakte Trio with Trevor Taylor, Ian Brighton (FMR)
 * 2017 Hesitantly Pleasant Mike Caratti, Rachel Musson (Iluso)
 * 2017 Live in Prague with Houtcamp, Blume
 * 2018 Pleasures of the Horror with Eugene Chadbourne, Alex Ward (Bisou)
 * 2019 All Will Be Said, All to Do Again with Sarah Gail Brand, John Edwards, Mark Sanders (Regardless)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Steve Beresford


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Plasmatics

The Plasmatics were an American punk rock, hardcore punk and heavy metal band formed by Rod Swenson and Wendy O. Williams in New York City in 1977. They were a controversial group known for chaotic, destructive live shows and outrageous theatrics. These included chainsawing guitars, destroying speaker cabinets, sledgehammering television sets and blowing up automobiles live on stage. Williams was arrested in Milwaukee by the Milwaukee Police before being charged with public indecency.

The Plasmatics' career spanned five studio albums and multiple EPs. The band was composed of lead vocalist Wendy O. Williams and various other musicians rotating behind her over time. Aside from Williams and manager Rod Swenson, guitarist Wes Beech was the only other permanent member of the group. Guitarist Richie Stotts was a co-founder of the band and a mainstay of the pre-breakup core group (1978–1983). After the full breakup of the band following the release of Coup d'etat, Stotts was edited out of band videos and was not referred to by name in a 2006 compilation DVD released by Plasmatics Media LLC (via plasmatics.com).

Formation and early years (1977–1979)
In 1977, Rod Swenson, who received his Master of Fine Arts in 1969 from Yale University where he specialized in conceptual, performance, and neo-dadaist art, holding the view that the measure of true or high art is how confrontational it is. He began a series of counter-culture projects which, by the mid-'70s, found him in the heart of Times Square producing experimental counter-culture theater as well as video and shows with the likes of the then-little-known bands The Dead Boys, The Ramones, Patti Smith, and others. It was there that he met Wendy O. Williams after Williams found a copy of Show Business Weekly someone had discarded on the bus station floor. The issue lay open to a page with an ad in the casting calls section for Swenson's theater show Captain Kink's Sex Fantasy Theater. She answered the ad and applied for a job.

Williams and Swenson began auditioning potential band members in 1977 and, in July 1978, the Plasmatics gave their first public performance at what had become the rock shrine CBGB on New York City's Bowery. The earliest version of the band was a three-piece put together with a strong emphasis on visuals. The band quickly realized they needed another guitarist to hold them together musically. Guitarist Wes Beech joined the group and he would become, after Williams, the only permanent member of the band playing or touring behind or involved in the production of every Plasmatics and Wendy O. Williams record ever recorded. From their initial gig at CBGB, the Plasmatics quickly rose in the New York City punk underground scene of the time. From playing a single weekday night, they moved quickly to playing repeated stands of four nights straight with two sold-out shows each night. They had lines stretching around the block and brought more fans into CBGB during this time than any other band. The group quickly outgrew CBGB. The band's stage show soon became notorious with acts such as chainsawing guitars in half part of their performance. Jim Farber of Sounds described the show: "Lead singer/ex-porn star/current weightlifter Wendy Orleans Williams (W.O.W. for short) spends most of the Plasmatics' show fondling her family size breasts, scratching her sweaty snatch and eating the drum kit, among other playful events".

Rod Swenson soon made a deal to book what was then a little-known polka hall called Irving Plaza from the Polish War Veterans who ran it at the time. The band repeatedly sold out the venue, with the Plasmatics helping to give Irving Plaza national recognition and launch it on the path to becoming an established rock venue in New York City. Having then caught the attention of important people in the entertainment world of New York City, the Plasmatics headlined the Palladium on November 16, 1979, the first group in history to do so at full ticket prices and without a major label recording contract.

New Hope for the Wretched, Beyond the Valley of 1984 and Metal Priestess (1980–1981)
The Plasmatics were soon selling out shows in Philadelphia, Boston, venues in New Jersey, and elsewhere in the Northeast. Chris Knowles of Classic Rock magazine wrote: the Plasmatics "were the biggest live attraction in New York... and the media was on them like white on rice... It's one thing to play at subversiveness, but The Plasmatics, unlike other Punk bands... put their Punk philosophy into action." Many U.S. record labels were reluctant to sign the band; The band was signed by Stiff Records, a British label, in March 1980, and appeared on the cover of Sounds in June of that year. Artists and Repertoire (A&R) from Stiff Records flew to New York City to see a show in person to determine if what they had been reading and hearing could possibly be real. The day after seeing the performance, Stiff put in an offer and a deal was inked within a month. A few months later, The Plasmatics began to record songs in New York City for what would become the album New Hope for the Wretched. As creative decisions go, Stiff's choice to ask long-time Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller to be behind the console for these recordings was not the best.

In addition to songs like "Corruption" and "Living Dead" – linked to TV smashing and automobile destruction – "Butcher Baby" featured a chainsaw sawing through a guitar, in place of a guitar solo, which was replicated during live shows. The Plasmatics visited the UK for a tour, which met with opposition from some quarters including the Greater London Council (GLC), particularly for their intention to blow up a car on stage and Williams' semi-nudity. The GLC canceled the band's show at the Hammersmith Odeon after fire inspectors decided the show would not meet safety requirements, although police had already arrived to disperse the gathering crowd before the decision had officially been taken. (Williams, recalled Debbie Harry in 2014, "was such a big deal back then. She showed her tits and she blew up cars on stage and broke TVs – and now it would just be normal." ) Released as a single by Stiff Records, "Butcher Baby" reached No. 55 on the UK Singles Chart.

Stiff America had scheduled a release and a US tour. To capitalize on the band's popularity, the US edition of the album was packaged with a poster for the canceled Hammersmith Odeon show and an insert for the Plasmatics Secret Service, the official fan club. The album reached No. 55 on the UK Albums Chart. The band was set to tour the West Coast for the first time after the London cancellation and get their momentum back. To kick off the tour, Williams drove a Cadillac towards a stage at a free concert on New York City's Pier 62 loaded with explosives, jumping out moments before the car would hit the stage, blowing up all the equipment. The permits needed for this were hard to get and only allowed for an estimated 5–6,000 people. The day of the performance, 10,000 showed up, jamming the downtown streets and lining the rooftops. Even though it cost virtually the entire advance for the US release of New Hope for the Wretched to do it, Williams was quoted by a reporter from the Associated Press as saying, "It was worth it because it showed that these are just things and... people shouldn't worship them," a point she'd repeat more than once.

The Plasmatics' debut in Los Angeles was at the famed Whisky a Go Go. The show was originally planned for only two nights but was later expanded to four due to large sold-out crowds.

The ABC show Fridays, which was looking to be a more cutting-edge version of Saturday Night Live, booked Williams and the Plasmatics to appear in late December to go live on national TV.

In January 1981, Williams' stage performance in Milwaukee led to her arrest on charges of indecency after she reportedly "simulated masturbation with a sledge hammer in front of an audience". After objecting to being searched she was thrown to the ground and reportedly kicked in the face (later requiring a dozen stitches), with manager Rod Swenson also beaten unconscious when he tried to intervene. Williams was charged with battery of a police officer, resisting arrest, and "conduct in violation of a Milwaukee city ordinance pertaining to establishments that sell liquor", with Swenson also charged, but both were later cleared of all charges. A subsequent performance at The Palms nightclub sold out, and passed without incident, although the venue was raided after the show by the vice squad, with more than 30 police officers in attendance in case of trouble. Williams was also arrested on obscenity charges in Cleveland, but she was again acquitted.

A second album was long overdue but due to the ongoing legal battles and the Miller debacle with the first album, which was costly both in terms of time and money, it was agreed that this one had to be lean and mean. Bruce Kirkland at Stiff agreed to put up the funds as long as Swenson produced and the album was done in less than three weeks at a quarter of the cost of the first.

Given the recent turn of events, Swenson proposed the name Beyond the Valley of 1984. The tour, in 1981, became "The 1984 World Tour". In between touring drummers, Alice Cooper's Neal Smith was brought in to drum on the record. The album, with its Orwellian and apocalyptic theme, and songs such as "Masterplan", "Pig is a Pig" and "Sex Junkie", was released a few months later. During the album's recording, the Plasmatics were booked on Tom Snyder's late night TV show, on which the host introduced them as possibly "the greatest punk rock band in the entire world." Recording engineer Eddie Ciletti mixed the record at the Ranch recording studio in New York as well as the TV sound for the Snyder performance.

The album cover for Beyond the Valley was photographed in the Arizona desert where Williams appears on horseback with the band (without a drummer) as the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse".

The 1984 World Tour continued with the bold slogan "Down On Your Knees and Pledge Allegiance!".

During the last part of the tour, Swenson was contacted by American singer, songwriter and record producer Dan Hartman's office, asking for a meeting with Williams and Swenson. Hartman, who produced 38 Special, James Brown, and others, had been working on a session in LA when he picked up Beyond the Valley of 1984 and could not stop playing it. He felt it was "groundbreaking". He said, "I knew I wanted to meet these people and do something with them." Hartman came down to the Tribeca loft, met Williams and Swenson, and a month later he and Swenson were working on the production of the Metal Priestess mini-LP. The band needed more product but another album was premature, partly because Capitol Records was now making overtures for the next one. Bruce Kirkland at Stiff was ready to release it and that summer Metal Priestess was recorded at Hartman's private studio off his schoolhouse-turned-home in Connecticut. Released early that fall, Metal Priestess saw the band move closer to heavy metal, and included new members Chris "Junior" Romanelli (replacing Jean Beauvoir) and Joey Reese.

In October 1981, the band made an appearance on the Fishin' Musician segment of SCTV on NBC, shortly after the release of Metal Priestess.

Coup d'Etat (1982–1983)
By the spring of 1982, a worldwide deal was signed with Capitol Records, and Dan Hartman offered to produce a demo of the album for Capitol with Swenson at Electric Lady Studios, Jimi Hendrix's old studio, in New York. The whole album was arranged, recorded and mixed within a week. Dieter Dierks, who had just come off a number one album with Scorpions, also expressed interest in producing.

Coup d'Etat was a breakthrough album that began to blend the punk and metal genres, something that would later be done by bands such as S.O.D., Anthrax, and the Cro-Mags by the end of the 1980s. Williams also broke ground for her unique singing style. She pushed her voice so hard she had to make trips into Cologne, Germany, where the album was being recorded, each day for treatments to avoid permanent damage to her vocal cords.

The Hartman demo was released 20 years later under the name Coup de Grace. The rawer version of Coup d'Etat, which took less than a tenth of the time and a fraction of the budget, is hailed by many fans as the true version of the album.

The video Swenson produced and directed of "The Damned" featured Williams driving a school bus through a wall of TVs, climbing onto the roof of a moving bus which had been loaded with explosives, and then singing from the roof and jumping off a few moments before the bus goes through the second wall of TVs and then blows sky high.

As touring began, it became clear that Capitol was beginning to turn away from the group in favor of groups such as Duran Duran, who could generate ten times the sales with none of the political liability and fallout. Soon after the album was released, Capitol Records dropped the Plasmatics.

In 1982, Lemmy of Motörhead was approached by his label to do a follow-up to his successful Motörhead/Girlschool collaboration, St. Valentine's Day Massacre EP and Motörhead's manager Doug Smith got in touch with Rod Swenson in the States and proposed a duet of the country classic "Stand by Your Man" by Williams and Lemmy. The B-side would have two tracks, the Plasmatics' "Masterplan" sung by Lemmy and Motörhead's "No Class" sung by Williams. The A-side would have Williams and Lemmy in a duet of the title track of the EP.

Tracked at a Canadian recording studio, the Stand by Your Man sessions proved to be tumultuous as guitarist Eddie Clarke (who was producing the tracks, but not playing on them) quit Motörhead in the middle of the project. Rod Swenson and Dan Hartman, who had finished demoing the Plasmatics Coup d'Etat album together, were called upon to finish the rough and raw project in the mix which they did at Electric Lady Studios in New York. Swenson then shot the cover with Lemmy and Williams on it and the raw project was put out by Bronze records.

Hiatus and Wendy O. Williams' solo career (1984–1986)
In 1982, Kiss asked for Williams and the Plasmatics to appear as a special guest on their tour. Kiss wanted the controversial street edge that Williams would bring as part of their tour and for the Plasmatics it was a chance to play in front of different audiences in different markets than they would ordinarily play. By the end of the tour with Kiss it was clear that, although the formal notice that Capitol would not pick up their option for a second album did not come in for six months, the relationship with Capitol was done. It had taken months for the deal to be done, months to record and release the album and now months to get out of the deal. Gene Simmons approached Williams and Swenson about producing the next Wendy O. Williams album. To avoid any wasted time in legal issues with Capitol Records, it was decided not to use the Plasmatics name on the record at all and was simply called WOW, the initials of Wendy O. Williams. Gene Simmons felt it would give him the freedom he wanted to add more new players to the album.

Wes Beech remained to play rhythm and lead and T.C. Tolliver, the drummer on Coup d'Etat, remained to play on the new album. Gene Simmons played bass under the pseudonym of "Reginald Van Helsing". The only other new player on the album was lead guitarist Michael Ray, brought in to solve the technical challenges that had been a problem for several albums and had come to a head with the more complex music of Coup D'Etat. Simmons also pulled in the talents of Ace Frehley, who had not played with Kiss since leaving the band years before, Paul Stanley, and then-current Kiss drummer Eric Carr and guitarist Vinnie Vincent each did one song as guests. The record was released on Passport (international and U.S. distribution by JEM).

Review copies were sent out to the various media outlets. Malcolm Dome, a reviewer for Kerrang! magazine, had picked the WOW album as his album of the year. Williams received a Grammy nomination for 'Best Female Rock Vocal' in 1985.

With Mohawks now starting to become common, Williams decided to let her hair grow in, and the cover Swenson shot for what would be called the "album of the year" in the pages of Kerrang! was the opposite of the earlier covers; total simplicity.

Wes Beech took a sabbatical for personal reasons and would not accompany the band on the next tour. The band decided to return to being a three-piece. Beech came in as associate producer with Swenson on the album and worked on writing, arranging and recording, but the recording would be Ray, Tolliver, and Greg Smith (who would go on to play with Alice Cooper, Ritchie Blackmore and others and who had been brought in as the touring bassist for the WOW album). There was tremendous excitement in tackling the project as a kind of minimalist, stripped down concept, or rite of purification. The songs, including the lyrics, would also be minimalistic or archetypal, again giving Williams a chance to take her vocals a step further. The tempo of the WOW album had been slower than previous albums in an effort to open it up, but the new album Kommander of Kaos (a.k.a. KOK) was to bring back the speed and then some. Songs would be played at breakneck speeds, with screaming leads and vocals. The recording was done in Fairfield, New Jersey at the giant Broccoli Rabe Recording complex which would be home to several Wendy O./Plasmatics Projects including three studio albums with what the group fondly called "The Fairfield Sound".

Maggots: The Record (1987–1988)
Beech had rejoined the band to both tour and play on the next album where the re-formed four-piece band became a centerpiece for perhaps the most complex arrangements in the band's career. After the archetypal minimalism, both lyrically and musically of Kommander, the new album, which would again carry the Plasmatics name, was filled with complexity and returned to the social and political themes previously found most strongly in Coup but also in 1984 before it: environmental decay and a world where excess and abuse led directly to a doomsday scenario.

Maggots: The Record was recorded in 1987 and set 25 years in a future where environmental abuse and the burning of fossil fuels have created a greenhouse effect leading to an end of the world scenario. Called by many the first "thrash metal opera", the central theme of the album is an end of the world scenario that follows from genetic engineering and global warming, something that was not at all part of the general public awareness of the time. A group of scientists trying to eliminate pollution in the rivers and oceans develop an RNA retrovirus designed to eat it all up and then die once the pollution has been consumed. But global warming leading to the flooding of land areas instead puts the virus in contact with the "common maggot" leading to a mutated form of maggot that doubles in size with each generation looking for more and more things to consume. In the "end of the world" finale, cities are being destroyed and humans consumed by giant maggots a horrific metaphorical end to a world blind to human consumption and environmental destruction.

The album features various scenes of The White Family over the course of three days. The family is devoured while watching a TV game show. Valerie, the girlfriend of hot-shot television reporter Bruce is devoured by three massive maggots while lying in her boyfriend's bed. The final scene has Cindy White trying to fight off the attacking maggots and running out onto a fire escape where she sees the crowded streets below as the record shows the entire human population is headed for imminent annihilation. The album was on the WOW label; distributed by Profile Records in the U.S. and overseas by GWR Records, which had been started by Motörhead's longtime manager Doug Smith.

Williams did a performance piece to inaugurate the album at New York City's Palladium, which had been transformed from a proscenium theater into a huge multi-level club where she sledgehammered and chainsawed to smithereens a facsimile all-American living room. "Maggots: The Tour" began a week later using the Plasmatics name for the first time in two albums with slogans such as "Those Now Eating Will Soon Be Eaten," "The Day of the Humans is Gone," and lyrics such as "soldiers for the DNA dissidents are put away, dragged off in the dead of night, disappear without a sight". Rear screen projectors ran film of human disasters, fascists and other historical horrors, environmental carnage and human rights violations on huge screens behind the band during all the songs from the Maggots album.

A review in Kerrang! came out shortly thereafter: A 5 out of 5 Ks, "Quite simply a masterpiece... a work of genius." Williams' vocal work "reduces Celtic Frost's Tom G. Warrior's 'death grunts' to mere whimpers" it went on coupled with "a mixture of hedonistic operatic melodies..gut forged to some of the heaviest armadillo beats you're ever like to hear committed to vinyl."

Musicians
Final lineup
 * Wendy O. Williams – vocals (1978–1983, 1987–1988; died 1998)
 * Wes Beech – guitar (1979–1983, 1987–1988), keyboards (1979–1983, 1983, 1987–1988)
 * Chris Romanelli – bass (1981–1983, 1983, 1987–1988), keyboards (1981–1983, 1987–1988)
 * Michael Ray – guitar (1987–1988)
 * Ray Callahan – drums (1987–1988)

Former members
 * Richie Stotts – guitar (1978–1983)
 * Chosei Funahara – bass (1978–1980)
 * Jean Beauvoir – bass, keyboards (1980–1981)
 * Greg Smith – bass (1983)
 * Stu Deutsch – drums (1978–1981)
 * Joey Reese – drums (1981–1982)
 * Tony Petri - drums (1981)
 * T.C. Tolliver – drums (1982–1983)

Personnel

 * George Pierson – tour/sound manager
 * Jim Cherry – road manager
 * Jim Kramer – booking agent
 * Pyro Pete Cappadocia – live pyrotechnics
 * Mick "Agent Orange" Bello – roadie

Studio albums

 * New Hope for the Wretched (1980)
 * Beyond the Valley of 1984 (1981)
 * Coup d'etat (1982)
 * Maggots: The Record (1987)
 * Coup de Grace (2000)

EPs

 * Butcher Baby (1978)
 * Dream Lover (1979)
 * Monkey Suit (1980)
 * Metal Priestess (1981)

title: Plasmatics


text:
User:Pedreco

Pedreco, if this is Pedro Aguiar, please stop. This is not the sort of information that goes on Wikipedia. Articles about idiosyncratic things like micronations are not the purpose of Wikipedia. Take it from me (Matt). - Montréalais

Au contraire. Add away. Just please don't use the CIA World Factbook style; use Wikipedia style; that is, primarily paragraph-based (see Atlantium for a fully fledged example-- Porto Claro is in the right direction). --The Cunctator

Why should these be here? Do we allow other idiosyncratic phenomena? - Montréalais

 * Agreed, these are pretty sophomoric. I thought our goal was to produce a serious encyclopedia. Danny

I seriously doubt the value of the material being listed by Pedreco. Many of the listed micronations are defunct, and a significant proportion of the data being included in articles for those that are not is complete and utter fantasy. Wikipedia is not a work of fiction. These are fictional listings and should therefore be deleted. There *are* a tiny handful of micronations that have an extensive documented history (ie not just a web page) and some form of existence in the "real world" but they are either already dealt with in the "micronation" article, or have their own separate articles already.

title: User:Pedreco


text:
Poison (band)

Poison is an American glam metal band formed in 1983 in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. The most successful incarnation of the band consists of lead singer and rhythm guitarist Bret Michaels, drummer Rikki Rockett, bassist Bobby Dall and lead guitarist C.C. DeVille. The band achieved huge commercial success in the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s and sold over 40 million records and DVDs worldwide.

The band is perhaps best known for the Billboard Hot 100 number one hit single "Every Rose Has Its Thorn", and other top 40 hit singles in the 1980s and 1990s, including "Talk Dirty to Me", "I Won't Forget You", "Nothin' But a Good Time", "Fallen Angel", "Your Mama Don't Dance", "Unskinny Bop", "Something to Believe In", "Ride the Wind", and "Life Goes On." The band's breakthrough debut album, the multi-platinum Look What the Cat Dragged In, was released in 1986, followed by Open Up and Say... Ahh!, which was certified 5× platinum in the US. Their third consecutive multi-platinum and best selling album was Flesh & Blood. In the 1990s following the release of the band's first live album, Swallow This Live, the band experienced some line up changes and the fall of glam metal with the grunge movement. But the band's fourth studio album, Native Tongue, still achieved Gold status and the band's first compilation album, Poison's Greatest Hits: 1986–1996, went double platinum.

The original line up reformed for a greatest hits reunion tour in 1999. The band began the 2000s with the release of Crack a Smile... and More!, followed by the Power to the People album. They released the album, Hollyweird, in 2002 and in 2006 the band celebrated their 20-year anniversary with The Best of Poison: 20 Years of Rock tour and album, which was certified Gold and marked Poison's return to the Billboard top 20 charts for the first time since 1993. Band members have released several solo albums and starred in reality TV shows. Since their debut in 1986, they have released seven studio albums, four live albums, five compilation albums, and have issued 28 singles to radio. In 2012 VH1 ranked them at No. 1 on their list of the "Top 5 Hair Bands of the '80s".

Early years (1983–1985)
Poison, initially named Paris, was formed in 1983, in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania and consisted of lead vocalist Bret Michaels, drummer Rikki Rockett and lead guitarist Matt Smith.

Michaels began his performing career with a basement band called Laser and, then, in 1979, joined longtime childhood friend Rockett to form a band called the Spectres. In 1980, Michaels and Rockett teamed up with Smith and Dall to form the band Paris and the group started playing the club circuit, performing mostly rock cover songs in local bars. According to Vicky Hamilton, Poison's first manager, the band's sound at this time revolved around guitarist Smith, who was by far the best musician in the group. While Smith was responsible for music, Rockett and Michaels focused on the band's stage show and image. Paris formed a strong local following in Pennsylvania but saw little opportunity of larger success there, and the decision was made to move to Los Angeles. In March 1983, Paris changed their name to Poison and headed west to California.

Arrival of DeVille
Now based in Los Angeles, Poison's stage show began earning them considerable attention in the West Hollywood Sunset Strip club circuit. The band lived together in a small apartment on Orange St. in Hollywood, and many local female fans began bringing them bags of groceries and cleaning the apartment in exchange for the opportunity to spend time with the band members. The Pennsylvania natives endured culture shock upon settling in Hollywood; "The first week we're seeing people get their asses kicked out front. I remember this pimp was literally smacking the hell out of his ho across the street", Rockett recalled of Poison's early days on the Sunset Strip. That same pimp would later pull a large knife on the band when they decided to intervene, and they learned quickly not to get involved in such matters. Hamilton, who had previously represented Stryper and who would go on to discover Guns N' Roses, negotiated a deal with influential club The Troubadour which would provide the band with a regular gig and allow them to further develop their image and stage show. They recorded demos for Atlantic Records but ultimately the label passed on the band. By 1985, guitarist Smith was rapidly becoming disillusioned with Poison, as he was about to become a father and was growing doubtful of the band's chances of success. He subsequently left the band and returned home to Pennsylvania, leaving Poison's future very much in doubt.

The band auditioned several guitarists in Los Angeles and eventually narrowed the field down to two candidates, Slash and C.C. DeVille. The band knew Slash from the band Hollywood Rose, which he was a member of before joining Guns N' Roses, but the band was hoping to find an east coast guitarist. DeVille recently turned down an offer to join Christian rockers Stryper, and although the rest of Poison were duly impressed with his playing and image, they did not care for his brash New York personality. DeVille reportedly dismissed the material written by the band which he had been asked to learn for the audition, and clashed with Poison over which songs would encompass the audition. Michaels and Dall, in particular, disliked the guitarist on a personal level and had strong misgivings about hiring him. Ultimately, in spite of their apprehension, the band decided that DeVille's talent and drive to succeed made him the best choice. The band's desire to replace Smith with another east coast guitarist fueled the move to hire DeVille over Slash. The band also saw hit single potential in the song DeVille brought with him to the audition, "Talk Dirty to Me", a song from his previous group The Screaming Mimis.

Look What the Cat Dragged In and Open Up and Say...Ahh! (1986–1989)
Unable to secure a major label recording contract, Poison signed by Steev Riccardo with the smaller Enigma Records in 1986 (see 1986 in music) for approximately $30,000, a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of dollars many similar acts were receiving from major labels at the time. Their debut album, Look What the Cat Dragged In, was released on May 23, 1986, with the band members themselves partially funding the recording. The album was initially expected to produce only one single, "Cry Tough"; however, Look What the Cat Dragged In became a surprise success and subsequently spawned three charting hits: "Talk Dirty to Me", "I Want Action", and "I Won't Forget You", The record became the biggest-selling-album in Enigma's history. With heavy rotation on MTV, their debut earned the band tours with fellow glam rockers Ratt, Cinderella, and Quiet Riot, as well as a coveted slot in the Texxas Jam in Dallas. In 1987 the band recorded a cover of the Kiss song "Rock and Roll All Nite" for soundtrack to Less than Zero. Poison's second album, Open Up and Say...Ahh!, was released May 21, 1988. It peaked at No. 2 on the American charts. The album included the band's biggest hit, the No. 1 single "Every Rose Has Its Thorn", along with other hits "Nothin' but a Good Time", "Fallen Angel", and the Loggins and Messina cover "Your Mama Don't Dance". The album's initial cover art was controversial, as it depicted a demonic female figure with an obscenely long tongue. A censored version of the cover followed, focusing on the figure's eyes. In 1989, the band released their first video album titled Sight for Sore Ears which featured all their music videos from the first two albums.

Conflict pursued the band persistently. Michaels' frequent brawling garnered him further lawsuits in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Tallahassee. Bryn Bridenthal, head of publicity at Geffen Records, filed a $1.1 million lawsuit against the band for drenching her with drinks and a bucket of ice at a music industry party. Then, Sanctuary Music, Poison's former management company, filed a $45.5 million breach of contract suit against the band. Poison retaliated with charges of mismanagement of funds. Easy Action filed a lawsuit, claiming that Poison stole the chorus of their song "We Go Rocking" for their single I Want Action. As recalled by Easy Actions singer in an interview with Rock United, they received an unspecified financial settlement for the alleged plagiarism in 1989. DeVille put the amount at $25,000 in a 1994 radio interview with Lonn Friend.

Flesh & Blood and Swallow This Live (1990–1992)
Poison continued their adherence to the "work hard, play hard" motto, following up with their third album, Flesh & Blood, which was released June 21, 1990. It also was highly successful, being certified 3× Platinum in the U.S. and 4× Platinum in Canada. The album's success prompted the impetus for a further world tour. The album also features an alternative cover, as the original featured what appeared to be running ink or possibly blood from a tattoo. The record went multi-platinum, spawning two gold singles: "Unskinny Bop" and the ballad "Something To Believe In" which was dedicated to the band's security guard and close friend James Kimo Maano who had died. "Ride the Wind" and "Life Goes On" were the other single releases that charted, the last single released was the title cut, "Flesh & Blood (Sacrifice)".

Poison received a letter from Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney thanking the band for contributing 20,000 CDs of the album Flesh & Blood to lift the morale of U.S. Troops during Desert Storm, and their continued support of the Armed Forces.

One of the band's few appearances in the UK was on August 18, 1990, at Donington's Monsters of Rock festival in the summer of 1990. Whitesnake and Aerosmith headlined with Poison, Quireboys and Thunder supporting them. This event was broadcast on BBC Radio 1.

After two consecutive years on the road, band members were at each other's throats with personal differences and drug addictions. Poison recorded several performances during its 1990/1991 Flesh & Blood world tour, which were released in November 1991 as the band's fourth album, Swallow This Live. The double album features live tracks from Poison's first three studio albums and four new studio tracks including the single "So Tell Me Why", which were the last recorded before C.C. DeVille's departure from the band later that year.

Native Tongue, Greatest Hits and Crack a Smile (1993–2000)
DeVille was fired and replaced by guitarist Richie Kotzen. Poison's fourth album, Native Tongue, was released February 8, 1993. It was strongly influenced by Kotzen's fresh songwriting contributions and guitar performance. It marked a change for the band as they abandoned their anthemic party tunes to focus on more serious subjects, and was far more blues-rock oriented than glam metal. Containing the singles "Stand" which featured the Los Angeles First A.M.E. Church Choir on backing vocals, "Until You Suffer Some (Fire And Ice)" and "Body Talk", the album received generally positive reviews and did go Gold, but following the arrival of grunge sales were sluggish compared with the first three albums. The band toured in support of the album, but tensions mounted between Kotzen and the rest of the band. Kotzen's future in the band was doomed when it was discovered that he had become romantically involved with Rockett's then-fiancée Deanna Eve. Kotzen was promptly fired, and replaced by Blues Saraceno in November 1993, who completed the world tour with the band including the famous "Hollywood Rock" concerts in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil, where they played to over 165,000 people.

Poison began recording its sixth album, Crack a Smile, in early 1994. Recording was brought to an abrupt halt in May 1994, when Michaels was involved in a car accident where he lost control of his Ferrari. Michaels suffered a broken nose, ribs, jaw, and fingers and lost four teeth. After his recovery in 1995, the band continued recording the album. The album became shelved shortly after this, with no release date anywhere in sight. Instead, the label opted for a Greatest Hits compilation, which featured two new tracks with Saraceno on guitar, "Sexual Thing" and "Lay Your Body Down". The first Greatest Hits album was released on November 26, 1996, and sold extremely well, going on to reach double platinum status.

After several years apart, Michaels and DeVille were able to patch up their differences; and Michaels welcomed DeVille back into Poison in 1996 to replace Saraceno.

Michaels was involved with Pamela Anderson. After Poison's and Michaels' longtime attorney, Ed McPherson, obtained a Federal injunction prohibiting the distribution of an explicit sex tape that the couple made, an abridged version of the tape appeared on the internet in 1998.

Michaels and actor friend Charlie Sheen co-founded a production company called Sheen Michaels Entertainment. In 1998, Michaels made his acting debut alongside Charlie and Martin Sheen in the movie A Letter from Death Row, which was also written and directed by Michaels.

The Greatest Hits reunion tour took place in the summer of 1999, with the original lineup. The show at Pine Knob Amphitheater in metro Detroit drew a sell-out crowd of 18,000, and other shows averaged crowds of 12,000. In addition, the band appeared on VH1's Behind the Music. On March 14, 2000, Crack a Smile...and More! was finally released, with the single "Shut Up, Make Love" and power ballad "Be the One". In addition to the outtakes, live recordings from the 1990 installment of the MTV Unplugged series were included.

Power to the People and Hollyweird (2001–2002)
After the Poison reunion DeVille soon released his solo album, Samantha 7, and Michaels released the solo/Poison album Show Me Your Hits which featured re-recorded Poison classics. The album featured Michaels performing Poison hits in a new way and also featured other artists with Michaels on selected tracks. Poison also released Power to the People, their first album with DeVille in nine years. The record contained five new studio songs: "Power to the People" which features a music video, "Can't Bring Me Down", "The Last Song", "Strange", and "I Hate Every Bone In Your Body But Mine", the latter with DeVille on lead vocals for the first time.

In May 2001 Poison released the web single "Rockstar" as a preview of the upcoming new album and went on tour with Warrant.

Poison's sixth full studio album, Hollyweird, was released on May 21, 2002. It was Poison's first full album of new material with DeVille back in the band. The album was heavily criticized by both critics and fans, feeling it had poor production quality and an unimpressive new sound. One popular site said "It's muddy, under-produced, badly mixed and features crappy drum and guitar sounds". Other reviewers were more impressed, such as AllMusic, who declared it "one of Poison's best records, if not their best". A cover of The Who song "Squeeze Box" and "Shooting Star" were also released as a singles for the album.

Best of Ballads & Blues and The Best of Poison (2003–2006)
Following the Hollyweird world tour Poison released their second compilation album, Best of Ballads & Blues, in 2003. It contains a new acoustic version with new lyrics of "Something to Believe In" and a new acoustic version of "Stand". Michaels also released his second solo album, Songs of Life, which featured singles "Bittersweet" and "Raine" which featured a music video and was dedicated to his daughter. On January 7 that year, after almost 20 years with Poison, Rockett released his first solo album, Glitter 4 Your Soul, which was distributed online.

During the summer of 2004, Poison was invited to serve as the opening band on Kiss's "Rock the Nation" tour. Poison were largely inactive in 2005 which is when Michaels released his third solo album, the country-rock-influenced Freedom Of Sound, which included the single "All I Ever Needed" featuring Jessica Andrews, which also featured a music video and appeared on Billboard's "Hot Country Songs" chart, with its best position being number 45.

After a year off, Poison returned to the music scene. They celebrated their 20th anniversary with a "20 Years Of Rock" world tour in the summer of 2006, with fellow rockers Cinderella and Endeverafter opening. The tour swiftly became one of the most successful tours of 2006 in the U.S., averaging about 10,000 people per night. To complement it, the band had released an anniversary compilation album The Best Of Poison: 20 Years Of Rock, in April that year. The album also features a new single, a cover of Grand Funk Railroad's "We're An American Band", produced by Don Was and also features a music video. The compilation debuted at No. 17 with a first week sales total of 39,721, which marked Poison's return to the top 20 charts for the first time since 1993.

On August 1, 2006, Capitol Records released remastered versions of the first three Poison albums: Look What the Cat Dragged In, Open Up and Say...Ahh! and Flesh and Blood, in honor of Poison's 20th anniversary. All three include bonus tracks.

Poison'd! and Live, Raw & Uncut (2007–2009)
On January 3, 2007, Poison announced on their official MySpace page that they would like their fans to help pick favorite classic rock songs for the new studio album that they are to record. The fans replied with suggestions like Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird", Sweet's "The Ballroom Blitz", and AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long", along with Alice Cooper's "Poison".

During 2007, Poison went on a summer tour with Ratt. They released their covers album, now named Poison'd!, on June 5, 2007, through Capitol Records. The album entered the Billboard 200 chart at No. 32 and charted at No. 12 on the Top Rock Albums, selling 21,000 copies in its first week. The first single, "What I Like About You", featured a music video from the band. White Lion was removed from the tour due to legal issues, and Vains of Jenna took their place. The August 2 sold-out show in at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre St. Louis, Missouri was taped for a live concert DVD and for a HDNet Concert special called: Poison: Live, Raw & Uncut that aired on October 26, 2007, as part of Heavy Metal Halloween. The band also appeared that night on the channel's Sound Off with Matt Pinfield.

The band played at the Rock2Wgtn rock festival in Wellington, New Zealand, on the weekend of March 22–23, 2008. The festival also included fellow legendary rockers Kiss, Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper, Whitesnake, and Finnish hard rock act Lordi.

Poison played at the Sweden Rock Festival 2008. The band then went on tour in the summer of 2008 with Sebastian Bach and Dokken.

Poison live in concert DVD titled Live, Raw & Uncut was released on July 15, 2008, which was filmed in St. Louis, during the Poison'd tour in 2007. This DVD/CD set was initially exclusive to Best Buy stores and includes behind-the-scenes footage as a bonus feature and as a live audio CD with selections from the concert. It sold around 2,400 copies in its first week of release to debut at position No. 8 on Billboard's Top Music Videos chart. Also in 2008 a live CD version of the Poison DVD Seven Days Live was released.

On June 7, 2009, Poison made a special appearance at the 63rd Tony Awards, performing "Nothin' But a Good Time" with the cast of Rock of Ages, which features "Nothin' But a Good Time" as a song in the show. As Michaels was exiting the stage, he was struck in the head by a descending set piece and knocked to the ground. He suffered a fractured nose and a split lip requiring three stitches.

Solo success, health issues and touring (2010–present)
In 2010, an unauthorized biography was released titled A Shot of Poison featuring a collection of tales from over twenty years with the band, based on the personal encounters of author, rock journalist and music industry insider Christopher Long.

On April 12, 2010, Michaels was rushed to the hospital after suffering intense stomach pains, and an emergency appendectomy was performed. On April 22, 2010, Michaels was again rushed to the hospital, this time with an "excruciating" headache. Doctors discovered that he had suffered a massive subarachnoid hemorrhage. He was in critical condition, and while some reports suggested that his condition had stabilized, others later stated that this was premature. On April 28, Michaels' representatives reported that he was conscious and speaking, albeit slowly, for the first time since he was hospitalized. In a news conference on May 5, 2010, Dr. Joseph Zabramski said Michaels has been released from the hospital and that "He's just one of those lucky people" and that "he'll make a complete recovery".

In the same year, Michaels released Custom Built. Half of the new album was enriched with previously released solo material. The lead-off single Nothing to Lose features pop singer Miley Cyrus and was the most added song to radio in the week of its release. Custom Built received mixed to negative reviews and it peaked at number 14 on the U.S. Billboard 200, topping both the Independent Albums and Hard Rock Albums. This marks the highest US chart entries by a member of Poison since Flesh & Blood in 1990.

On March 1, Poison announced a 2011 Summer tour with Mötley Crüe and New York Dolls to celebrate their band anniversaries named the Glam-A-Geddon 25/30/40. Also for Poison's 25th anniversary, a double CD named Double Dose: Ultimate Hits consisting exclusively of songs distributed by Capitol/EMI was released May 3, 2011. The compilation charted at No. 17 in Canada.

In 2012, Poison and Def Leppard performed at the Rock of Ages tour named after their 1983 song and after the 2012 motion picture of the same name, where the songs of both bands played a central role. Michaels also resumed his "Get Your Rock On" solo tour, named after his then latest single.

After completing the Rock of Ages tour, the bandmembers went their separate ways. Joint projects did not go beyond their announcements. Michaels continued touring and played almost exclusively Poison's single releases with his solo band. He released Jammin' with Friends featuring re-recorded alternate versions of Poison and Michaels solo tracks on June 25, 2013, peaking at #80 on the Billboard 200. In June 2014, Rockett co-founded the band Devil City Angels. DeVille, Dall and Rockett performed together without Michaels as a live band dubbed The Special Guests in the summer of 2015. Brandon Gibbs accompanied them on vocals. At the end of 2015, drummer Rockett was diagnosed with oral cavity cancer, and joint projects had to be put on hold because of the necessary treatment.

In 2017, Poison went on a co-headlining a tour with Def Leppard and special guest Tesla throughout the spring and summer and coincided with limited headline acts throughout the US and Canada celebrating their recent 30-year anniversary. The Nothing But a Good Time Tour with opening acts Cheap Trick and Pop Evil started May 18 and ended July 1 of the following year.

In 2019 Michaels announced his autobiography to be released in 2020 titled Unbroken: My life in Pictures & Stories to coincide with his single release "Unbroken". It was initially set to be titled Roses & Thorns when Michaels first started working on the project and was set to be released in 2010, but kept being pushed back to include more content. In May 2020 Bret Michaels: Auto-Scrap-ography Volume 1: My Life in Pictures & Stories has been released as the first in a series of trilogies.

Poison toured North America as an opening act for Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard with Joan Jett for The Stadium Tour from June 16 to September 9, 2022. The tour was originally scheduled for the summer of 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the tour, Michaels expressed doubt that the band would record another album, but hoped that they would write and record another song that evoked their hits from their heyday.

Current members

 * Bret Michaels – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, harmonica (1983–present)
 * Rikki Rockett – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1983–present)
 * Bobby Dall – bass, piano, backing vocals (1983–present)
 * C.C. DeVille – lead guitar, backing and occasional lead vocals (1985–1991, 1996–present)

Former members

 * Matt Smith – lead guitar, backing vocals (1983–1985)
 * Richie Kotzen – lead guitar, keyboards, piano, mandolin, dobro, backing vocals (1991–1993)
 * Blues Saraceno – lead guitar, keyboards, piano, backing vocals (1993–1996)

Touring musicians

 * Will Doughty – keyboards, piano, backing vocals (2007–present)

Former touring musicians

 * Jesse Bradman – keyboards, piano, backing vocals (1993-1994)

Discography

 * Studio albums
 * Look What the Cat Dragged In (1986)
 * Open Up and Say... Ahh! (1988)
 * Flesh & Blood (1990)
 * Native Tongue (1993)
 * Crack a Smile... and More! (2000)
 * Hollyweird (2002)
 * Poison'd! (2007)

Tours

 * Look What the Cat Dragged In Tour (1986–1987)
 * Open Up and Say Ahh! Tour (1988–1989)
 * Nothing but a Good Time Down Under Tour (1989)
 * Flesh & Blood World Tour (1990–1991)
 * Native Tongue World Tour (1993–1994)
 * Greatest Hits Reunion Tour (1999)
 * Power to the People Tour (2000)
 * Glam, Slam, Metal, Jam Tour (2001)
 * Hollyweird World Tour (2002)
 * Harder, Louder, Faster Tour (2003)
 * Rock the Nation World Tour (2004)
 * 20 Years of Rock World Tour (2006)
 * POISON'D Summer Tour (2007)
 * Live, Raw & Uncut Summer Tour (2008)
 * 42-city Summer Tour (2009)
 * Glam-A-Geddon Tour (2011)
 * Rock of Ages Tour (2012)
 * 30th Anniversary North American Comeback Tour (2017)
 * Nothing But a Good Time Tour (2018)
 * The Stadium Tour (2022)

Awards and nominations
American Music Awards

Metal Edge Readers' Choice Awards

title: Poison (band)


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Rick Springfield

Richard Lewis Springthorpe (born 23 August 1949), known professionally as Rick Springfield, is an Australian-American musician and actor. He was a member of the pop rock group Zoot from 1969 to 1971, then started his solo career with his debut single, "Speak to the Sky", which reached the top 10 in Australia in mid-1972. When he moved to the United States, he had a No. 1 hit with "Jessie's Girl" in 1981 in both Australia and the US, for which he received the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. He followed with four more top 10 US hits: "I've Done Everything for You", "Don't Talk to Strangers", "Affair of the Heart" and "Love Somebody". Springfield's two US top 10 albums are Working Class Dog (1981) and Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet (1982).

As an actor, Springfield starred in the film Hard to Hold in 1984 and the television series High Tide from 1994 to 1997. He appeared in supporting roles in Ricki and the Flash and True Detective (both 2015). He portrayed Noah Drake on the daytime drama General Hospital (1981–83, 2005–08, 2012), returning in 2013 for the show's 50th anniversary with his son, actor Liam Springthorpe. He played a depraved version of himself in Californication (2009). In 2010, Springfield published his autobiography, Late, Late at Night: A Memoir. In 2016 he starred as Vince Vincente/Lucifer in season 12 of The CW series Supernatural. In 2012, he starred as himself in the TV show Hot in Cleveland episode 16 of season 3 titled "Everything Goes Better With Vampires". In 2017, he starred as Pastor Charles in the American Horror Story episode entitled "Winter of Our Discontent".

Early life
Rick Springfield was born Richard Lewis Springthorpe on 23 August 1949 in Guildford, a western suburb of Sydney. He is the son of Eileen Louise (Evennett) and Norman James Springthorpe, an Australian Army career officer. His maternal grandparents were English. When he was young, he lived at the army camp with his family in Broadmeadows, Victoria, Australia. At 14, he saw the Beatles perform at Festival Hall in Melbourne.

Music
Springfield was 13 when he learned guitar. He joined various bands in England, where his father was stationed from 1958 to 1963, and several more after returning to Australia. In 1968, he was approached by bass guitarist Pete Watson to join his group Rockhouse. Later that year, Watson changed the band's name to MPD Ltd and, in October when Springfield was 19 years old, they toured South Vietnam to entertain Australian troops. Another member of MPD Ltd was Danny Finley (drummer). Upon returning to Australia, they formed Wickedy Wak. They were joined by Phil Blackmore on keyboards and Dick Howard. Go-Set journalist Molly Meldrum produced Wickedy Wak's single, "Billie's Bikie Boys", with Beeb Birtles of pop rock group Zoot as a backing vocalist.

In September 1969, Springfield replaced Roger Hicks as lead guitarist and vocalist in Zoot, with Birtles on bass guitar and vocals, Darryl Cotton on lead vocals and guitar, and Rick Brewer on drums. Upon joining Zoot, Springfield adopted the "Think Pink – Think Zoot" theme that had the band members dressed head to toe in pink satin. The publicity gimmick brought attention to the group and attracted numerous teenage girl fans, but caused problems in establishing their credibility as serious rock musicians. Zoot's fifth single, "Hey Pinky", was written by Springfield. The group attempted to shake off their teeny-bopper image. They followed with a hard rock cover version of The Beatles' hit "Eleanor Rigby", which peaked at No. 4 on Go-Set ' s Top 40 in March 1971. Despite another hit single with "Freak" in April, which was written by Springfield, the band broke up in May.

Springfield signed with Sparmac Records and issued his debut solo single, "Speak to the Sky", in October, which peaked at No. 5 on the Go-Set singles chart. Sparmac label owner, Robie Porter, was also producer and manager for Springfield. After recording his debut album, Beginnings, in London, Springfield moved to the United States in mid-1972. Springfield provided all the songwriting, lead vocals, guitar, keyboard and banjo for the album. In August 1972, "Speak to the Sky" was issued in the U.S. by Capitol Records and peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September. Beginnings was the first of seven top 40 Springfield albums on the related Billboard 200. However, follow-up success was hampered by rumours that Capitol Records paid people to purchase Springfield's albums, which led to some radio stations boycotting his music.

In 1973, Springfield signed to Columbia Records and recorded his second album, Comic Book Heroes, which was also produced by Porter. In Australia, released on Porter's new label, Wizard Records, the album and its two singles failed to chart. Springfield was promoted as a teeny pop idol similar to David Cassidy and Donny Osmond. Springfield spoke of the teenybopper image in Circus Magazine in 1973. He said he was not sure how it happened. "Someone saw my photo and that was it." He went on to say that someone asked to take a photo of him in a white suit and thought that it was "a bit dull", so he took some crayons and "scrawled an R with a lightning bolt going through it ... which became my emblem." From September to December 1973, Springfield starred as "himself" in the ABC-TV Saturday morning cartoon series Mission: Magic!, for which he usually wrote and performed an original song in each episode. In 1974, he issued an Australia-only album, Mission: Magic!, which was "full of infectious bubblegum pop songs". His single, "Take a Hand", reached the U.S. top 50 in 1976. The single was taken from the album Wait for Night, which was issued by his new label, Chelsea Records. Soon after its release, the record company folded. During the late 1970s, he concentrated more on his acting career, guest-starring in several primetime TV dramas.

Springfield continued to write and record and, in 1981, released his next album, Working Class Dog. The album spawned the single "Jessie's Girl", a worldwide hit which peaked at No. 1 for two weeks in the U.S. on the Hot 100 and the Australian Kent Music Report singles chart. Springfield won the 1981 Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. Working Class Dog reached No.7 on the Billboard 200. Another top 10 single from the album was the Sammy Hagar-penned "I've Done Everything for You". He had further success with the follow-up albums Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet (1982) and Living in Oz (1983). Springfield was frustrated with people in interviews mistaking him for Bruce Springsteen, expressed in the track "Bruce" on the album Beautiful Feelings (1984). In 1984, Springfield starred in his own film, Hard to Hold, and recorded the majority of the material on the accompanying soundtrack. The soundtrack included a top-ten hit, "Love Somebody", as well as several moderately successful follow-up singles. However, the film itself was not successful, and the soundtrack's success, though higher than that of the film, paled in comparison to Springfield's previous albums. Nonetheless, Springfield released his next album Tao in 1985, scoring several modest hits from this release, including "State of the Heart" and "Celebrate Youth". That same year, Springfield was one of several performers who participated in the Live Aid charity concert. Around this time, he took a brief hiatus from recording.

Between 1985 (After TAO) & 2020, Springfield still recorded and released nine studio albums.

Springfield returned in 2020 via a one-off featured performance in the Coheed and Cambria single "Jessie's Girl 2", a sequel to the 1981 Springfield single "Jessie's Girl".

In 2021, Springfield started hosting a weekly radio show on Sirius XM's "80s on 8" Channel called 'Working Class DJ with Rick Springfield', the musician spins eight songs around a theme.

In 2021, Springfield joined Russell Morris and formed The Morris Springfield Project. The Morris Springfield Project released Jack Chrome and the Darkness Waltz in October 2021 which debuted at number 34 on the ARIA Charts.

Acting
Springfield made his acting debut on The Six Million Dollar Man on 30 October 1977, in an episode entitled "Rollback". In December, he appeared on The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, portraying Ned Nickerson. On 20 January 1978, Springfield guest-starred on an episode of Wonder Woman titled "Screaming Javelin". The character he portrayed was Tom, the concerned fiancé of an Olympic gymnast who had been kidnapped by a megalomaniac. Later in 1978, Springfield played the character of Zac in Saga of a Star World, which was, with some differences, the pilot episode of the original Battlestar Galactica TV series. He also co-starred as Keith Stewart in episode 17 of season 4 ("Dwarf in a Helium Hat") on The Rockford Files and as Tommy Archer in episode 4 ("Murder on the Flip Side") of The Eddie Capra Mysteries in 1978. In 1979, he guest-starred on an episode of "The Incredible Hulk" entitled "The Disciple" as Michael Roark, a San Francisco police officer who must decide whether to avenge the death of his father who was also a police officer, or simply provide justice and capture the alleged criminal. In 1981, he became a soap opera star on General Hospital. He had signed a contract with RCA Records and already recorded the album Working Class Dog, which neither he nor his agent had expected would do very well, which is why Springfield took the soap role. But the song "Jessie's Girl" went to No. 1 and Springfield ended up both playing the role of Dr. Noah Drake from 1981 to 1983, while simultaneously going on tour with his band. The success of the song boosted the ratings of the show which, according to Springfield, "became the biggest show on TV for that summer". The fame from the show also boosted the sale of the song. In 1984, Springfield made a full-length feature film titled Hard to Hold. In 1998, he played in the film Legion. He also wrote the soundtrack for Hard to Hold. In 1992, he played the title role in the short-lived ABC series Human Target, based on the DC Comics character of the same name. In 1989, he starred in the film Nick Knight, in which he played an 800-year-old vampire seeking a cure for his condition. The film was later remade as the first two episodes of the series Forever Knight. In 1991, he appeared in the television film Dying to Dance. In 1994, he starred in the series Robin's Hoods. From 1994 to 1997, he starred in the television series High Tide that ran for 69 episodes.

In addition to the roles on television and in film, Springfield also acted in musical theatre. In 1995, he was a member of the original Broadway cast of the musical Smokey Joe's Cafe. This Tony Award-nominated musical featured the songs of rock & roll songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. From February 2000 to December 2002, Springfield performed in EFX Alive! at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Springfield starred in several episodes of the third season of Showtime's Californication. His first appearance was in episode 3 on 11 October 2009, in which he plays a "twisted version of himself"; a "hedonistic Rick Springfield" from the past. Springfield starred in "Ho'ohuli Na'au", an episode of Hawaii Five-0. He played the role of photographer Renny Sinclair.

In December 2005, Springfield was asked by the General Hospital producers to return to the show in his role as Dr. Noah Drake after a 23-year absence. His run was subsequently extended as a recurring guest star and not a full contract cast member until 2008. Springfield returned to General Hospital as Dr. Noah Drake in April 2013. Springfield also starred in "Everything Goes Better With Vampires", an episode of Hot in Cleveland. He played the role of a toll booth worker who pretended to be the famous singer/musician Rick Springfield in an attempt to impress women. Springfield had a recurring role on True Detective as Dr. Irving Pitlor, a psychiatrist. In 2015, Springfield appeared as Greg alongside Meryl Streep in the film Ricki and the Flash. In 2016, Springfield was cast in the twelfth season of The CW series Supernatural where he played rocker Vince Vincente and Lucifer. In July 2016, Springfield appeared on ABC's Greatest Hits. In October 2017, Springfield appeared as Pastor Charles on FX's American Horror Story: Cult. In July 2018, Rick played himself on Episode 4 of the YouTube original series Sideswiped.

Personal life
When Springfield was 17, he attempted suicide by hanging himself. "I hang suspended for fifteen or twenty seconds and am just sliding into unconsciousness when the knot tying the rope to the beam somehow unravels. I'm slammed hard to the concrete floor, rather the worse for wear." Springfield has been dealing with depression for several decades. "I want them to have hope ... and know that the moment will pass," Springfield said in an exclusive interview with ABC News' Paula Faris. "I'm an example of the moment passing, because I've been there a couple of times, and haven't ... for want of a better phrase, pulled the trigger."

From late 1974 to early 1976, Springfield was in a romantic relationship with actress Linda Blair, beginning when she was 15 and he was 25.

On 24 April 1981, his father, Norman James Springthorpe, died.

In October 1984, Springfield married his girlfriend, Barbara Porter, at his family's church in Australia. They had met several years earlier when Springfield was recording Working Class Dog and she was working as the recording studio receptionist. They have two sons, Liam (born 1985) and Joshua (born 1989). In 1985, when his first son was born and after the release of his Tao album, Springfield took a break from his musical career to spend more time with his family and to deal with the depression that had affected him since his adolescence.

At a concert at the House of Blues in Orlando, Florida, on 2 March 2006, Springfield announced he had become a US citizen.

In January 2018, Springfield stated in an interview that he contemplated suicide in 2017. "Last year I was close to it, really close to it," explained Springfield on how he considered killing himself. "When Robin Williams and Chester (Bennington) and Chris Cornell and those guys... I didn't go, 'Oh that's terrible.' I went, 'I get it.' I get being that lost and dark."

He practices Transcendental Meditation. Springfield is a pescetarian.

Memoir
Springfield's autobiography Late, Late at Night: A Memoir (ISBN 978-1-4391-9115-6) was released in 2010. In October, it peaked at No. 13 on The New York Times Best Seller list. In May 2014, Springfield published Magnificent Vibration: a novel, which also made The New York Times Best Seller list.

In August 2012, Late, Late at Night was named No. 23 of "The 25 Great Rock Memoirs of All Time" by Rolling Stone.

Songs referencing Springfield
In 1985, Jimmy Hart recorded the song "Eat Your Heart Out Rick Springfield", featured on The Wrestling Album. The premise of the song is that the object of Hart's affection seems to idolise Springfield to the point that Hart feels rivalled by him, prompting Hart to pick up singing as well in order to compete for his girl's affection. The song makes references to "Dr Noah Drake" as well as to "Jessie's Girl". In a 2014 interview, Springfield said that although he had heard the title and was aware of the song's existence and had met with Jimmy Hart in person, he had never actually heard the song.

Jonathan Coulton recorded the song "Je Suis Rick Springfield" about an American man trying to impress a French girl he just met in France by pretending to be Springfield. It was recorded in 2011 and appeared on the album Artificial Heart.

Discography
• Beginnings (1972)

• Comic Book Heroes (1973)

• Mission: Magic! (1974)

• Wait for Night (1976)

• Working Class Dog (1981)

• Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet (1982)

• Living in Oz (1983)

• Hard to Hold (1984)

• Beautiful Feelings (1984)

• Tao (1985)

• Rock of Life (1988)

• Sahara Snow (1997)

• Karma (1999)

• Shock/Denial/Anger/Acceptance (2004)

• The Day After Yesterday (2005)

• Christmas with You (2007)

• Venus in Overdrive (2008)

• My Precious Little One: Lullabies for a New Generation (2009)

• From the Vault (2010)

• Songs for the End of the World (2012)

• Rocket Science (2016)

• The Snake King (2018)

• Orchestrating My Life (2019)

• The Red Locusts (2021)

• Jack Chrome & the Darkness Waltz (2021)

• Working Class Dog (40th Anniversary Live) (2022)

• Springfield (2023)

• Automatic (2023)

Go-Set pop poll
The Go-Set pop poll was coordinated by teen-oriented pop music paper Go-Set. The paper was established in February 1966 and conducted an annual poll from 1966 to 1972 to determine the most popular personalities.

 * rowspan="2"| 1970 || rowspan="2" | Ricky Springfield || Best Guitarist || style="background:silver;"| 2nd
 * Best Composer || 5th
 * rowspan="2" | 1971 || rowspan="2"| himself || Best Guitarist || Won
 * Best Songwriter/Composer || 4th
 * rowspan="5"| 1972
 * rowspan="3"| himself
 * Best Male
 * style="background:tan;"| 3rd
 * Best Newcomer
 * 4th
 * Best Songwriter/Composer
 * style="background:silver;"| 2nd
 * Best Album
 * Beginnings
 * style="background:silver;"| 2nd
 * Best Single
 * "Hooky Jo"
 * 10th
 * style="background:silver;"| 2nd
 * Best Album
 * Beginnings
 * style="background:silver;"| 2nd
 * Best Single
 * "Hooky Jo"
 * 10th
 * "Hooky Jo"
 * 10th

King of Pop Awards
The King of Pop Awards were voted by the readers of TV Week. The award started in 1967 and ran through to 1978.

 * 1971
 * himself
 * Best Lead Guitarist
 * Won
 * 1972
 * himself
 * Most Popular Australian Musician
 * Won
 * Most Popular Australian Musician
 * Won

Grammy Awards
On 9 May 2014, Springfield was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to music.

title: Rick Springfield