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| Bobby Durango by C. Anderson |
My friend Bobby Durango passed away last night. I met Bobby way back in the early to mid 1980's before anyone outside of South Florida had heard of The Rock City Angels. Bobby had one of the best voices in rock n roll and stage presence to boot. RCA left South Florida and signed with Geffen Records. They released one classic album, "
Young Man's Blues" and then seemed to fade into obscurity. Several years later New Renaissance Records released what is known as "The Glam Album." This is another "classic" which was recorded prior to the band leaving South Florida and signing with Geffen. It was actually their "demo" which they talk about in the interview below.
Sometime in the mid to late 90's Andy Panik and I crossed paths on the net. Andy told me about this new recording by RCA. At some point I became the band's "manager" (that would be Andy and Bobby as there was not an active band at that point). We worked on putting together Rock City Angels reunion in Miami and tried to get a record deal for the new music - "
Use Once and Destroy." I created and managed the bands's web page and over time it all kind of fell apart. A long story not really worth telling. In any case, Bobby eventually found the money he needed to "sweeten"
Use Once & Destroy. He put a new version of the band together and released the album!!!! One of the band's first shows was in Fort Lauderdale, Fl and I went to see them. Bobby was still the great performer I remembered. The picture above is from that night after RCA played.
Bobby's passing makes me sad. He is a rock n roll legend in my book. Not knowing what else to say, here is a transcript of an interview I did with Bobby and RCA circa 1980 something. This article appeared in Gold Coast Live! magazine with RCA on the cover.
Rockin With The Angels
words & photos by Catharine Anderson
The Rock City Angels have become South Florida's very own "underground rock
stars." Though there are very few clubs allowing bands such as the Angels to
grace their stages, The Rock City Angels have become very well known and very
popular inspite of the fact. The band gets press. The band gets girls - lots of
girls. The band gets fan mail. And...most important, they get gigs when there
are gigs to be had. The Rock City Angels are in demand. Everytime a new
"progressive rock club" or "original music club" opens up they want the Rock
City Angels to play. Why so? Because the Rock City Angels can draw a crowd and
that's what it takes to keep a club owner happy.
Although the Angels have become"glam" stars on the so called South Florida
"underground circuit." they still have a long way to go in order to reach their
ultimate goals. The band members feel, in their hearts, that they play the kind
of rock n roll that people would really get into if exposed to it. The Rock City
Angels play the type of music they grew up with - glam. The band's influences
include Gary Glitter, The New York Dolls, The Rolling Stons, The Sex Pistols,
The Dead Boys, The Bay City Rollers, The Monkees, Aerosmith and a variety of
styles from Motown to metal to everything inbetween.
"We just play a straight rock n roll type of beat," claims bassist Andy
Panic. "We're trying to bring rock n roll back."
"Instead of liking all kinds of music, alot of people only like a certain
type of thing," states vocalist Bobby St. Valentine. "Let's face it, if you're a
mature musician, you listen to all kinds of things. We don't want to be labeled
"heavy metal." You're going to hear all kinds of influences in our music - heavy
metal, Motown, punk, every kind of music there is. Funk. It's all
there."
"Rock n roll never went away, its always been consistant," points out
guitarist Jimmy James. "There have been other fads, like disco and heavy
metal."
Bobby interjects, "Yeah, but its gotten to the point where rock n roll is
underground."
"All that other stuff is popularized," explains Andy. "Pretty soon what will
happen is people are going to go 'remember guitars?'"
"And drums. Real drums. Not synthensizers," adds Greg Sparks.
The Rock City Angels differentiate between stage costumes and music. The
Angels believe that if you dress "glam" and sell yourself as "glam" then you
should play the music that fits the image. "All these bands look like Aerosmith
ten years ago," points out Steven Knight, "But they don't have the balls to go
out there and play the same music. That's one thing we can say."
"Even Aerosmith, these kids don't know what Aerosmith is," says Andy.
"In California the big deal is that all the heavy metal bands go out and say,
'We're a glam band.' They all try to look like The New York Dolls or something.
And you know what they sound like? They all sound like Ratt!!!! \" explains
Jimmy.
"I get so mad," Bobby says. "They're taking our image. They're taking our
whole look and everything like that. They're just giving us a bad name because
they're not playing rock n roll. They're palying bullshit!"
"Its all connected to the look," agrees Andy.
"the New York Dolls could come out right now and people would call them a
heavy metal band," claims Bobby. "And that's the truth! And anybody who thinks
Aerosmith is a heavy metal band is stupid
"Anybody who knows about blues and rock n roll knows," states Andy.
"Even T. Rex," adds Bobby. "People would think they are a heavy
metal..."
"yeah, they have long hair," agrees Steven.
"The Who could come out right now and people would call them punk," says
Bobby. "Its true man."
Being in a band in South Florida is not always encouraging. The Angels have
managed to stick it out over the years and still believe in what they are doing.
The band has recorded an eleven song cassette which will be released shortly.
"Alot of people have other Rock City Angel demos," says Bobby, "but this one is
different. This one is definitely better than any we've done in the past. It's
like the first time it's happened! The only reason we're putting this out is
because me and Andy have been playing together for five years and this is it!
We're sick of all the bullshit. This is kind of a last ditch effort. We're sick
of sitting around. We want to get the attention of a label. Not a big label.
Just a label that will get it distributed. Safety Net, Enigma...we don't care.
We want to sign with anyone who will get our stuff out."
"Especially Enigma," says Jimmy. "I played the stuff out in California.
People really loved it!"
"The funny thing is that people who don't know us, or never heard of us, hear
us and like us, " explains Bobby. "We get alot of letters and stuff. People
around here just don't understand."
"Yeah, people see us with long hair and they think we're heavy metal. They
hear us and find out we don't play heavy metal and then they think we suck!"
explains Jimmy.
"WE could play heavy metal," Bobby points out. "That's the thing. This band
is so multi-talented. You listen to our tape and there's not one single kind of
song on there. Not all the songs sound the same. There's alot of range. There's
a range of musical styles."
The Rock City Angels have a number of originals which they play as well as a
number of 70's style "glam" covers. The band does songs by all their favorite
influences, but really rocks when they do their own songs. Included in their
live set, as well as on their cassette, are songs like "Out of the Mouths of
Babes," (an "All the Young Dudes" type anthem song), "Wild Tiger" (a straight
ahead rockin "come on baby and f----me song), Rough and Tumble" and one song
that sums up what The Rock City Angels are about - "Teenage Lipstick
Boys."
"Every single song sounds real simple and everything," says Bobby. "But if
you liten to the words, they're not. All our words deal with subjects like
lonliness...but its not pessemistic."
The Rock City Angels asked that this interview be dedicated to Ricky Nelson.
"The thing is they blame it all on drugs," Jimmy says. ""Well, f---- that man.
He died! F--- the drugs! He's dead! Why nail him for that? He's dead already.
Poor guy - he's got the music behind him."
"We knew him," says Andy.
The Angels want to thank everybody for their support! Their tape will be
available in any record store that will carry it or by mailing. $6.95 to the
Angels. "If the postage is less than 75 cents, we'll put a quarter in the
envelope with an autographed picture of Andy," they promise.
