Uncensored Interview excerpts from Tulu & Wimpy of the Queers.
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
- Tulu & Wimpy discuss how they met, the origins of The Queers, local and national influences and dirt.
"In Danger of Being Discovered" is about the music scene in Portsmouth NH circa 1994 and centers around the stories of 55 original bands that came from the 19 mile seacoast of NH in a short period of time.
a film by Marc A. Dole & Michael Venn
www.InDangerOfB...
The Queers actually formed in 1981 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire @ “The Starlight Club” (& along with G.G. Allin & The Jabbers, these 2 groups were the ONLY Punk Rock Bands in the entire state!) consisting of Joe “Queer” King, Scott “Tulu” Gildersleeve, & John “Jack” Hayes aka “Wimpy Rutherford”.
In 1982 Joe Queer on lead vocals & guitar, Tulu on bass guitar (& lead vocals on 1 song), & Wimpy Rutherford on drums would record their 6 - Song “Love Me” 7” EP released on Joe’s Doheny Records in 1982, 200 copies only. This record also featured Joe’s 50 something year old neighbor William H. McClaren aka “Pappy” on lead vocals on the song entitled “Love Me” with lyrics improvised & sung off the cuff by Pappy. One outtake from this recording session does exist of an original country song written by “Pappy” entitled “Soldier Boy” but the tape can not be located.
This 1st lineup of the band rehearsed in Tulu’s wood paneled basement & in addition to the 5 original songs the band had written up until this time, they also played cover songs by The Ramones, Black Flag, Angry Samoans, Beach Boys, Michael Nesmith (of The Monkees), & “California Sun” by The Rivieras but they never played a live gig.
Shortly after the release of this debut record Tulu would quit the band & move to New York City, N.Y. A short time later Joe Queer & Wimpy Rutherford wrote a fresh batch of new & great punk rock tunes in 1 day! They were both so excited that they called Tulu up on the telephone & played him their new songs & he agreed to rejoin the band. Shortly thereafter, Joe Queer & Wimpy Rutherford were headed to N.Y.C to pick up Tulu & bring back home to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
When it was time to record the new batch of songs the 2nd lineup included Joe Queer on guitar, Wimpy Rutherford on lead vocals, Tulu on drums with the new addition of Keith Hages (Ex - Berlin Brats guitar player) on bass guitar. This lineup recorded their 7 - Song “Webelos” 7” EP. Also released on Doheny Records in 1984, 200 copies only.
This 2nd lineup of the band ended up playing only 6 live gigs. The Queers first gig ever was suppose to include opening up for G.G. Allin & The Jabbers but G.G. was not able to find transportation to the gig!
The Queers completed gigs between 1983 - 1984 included a Freemason Lodge, the “Masonic Temple” in Portsmouth, “Geno’s Rock Club” in Portland, ME, a local “Pool Party” gig, & a local “Out In A Field” gig (these 2 gigs were also played in Portsmouth), “The Living Room” in Providence, RI, & “The Rathskeller” aka “The Rat” in Boston, MA.
A live recording of one of these gigs did exist but was accidentally erased by Wimpy at sometime before the early records were officially reissued.
However photos from the “Pool Party” gig were used on the 1st pressing of “A Day Late And A Dollar Short” released in 1996 on Lookout! Records (Which gathers up the early super rare EP’s “Love Me” & “Webelos” plus the 10 year reunion studio recordings in 1993 with Wimpy on lead vocals that comprised the “Too Dumb To Quit” & “Look Ma, No Flannel” EP’s).
Also a new photo was recently unearthed from the “Out In A Field” gig & was used as the new front cover on the LP vinyl reissue of “A Day Late And A Dollar Short”.
Shortly after the release of the “Webelos” 7” EP this 2nd lineup of the band broke up in late 1984.
After a 2 year hiatus Joe “Queer” King reunited The Queers in 1986 (NOT 1990, as I correctly stated above) with the 3rd Lineup consisting of Joe on guitar / backing vocals, Hugh O’ Neill on drums, Kevin Kecy on bass, & Bobby Gaudreau on lead vocals.
This lineup recorded a 5 - Song Demo Tape Produced by John Felice (From the 70’s Boston band, The Real Kids)
Sometime after the demo tape was completed Bobby Gaudreau left the band in mid 1986 and Joe King went to lead vocals & guitar with the addition of J.J. Rassler (Ex - 70’s Boston band, D.M.Z. & The Odds).
The debut Queers studio album was recorded between 1986 - 1988 & in addition to including Joe Queer on lead vocals & guitar, Hugh O’Neill on drums, & J.J. Rassler on lead guitar as the core band lineup.
The album sessions also included Kevin Kecy, Evan Shore, Greg Urbatis, Magoo Pirhana, & Joe himself on additional bass guitar tracks. Sean Rowley on additional rhythm guitar, tracks & Jeebs Pirhana on additional drum tracks.
The Queers “Grow Up” was produced, mixed, & engineered by Sean Slade with additional production by Jimmy Miller (Ex - Rolling Stones)
A few Queers songs not to be featured on the “Grow Up” album 12 - song track list include “Surf Goddess” (which was eventually released on an EP in 1995), “Luau In Allston”, “Good Looking Dude”, & “New Castle Beach Bum”.
After a 1 year 2nd hiatus in 1989, the debut album entitled, “Grow Up” was finally released in 1990 on the British “Shakin’ Street” record label. 1000 copies were apparently pressed & released but Shakin’ Street shortly went out of business almost immediately after “Grow Up” was released.
Since Shakin’ Street Records was a British label based in the U.K. the band was not able to confirm the 1000 copies LP pressing nor did the label ship The Queers more than a few copies of their own album so the band had a local pressing plant print of new copies of “Grow Up”.
Unfortunately the band didn’t pay their entire bill for the record pressing & so they only were able to receive 160 copies of the 2nd pressing of “Grow Up”. Instead of using Joe’s Doheny Records imprint he went ahead & just used the “Shakin’ Street” record label imprint for the 2nd pressing even though the label was technically defunct at that time.
Shortly after the 2nd pressing of “Grow Up” in 1990 Joe Queer reformed the band for the 2nd time (after the brief 1989 hiatus) again with Hugh O’Neill on drums with the newest & youngest member, Chris “B-Face” Barnard on bass guitar. This lineup became what is known as the “classic” Queers band lineup.
This lineup rehearsed steadily for 9 months & recorded a 14 - Song studio demo in May 1991 of new material to send to Ben “Weasel” Foster from Screeching Weasel. Joe & Ben had recently become friends when Joe mailed a package including a 2nd pressing copy of “Grow Up” to Ben Weasel in Chicago, Illinois.
With Ben Weasel’s help he passed on “Grow Up” & the new Queers studio demo to Larry Livermore owner of Lookout! Records. Livermore expressed keen interest in working & signing The Queers to Lookout! Records & so after 10 years the band finally got their big break.
9 songs from the studio demo would eventually be re-recorded in November 1992 for “Love Songs for the Retarded” (Released in 1993), while 3 more songs would be recorded for 1994's “Beat Off”.
In 1993 The Queers would end up promoting the “Love Songs For The Retarded” album with a tour with Ben & Screeching Weasel & as they say the rest is history!!!
John “Jack” Hayes - The Queers drummer on the Queers “Love Me” 1st EP 7” 1982
turned lead vocalist on the Queers “Kicked Out Of The Webelos” 2nd EP 7” 1984
John Hayes stage name of
“Wimpy Rutherford”
Was partially taken from the character “Fred Rutherford” (played by actor Richard Deacon) from the American television situation comedy “Leave It To Beaver that aired on CBS from 1957 - 1958 and later on ABC between 1958 - 1963
John Hayes added “Wimpy” as the first name & “Rutherford” as the last name for his stage name in The Queers!!
P.S.
For all you trivia buffs / punk rock nerds…
The actor Hugh Beaumont who played the character “Ward Cleaver” on “Leave It To Beaver”
Hugh Beaumont’s real name was appropriated for the Fort Worth punk rock band
“Hugh Beaumont Experience”
This punk band moniker itself taking the piss out of
“The Jimi Hendrix Experience”
Hugh Beaumont Experience released a killer punk rock EP 7” entitled “The Cone Johnson E.P.” released in 1981 and reissued in 2013
Hugh Beaumont Experience also included “King Coffey” (aka Jeffrey Coffey) on drums
Who later became the drummer in San Antonio (& later Austin) art punk / psychedelic rock / noise rock sonic terrorists
Butthole Surfers
So now you know!!! 😂
RIP Tulu
R.I.P.
1959 - 2015
Scott Gildersleeve
aka “Tulu”
aka “Tulu Titmouse”
aka “John Truth”
Why didn’t Tulu aka John Truth aka Scott Gildersleeve mention his very first punk rock group “The Objects” forming in 1978 and active between 1978 - 1980. The Objects in addition to Scott Gildersleeve on lead vocals / guitar also included Owen Carroll on bass and Marc Weinstein on drums (whow we MX-80 Sound and with Malcolm Mooney who was original lead vocalist for German Krautrockers “Can”.) ??
Have anybody taken the time to read the lyric sheets on the early Ramones “It’s Alive” 1977 LP live album Japanese pressings?
And I'm talking about the English lyrics, not the Japanese syllabaries written in Hiragana / Katakana character script.
It's really crazy, I suppose someone has been sitting with paper and a pen, playing the record and trying to figure out what Joey is singing.
Here is two examples from the lyrics sheet that comes with the Japanese Ramones “It's Alive” 1977 LP live album:
“Havana Affair”
P.T. Ford was a winner
He used to make a living
By bringing the bananas
now has a job for the C.I A.
A rep for the USA
“Pinhead”
Gabba, gabba, hey
You're a weed
Sutch a weed
'Cept you're one of us
You're a weed
Such a weed
'Cept you're one of us
The lyrics sheet also includes the things Joey is saying between the songs. My personal favorite is the introduction to Ramones “Blitzkrieg Bop”:
“Well, it's good to be back in England and it's good to see all of you again…
TAKE IT TULU!”
With that said, all credit to those who made the Japanese sleeve designs in the 1970's.
Ramones “It’s Alive” 1977 LP live album Japanese pressing including English to Japanese translation lyric sheets that aren’t quite accurate and some mistaken lyrics are just downright bizarre and unintentionally hilarious!!
Ramones “It’s Alive” 1977 LP live album inaccurate lyric sheets is where Scott Gildersleeve came across the stage name of “Tulu”…
The Ramones stage names:
Joey Ramone (Jeffrey Hyman)
Johnny Ramone (John Cummings)
Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Colvin)
Tommy Ramone (Thomas Erdelyi)
3 of the 4 Ramones stage names were successfully translated from Japanese to English…
All except Dee Dee Ramone…
“Dee Dee”
being mistakenly translated from English to Japanese as “Tulu”!
Hence this is precisely the source where The Queers bassist / drummer / songwriter
Scott Gildersleeve took the stage name
“Tulu”!!
So now you know!!! 🤣
Rock on
Ramones “It’s Alive” 1977 LP live album Japanese pressing including English to Japanese translation lyric sheets that aren’t quite accurate and some mistaken lyrics are just downright bizarre and unintentionally hilarious!!
Ramones “It’s Alive” 1977 LP live album inaccurate lyric sheets is where Scott Gildersleeve came across the stage name of “Tulu”…
The Ramones stage names:
Joey Ramone (Jeffrey Hyman)
Johnny Ramone (John Cummings)
Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Colvin)
Tommy Ramone (Thomas Erdelyi)
3 of the 4 Ramones stage names were successfully translated from Japanese to English…
All except Dee Dee Ramone…
“Dee Dee”
being mistakenly translated from English to Japanese as “Tulu”!
This is the source where Scott Gildersleeve
Bassist (& lead vocalist / guitarist on Queers “I Want C*nt”) on the Queers “Love Me” 1st EP 7” 1982
&
Drummer on the Queers “Kicked Out Of The Webelos” 2nd EP 7” 1984
Took the stage name
“Tulu”!!
So now you know!!! 🤣
Exactly.
@10:33 Tulu finally starts to crack.
Tulu looks like a slimmer Paul Giamotti
I JUST WANNA BE A BONEHEAD!!!!!
WIMPY! I am a Mad Scientist
Wimpy goes to college
You're joking! The best Queers stuff is Dont Back, Love Songs, Punk Rock Confidential etc. Joe writes great melodies and homages to the greatest rockNroll bands, the Wimpy songs are just silly.
Gotta agree. I dig some of their early stuff (I Met Her at the Rat) but for me, Punk Rock Confidential is their peak. I love that whole album so much. "Like a Parasite" is just a masterpiece of a song (credit to Weasel too for that one)!
@@clamum i met her at the rat is my favorite song and From your boy
the fact that joe can still hit those brian wilson notes is amazing i doubt brian wilson can do that anymore...beat off and move back home are good albums too
neither one of these guys are anything without joe king
Yep. Don't Back Down is THE pinnacle!
Incorrect I would counter that Joe King would never have existed or gone on to become Joe Queer without these 2 guys especially Scott Gildersleeve aka Tulu who introduced both Joe King & John “Jack” Hayes aka Wimpy onto the Ramones “Self Titled” LP circa 1976…
Tulu also had formed a New Hampshire punk rock band The Objects as far back as 1978 and could be considered New Hampshire’s very 1st punk rock group along with The Jabbers (with Jesus Christ Allin aka Kevin Allin aka G.G. Allin) who also formed in 1977.
However The Objects were playing live as early as 1978 a bit earlier than even The Jabbers.
The Queers formed in 1981 thanks to Tulu’s leadership and enthusiasm rallying up the troops Joe & Jack & listening to Meatmen “Blood Sausage” 7” from 1982 and realizing that the record sucked this was the impetus for the Queers to go from playing garage & surf rock covers in Tulu’s basement to actually writing original songs.
As the legend goes…
Apparently after listening to Meatmen “Blood Sausage” EP 1982 Tulu threw off the record said we can write and play songs better than this and proceeded to write “We’d Have A Riot Doing Heroin” right on the spot in about 2 minutes flat!