"New Wave Theatre" was a low-budget high-energy Musical variety show that was on the air in L.A. in 1982-1983. Because of the quality of the bands, the show was later shown on "Night Flight" on the U.S.A. Network!
The host was an amazing musician named Peter Ivers who among his many credits, was asked by David Lynch to write a song for his movie "Eraserhead" in 1976. The resulting tune was titled "In Heaven (The Lady In The Radiator Song.")
Peter Ivers is probably one of the most interesting people you never heard of, and Lord Litter recently did a mini-tribute to him on his
Magic Music Box radio show where you can hear some of his cool harmonica playing and kookie song writing!
"New Wave Theatre" was a series of live songs introduced by Peter, with some jokey stuff in between. This was episode number twenty-two, out of a total of twenty-five, and the first band up was FEAR, featuring the always lovable Lee Ving!
The killer song FEAR performs was titled "New York's Alright If You Like Saxophones!"
"New York's Alright If You Like Saxophones" was on this 1982 disc call "The Record," and featured Derf Scratch on Sax!
The next band up was called The Rayonics and featured Madeline Ridley on vocals!
The Rayonics kind of reminded me of a 1980's Jefferson Airplane, and they were also on episode 19.
It sounded to me like Peter introduced their song as "Where Are You Now That Love Is Gone," but the only record I can find that they ever made was this cover of "Walk Away Renee."
Their single release was shaped like a circular saw blade and commands a pretty hefty price on
Discogs!
The gags weren't much better the ones on our public access TV show "Offbeat!"
Look, it's 1982, and Peter has a mask on! That's how far ahead of the game this guy was!
The third band of the evening was called Powertrip, and they performed a song called "Lab Animal."
Powertrip was fronted by Jeff Dahl, and the background singers were Cat and Kathleen!
"Lab Animal" was released on this 7" EP in 1982!
The next band was called Carnival Of Souls, and I cannot find out anything about this band at all.
I think this song was introduced as "Sally's Not Breathing!"
Do an internet search for Carnival Of Souls, and you'll find out there was of course
the classic movie of the same name, a 90's German band, and the title of a KISS album, but nothing about this gal!
The fifth band was called Red Wedding.
The song they perform is called "All (Dressed Up), and is on this 1982 mini-album called "Up And Down The Aisle."
Last but not least was a group called Marvin And The Paramounts!
Marvin And The Paramounts play a rockin' song called "Can't Stop A Train."
This was the only 45 I could find by Marvin And The Paramounts, and "Can't Stop A Train" is not on it, but some guy has one of these and wants $298.69 + postage for it!
I like to think I know a lot about music, but out of these five bands, the only one I had heard of before was FEAR!
"New Wave Theatre" stopped abriptly at episode 25, when they found Peter Ivers murdered in his apartment, which to this day is still an unsolved crime!
Awesome! Thanks for pointing this out!
ReplyDeleteI used to find so many surprises on UHF channels in Los Angeles.
We didn't have public access TV, not that I know of... I read about it but never got to see it, but I guess UHF was kind of that, sometimes, maybe.
That saw-blade disc reminds me of the original soundtrack LP of ANDROMEDA STRAIN in '70 or '71, which was hexagonal or octagonal. But I only had the regular sounds LP of it. Now I don't have it at all, dammit. (Love that movie!)
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