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I met some Mexican Ramones fans in San Diego. While we were at Live Wire pub in Friday in May 9th, recognized me Jesse Gonzalez who is from Mexico, but now living in San Diego. I was amazed after he said that he recognized me because he remembered me singing as a guest at the The Hellacopters show at Ankkarock festival in Finland in August, 2003. That sounded so amazing how he recognized some Finnish guy after so many years in San Diego... Jesse Gonzalez was four months in Europe in 2003. Jesse told me how he attended Dee Dee Ramone shows in San Diego in 2001 and 2002.
Randy's and Shazz's friend James "Mac" McNeil bought my books, he said
he knew my books in advance after visiting my site. I was added to my
homepage in March that Marky Ramone will play in Mexico in May. I was
booked my trip so that I would attend a festival show in Tijuana on May
15, 2008. It was a bit hard to find anyone who wanted to come with me
for Tijuana, Mexico, also because show was in Thorsday. Luckily Mac
changed his mind and he wanted to come to that festival called Tijuana
Punk Invasion 2008. Beside of Marky Ramone there were also playing The
Adicts, The Voodoo Glow Skulls, Los Kung Fu Monkeys, UNION 13 etc. Mac
told me about corruption problem in Tijuana. You can't trust even
polices there, once polices were tried to get money from Mac in Tijuana.
It took for me and Mac few hours to get to the border of Mexico and USA.
PHOTO CAPTIONS:
Photo 1-2) Marky Ramone playing live at the Tijuana Punk Invasion 2008 festival on May 15, 2008.
3) Marky having a little speech at the Tijuana Punk Invasion 2008 festival.
4-6) Clare (4), David Divine (5) and Alex (6) at the Tijuana Punk Invasion 2008 festival show.
From the border we went to center of Tijuana by taxi. I and Mac went to pub where I recognized members of The Voodoo Glow Skulls. The Voodoo Glow Skulls is ska and punk band formed in 1988 in Riverside, California, USA by brothers Frank, Eddie and Jorge Casillas and their longtime friend Jerry O'Neill. Also currently (summer 2008) Eric Fazzini plays sax and Ruben Durazo plays trombone. The Voodoo Glow Skulls and their Mexican manager were having an dinner and I asked if I and Mac can chat with them. We talked of their Ramones memories and I introduced them my books Heaven Needed A Lead Singer: Fans Remember Joey Ramone and Rock In Peace: Dee Dee And Joey Ramone. Bassist Jorge Casillas was remembering their shows which were at the Coney Island High in New York and how some of those shows were attended by Joey Ramone or other Ramones members. He also told how Johnny Ramone attended their shows in Los Angeles. Jorge said he would write a text to my third book and he gave to me his E-mail address.
Marky Ramone was again promoting this show and tour only with his own name and there were no any line-up infos on his MySpace site etc. But I knew that David Divine is going to be an singer. David has sang in Marky's line-up for many years now. I and David Divine were sending messages and he told that Clare and Alex from UK band Antiproduct will play with him and Marky. I added those infos to my site. I called David around 6PM on May 15, 2008 and he said they are in a hotel. So it was better for me and Mac go inside to the venue. There were no any Marky Ramone merchandise. I would have wanted to buy some. At the venue I saw nice A5 sized poster of this Tijuana Punk Invasion 2008 festival. They were asking 10 US$ of the poster...., it was strange and high price of the poster because shirts of the bands were 15 US$. Festival wasn't sold-out. There were maybe 400 people. Randy, Shazz and Mac were told in advance how wild The Voodoo Glow Skulls shows has been in Tijuana. I and Mac were a bit disappointed to the crowd that night in shows what we saw.
Marky, David, Clare and Alex climbed to stage fifteen minutes after Los Kung Fu Monkeys were finished their show. Marky had a little speech and then he, David, Clare and Alex started their set with Rockaway Beach, Teenage Lobotomy and I Don't Care. It wasn't surprise that most of the songs were from early Ramones albums. Clare was the most wild of them on stage, she was moving a lot and having punkrock attitude. Crowd did not got really wild. One reason to a bit lame and not so Ramoniac feeling was it that there was after every song small break, songs weren't played non-stop like the Ramones did. Even there were small breaks, Marky Ramone or David Divine had no more than few small speeches. Marky's name was reading in top side and The Legacy in bottom side at Marky's drum set.
Beat On The Brat always get you to good live feelings. After that were played in a row 53rd And 3rd, I Wanna Be Sedated, She's The One, Cretin Hop, I Don't Wan't You, KKK Took My Baby Away and I Just Want To Have Something To Do. I hoped that even some of those would have played without breaks like even many Ramones tribute bands does. David has a good voice and he sang well. Marky played accurately as always. He did a good job but it would have been good him to do some special things. Anyway it was great for many younger fans to see Ramones member playing at live.
Finally audience did show a bit more their enthusiasm when Psycho Therapy, Judy Is A Punk and Rock And Roll High School were punkrocked. Dee Dee Ramone's spirit was with us strongly when Pet Sematary and Poison Heart were played on consecutive songs. Audience was singing along.
There was some guy next to me who was pretty drunk and fucked up. He was yelling in many breaks that he wants to hear I Wanna Live. Also he yelled stupid and nasty things to Marky. I tried to get him stop. Maybe he was living a story of Chinese Rocks (that song was also played). I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You, Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World and Pinhead were last songs on set that night. That some guy also yelled nasty things to Marky after set ended. He made more noise than other people in audience together, audience yelled around 20 seconds "hey ho, let's go", but it didn't started loud or excited way. I yelled: "Are Mexican people really this shy?" They were and there were no enough noise, and no encore. Probably Marky, David, Clare and Alex were saved Blitzkrieg Bop to the encore. But that was not heard.
I and Mac were asked to come to backstage after the show. But we had hurry to go by taxi to the border because last trolley of that night was soon leaving to San Diego. In a trolley I was remembering times when I was touring with Marky Ramone & The Speedkings, with Marky Ramone & Tarakany and Wacken festival show when I got Marky Ramone and Ramones Mania play together. Feeling was different in Tijuana than in those tours and shows.
Also during this trip I got chance to have great free time in San Diego with Dan Demers, Joseph Porter and his girlfriend Maggi and their friend Chelsea. May 16 Crystal Thompson wanted to paint my finger nails. Crystal first removed my manycoloured nailpolishes and then she used four different colors (pink, dark red, yellow and gray). She made also polkadots in top of some nailpolishes. I still has long real fingernails, my longest fingernail has 5 centimeters at the moment. After Crystal had finished her work lovely way, refused Randy still to be real man. Randy did not accepted Crystal to nailpolish his fingernails. But Randy wanted us to open special beers. We were bought Kenyan, Tahitian and Russian beers. Gabba Hey for Ramones fans in those countries. My homepage tracker tells that also from Kenya some people has visited my site. I and Randy also had Absinth shots and then we were remembering times when Randy and Shazz attended Ramones shows and shows by Joey and Dee Dee. When we were at Live Wire pub, Randy said: "Dee Dee and Joey would hang around in this kind of place (Live Wire) and help bands what they like." and: "I think if Joey and Dee Dee were still alive, the interest in the Ramones would be more genuine than the pop culture status they have adopted." I know how many old hardcore Ramones fans underline those thoughs in many ways...
But soon we were thinking more positive things and how Tommy, CJ, Richie and Marky Ramone are still alive. We had really nice time in San Diego also in my last night there. That friendliness by all people there was overwhelming. Hugs as a thank for You all there again.
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