Whatever happened to Stiv Bators?

I know how you feel. There are many things troubling you in this punishing world. We have a huge financial deficit, the country has been at war in the Afghanistan for the best part of a decade and Manchester United, the source of all evil, are top of the league. I have troubles and worries on my mind. A rather random sequence of events made me see some sort of bizarre pattern in the madness of life. Let me explain how what happened to Stiv Bators, legendary frontman of US punk rock outfit The Dead Boys, crystalised my thoughts on life. Thanks to Wiki I now know. He was run over in Paris and died of concussion in 1990.

You may wonder why I suddenly asked the question of what happened to Stiv? Well I wasn't a big fan of The Dead Boys, they had a few good tunes, most notably Sonic Reducer. To be honest I'd rather forgotten about them. I'm going to see Iggy and the Stooges in May and I thought I'd have a look at a few YouTube clips. When I did a search on "Search and destroy" (A stooges classic) I saw the above clip for The Dead Boys. Yeah I thought, whatever happened to Stiv Bators? Perhaps the most interesting and sad fact for me was that he was the only member of "The Whores of Babylon" (other members Johnny Thunders and Dee Dee Ramone) not to die of a heroin overdose. I vividly remember hearing of the deaths of both Johnny and Dee Dee.  Somehow Stiv's passing just passed me by.

Interestingly (for me at least), it occurred in 1990. At this time, I'd really fallen out of love with music. I'd dissolved my band (The Falsedots) in a sea of despair at our inability to keep a lineup together. We had a really good line up going, with a great singer, Tony Robotham. We were doing music which I felt was years ahead of it's time. Just as the set was coming together, our drummer Big Grey Ramsey became a father and his partner demanded his presence at home. I felt that if we couldn't succeed with that line up, we couldn't succeed with any. Tony showed up at our rehearsal to check out our new line up on Wednesday. He was suitably impressed with Koni, who is singing with us now. On Monday, I am going up to give some moral support to an ex band member who has been a rather naughty boy and is up before the beak. Sadly like Johnny and Dee Dee, his problems were brought about by drug problems. In the space of five years of heavy cocaine abuse, he went from having a job, flat and a life to being in prison. He split with his partner of 30 years, which amazed me. He has a new girlfriend who is standing by him and he has vowed to solve his problems and get his life on track. Apparently he's been completely clean in prison and has been studying and going to the gym. I hope he gets his head together and his life together as he is a talented musician and a lovely guy. Our friendship started to drift when his life became focussed on his habits.

As I pondered the demise of Stiv, Dee Dee and Johnny, my friends personal problems and music in general, I realised that life is a precious gift. Some of us carelessly toss it away like Johnny and Dee Dee, some of us have it stolen from us in a tragic accident like Stiv. Some of us get a wake up call and realise what a gift it is. I hope that on Monday that process starts for my friend. Have a great Friday evening.