Neon Leon Fast Track to Hell: A Psychedelic Glam Punk Rock and Roll Story

Neon Leon Fast Track to Hell

A Psychedelic Glam Punk Rock and Roll Story

TEXT ONLY

Leon Matthews

First Edition

Published 2017

NEW HAVEN PUBLISHING LTD

www.newhavenpublishingltd.com

newhavenpublishing@gmail.com

The rights of Leon Matthews, as the author of this work, have been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be re-printed or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now unknown or hereafter invented, including photocopying, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the written permission of the

Author and Publisher.

Front cover photo © Aigars Lapsa

Cover design © Pete Cunliffe

pcunliffe@blueyonder.co.uk

Copyright © 2017 Leon Matthews

All rights reserved

ISBN:

ISBN: 978-1-910705-81-0

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction*

Chapter 2: Down By the Sea*

Chapter 3: Summer of Love*

Chapter 4: Treetop Vigil*

Chapter 5: Zorbida Zorbida Zorbida Zorbida*

Chapter 6: Welcome to the Gates of the City 1*

Chapter 7: The Birth of Neon Leon and Honi O’Rourke*

Chapter 8: Boardwalk Hustle*

Chapter 9: Chelsea Hotel*

Chapter 10: Seatbelt Light 737*

Chapter 11: Welcome to the Gates of the City 2*

Chapter 12: X-Rated*

Chapter 13: Too Many Girls – Not Enough Time*

Chapter 14: Rock and Roll is Alive*

Chapter 15: Sid and Nancy*

Chapter 16: Moving in the Right Direction*

Chapter 17: Artificial Stimulation*

Chapter 18: Fast Track to Hell*

Chapter 1

*Introduction*

Neon Leon Band circa 1978-1986

I first saw the Neon Leon Band at Max’s Kansas City in NYC in 1978. What I saw then and still believe today was pure rock n roll. Leon (what amazing charisma) held the audience and myself mesmerized for 90 minutes that night.

I knew exactly then that here is a band the world needed to see and hear. Within a month I was managing the band and getting them gigs all over New York City. We were selling out venues and breaking attendance records

at many of the venues.

I knew a label that the band should be on, and that label was Rolling Stones Records. The Neon Leon Band would be a perfect fit for the Stones label. Earl McGrath (president of the label) and Mick Jagger both agreed. At my invitation Mick Jagger came to one of our recording session and joined Leon on three songs

Everybody and anybody who has seen Neon Leon live will swear they died and went to heaven. Leon is pure Rock n Roll, and he should be the measuring stick for what rock n roll is all about...

Leon is also a great song writer with songs bands only wish they wrote. If you want to see what rock n roll is all about today, go see Neon Leon aka King Leon live, oh! don't forget to buy his albums also.

Cheers

James Karnbach

Dear Reader,

As I looked back on my life whilst writing this book, the memories came flooding back to me in short, sharp shots, not always in chronological order, like a soldier has flashbacks from the trauma of war, so was my writing. I decided to write these chapters as the memories unfolded, not starting at the beginning and ending at the end. I looked at pictures, shows and lost loves my mother had saved, journals and diaries I had written and hundreds and hundreds of press clippings and memorabilia that I had managed to keep over my nomadic intercontinental rock n roll life. The thoughts and memories came back to me bit by bit as the book I was writing grew from a few pages to what you have in front of you.

So this is my story of how it looked to me. This story covers a period of time from the 60’s (Yes I’m that old but younger than most) until the 80’s. If I seem to jump back and forth a little it is because that is how the memories came to me. My life has not been without drama, as you will find out when you set out on the Fast Track to Hell that was my life for a long time. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for reading.

Leon Matthews

Chapter 2

*Down By the Sea*

Come with me my baby down by the sea, we’ll walk hand in hand and dream of a faraway land. Lyrics to 1st single (Smash/Mercury Records) - Neon Leon

1968 - High school graduation is over and it’s been a year since our band Gemini 5, later known as Cliff McCoy and the All Star Review, and signed our first record contract with Smash Records (a division of Mercury Records, New York City. Notable groups at that time on the label were Frankie Valli, James Brown, Roger Miller, The Left Banke, Jerry Lee Lewis, Spanky and Our Gang (Sunday Will Never Be The Same), Jay and the Techniques (Apple, Peaches, Pumpkin’ Pie), Sir Douglas Quintet, The Walker Brothers and the Jimmy Castor Bunch (Bertha Butt Boogie, Troglodyte) to name a few. At the time we were in 7th Heaven!

We were discovered at the Hullabaloo Club in Cardiff/Pleasantville N.J. by a local DJ, Jimmy Corvette, who worked as the manager, DJ and emcee along with the owner, one Mac Seelig (more about him later). Jimmy told us he knew people and if he could help manage us he could get us a record deal. Our manager at the time, James, told him we were ready. A couple of weeks later he told us we had another gig at the Hullabaloo Club and he was going to have a big producer from New York to come and see us.

You should have seen my parents’ faces when the White Silver Cloud Rolls Royce pulled into the yard. The Hullabaloo Club was down the street from my house and my mother used to run Jimmy Corvette’s mother’s hotel in Atlantic City, so I’d known him for a while. Down at the Hullabaloo we were introduced to the people in the limo, Producer Peter Schekeryk and his wife singing star Melanie (Safka-Schekeryk - Brand New Key, Candles in the Rain).

The show went great and they said we got a deal. Peter and Jimmy asked Do any of you write songs? I said I do, I had a demo of a song I wrote about my high school sweetheart Filianne Steger (the German exchange student).

Soon the contracts were signed and the next thing we knew, a couple of weeks later, we were in New York recording and I had a publishing deal in the Brill Building 1619 Broadway. This was home to Burt Bacharach, Sonny Bono, Neil Diamond, Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Leiber and Stoller, Phil Spector, Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin, Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore. And here I am… I had to pinch myself - my song is going to be recorded by us, Cliff McCoy and the All Star Review (Chuck Boone vocal & guitar, David Whigham guitar, Benny Benulius guitar & vocals, Soso Sayers drums, Erwin Ashworth bass, organ &vocals, Cliff McCoy lead vocals and yours truly guitars, song writing & vocals).

The studio session was really stressful - if I remember correctly, we had one day to do our thing, and we did. We became local heroes. We won the New Jersey Battle of the Bands sponsored by Fender Musical Instruments and CBS, The 1967 Gentlemen of Sports Talent Award at The Club Harlem, a legendary R&B Soul club on Kentucky Ave in Atlantic City. The Club Harlem was the premiere Afro American club outside of The Apollo Theatre in Harlem, N.Y.C.

Besides being really good at what we did (great choreography, playing and a singer who was a cross between Wilson Pickett and James Brown) we were a multi-racial group at a time of racial unrest. We got to back up many soul and R&B artists of the time. One of the best was Solomon Burke, an Atlantic Records legend. We were his house and backup band and would do his TV show from Wildwood New Jersey every Saturday evening for an entire summer season. We were on top of the world.

Our manager, James, had a house in Egg Harbor City (Eier Havn Stadt, A German colony) New Jersey. All of us in the band lived there half the time, and had our rehearsals and very wild parties with some of the cheerleaders, female classmates and groupies there. In fact that’s where I lost my virginity - it wasn’t very good because I was way too quick… 10 seconds!

We did the Chitling Circuit shows with The Delfonics, Percy Sledge, V:F:W Halls – you name it we played it but as they say all good things must come to an end. Our end came one night on New York Ave. at a club called Dirty Edna’s. It was ‘an everything’ club - straight, gay, lesbian and tons of drag queens... (We didn’t know they were drag queens or what a lesbian was…well at least I didn’t) The marquee outside the club said ‘Tonight Cliff McCoy and the All Star Review!’ I couldn’t wait.

We began our sound check but our singer and leader Cliff wasn’t there. At the end of sound check Benny, our guitarist, whose sister was dating our singer Cliff, came back in from making a phone call with a very withdrawn, glum face.

Hey Benny, someone said, what’s the matter? He looked at us and said Cliff and my sister have run off to New York to get married tonight!

We all stood there speechless, our drummer Soso began to pack down his drums and someone told me to go tell the owner, since I was a good talker, to tell the ‘mafia guy’ we couldn’t play. I said OK, and went to the back where the office was and knocked on the door

Who is it? I said, It’s the Matthews boy, Leon.

They told me to come in. There was a gun on his desk and another guy with a cigar sitting there.

Hey kid what do ya want? We’re busy here!

I said We can’t play tonight because our singer has run away to New York with the guitarist’s sister!

They didn’t even look at me - They said Showtime is 12am, SHARP!

I told them I know, but we can’t play.

He looked at me and pulled down his glasses, took the gun in his hand and said We’ve got a room full of people here who have come many miles to see you and hear that song you wrote that’s on the radio... show time is 12 o’clock!

But I can’t sing I said...

The answer was, as he rolled the barrel and cocked the gun, You wrote the song, you know the words, you and your guys are gonna do the show… got it… You’re the new singer. I said Yes sir I got it!

I went back and told the band. Of course they said You can’t sing! I told them I’m singing now and Chuck will do the rest…

So I began my singing career at gunpoint, in a backroom Mafia Gay Club on New York Ave, Atlantic City.

It was a great show in my opinion and I never got over to this day the applause we got. After the show everybody packed their stuff and left, and that was the end of Cliff McCoy and the All Star Review... and me stranded in Atlantic City, homeless, no band, a little bit of money but feeling great in spite of it. And so began a period of Glorious Rock n ‘Roll homelessness. From playing at Dirty Edna’s and at least having a degree of fame (and it was summer) I didn’t worry too much. The people/guests from Dirty Edna took me in and let me crash in their flats during the day. In the afternoon and evening I would busk on the boardwalk. Most of the girls who were working for the summer as waitresses etc. would give me free food, ice cream and sodas. I would sing them some songs and tell some jokes. They would invite me to their apartments for dinner, lunch, breakfast, coffee, tea or me and God knows what else - I still felt good and was meeting lots of musicians, artists, hippies, drug dealers, strippers, surfers, you name it. Life was grand!

One day, while playing on the boardwalk, a Spanish /Italian looking guy stood in front of me smiling, listening to me sing. Little did I know he would be responsible for a big change in my life. His professional name was Cooks Books. He was the emcee at the famous 500 Club in Little Italy (also known as Ducktown) owned by one Skinny D’ Amato. Skinny was a racketeer, gangster, casino club owner, but a really kind, good guy. He was against the law and a Robin Hood type of guy and I have nothing bad to say about this honourable and gracious man.

The 500 Club was a place where gambling, which was illegal at the time, took place, talent was nurtured and who knows what else. They would have on Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, and The Treniers (Fantastic Afro-American group, friends of my parents’). The 500 Club is where the world famous act Martin and Lewis was formed. These names attracted the high rollers to Atlantic City.

Cooks (Raul Suarez) told me he had a TV show out of the Atlantic City Convention Hall, which I’d seen many times and dreamed of being on, and he asked me to be on the show. His favourite saying was, ‘every day is a miracle’, and for me another miracle was about to happen, one of many in my lucky life. The next weekend there I was, a nervous wreck with my acoustic guitar, sweating like a pig. I sang Where Have All the Flowers Gone and my song Down by the Sea. People could call in to the show on its audience hotline, and Cooks and his guests would answer questions or take requests, a forerunner to interactive television.

The reception for my performance was so positive, I was on the show every Friday, which brought me to the attention of many, many people, like Pinky Kravitz, the local big radio personality. His show Pinky’s Corner, which I did from the Borgata Hotel Casino in April 2010, was a local favourite and he was good to me because of Cooks Books and Mac Seelig. They believed in my talents and gave me a chance. My mom was really proud, but my father was still not putting out the welcome carpet yet, but to me it didn’t seem to matter. I was discovering a whole new way to live, out of the shadow of my father’s strict hand. I wasn’t a virgin anymore, I was making music, local TV and radio fans and making a little money. Not bad for a Rock n’ Roll homeless guy. Even though my mom would bring me and my friends food many times − boy did I miss her home cooking.

Between TV and radio shows and playing on the boardwalk, I began to play at the local coffee house on Atlantic Ave called the Sandbox. It was run by an Afro-American guy everybody called Coop. I reunited with two of my best friends from my younger days - Glenn Taylor and Byron Price, who I was in a band with in high school. Everybody in the band was from Atlantic City. Byron Price and his brother on bass and drums respectively, Eric Madison guitar and vocals, Ronnie Sommerville on guitar and vocals and of course me on guitar and vocals. We named ourselves The Czars, but people in the neighbourhood mockingly called us the Black Beatles.

I was crashing at a gay couple’s house on New York Ave with another short lived girlfriend - we’ll call Tina. It was a great period of time. She was a real fag hag. I’d straightened my hair and wore it like Paul McCartney. She adored me. She used to sneak me into her room through the window on weeknights because she was still in school, so I could sleep over unbeknownst to her parents. They would have killed me. She looked like and dressed like a new Twiggy. My friend Glenn had a car and we’d try to get in to the local places to listen to music. Me with Tina and Glenn with her best friend, double dating.

There were so many clubs at that time to go to besides the boardwalk and the piers. Steel Pier was where I saw the Rolling Stones for the first time live. I thought Anita Pallenberg was absolutely stunning. I could not stop looking at her and these beautiful women who were with her on the side of the stage watching their boyfriends, the Stones. It made me feel glad I was skinny, had big lips and long hair.

I also saw the last show The Animals did as a group together. That night Chas Chandler went with Kathy Etchingham (Hendrix’s ex who was seeing Keith Richards at the time) to New York and she took him to the Café Wha to see a friend she had recently met, one Jimmy James aka Jimi Hendrix, the rest is history on that one….

There was The Steel Pier, Garden Pier, Million Dollar Pier, Ocean Pier and Steeplechase Pier which were giant Tivoli’s and amusement parks stretching out to the sea. By far the best was The Steel Pier. I saw the Rolling Stones there, the whole British invasion, The Motown Review and Dick Clark’s Caravan of All Stars. What an influence to see all the greats of music of the time, and future, I might add. I would regularly busk in front of the piers because that’s where the people were.

Places like The Dunes, Gables, Bay Shores, Tony Marts and groups like Johnny Caswell and Crystal Mansion, Hereafter, Ruby Falls and the Rock City Band, Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks (later called The Band) all rocked it in Somers Point, Margate, Ocean City. Wildwood was even more rocked out, with over 50 clubs of various sizes. This is a town you could consider to be one of the important founding places of rock ‘n’ roll. For example, Dick Richards had a group called the Comets, got a deal on Decca. Their song Rock Around the Clock was the first Billboard #1 hit. The first time it was ever played was at the Hof Brau on Atlantic Ave in Wildwood.

The first time Chubby Checker performed the rock n’ roll phenomenon The Twist was in Wildwood at the Rainbow Club down the street from the Hof Brau. Dick Clark’s summer TV Show from the Starlight Ballroom was in Wildwood. So was Jerry Blavat (The Geator with the Heater), The Treniers, The Dovells (South Street, Dee Dee Sharp (Mashed Potato Time, Gravy) the list goes on and on and on…This was the environment I grew up in and it inspired me, fed me, and caused me to dream and visualize.

South Jersey from Asbury Park, Sea Isle City, Tom’s River, Atlantic City, Somers Point, Ocean City, for me and a lot of people this was the true home of rock ‘n’ roll! Atlantic City, Atlantic County, South Jersey… music paradise!

Everybody, and I mean everybody, from the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Sinatra and the Rat Pack, Marvin Gaye, and Curtis Mayfield were there. If you didn’t play the Jersey shore you were nobody−with one exception, Elvis. George Hamid Jr. didn’t hire him because of his name. He told the William Morris Agency that had Elvis as a client, People don’t want to come and hear a guy with a name like Elvis. I’ve never heard such a name! Goes to show you, huh?

I would not have chosen anywhere else to be at that time. I mean, What can a poor boy do but sing for a Rock n’ Roll Band? (Jagger/Richards ).

Times were definitely not boring by any means, but there were still lots of difficulties getting out to see many of the bands. This was a time in many places of Jim Crow laws – ‘Whites Only’ signs and ‘Coloured Only’ signs in toilets, restaurants and so forth. At least south Jersey was not as bad as other places in the U.S. at the time. The problem was the racism factor. Many of these places didn’t want Afro-Americans in their venues and I must admit some of the guys, when they had had too much to drink, could get a little out of hand, but I was pretty good at talking my way out of trouble. We would often get one of our white friends to take one of us in with them and then they would find another person they knew (male or female) to take another of us in. That way we (Glenn, Byron and myself) could see all these groups. Where there’s a will there’s a way…

Guitar ruled my mind. I was on a mission to see and hear as many groups as possible, whenever and wherever! I didn’t even have time to feel humiliated as long as I got to hear the music - I didn’t even drink at that time. Maybe some Boones Farm Apple wine, 5% alcohol content (Then again, maybe it was 10% soda pop)…

Hanging out and singing on the boardwalk those days I met lots of people, as I said. Two girls, Dot and Mary, two Rubenesque blondes who worked at an ice cream stand on the boardwalk in front of the Million Dollar Pier (Kohr Bros Frozen Custard). We became friends and they invited me and my friends Glenn and Byron to their place for food and to hang out. Glenn began dating Mary and Byron began dating Dot, or maybe it was the other way around. We would play guitars, party all night, listen to music and then they would leave me in the living room with all the vinyl LPs while they would go in the back bedrooms and have sex. I didn’t mind that I wasn’t getting any, I just needed to feed my heart and head with music like a man possessed!

One night there was a party and a guy from a very prominent family was over, we’ll call him Chris, and everybody started getting excited because he had brought something with him called Hash. I pretended I knew what it was, I had smoked pot before but I hated cigarettes. I choked and did not hold it in and I could not figure out what the big deal was, until that night Chris gave me the pipe and said Your turn, but hold it in, hold your breath.

The next thing I knew, I was coming back to consciousness on the kitchen floor with everyone standing over me laughing hysterically - and the music sounded completely different, as if I’d never heard music before! What a revelation! From that moment on I wanted more. I heard things in the music I’d missed before - and I began to laugh hysterically too! (A pot head is born). It was those times, the smoking, sexy 60s...

I was hell bent but didn’t know it. I was continuing to have the time of my life, or so I thought. At that time, crashing at the Roosevelt Apartments with Glenn, Byron, Dot and Mary, all my new crowd of Heads. A Head was what you were if you smoked Pot or Hash, did LSD,