Frank Navetta was the original guitarist for Southern California beach punk band, the Descendents. Formed in Manhattan Beach in 1979, the band became one of the most popular bands of the local hardcore scened thanks, in part, to their 1982 debut album, Milo Goes To College. In 1985, Navetta left the band and moved to the Northwest to become a fisherman. He reunited with the group in 2002 for a festival date. Frank Navetta died after a brief undisclosed illness on October 31, 2008.
Frankie Venom (Born Frank Kerr)
1957 – October 15, 2008
Frankie Venom was the lead singer of Ontario, Canada punk band, Teenage Head which he helped form while still in high school. Formed in 1975, the band was one of Canada’s first wave of punk, and was often called “Canada’s Ramones.” The band signed to Epic Records and released their first album Teenage Head, in 1979. By the time their second album came out in 1980, the band were bonafied stars across Canada and beginning to break through in the U.S. It was not unusual for their concerts to break out into riots by the end. ’80s movie fans may recognize the band from their appearance in the Michael J. Fox film, Class of 1984. In 2003, they teamed up with Marky Ramone to re-record a collection of their old songs entitled Teenage Head with Marky Ramone. 51-year-old Frankie Venom died of throat cancer on October 15, 2008.
Brendan Mullen is best remembered for The Masque, the legendary Los Angeles punk club that he opened in 1977. After moving to Los Angeles from London in 1973, Mullen took over a filthy room that sat right behind the notorious Pussycat Theater in Hollywood and transformed it into a rehearsal space for local bands. In a matter of matter of months, the room became a venue that some consider the flashpoint of the local punk scene of the late ’70s. Bands like the Germs, X, the Weirdos, the Go-Gos, and the Plugz all played some of their earliest gigs there. As could be expected, Mullen clashed on numerous occasions with area merchants, the fire department and the L.A.P.D. before the club was temporarily shut down in 1978. It briefly re-opened in another location in 1979 before closing permanently. Mullen later went on to book shows at The Other Masque and Club Lingerie, both also in Hollywood. In later years, Mullen wrote such books about the L.A. punk scene as We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk, Lexicon Devil: The Fast Times and Short Life of Darby Crash and the Germs, and Live at the Masque: Nightmare in Punk Alley. Brendan Mullen died in a Los Angeles hospital on October 12, 2009. He had suffered a massive stroke.
Nancy Spungen
February 27, 1958 – October 12, 1978
Nancy Spungen was just 17 when she left her Southeast Pennsylvania home for New York City to follow her true passion, punk rock. She quickly became immersed in the city’s growing underground scene, gravitating toward bands like the New York Dolls, the Heartbreakers, and the Ramones. Two years later, she moved to London where she met the Sex Pistols. After reportedly being rejected by the band’s singer, Johhny Rotten, Spungen set her sites on bassist,Sid Vicious. Over the course of the next two years, there relationship and lives spriraled out of control due to increasing dependence on heroin and other drugs. Accounts differ as to which initially dragged the other along for the ride. The last couple of months of their lives together were apparently marred by incidents of domestic violence. On October 12, 1978, 20-year-old Nancy Spungen died from a single stab wound to her abdomen in the Chelsea Hotel room she shared with Vicious. Vicious was immediately arrested for the murder. While some of his own comments seemed to implicate him, there are other valid theories as to what happened, including her being killed in a botched robbery while Vicious was in a drug stupor. Adding to the mystery, Vicious died of what is believed to have been an intentional overdose just prior to when he was to stand trial for the murder. His suicide note indicated that they had made a death pact but did not implicate him in her killing.
Dimwit was the drummer for Vancouver hardcore punk band, D.O.A. in the late ’70s and early ’80s. They are often refered to as the founders of hardcore. In 1989, he helped form the Four Horsemen, a band that had more in common with the Cult and Zodiac Mindwarp than Black Flag or the Exploited. The Four Horsemen landed a deal with Rick Rubin’s Def American who released their Rubin produced Nobody Said It Was Easy in 1991. Although the band were poised for greatness, grunge soon hit and the band was left in its wake. Dimwit died of a heroin overdose on September 27, 1994.
Ilari Peltola was known as simply, Claude when he was the lead singer of Finnish rock band, Smack. Smack were a glam-punk band who were active 1982 – 1990. The band, who were not dissimilar to the New York Dolls, were very popular in and around Finland, but never achieved much more that a cult following here in the US, despite moving to Los Angeles in 1989. In 1990, Peltola left the band to move back to Finland where he formed a new band, the Fishfaces. He died of heart faluire on September 22, 1996.
The son of romance writer Danielle Steele, Nick Traina was the lead singer of ska punk band, Link 80. Traina joined Link 80 when he was just sixteen, after fronting a band that he formed at just thirteen. Traina suffered much of life with mental issues, being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and manic depression in later years. He also suffered from drug abuse and had tried to take his own life on three seperate occasions before sadly succeeding on the fourth try. He was just 19 years old.
Jim Carroll was a poet, author, purse snatcher, glue sniffer, male prostitute, heroin addict, post-punk rocker and one of the greatest basketball players New York City has ever known. His troublesome early life was documented in his own memoirs, written between the ages of 12 and 16. They were later anthologized in best-selling The Basketball Diaries, which was the inspiration of a somewhat fictionalized film of the same name, starring Leonard DiCaprio as Carroll. He published his first book of poetry at the age of 17 and within a few years he was working for Andy Warhol writing script dialog, and later, co- managing his theater. At one point while still a teenager, Carroll became the youngest person ever nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He formed the Jim Carroll Band in 1978 with the help of Patti Smith, and soon released Catholic Boy. It’s “People Who Died” was an instant underground hit and is considered a staple of the New York punk scene of the era. The songs eulogizes his real life childhood friends, the “characters” from The Basketball Diaries. Carroll recorded several more albums of music and spoken word over the next few decades, but in recent years he was mostly writing poetry and fiction. Jim Carroll suffered a fatal heart attack on September 11, 2009.
After a stint as drummer for hardcore punk band Agnostic Front, Ray “Raybeez” Barbieri went on to help form New York cult favorites, Warzone. The band formed in 1982, with Barbieri being the only original member to stay with the band until is untimely death in 1997. A Navy veteran, he was admitted to a VA hospital where he died while being treated from pneumonia. Fans and friends claim the inadequate facility was to blame for his surprising death.
Hilly Kristal
September 23, 1931 – August 28, 2007
Hilly with Little Steven
Opened in 1973, Hilly Kristal’s CBGB became the epicenter of the punk and new wave movement thanks to his early bookings of such acts as Blondie, Talking Heads, New York Dolls, Patti Smith, Television and the Ramones. After moving to New York City after serving in the Marines, Kristal became manager of the storied Village Vanguard jazz club where he booked such acts as Miles Davis. In 1968, he co-founded the Central Park’s Schaefer Music Festival which, over the next decade, hosted the likes of the Who, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, the Doors and Aerosmith. In 1973, he opened CBGB – OMFUG, which stood for “Country, BlueGrass, Blues and Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers.” He closed the club during a much publicized rent dispute in 2006. Hilly Kristal died of lung cancer at the age of 75.
Sean McCabe was the frontman for the vampire-themed hardcore punk band, Ink & Dagger. Hailing from Philadelphia, the group gained a bit of notoriaty during the mid ’90s, partly due to their outrageous stage antics. On many occasions donning face paint, the band would incorporate fake blood into their shows. Legend has it that McCabe and band once threw up all over a Christmas tree during a show. Shortly after recording what would be the band’s last album, Sean McCabe was found dead in a hotel room, having apparently choked on his own vomit. In 2006, the surviving members of the band sued Microsoft for using three of their songs without permission on their Amped snowboarding X-box game. The suit was settled with an apparent pay out to the band and McCabe’s estate.
Jason Thirsk had been the bassist for southern California pop-punk band, Pennywise until, for reasons unknown, he left the band. Thirsk had been suffering from alcoholism and battling depression in those days, and had been in and out of rehab. It has been reported that he was in a deep depression about parting ways with the band, leading him to shoot and kill himself at the age of 28.
Malcolm Owen was the lead singer for British band, the Ruts, who scored a UK Top 10 hit with “Babylon’s Burning.” The reggae influenced punk band was part of an organization called the People Unite Collective and therefore very active in anti-racist causes. And although several of their songs had an anti-drug message, Owen died of a heroin overdose on July 14, 1980 at the age of 26.
Mia Zapata was the powerful lead singer of the highly influential Seattle punk band, the Gits. As a child growing up in Louisville, Zapata was exposed to music by some of the greatest voices in America, Hank Williams, Ray Charles, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday. While at an Ohio college during the mid ’80s, Zapata co-founded the Gits. In 1989, the band moved to Seattle to be closer to what was quickly becoming a scene of like minded bands like Nirvana and Mudhoney. The band quickly built a local following partly due the release of a handful of solid singles and their critically acclaimed debut album, Frenching The Bully. Things appeared to be on the verge of taking off for the band when tragedy struck. In the early morning hours of July 7, 1993, Zapata left a friends apartment to presumably walk or catch a cab home. She never made it. Police reports indicate that she was beaten, raped and strangled at approximately 2:15 am, her body left in a “Christ like” pose in the middle of the street. Her murder would go unsolved for ten years until a DNA match linked a Florida man to the crime. He was convicted of Mia Zapata’s murder on March 25, 2004
Ann Spencer Gates was a Boston area disc jockey and later, publicist for Matador Records. Moving from Buffalo to Boston for college in the late ’70s, Gates soon had a radio program on MIT’s hip WMBR radio station. She, along with friend Lisa “Sheena” Bucholz hosted “The Mystery Girls” where they were one of the first to champion such local bands as Lemonheads and Mission Of Burma. By the late ’80s, Gates was living in New York City where she went to work for Matador Records as a publicist, working with such acts as Liz Phair, Pavement, Cat Power and Bettie Serveert. Ann Spencer Gates died on July 6, 2008 after a long struggle with breast cancer.
Kevin “G.G.” Allin
August 29, 1956 – June 28, 1993
G.G. Allin was plain and simple, the most shocking and to many people, the most disgusting performer rock music has ever known. Recording mostly in the punk idiom, Allin was also known to leave his mark on country, spoken word and blues-influenced rock. His violent shows generally involved him rolling around in, and eventually ingesting his own feces and urine. Usually ending up naked, gouging and cutting himself on stage until he became a bloody mess. And if that weren’t sexy enough, he oftentimes coaxed audience members to perform oral sex on him. These antics obviously overshadowed his music which tended to be as raw as the sewage he left in his wake. This ultimate rock ‘n’ roll rebellion endeared him to his cult following, but also enraged local critics and police, landing him in jail no fewer than 50 times. Although barely on punk’s fringe, Allin managed to count Dee Dee Ramone, Wayne Kramer and Thurston Moore as fans. Many suspected that Allin suffered from severe mental disorders made worse by his massive consumption of drugs and alcohol. And as shocking as his on stage personality was, by all appearances, his personal life was just as noteworthy. In 1989 he was arrested for rape and torture of a woman in Michigan. Allin denied all charges, insisting that the burning, cutting and drinking of blood were mutual and consensual, and to some degree, the judge agreed, reducing the charges to felony assault for which he served about a year and a half in prison. Allin went out in as memorable a fashion as he lived. On the night of June 27, 1993, he took the stage at a club in New York City. Just two songs into the set, the club’s power went out sending Allin into the crowd where he proceeded to tear up anything in the club that he could get his hands on. As the crowd spilled out into the streets, so did Allin, only he was naked, and though covered in blood and feces, he attempted to embrace his fans who were reveling in the street. Allin ended up at a friend’s apartment where he died of a heroin overdose in the early hours of June 28. And though dead and gone, the partying friends of his buddy continued to pose for pictures with him until someone realized something was wrong and called the paramedics who pronounced him dead at the scene. He was 36.
Thanks to Stephen Brower for pointing us to this great G.G. Allin footage:
Stefanie Sargent was the guitarist for Seattle all-girl punk band, 7 Year Bitch. The band formed in 1990 and was signed to indie lable, C/Z Records by 1991. Building a fan base due in part to their aggressive shows and songs, they reached a point where they were even sharing the stage with the band that had inspired them, the Gits. Things were going well for the band as they were just about to release their debut album. But just before its release, Stefanie Sargent died of a heroin overdose just days after her 24th birthday.
Nick Sanderson, was the one-time drummer for seminal psychobilly band, the Gun Club as well as the singer in the highly influential Earl Brutus, but his carer started in the Manchester industrial band, Clock DVA in 1983. About a year later, Sanderson was backing then-former Gun Club singer, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, who would later invite him to join a re-formed Gun Club. Following Pierce’s death in 1997, Sanderson joined Earl Brutus as singer. In recent years, he was playing in a band called Freeheat alongsid Jim Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain. Nick Sanderson died of lung cancer in 2008.
Dee Dee Ramone (Born Douglas Colvin)
September 18, 1951 – June 5, 2002
Born Douglas Colvin, Dee Dee Ramone will always be remembered for his “1-2-3-4″ count-ins on so many great songs by the Ramones, the punk rock band he co-founded along with Joey Ramone (Jeffrey Hyman) and Johnny Ramone (John Cummings). What most people don’t realize was that Dee Dee main songwriter, writing such punk classics as “Rockaway Beach,” “53rd and 3rd” and “I Wanna Be Sedated.” He played bass in the band until 1989 when he decided to launch an ill-fated rap career as Dee Dee King. Although they parted ways, Dee Dee continued to write songs for the group disbanded in 1996. 1991 found Dee Dee briefly playing guitar for shock-punk artist, G.G. Allin. Dispite a longtime struggle with drugs and alcohol, Dee Dee continued to stay musically productive up until his untimely death at the age of 50. On June 5, 2002, Dee Dee’s lifeless body was discovered by his wife in his Hollywood apartment. His death was officially attributed to a heroin overdose.
Stiv Bators burst onto the punk scene as a member of the Dead Boys and later Lords Of The New Church. It was Bators’ sound and image that helped define the punk genre. After the demise of the Dead Boys, Bators found himself in the UK where he formed Lords Of The New Church with ex members of the Damned and Sham 69. The Lords achieved moderate success in Europe and the US due in part to their wild live shows. Bators was reported to have hung himself during a show in a stunt that went terribly wrong and was pronounced dead before being revived several minutes later. By the early ’80s, Bators was landing small parts in such cult classic films as Polyester and Tapeheads. And in 1988, the Lords broke up due to an injury Bators sustained to his back. In the early summer of 1990, an intoxicated Bators wandered into a Paris street and was struck by a taxi. He was taken to a hospital but apparently grew tired of waiting to see the doctor so he left. Bators died in his sleep later that night from what was ruled a concussion.
Frankie Venom was the lead singer of Ontario, Canada punk band, Teenage Head which he helped form while still in high school. Formed in 1975, the band was one of Canada’s first wave of punk, and was often called “Canada’s Ramones.” The band signed to Epic Records and released their first album Teenage Head, in 1979. By the time their second album came out in 1980, the band were bonafied stars across Canada and beginning to break through in the U.S. It was not unusual for their concerts to break out into riots by the end. ’80s movie fans may recognize the band from their appearance in the Michael J. Fox film, Class of 1984. In 2003, they teamed up with Marky Ramone to re-record a collection of their old songs entitled Teenage Head with Marky Ramone. 51-year-old Frankie Venom died of throat cancer on October 15, 2008.
Nancy Spungen was just 17 when she left her Southeast Pennsylvania home for New York City to follow her true passion, punk rock. She quickly became immersed in the city’s growing underground scene, gravitating toward bands like the New York Dolls, the Heartbreakers, and the Ramones. Two years later, she moved to London where she met the Sex Pistols. After reportedly being rejected by the band’s singer, Johhny Rotten, Spungen set her sites on bassist, 
Jim Carroll was a poet, author, purse snatcher, glue sniffer, male prostitute, heroin addict, post-punk rocker and one of the greatest basketball players New York City has ever known. His troublesome early life was documented in his own memoirs, written between the ages of 12 and 16. They were later anthologized in best-selling The Basketball Diaries, which was the inspiration of a somewhat fictionalized film of the same name, starring Leonard DiCaprio as Carroll. He published his first book of poetry at the age of 17 and within a few years he was working for Andy Warhol writing script dialog, and later, co- managing his theater. At one point while still a teenager, Carroll became the youngest person ever nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He formed the Jim Carroll Band in 1978 with the help of Patti Smith, and soon released Catholic Boy. It’s “People Who Died” was an instant underground hit and is considered a staple of the New York punk scene of the era. The songs eulogizes his real life childhood friends, the “characters” from The Basketball Diaries. Carroll recorded several more albums of music and spoken word over the next few decades, but in recent years he was mostly writing poetry and fiction. Jim Carroll suffered a fatal heart attack on September 11, 2009.
Jason Thirsk had been the bassist for southern California pop-punk band, Pennywise until, for reasons unknown, he left the band. Thirsk had been suffering from alcoholism and battling depression in those days, and had been in and out of rehab. It has been reported that he was in a deep depression about parting ways with the band, leading him to shoot and kill himself at the age of 28.
Malcolm Owen was the lead singer for British band, the Ruts, who scored a UK Top 10 hit with “Babylon’s Burning.” The reggae influenced punk band was part of an organization called the People Unite Collective and therefore very active in anti-racist causes. And although several of their songs had an anti-drug message, Owen died of a heroin overdose on July 14, 1980 at the age of 26.
Stefanie Sargent was the guitarist for Seattle all-girl punk band, 7 Year Bitch. The band formed in 1990 and was signed to indie lable, C/Z Records by 1991. Building a fan base due in part to their aggressive shows and songs, they reached a point where they were even sharing the stage with the band that had inspired them, the Gits. Things were going well for the band as they were just about to release their debut album. But just before its release, Stefanie Sargent died of a heroin overdose just days after her 24th birthday.
Stiv Bators burst onto the punk scene as a member of the Dead Boys and later Lords Of The New Church. It was Bators’ sound and image that helped define the punk genre. After the demise of the Dead Boys, Bators found himself in the UK where he formed Lords Of The New Church with ex members of the Damned and Sham 69. The Lords achieved moderate success in Europe and the US due in part to their wild live shows. Bators was reported to have hung himself during a show in a stunt that went terribly wrong and was pronounced dead before being revived several minutes later. By the early ’80s, Bators was landing small parts in such cult classic films as Polyester and Tapeheads. And in 1988, the Lords broke up due to an injury Bators sustained to his back. In the early summer of 1990, an intoxicated Bators wandered into a Paris street and was struck by a taxi. He was taken to a hospital but apparently grew tired of waiting to see the doctor so he left. Bators died in his sleep later that night from what was ruled a concussion.