In 1975, guitarist Walter Lure was playing a gig in Queens with his band the Demons, when Ex-NY Doll Johnny Thunders drafted him to join his new band the Heartbreakers. Music hasn't been the same since.
While the Dolls had the energy and the threads to bridge Glam to Punk, The Heartbreakers took the ball and ran with it - beating Chuck Berry riffs like Chuck owed them money, instead of the other way around. When they landed in the UK to do the infamous "Anarchy Tour" with the Sex Pistols, they blew their musical children off the stage every night - and could have become the biggest thing since sliced bread, had they managed a decent mix of their only studio album L.A.M.F. But there was too much junkie business, and eventually the record came out sounding like a muzzled beast instead of an attack dog. The record sold just enough to achieve "legendary" status, but not enough to keep Thunders and Nolan in junk, so Nolan bailed back to the states, and the Heartbreakers status as a band went from musical killing machine, to chronic musical disease, only playing occasional "rent party" gigs until Thunders' death in 1991.
Lure busted out of the cycle of musical poverty by becoming a successful stock broker on Wall Street, so it's fitting that he's hooked up with south florida punk rock lawyer extraordinare Charlie Pickett to play the Monterey Club Friday night. Between the two guitarists, there will be enough rock and roll education onstage to warrant giving an honorary masters degree in punk to anyone in attendance.
In these times, $8 for a musical education is hard to pass up. Even if you are a "London Boy."
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