Brian Hyland – I think there were more Midwest people there than D.C. guys. I still don’t understand how we got to do such great stuff for no reason at all when we were just kids. I think everything got blown out of proportion in regards to the damage. We did fuck up the green room pretty bad though and a camera got knocked over, but it wasn’t that bad. The funny thing is I work for NBC and that studio is [SNL producer] Lorne Michaels’ office now. Somebody asked me once if I was ever in Lorne's office and I said “Yeah, a long, long time ago!”
Todd Swalla – That whole night was a whirlwind. The password was "Ian MacKaye" to get into the NBC studio. There was lots of free Coca Cola I remember. This D.C. kid, Billy McKenzie grabbed a pumpkin and threw it on the stage and it went everywhere. The host for the show that night was Donald Pleasence; he was totally terrified. John Brannon grabbed the mic and screamed "Negative Approach is gonna fuck you up!" and it got on the air!
Tesco Vee – To be honest, I was pretty disgusted with that whole Saturday Night Live thing because there were people doing stage dives and acting stupid that would have never done that if there wasn’t a camera on them. Ian MacKaye would not have been caught dead stage diving, but there he was. I came up to the front of the stage for awhile and then walked off. All the cords were in the air, all the mics were getting knocked off. It was an embarrassment; a total cliché. “Here’s what we’re supposed to do.” Belushi and Lee Ving were getting stoned in this room and I remember I could smell it and if I had half a ball I would’ve walked in and smoked a joint with them, but I was a pussy. They probably had a goon around the corner that would have beat me to a pulp.
John Brannon – The first thing I remember seeing was some guy hanging out backstage who was dressed up like a vampire and I said to Tesco “Who the fuck is that Dracula looking asshole? Who the hell does he think he is?” It turned out to be Dave Vanian from the Damned! Everybody else was pretty straight edge at the time but I was like “We need some beers in here!” John Belushi heard me and was like “I used to work here, I know some spots.” So we started booking around the office and we found a twelve case of Bud, so me, Lee Ving and Belushi started pounding beers. I had this black, spiky hair and Belushi goes “I think you need a mohawk, dude!” Corey had some clippers on him, so him and Belushi gave me a mohawk. Fear did a dress rehearsal an hour before the broadcast and there were all these guys with headphones and clipboards looking nervous. During the dress rehearsal, me and Sab from [D.C. punk band] Iron Cross were acting like jerks and we knocked into a camera. These guys acted like it wasn’t too much of a big deal, but the front page of the New York Post the next day read “Punks invade NBC studios and cause ten thousand dollars damage.” When I got home the next day, my mom was pretty excited that John Belushi gave me a mohawk.
No comments:
Post a Comment