PART ONE IS HERE
To recap: The Neurotic Outsiders (then known as Neurotic Boy Outsiders) were a supergroup consisting of Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols, Duff McKagan from Guns & Roses, Matt Sorum from the Cult/Guns & Roses, and John Taylor from Duran Duran. They played every Monday night at the Viper Room. It was supposed to be temporary, but it was so much fun for the band and the crowd, they just kept doing it every Monday. As mentioned previously, I used my Flipside credentials to get my camera in and the Viper Room gave me front row access. Being the amateur that I was, I only had brought color film. And they used red lights. Which basically flooded the pictures in red. One thing I noticed was that Steve Jones kept looking at me during the whole set. Which was weird. I was legit. I had permission from the Viper Room and not only that, their security backing me up.
Now for the rest of the story:
I went back to the Viper Room during my lunch break to show my contact the pictures I took. They were all red. I asked if there’s any way I can get in with my camera again so that I can take some better pictures, as red photos won’t show up well in a black and white magazine. She gave me approval for the next show, but I wouldn’t get the special spot and security again.
So the next Monday I went in and saw the Neurotic Outsiders once again. Which as usual, was great. My pictures were developed 11/16/95, so I’m assuming these photos were taken on Monday the 13th. I didn’t waste time getting my pictures developed, as there were deadlines for Flipside. It came out every other month, so if I missed a month, depending on the timing, stories/pictures could be up to 3-4 months out of date. However, google does not show any shows at the Viper Room on that date, so take that date with a grain of salt.
I made sure to use some black and white film this time and while I couldn’t get up front again (place was pretty packed!), I did get some better photos. As seen below.
A little fun fact: I really wanted to interview the Neurotic Outsiders for Flipside. They were the ONE band that Al Flipside completely rejected me to do an interview. I had gotten the Goo Goo Dolls, Soul Asylum, and even the Rugburns in Flipside, but Neurotic Outsiders were the one band that Al just would not let me interview. Why? He hated Steve Jones. I don’t know if it was personal or not. As much as I could pry out of him was that he hated Steve Jones’ metal ’80s output and didn’t want him in the magazine.
Maybe he thought they weren’t punk enough. I certainly thought they were! The songs were great! The covers were great! Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, Generation X, Stooges, etc… And the originals they did could’ve even been done by any of those bands. Maybe he just thought it was too much of a gimmick or something. It certainly was a little out of character for Al, as he probably didn’t like most of the bands I asked to interview, but still let me. And Al didn’t really “hate” Jones that much, because when the Sex Pistols reunited in ’96, he was first in line to go see them and loved it!
Ok. And now for a little epilogue. Flash forward to about 5 years later. I got word from a mutual friend that Duff McKagan was in town and was going to Brick By Brick to see Fu Manchu. Hearing that, I grabbed a bunch of the Neurotic Outsiders photos off the wall I had them displayed on and ran down to the club to see if I could give them to Duff. I walked in, saw Duff and his wife and introduced myself to him. Duff was actually in town to take his kids to Legoland the next morning! But also loved Fu Manchu and went to the show because he wanted to see them.
As I gave him the pictures, I told him how I thought it was really weird that Steve Jones kept staring at me, giving me the eye, half the time. Duff said “I remember that!”. You do?! Really? “Yeah! He wanted to shake you down for money for the photos!” WHOA! Getting shaken down by Steve Jones for taking pictures?!? I would’ve been thrilled and paid immediately! And then I would’ve turned around and sold them to Rolling Stone to make up for the cost. Who knows? Maybe that would’ve started a real paying hobby for me! The pictures wouldn’t have been suitable to print in Rolling Stone, as the red lights bled into the pictures way too much.
After meeting Duff, I walked away to talk with some friends. I looked back at Duff and saw he was really excited, flipping through the pictures. That made it all worthwhile. Here’s some more pictures for you Duff!
All photos by Ted Tarris
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