Are We Not Men?

A great movie, a great song. Island Of Lost Souls. Actually it was the song that made me want to see the movie. The original from 1932. Not one of the many remakes. I bought the 7" with the song on back in 1984, in Bexhill-On-Sea, an English small town in the south. I had just turned 16 and was for the first time away from home and fatherland. It were 3 weeks language holidays to improve my english skills. In the morning I would go to school for some hours, in the afternoon and evening I hung out with the local Psychos. Well, one local Psycho to be precise. And a young Skinhead. The Skinhead's name was Boris and he called himself a 'Sillybilly'. The only Psycho in the village was Chris. He played drums in a South-England Psychobilly band called 'Planet 13' and later joined an Exploited style Punk band. At least hair-wise they reminded me of them. I don't recall their name but I saw their picture in an issue of NME, or maybe Sounds, some years later. So they def had more success than Chris's Psychobilly band, which is a shame. I really liked their name. There in Bexhill-On-Sea they had a record shop, not too far away from the seafront, that had a selection of vinyls that would have a huge impact on my musical taste in the years to come. Chris suggested I buy the Tall Boys single 'Another Half Hour Till Sunrise'. It's a must have, he said. A real killer. Tall Boys? Never heard of them. But why worry? I had just listened to my first Psychobilly song half a year ago and was still learning. Of course I'd take a proper english Crazie's advice. I bought said 45, the first pressing with the custom label(as I'd learn years later), with 'Island Of Lost Souls' on the flip, the first Stingrays LP, the Meteors 'Radioactive Kid' 7“ and their debut vinyl 'Meteor Madness'. They actually had 2 versions on sale. One was the 7“ with full color sleeve, the other one was a 10“ with nothing but a b/w photocopy glued to a plain white sleeve. 'What is this?', I thought, 'This looks sad! I take the 7“ with the proper sleeve!' Little did I know... Obvious. Ah well. For sure an early entry in my list of bad decisions.

I had a great time, there in the south of the island. Boris, Chris and me would go to the local roller-disco (yes, those were still the early 80s baby, Roller Disco!) and hang out outside, drinking beer (actually I don't remember if we drank beer, but it sounds better than saying we drank soda) and when they played the only song of the day we liked, 'Destination Zululand' by King Kurt, we ran inside and wrecked to it. I bet we looked like total idiots to the other kids. But we had a ball and did what Psychos were supposed to do. Support the scene! I should add, back in '84 it wasn't called 'Wreckin'. The terms of the day were 'Slammin' and 'Crazen'(How it's spelled correctly? No clue!). Chris also took me to Eastbourne, where I'd meet other Psychos and even Teds they were friends with. Weird... Back home Teds and Psychos weren't really on the best of terms. Thee ole Teddys actually hated us. They probably thought we were all traitors, because we used to be Teddyboys as well. Now we dressed silly, had silly hair and listened to silly music. But back to England. I learned quickly that things were different there. These guys dressing in 50s clothes were no Teds. They were Hep Cats, or 'Rockabillies' if you like. Nowadays sometimes known as 'Authentics'. Again, home on the range everybody who liked Rockabilly and was able to comb his hair into something even close to a quiff was a Teddyboy. You didn't need to wear a drape to call yourself a Ted like these days. And you were allowed to like Neo-Rockabilly as a Ted. And 50s Rockabilly. THE SAME TIME. Crazy! But than again, I grew up in a small town, what do I know. Maybe in the big cities things were different.

When the 3 weeks language holidays were over I had not only bought some mind expanding records and met some nice blokes, I had also seen the Meteors live for the first time. Maybe more about that later. Back home I was immediately hooked by the Tall Boys 45. The fast 'Another Half Hour Till Sunrise' made a quick entry in my Top 10 of Favorite Songs and it may still be there today. I'm not sure. I should check. The flip 'Island Of Lost Souls' I liked too, but it was a slow song. That was a disadvantage. Young and restless as I was I wanted it loud, rough and fast. What caught my attention much more than the music were the lyrics and a picture on the single's sleeve that was taken from an old b/w movie with the same name, 'Island Of Lost Souls'. I had to wait until 1998 to see the movie. That summer I found it at 'House Of Monsters', a shop in Chicago specialized in, you might guessed it, monster stuff. Movies, posters, magazines, masks, that kinda stuff. Only open at weekends and run by a doctor, maybe even surgeon(mad?), it was an interesting place to be. And, to FINALLY cut a long story short, there I found a videotape of 'Island'. I bought it and when I was back in Germany some weeks later I finally got to see the movie that made Nigel Lewis write one of his many classics. It's a must see, and don't judge the original by the many bad remakes. I'm not a movie expert but it seems that 'Island' is among the underrated, to many people unknown, outstanding b/w horror movies, just like 'Freaks'.

And why all this glorifying of the past? Well, I wanted to post a screen-print postcard of 'Island' I had bought in Nashville some years ago to have something posted here, as a start, until I knew what to do with the blog. Then I thought, posting just the postcard is silly, write one or two sentences. This is the result. A lot of rambling, little information. If you liked it, come again, tell your neighbours. There might be more here soon.