Plasmatics

I love the Plasmatics …Wendy O’Williams, their lead singer, was a consummate exhibitionist and she didn’t care whether she was half naked exposing various bits of anatomy to the world. Yet she was no baby doll like Deborah Harry. She was as tough as nails casually handling chainsaws and pump action shotguns, destroying cars and TV’s while rubbing her crotch.

Coming from a background of sex films and porn, her looks and undress were rigorously exploited by the aptly named Stiff Records backed by on stage exploits guaranteed to give councillors a heart attack, the audience hardons and herself orgasms. I thought the Plasmatics first album ‘No Hope For The Wretched’ an absolute classic and I rate it up there in the top twenty punk albums of all time. All this exhibitionism though hid some sort of psychological trauma as sadly she took her own life some years ago.

How would you place her in women in Rock history? With difficulty which is why I like her even more because she defies categories. It was her body and she used it! There will never be anyone like her again. As far removed from the poetry of Patti Smith, the sixties pop echoes of Blondie, the innocence of The Runaways, the urban realism of The Slits, and the feminism of the Raincoats she belongs more to women in rock like Patti Smith and Siouxsie; strong women creating something different. In Wendy’s case the perfect mirror of American society, the exploited turning exploiter destroying symbols of Western greed and decadence with a healthy dose of sex… or something like that! 

That said it was the multi-racial Plasmatics who made the noise she sang over and Richie Stotts on guitar with mohawk, tutu and shiny blue vinyl tights was a sight to behold himself who along with Wes Beech and Jean Beavoir as a core for the key albums and singles delivered the goods.

‘Beg for me crawl for me down on your knees …you’re a sex junkie you’ll do as I please” 

 Indeed Wendy R.I.P



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