The Dictators

Handsome Dick Manitoba – Vocals, Mark – The Animal – Mendoza – Bass
Ross The Boss – Guitar, Adny Shernoff – Keyboards, Top 10 – Guitar, Richie Teeter – Drums

Formed by Rock critic Andy Shernoff and various Bronx neighbourhood chums in the mid 70’s as a logical extension of his Teenage Wasteland Gazette fanzine. They played some early gigs under the inspired moniker of Beet The Meaties before giving their cook cum roadie Handsome Dick Manitoba the vocal chores and settling on The Dictators.

In 1975 they released their first album The Dictators Go Girl Crazy which captured two years too early the teenage degenerate aura that was later defined by The Ramones and New York’s Punk fanzine. The critics were actively hostile and the public indifferent so two years were spent in relative limbo as the house band for the Miss Nude America  Contest.

A second album Manifest Destiny was released in 1977 and a third  Bloodbrothers in 1978. Both aimed for commercial streamlining but the conflict of interest between the broader rock market and the Dictators and all they stood for proved insoluble. They split.

History also records Dick Manitoba heckling Wayne County from the audience at CBGB’s and receiving a microphone stand that caused him serious injury. The incident divided the Max’s and CBGB’s crowds who swiftly chose sides. The Dictators were blackballed from playing Max’s and other clubs, but Hilly let them play at CBGB’s and the boys were back up and running again.

The Dictators sound? Difficult to pinpoint but a bit of rock and a bit of punk but all with a healthy dollop of the politically incorrect, attitude and humour. Somewhere between Blue Oyster Cult and The Ramones. Why didn’t they make it? America just wasn’t ready for them. Come to think of it it never is! A criminally underrated band. Members would end up in Manowar and Twisted Sister in later years.


Official Dictators Website
Above entry lovingly stolen from (and added to) The NME Book Of Modern Music from 1978



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