The Germs
The Germs were formed in 1976 by Jan Paul Beahm and Georg Ruthenberg and were influenced by glam, Bowie and Joan Jett and The Runaways before being turned onto punk rock; not The Ramones and CBGB’s kind of stuff, but the Sex Pistols and The Damned.
With virtually no musical experience they set about starting a band and adopted the name Sophistifuck and the Revlon Spam Queens before even a song was written. However the expense of putting their name on T-shirts caused them to rename themselves and become the Germs,
The band added bassist Teresa Ryan and decided they needed cooler stage names. Beahm became Bobby Pyn, Ruthenberg became Pat Smear, and Ryan became Lorna Doom. Belinda Carlisle, who had named herself Dottie Danger was originally on drums, but dropped out from their first show due to contracting mononucleosis though she did introduce the band on stage. Donna Rhia (Becky Barton) completed the first proper Germs line up.
It was this line up that played on their first single Forming /Sex Boy (What?) and shows what a garage, a 2 track tape recorder and a bit of guts can do. The B side featured a muddy live recording from the Roxy of Sexboy on the B-side, meant for the Cheech and Chong movie, Up in Smoke. Neither the song, nor the band ended up featuring in the movie.
The Germs gigs were wild affairs with Crash often high on drug and drink and taking a confrontational front man role similar to Tomata Du Plenty from the Screamers and Iggy Pop. The rest of the band were in similar condition so chaos reigned and became part of the accepted show.
Crash himself was a complex character with a troubled upbringing along with his gay sexuality and expressing it. He also had more than a passing interest in fascism, cult leaders, mind control techniques and other more esoteric subjects. He was certainly charismatic and manipulative and had devotees pick up his bills and cater to his whims and orders. His devotees/followers called ‘Crash Trash’ would wear back armbands with blue circles and then there was the infamous ‘Germs’ burn which became a mark of his followers. It involved a Germs acolyte applying a lit cigarette to the wrist bone to leave a permanent circular scar. Once initiated you would then be able to apply the mark to another person.
The ‘circle’ would also feature on the cover of their one album, GI (Slash 1979) which was, was produced by their heroine Joan Jett and is arguably hardcore’s first album. It sees The Germs move from that early chaos and instrument learning to controlled music making along with some very cool and creative lyrics. They were also filmed for Penelope Spheeris’s documentary film The Decline of Western Civilization along with X, Black Flag, Fear, Circle Jerks, Alice Bag Band, and Catholic Discipline.
Not long after in May/ June 1980 the Germs split due to internal dissension when Crash sacked long standing drummer Don Bolles and Lorna Doon also bailed out. Crash had gone to London with a friend and stayed with Jordan who took them to see Adam & The Ants and gave Darby Crash a mohican.
An attempt to go solo with the Darby Crash Band failed and The Germs reformed for a gig at the Starwood on December 3, 1980, with Crash allegedly telling Smear he was using the money to buy heroin to kill himself though Smear didn’t think anything of it as Crash had made the threat several times before.
This time it was for real. Crash committed suicide on December 7, 1980, aged just 22. It was suicide pact with close friend Casey “Cola” Hopkins using a massive $400 dose of heroin. Casey ended up surviving; Crash didn’t and achieved his desire to die young.
Pat Smear would go on to join Nirvana as a touring guitarist and then the Foo Fighters but the legend of The Germs would live on and grow.
Above Decline poster with Crash spookily captured death like on stage – right – recommended Darby Crash & The Germs reading.
Darby Crash – I’m not going to save up for my old age because I’m not going to have an old age
Geza X – Darby was a premeditated would-be apocalyptic cult leader. He chose he doomsday and did a bang-up job on it, I gotta say. It’s lived on as the stuff of mythology
Lexicon Devil, The Fast Times & Short Life of Darby Crash & The Germs, Brendana Mullen
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