The Pearls 45 rpm single released 1980.
THE PEARLS
The first band I joined in Los Angeles was The Pearls. I was singing cabaret with my friend Richard Hochberg but I really wanted to be part of the New Wave/Punk thing. So I bought a Recycler and looked at the ads for singers. There was a band called The Boards that was looking for one. I was fantastically nervous going out to Brad Rabuchin‘s house on Desoto in the Valley. Steve Stewart showed me the lyrics to a few songs and asked me to sing. Then he called me a week later and asked me to join the band. I was elated.
We made one single “Running in Circles/A Ripe Rage” and recorded a whole album with producer Gana Pati that never saw the light of day. We were on New Wave Theater,
etc. but I think we were never popular because my singing was too smooth (though I did my best to rough it up with late nights, lots of beer and cigarettes) and because Brad Rabuchin had long hair and could actually play the guitar – two strikes against him in the punk rock world. Brad went on to tour the world playing guitar for Ray Charles for over ten years. And Brad was playing with The Deadbeats (original LA punk band: “Kill the Hippies”) at the same time or before he joined The Pearls
In 1980, The Pearls ended up writing and performing the music for the “Sport of My Mad Mother” a play written by Ann Jellicoe about British street punks. The show was produced by Dan Shor and directed by David Schweizer. This began my four year collaboration with David which resulted in The Weba Show. For “Sport” David brought in Gregory Poe to design costumes and Donald Krieger to do the sets both of whom went on to be instrumental in the look of the Weba Show.
