Suicide: the life and soul of the party
Club International v.1 #4 (October 1972) Photographs by Dave Grey and Pete Miles
One of the more pleasing discoveries made while trawling through bound copies of Club International in the British Library reading room was the story told by Englishman Dick Masters of his first trip to Manhattan. He was there to take in ‘The Flowering of Freakiness and Finery, New York’s finest aggregation of freaks, fashions and friends ever assembled under one roof’. The 1972 ‘Everything is Everything Costume Ball’, organised by Tony and Laurita Cosmo, was being held in the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel . . . and everyone who was anyone was present. Musical entertainment was provided by Suicide and the New York Dolls. The latter, unfortunately not pictured, but Alan Vega was front and centre surrounded by partygoers, Warhol superstars and the City’s most beautiful.
Suicide were given top billing by Masters:
[They] created the most evil, menacing atmosphere I’ve ever felt at any sort of performance. He [singer Alan Vega] could only be for real . . .His moans and screams grew frantic as he lashed himself with the bicycle chain. Everyone watched in silence as he pulled out a knife and stabbed himself in the face and chest. . . he smashed the microphone into his teeth and leapt into the audience, lashing out at everyone who couldn’t move fast enough.
The shock effect of witnessing Vega in full attack mode was echoed that year by Roy Hollingworth in his report in Melody Maker (October 21, 1972) of Suicide at the Mercer Arts Centre:
It is a heady stark trip. The starkest trip I’ve ever seen . . . It was fascinating. How two people could create such a thick wall of sound and atmosphere was an unbelievable achievement. It roared, and groaned, and the singer smacked himself on the head with the mike a couple of times, and then fell in a heap in a corner – and whimpered. Was this the end of music as we know it? Oooh it was creepy.
Who was Dick Masters? Is that a pseudonym? Was he the gay porn star you encounter when you search for him on-line? Or is that someone else? Did he write elsewhere about his New York adventures or on anything else for that matter? Questions . . .
More on the Dolls appearance in Pin-Ups 1972