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Hey Everyone! Follow this link to a new Online Blog about Rockin' Rhonda & the Rhonkeys!!!
http://bettiepageblog. blogspot. com/2008/05/rockin-rhonda-and-rhonkeys-red-hot-bad. html
HOCKEY MADE ME VIOLENT!
Perhaps that's the reason for it. It seems as good as any really. Really, when you think about it, growing up in Western Canada was only the beginning. Rockin' Rhonda got into her Vintage kick at about 14 years of age when she started watching old 1940's black and white movies on tv. The first thing that caught her attention were the clothes! The clothes and the great hair, to be more specific. She would sit there glued to the tv as she watched the femme fatales play out their moves.
The music was second. 1920's Jazz with it's wild, drinking, and dancing Flappers, 1930's tapdance mega pictures, swing, show tunes, and 1950's Elvis movies (she liked Ann-Margaret very much).
Beginning with 14, Rhonda also started her collection of huge amounts of Vintage clothing and jewellery (she still has pieces ranging from the 1910's to the 1960's), magazines, music (some of her first records are from her Dad's '50's collection), antiques, and various odds and ends.
Fully obsessed with everything Vintage, Rhonda moved in the very late '80's to Vancouver. Here her early hockey influence came in useful at the various hardcore punk and then grunge shows. Then, came the Rockabilly. Somehow, everything just all came together when she heard Rockabilly. It just made sense. She got back into her '50's dresses and danced her butt off to Ronnie Hayward's Slap Bass. Ray Condo, he was definitely in there too.
Then she started to sing. First with Lounge kind of songs and then the Blues. Not the party-rock kind, but Blues by bad girls from the 1920's- Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Victoria Spivey. What was so impressive was that these women sang with a sense of humour about doing what they wanted- even though it wasn't always right. They sang directly about sex, and sometimes indirectly using double-entendre.
A few years later, in about 1996, Rhonda got interested in Burlesque. This early form of strip tease was so interesting and had some fabulous costumes. After a few months, she noticed some posters being put up on the street advertising a Burlesque show soon to be taking place. She knew she had to be part of this show. She met the organiser and became the first Burlesque dancer on the Vancouver stage.
Let's skip forward a few years now. Living in paradise, on a West Coast Island, Rhonda was dying to travel. She met a woman from Hamburg, Germany, and basically moved there 6 months later. If you're looking for a reason, perhaps it was for adventure? In Hamburg, Rhonda learned how to Swing Dance. She also found the local Rockabilly scene and was surprised by how many of the greasers wore so much leather compared to those in Vancouver.
Next, in 2003, Rhonda organised and put on her first Burlesque show- Exotic Varietease. It was at the Indra Club in Hamburg's Grosse Freiheit. 16 entertainers were part of this event, and it was a smash success! In 2004, was her second show- Easter Exotica. In both shows, Rhonda also sang and danced with the help of an excellent band.
Let's skip forward a couple of years again. Rhonda moved to a small city in the Nordrhein Westfalen. One night she went out to a Rockabilly night in Düsseldorf and had a flash that now was the time to start a new band. She wandered into the WC's and met a girl named Marie. Marie introduced Rhonda to her husband Ingo who was already thinking about a side project to his current band Hick o' Rhythm. He invited her to come to their club house- the Louisiana Inn, home of the Louisiana Rebs, to try things out. Let's make a long story short- the rest, as they say, is history...
Rockin' Rhonda and the Rhonkeys was born!
This band is made up of Ingo and Fritz, who have known each other and played together for a long time, and Crazy- well, he's new, but we are so happy to have this guy along! He's one of those eat, sleep, and dream drums kind of guys. With stacks of drummer magazines at home, he has managed to clear a space large enough to be building his latest drum set....
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Louisiana Rebs
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