Sweet Pain

SWEET PAIN - THE STORY
Sweet Pain was truly a product of the “don’t worry, be happy” 80s. “We lived life without a care in the world” says vocalist Corky Gunn. “We wanted to party for as long as it lasted. We knew it wasn’t going to last forever, and we lived each day like it was the last one. We had a punk rock attitude about it all. Mix that with a healthy dose of Kiss’ vaudeville style and there ya have it. Sweet Pain.”
The original Sweet Pain LP was released before the first albums from Poison and Faster Pussycat, and before Motley Crue went glam on the Theatre of Pain album. “We were very New York” Corky continues. “We made Poison look like The Spice Girls. We were into booze, sex, and drugs, but we would also kick your ass if we were having a bad day.”
They set the tone for in your face glam/punk rock and roll in NYC, and the west coast glam explosion came after Sweet Pains’ arrival on the rock scene. Corky remembers, “When I went to L.A. to mix the Sweet Pain LP in late 1984, a blonde spiky haired guy kept coming up to me backstage at The Country Club nightclub and asking me about Sweet Pain. He had heard about us and was into what we were doing. He later transformed himself into Taime Downe, lead vocalist for Faster Pussycat.
The band was hand picked by Corky Gunn in late spring 1984, and the main objective was the pursuit of sex, more sex, drugs, more drugs, and rock and roll, even.
Corky was already friends with Kelly “The Blade” Nickels from his late nights hanging out with famed Long Island cover band Hotshot, (which featured future Danger Danger members Bruno Ravel and Steve West). “Kelly was the lightman”, Corky states, “He got laid more than the band, and the band got laid mucho.”
“He would often leave all the lights on full blast, while going off into the equipment truck to get a blowjob. One night the light board caught on fire from being on for an hour, classic!”
Corky and Kelly, along with Bruno Ravel, and Mike Pont from Hotshot would eventually become friends with Motley Crue, when the Crue were first starting out. Corky remembers, “We partied night after night with all those guys, it was so nuts. Motley, Ratt, Twisted. In 1983 I think I slept for about two days.”
Corky told Kelly he was starting a band and he wanted Kelly to play bass. “Kelly at the time could not play the bass too well. But it didn’t matter, he looked cool and was the man” says Corky.
Kelly’s first band, TNA, lasted for about a week. They played their only gig at a birthday party for the 1983 Penthouse Pet of the year, Sheila Kennedy, at Studio 54.
“Steve West and Bruno from Hotshot tried all night to get over with the Penthouse chicks. We were all so young. Steve finally got the birthday girl herself a few nights later. Kelly opted to watch over his equipment so it wouldn’t get stolen, and missed out on the pets. He made up for that night while he was in LA Guns many times over!”
So with Corky and Kelly as the core of the soon to be Sweet Pain, they put an ad in the Village Voice newspaper in Manhattan to find the rest of the band. They found Adrian Vance, Scarlet Rowe and Ronnie Taz all playing together on Long Island. “ We met, did not audition, but met applicants to see what they looked like because we didn’t care if they could play. We took their photo with a polaroid camera and filed them away. When we found Adrian and the other guys, they were already jamming together, waiting to be outrageous and dress like women.”
The five members came together in the summer of 1984 and immediately started talking band name, original song titles and battle plan. “Everyone at the time was into super anal, precise heavy metal” says Corky. Precise metal riffing, Yngwie Malmsteen, speed metal, thrash, and all that stuff nauseated us.”
“We liked Kiss, Starz, Aerosmith, Piper, Hanoi Rocks, Chuck Berry, The Godz, New York Dolls, Twisted Sister, Cheap Trick,and the punk rock stuff like Sex Pistols, Clash, Vibrators, 999, Ramones etc. We wanted to lead the party, but annoy and antagonize people as well. We were basically a cross product of Kiss, and the Sex Pistols.”
The band recorded the LPs 10 songs in two days. Nine songs were eventually released and the tenth song, a cover of Saturday Nights Alright For Fighting is heard on this CD for the first time.
Corky explains: “We had written and rehearsed 8 of the songs on the album and went in pretty much knowing the songs. Except for the rap on I Get My Kicks, everything was rehearsed. We recorded these 8 songs with two takes max for each song. The rap on I Get My Kicks pretty much just spewed out, I had gotten very polluted and the rap just came out of me on the second take. We were very fucked up making that record. We had a music stand that was just full of drugs. Wonderful for rock and roll.”
At the end of the session, they had some time left over and Kelly sheepishly offered his song, Shoot For Thrills. Corky says, “ Kel had just written that song and wasn’t sure if he wanted us to try it. He didn’t want us to fuck it up!
The band laid down a quick version of Shoot For Thrills, and also Saturday Nights Alright For Fighting, the Elton John song. We did some quick , basic overdubs on Shoot and left Sat. Night as is, no overdubs, and it never saw the light of day.” Until now.
Sat. Night is available here for the very first time and is also the only take of the song, and there are no overdubs. “ It is raw and nasty”, Corky offers. “ The guitars are such a mess. Wonderful!”
Shoot For Thrills was eventually re-recorded by L.A. Guns for their debut album released in Feb. 1988. I think Kelly finally got to hear his song the way he wanted it!”
Corky adds, “We always did great cover songs. Room Service by Kiss, Cheap Tricks’ version of Ain’t That A Shame, I Ain’t Got You from Aerosmith’s Live Bootleg record, Montrose’s Rock the Nation, loads of classic stuff.”
Everyone always asked Corky how they ended up doing a Starz cover, at the time an unusual choice as a cover song for a new band. Corky met Richie Ranno, guitarist from Starz at a local record store. “Starz were always one of my favorite bands. Classic, well written songs, and they had the coolest lyrics too!”
Corky told Richie about his band, and asked if Richie would produce Sweet Pains’ version of a yet to be determined Starz cover. “Richie was always a great guy”, says Corky. “ He said yes, and we started hanging out and becoming buddies. We chose Subway Terror, after going through dozens of Starz songs. I really wanted to do Cherry Baby, but Michael Lee Smith (Starz vocalist) can really sing! I could never cut Cherry Baby. Subway Terror suited Sweet Pain the best anyway.”
As it turned out, Richie Ranno ended up playing guitar on Sweet Pains version of Subway Terror, and also contributed background vocals, as well as producing the track. “Richie came and played live with us one night at L’amour East in Queens” Corky boasts. “He came up and played Subway Terror, and we were all so fucked up, he had a hard time following the song. We were all over the place as usual, and he was like, what the fuck!”
“The club was packed that night, over 2000 people. It was an unbelievable night of partying, sex, drugs, and rock and roll too! When Sweet Pain played a gig, it was like a tornado ripped through, casualties everywhere! After the show, I think all 2000 people ended up in our dressing room! Food and booze flying everywhere, sex and drugs in the bathroom, all in the name of rock and roll decadence!”
Sweet Pain recorded their album before they had even played a gig. “We did things our way” Corky declares. “Our first gig was at L’Amour East in Queens on a Wednesday night, and we had about 300 people there. We still had our fifth member, Scarlet Rowe in the band. He lasted two gigs, which was the very first gig, and our second gig opening for Ace Frehley in front of 3500 people at L’amour in Brooklyn. After that he was asked to leave.”
Ace had been in retirement, and this show at L’amour Brooklyn was his first gig after quitting Kiss and going underground. Corky remembers this gig very clearly. “ We got the opening slot for Ace, and we were all stoked. When we got to the club, there were maybe 1000 people waiting on line to get in, in the freezing cold, holding Ace’s solo LP and other memorabilia, and screaming for Ace. Real fans.
The club was treating us like shit, and told us to go to our freezing basement dressing room and not to move from there. We were down there for hours, no soundcheck, no beer nothing. The club kept the fans outside way too long. Ace was soundchecking and nobody was allowed into the club until an hour and a half after doors were supposed to open. The mood was ugly. We finally got the word that we were on in a half hour. We got ready, were all psyched and as we walked up the stairs to the stage, we heard the crowd chanting, Ace, Ace, Ace, louder and louder.
They wanted to see Ace, and not some opening act they never heard of. L’amour used to have a huge video screen that came down in front of the stage and showed videos while the set change was going on. When we walked up onto the stage, we heard all sorts of stuff hitting the other side of the video screen. We knew we were in trouble. When the screen lifted up and we were announced, we were showered with everything but the kitchen sink. I think they eventually threw that up too. Beer bottles, beer cans, garbage, and even some notes to Ace stapled to lime green tennis balls!
Mike Schnapp, former Sweet Pain manager remembers: “Corky was verbally assaulting the crowd and screaming towards any spot where he saw something thrown from.He couldn’t really see because of the spotlights in his eyes He got hit by a flying bottle and got cut on the head. He said something like, “Oh yeah, thats all ya got?” , and started banging a beer can into the cut until more blood flowed. His classic line was, “ keep throwing those cans and bottles, At a nickel a piece I’m gonna be rich tonight!”
Needless to say, this gig went down in Sweet Pain history as “ the war”. Corky recovers. “It was our second gig, and we sounded like a train wreck, but, we had everyone in that hell hole watching that stage. Wonderfuly insane.”
Corky continues, “After that gig, we kicked out Scarlet Rowe and the band was a four piece. Scarlet was the worst musician out of all of us, and there were lots of other problems with him at the time. I’ll be nice and leave it at that.”
So Sweet Pain was now a four piece. And they started to become a very hot draw on the club circuit. Corky again: “ We started to draw lots of people to our gigs. We were like a car crash. It wasn’t pretty, but you had to look. After a couple of gigs as a four piece, we were very hot. Whether it was my craziness, the songs, the look of the band, whatever it was, the formula was working.”
The live tracks on this CD were taken from the bands third gig as a four piece. And the last with drummer Ronnie Taz. Things were about to peak. “Ronnie left after that big L’amour East gig” Corky says. “ He wanted to go live in Manhattan and become a member of one of the lower east side Johnny Thunders clone bands that were hip in Manhattan, but didn’t mean shit anywhere else. No problem, see ya later.”
Ronnie eventually ended up joining The Throbs, who signed to Geffen Records for one album, and were then dropped. “ They sounded like every other Manhattan band at the time” Corky says. “ No one sounded like Sweet Pain. That’s how it started and that’s how it was when the band ended. We were truly an original species!”
After Ronnie left, the band recruited a friend of Adrian Vance named Jamie Keane to play drums. The band played one gig with Jamie at L’amour East and then it was Kelly’s turn to leave. Corky gives his take on Kelly’s departure.
“Kelly was always the one with the looks and ability to take it all the way. I knew I wasn’t a singer in the real sense of the word. I was Johnny Rotten meets Alice Cooper via Paul Stanley, and that was me. Remember in 1985, punk rock was yet to become a billion dollar moneymaker for the major labels, led by the angst of Nirvana. If you wanted to be in a huge rock band, and play arenas, and be a rock star etc, etc., you went the major label route of commerciality in songwriting and performance, and smooth, slick appearances. If you wanted to be huge, that’s what you had to do. Sweet Pain was not that type of band! But, we were unique, something I care more about. I did not want Sweet Pain to be like every other band around the scene at the time, which were basically Iron Maiden, or Dio clones.”
Corky remembers something:
“I remember one night on L.A. Guns tour bus, after a gig in 1988, and Phil Collen from Def Leppard was hanging out. He was in Girl with Phil Lewis years ago, and came to see the band. Anyway,somehow Sweet Pain got mentioned, and he said something like, “Oh that insane glam band from NY? Joe Elliott (Leppard vocalist) used to crank that up backstage, right before we went on. Used to psyche us up for the show! They were the Beastie Boys before the Beastie Boys! Fuckin great stuff! ” He was referring to the rap in I Get My Kicks. Kelly turned to Phil Collen and said, “Well there’s the singer right there! Our road manager!”
Corky continues, “It was a great night. Then we had to drive from N.J. to Florida after hanging on the bus till sunrise. That trip is a book in itself!
But I always knew Kelly had the extra something to go all the way. I always knew that. Besides him being one of my best friends, that’s why I wanted him in my band. That’s what Sweet Pain was all about. When we started, he could barely play, but had a certain style, that walking bassline thing. And me and him together, we were nuts, just insane. But, I knew he would go on to be the guy. And he did play Madison Square Garden, and I was there. The fucker, I love it!”
Kelly told Corky he was leaving the band one night after rehearsal. “ He told me he was leaving, that it was getting worse without Ronnie and he wanted to move on. I knew Ronnie wasn’t the greatest drummer in the world, but he had his style and it all worked when we played together.
I don’t think Jamie was ever that comfortable playing with Sweet Pain. It was always a struggle. So when he came in, Kelly knew that was it. He went and joined Manhattan band Angels in Vain, who were musically worse than Sweet Pain and so fuckin pretentious, it was sickening, but they got Kelly to L.A. and he soon left Angels in Vain and joined Faster Pussycat. This was 1986, I think. He didn’t last with Pussycat though. After getting his leg busted in a motorcycle accident, which was very bad, he went back to New York thinking he was doomed. Then Tracii Guns heard Kelly was out of Pussycat and asked him to join L.A. Guns! He went back out to L.A. and played his first gigs with the Guns on crutches! Tracii knew Kelly had it too.”
Sweet Pain continued on with new bass player Victor Prestin. “We played gigs and continued on until summer 1986 and then I folded the band” says Corky. “I knew it was time to kill it off. It was too many drugs and stuff, too many crazy chicks. We were in Cleveland for a three night stand in some clubs there and I shacked up with a girl in a Holiday Inn, in a separate hotel from the rest of the band and got extremely wacked. At the show, I almost got arrested for inciting a riot after some guy jumped on stage and started calling me out. I grabbed a baseball bat from behind the amps and was about to wack him when the cops grabbed my arms and handcuffed me. But, they let me go and the show continued. As much of a show as we could muster up at that point."
Sweet Pains last gig was at the club that started it all for them, L’amour East in Queens, NY. “We played a bunch of other shows after the Cleveland riot, and then we had a show booked at L’amour East as a homecoming show” Corky states. "Adrian decided he needed to get a nose job,and was unable to play that show, which pissed me off greatly. So, we played the gig with guitarist John from the local band Battallion (John later played with Michael Monroe). John was a great guitarist, and the Sweet Pain repertoire of songs was not that hard to learn and play. We rehearsed with him once, he played the songs no problem. Then we he got onstage it was like he never heard the songs before! He forgot everything from rehearsal. Plus there was a monsoon outside. It was raining cats and dogs, so the turnout was low."
"After that gig, I called everyone up and told them it was over. We had a lot of fun, and shook shit up. That’s how I remember it. It was fun while it lasted, and after Sweet Pain broke up, I stayed away from it all."
"All the craziness took a backseat. That is until Kelly called me and asked me to be road manager for L.A. Guns. They signed with Polygram and things were looking up chalootz! Did I want to do it? Hell yeah, Corky Gunn was back in the groove!”