About Me
Original group
Rozz Williams founded Christian Death in October 1979, at the age of 16, with bassist James McGearty, drummer George Belanger and guitarist Jay. The band name was a satirical play on words derived from the designer brand Christian Dior. The first Christian Death performance in front of a live audience was at a Castration Squad gig in 1980, when Castration Squad invited Christian Death on stage to play a couple songs. In 1980 and 1981, the band played many shows with 45 Grave, another L.A. deathrock group, though they also played shows with punk bands like Social Distortion and The Adolescents.Despite being in the same area as the emerging West Coast hardcore movement, by the beginning of the 1980s, the group were not happy with the local scene, especially the crowd that liked Black Flag and the Circle Jerks, given the crowd's penchant for becoming punks after punk became popular, and beating up hippies, when only a few years before much of that audience hated punk rock and beat up punks. Christian Death dismissed the followers of this movement as "hillbilly punks" in an interview.In February 1981, the band went on hiatus. Williams concentrated on a side project with Ron Athey called Premature Ejaculation, but Christian Death got back together that summer with guitarist Rikk Agnew (formerly of The Adolescents) replacing Jay. A compilation album featuring several local punk and deathrock acts called Hell Comes to Your House was released in 1981. The track that Christian Death contributed, "Dogs", came from studio sessions financed by McGearty. The songs from those sessions would be released in France as the Deathwish EP three years later.
Christian Death's Only Theatre of Pain
Only Theatre of Pain
Their appearance on the Hell Comes to Your House compilation helped to get Christian Death signed to Frontier Records, which released their debut album Only Theatre of Pain in March 1982. This album featured deathrock anthems such as "Spiritual Cramp" and "Romeo's Distress". In England, despite the album's initially limited availability, Only Theatre of Pain would have a strong influence on many gothic rock groups who had come after Bauhaus appeared, including Sex Gang Children and Death Cult, the latter of which was the precursor to The Cult.Drug use and internal fighting started to lead to the band's decay. By late 1982, George Belanger and Rikk Agnew were gone from the band and were replaced by Eva Ortiz on guitar (she had previously taken part in Only Theatre of Pain as a backing vocalist) and a new drummer, Rod "China" Figueroa from Oxnard, California. After their first gig with a local band called "Pompeii 99" and their regular support band Psicom, the first band of Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction, Michael Montano replaced Eva on guitar. Johnnie Sage (Ammentorp, The Joneses, The Mau-Maus) on second guitar, completed the new line-up. It was not to last. Williams didn't like the "Punk Rock & Roll" influence China and Johnnie Sage brought to the band. Although demo recording continued with McGearty, the sessions known among band members as "The Last Gasp," Williams distanced himself from the project. Christian Death and Pompeii 99 had planned to tour together in Europe, occasioned by the continental release of Only Theatre of Pain on French label L'Invitation au Suicide, and then Japan, but by the end of 1982, Christian Death had broken up.Rozz Williams and Pompeii 99
By mid 1983, the issue of the Christian Death and Pompeii 99 European tour still stood. While living at his mother's house for six months without a band, Williams met Valor Kand, Gitane Demone and David Glass of Pompeii 99, and found certain common artistic ground with the band. Williams was open to the idea of possibly collaborating with the band in the future.Around this time, Cram Netod and Poli-Sci quit Pompeii 99, leaving the group without a bassist and a keyboard player. A friend of Kand and Gitane's named Mimi introduced the couple to a female bassist named Shayn Taylor-Shubert, who had just quit playing bass for the popular Los Angeles all-girl rockabilly group The Screamin' Sirens.Williams eventually began working with Pompeii 99 at their Hollywood studio. Taylor-Shubert was then replaced by Constance Smith. The plan was to do a handful of shows from California to New York on the way to London, where Kand had negotiated proposals for several possible shows. Meanwhile, Yann Farcy, a small French record label owner, heard about the union of Williams with Pompeii 99. Discussions began about a new album deal and a follow-up tour in France. However, as Farcy had recently licensed all Christian Death songs for release in France, it was in his best interests to have a band called Christian Death still around. So he proposed to Williams and Kand that they drop the Pompeii 99 title and resurrect the Christian Death title.At first both Williams and Kand were against this idea, especially Williams, as his previous years under that name had left a bad taste in his mouth. Kand was reluctant to give up the name he created and had worked to build to notoriety and success.Williams, Kand and the other members of Pompeii 99 were penniless, though, and the allure of a cash advance and an all expenses paid trip to Europe to play shows and to record an album at the legendary Rockfield Studios proved too inviting.Prior to relinquishing the name Pompeii 99, reforming as Christian Death and embarking on the tour and a new album deal, Glass recommended making the change official and legally formal and binding. An "Assignment of Rights" agreement and a "Partnership Agreement" were drawn up stating that Williams, Kand, Glass and Demone agreed to be known "jointly and severally" as Christian Death, thereby making each of them equal partners with equal rights to the name Christian Death.Before their departure for Europe, the band appeared on a low-budget community cable TV show "Media Blitz" where they mimed to a couple tracks from Only Theatre of Pain. The first performance of the "New" Christian Death was in December 1983 in Los Angeles, supporting UK band Specimen.The band then flew to New York and Boston to do shows that had originally been booked as Pompeii 99. The first show in Europe was in Paris a Le Ban Douche, then before actually going into the studio in Wales, Kand quickly organised a show at The Batcave in London, run by new friends Specimen.Unfortunately, very few shows followed the recordings. Farcy reneged on his promises, and the band found themselves destitute and stranded in Europe, once again penniless. According to Kand, Williams was driven to several attempted suicides, two of which were foiled by Kand in the south of France. Toward the end of the remaining dates, Constance became frustrated and quit the band. Dave Roberts, bass player of the UK band Sex Gang Children, filled in on bass for the remaining dates. Williams convinced his parents to pay his airfare home to L.A., leaving Kand, Demone and Glass stranded in Europe, unable to honor proposed optional shows.
Christian Death's Catastrophe Ballet
Catastrophe Ballet
Catastrophe Ballet, which was record in Wales, was a continuation of the Armageddon theme used in all previous Pompeii 99 songs; in fact, the music to several of the songs was actually written by Kand for Pompeii 99. These songs featured a change in Williams' vocal delivery. While Only Theatre of Pain and the Deathwish EP had Williams presenting a rhythmic spoken word style with an almost androgynous pitch to his voice, Catastrophe Ballet showed a richer, less harsh side to his vocal stylings, with more influence from David Bowie and Lou Reed. Rather than the occult-oriented lyrics from the first album, the singer showed a new-found interest in Surrealism and the Dada movement. Kand, Demone and Glass shared these interests, and the synergy between them helped cultivate the musical change from the old band's murky, dark punk to a more elegant, romantic strain of guitar-driven rock, though a tribalistic drumming was also added into the mix.Ashes
The rest of the group returned to L.A. in the autumn of 1984, reunited with Williams and recruted Randy Wilde (a one time member of Pompeii 99) on bass to record the third studio album called Ashes (1985). The album was a further continuation to the apocalyptic theme in the tradition of Pompeii 99, and featured many guest musicians, including bassist Randy Wilde, violin player and accordion synth operator Eric Westfall (former keyboardist of Pompeii 99), tuba player Bill Swain, trumpeteer Richard Hurwitz and Michael Andraes on the clarinet.The band played gigs in 1985 to promote Ashes with bassist Jeff Williams; later, bassist Barry Galvin joined the lineup. The tour ended with the "Path of Sorrows" extravaganza at Los Angeles' Roxy Theatre on 6 April.The live album "The Decomposition of Violets" documented a Hollywood performance from this period, and was one of Williams' last with the band.The Wind Kissed Pictures
By 1985, after the release of "Ashes" and a few L.A. shows, the band was preparing to embark on their second European tour. Only weeks prior to the tour, Williams annouced that he was quitting the band, claiming he could not cope with another tour and that he had a new lover he did not want to leave. The other Christian Death members who were looking forward to the tour as salvation from their dire financial situation were devastated. Their solution was to not cancel the tour. Kand would return to vocals, bassist Barry Galvin would assume guitar, guitar technician Johann Schumann would assume the bass guitar, and Demone and Glass would keep the status quo. Although Williams was the one to quit "The Equal Partnership", he insisted they not use the name Christian Death. To ease tension, the remaining Christian Death members suggested adding the prefix "Sin and Sacrifice of Christian Death", which was labeled on the mini album entitled The Wind Kissed Pictures. However, it was during this second European tour that the remaining Christian Death members all agreed that it was their legal and hard-earned right to return to being known as just "Christian Death".AftermathWilliams reclaims name
During the late 1980s to mid 1990s, Rozz Williams and Rikk Agnew played some reunion shows using the name Christian Death. An interview with Rikk Agnew in 1989 (as seen on YouTube) documents how even though he had nothing to do with Christian Death for more than seven years and was aware that Kand had continued Christian Death for all that time, he admits he deliberately attempted to usurp the name merely because he was made a financial offer he could not refuse. One of the shows featuring Only Theatre of Pain-era members Williams, Agnew and Belanger, along with bassist Casey Chaos who would go on to front the band Amen, performed live from Los Angeles' Patriot Hall, was recorded and later released in 2001 as a DVD by Cleopatra Records.Williams also put out some other new albums on Cleopatra Records under the Christian Death name with his wife Eva O, supplying guitar and backing vocals during the 1990s. This was after the release of the two Shadow Project studio albums featuring the couple. The first of the albums where the name Christian Death was used by Williams was The Iron Mask, a reference to the Alexandre Dumas, père novel about an usurper who imprisons the rightful heir to the throne. This was a clear jab at Kand, who Williams now viewed as a thief, despite having signed agreements seven years earlier assigning to Kand the very same rights he later denied him. Allegedly, Kand became enraged at Williams' use of his now trademarked name "Christian Death".After recording two more studio albums under the Christian Death name with Eva O, titled The Path of Sorrows and The Rage of Angels, Williams committed suicide by hanging on 1 April 1998. Found dead in his home in West Hollywood, California, Williams was 34. He did not leave a suicide note.
