Richard Hell

Pseudonym:	Richard Hell
Born:	October 2, 1949 Lexington, Kentucky, United States
Occupation:	Musician
Nationality:	American
Genres:	Punk Rock

Richard Hell (born October 2, 1949) is the stage name of Richard Meyers, an American singer, songwriter, bass guitarist and writer. A pseudonym (Greek: , pseudo + -onym: false name) is an artificial, fictitious name, also known as an alias, used by an individual as an alternative to a persons legal name. ... is the 275th day of the year (276th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... Nickname: Location in the Commonwealth of Kentucky Coordinates: , Country United States State Kentucky Counties Fayette Government  - Mayor Jim Newberry (D) Area  - City  285. ... For the album by the Kaiser Chiefs see Employment (album) Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... “Instrumentalist” redirects here. ... In English usage, nationality is the legal relationship between a person and a country. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... A literary genre is one of the divisions of literature into genres according to particular criteria such as literary technique, tone, or content. ... Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... is the 275th day of the year (276th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... A stage name, also called a screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, comedians, musicians, djs, clowns, and professional wrestlers. ... The electric bass guitar (or electric bass) is a bass string instrument played with the fingers by plucking, slapping, or using a pick. ...

He is probably best-known as frontman for the early punk rock band Richard Hell & The Voidoids. Their 1977 album, Blank Generation, influenced other early punk bands. The title song is cited as being among the top ten punk songs, for instance, in the book Rough Guide to Punk (2006), by all the various early British punk figures polled in the book. ^[1] Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... Richard Hell (1949 - ) born Richard Myers, was the frontman for the early American punk band Richard Hell and the Voidoids. ... Blank Generation is an early punk album by Richard Hell and the Voidoids, released in 1977 on Warner Brothers Sire Records imprint. ...

Hell was an originator of the punk fashion look, the first to spike his hair and wear torn, cut and drawn-on shirts, often held together with safety pins. ^[2] Malcolm McLaren, manager of the Sex Pistols, has said Hell was of some inspiration for the Sex Pistols' look and attitude, as well as the safety-pin accessorized clothing McLaren sold in his London shop, Sex.^[3] (Members of the Sex Pistols dispute this.) Punk fashion is the styles of clothing, hairstyles, cosmetics, jewelry, and body modifications of the punk subculture. ... A safety pin. ... Malcolm McLaren (born Malcolm Robert Andrew Edwards, 22 January 1946, in London) is an English impresario, musician and self-publicist who is best known as being the manager of the punk rock band Sex Pistols. ... The Sex Pistols were an iconic and highly influential English punk rock band, formed in London in 1975. ... The Sex Pistols were an iconic and highly influential English punk rock band, formed in London in 1975. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...

Since the late eighties Hell has devoted himself primarily to writing, publishing two novels, as well as several other books. He was the film critic for BlackBook magazine from 2004-2006. BlackBook Magazine is a US publication. ...

Biography

Early life and career

Hell grew up in Lexington, Kentucky in the 1950s. His father was an experimental psychologist, researching animal behavior. He died when Hell was seven years old. Hell was raised by his mother, who, after her husband's death, returned to school and eventually became a teacher. Nickname: Location in the Commonwealth of Kentucky Coordinates: , Country United States State Kentucky Counties Fayette Government  - Mayor Jim Newberry (D) Area  - City  285. ... Official language(s) English[1] Capital Frankfort Largest city Louisville Area  Ranked 37th  - Total 40,444 sq mi (104,749 km²)  - Width 140 miles (225 km)  - Length 379 miles (610 km)  - % water 1. ... This does not cite any references or sources. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... “Instructor” redirects here. ...

Hell attended Sanford Preparatory in Delaware for one year (the 11th grade) where he became friends with Tom Miller (later Tom Verlaine).^[4] They ran away from school together and were arrested in Alabama for arson vandalism a short time later. Capital Dover Largest city Wilmington Area  Ranked 49th  - Total 2,491 sq mi (6,452 km²)  - Width 30 miles (48 km)  - Length 100 miles (161 km)  - % water 21. ... Tom Verlaine (born Thomas Miller, 13 December 1949, in Morristown, New Jersey)[1] is a singer, songwriter and guitarist, best-known as the frontman for the New York Rock band, Television. ... The Skyline Parkway Motel in Afton, Virginia after an arson fire on July 9, 2004. ...

Hell never finished high school but moved to New York City to make his way as a poet. In New York he bought a used table-top offset printing press and began publishing books and magazines under the imprints Genesis : Grasp and then Dot Books. Before he was twenty-one his own poems were published in numerous periodicals, ranging from Rolling Stone to the New Directions Annuals. Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the state of New York and the entire United States. ... The printing press is a mechanical device for printing many copies of a text on rectangular sheets of paper. ...

The Neon Boys, Television, and the Heartbreakers

In 1969, Verlaine joined Hell in New York and they eventually formed the Neon Boys. Their 1973 demo tracks of "Love Comes in Spurts" and "That's All I Know (Right Now)," later released by Shake Records, were arguably the first punk recordings. In 1974 the band added a second guitar player and changed names to Television. Also: 1969 (Stargate SG-1) episode. ... The Neon Boys was a band during the mid-1970s which included Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell. ...

Television's performances at CBGB helped kick-start the first wave of punk bands, inspiring a number of different artists including Patti Smith who wrote the first press review of Television for the Soho Weekly News in June of 1974. She had an affair with Tom Verlaine, and formed a highly successful band of her own (the Patti Smith Group). Television was the band that convinced CBGB owner Hilly Kristal to book rock bands at his club, and they built its first stage. The outside front facade of CBGB CBGB (Country, Blue Grass, and Blues) was a legendary music club located at 315 Bowery at Bleecker Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. ... Patricia Lee (Patti) Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American musician, singer, and poet. ... Patty Smyth is also a musician, formerly of the band Scandal. ...

Hell started playing his song "Blank Generation" during his stint in Television. In 1975, Hell split (or was fired from) Television after a dispute over creative control. Hell claimed that he and Verlaine had originally divided the songwriting evenly but later Verlaine favored his own songs. Verlaine remains characteristically silent on the subject.

Hell left Television the same week that Jerry Nolan and Johnny Thunders quit the New York Dolls and the three of them formed a band called The Heartbreakers (not to be confused with the later Tom Petty band). After a few shows Walter Lure joined as a second guitar player. Jerry Nolan (May 7, 1946 – January 14, 1992) was an American rock and roll drummer who played with The New York Dolls and The Heartbreakers. ... Johnny Thunders, born John Anthony Genzale, Jr (July 15, 1952 - April 23, 1991), was a rock and roll guitarist and singer, first with the New York Dolls, the proto-punk glam rockers of the early 70s. ... The New York Dolls are a rock band formed in New York City in 1971. ... The Heartbreakers was a punk rock group formed in New York in May 1975 by Johnny Thunders (vocals/guitar) and Jerry Nolan (drums) who had just quit the New York Dolls and Richard Hell (vocals/bass) who was forced out of Television, the band he had founded with Tom Verlaine... Thomas Earl Tom Petty (born October 20, 1950) is a singer and guitarist. ...

The Voidoids

A year later, in early 1976, Hell quit The Heartbreakers and started Richard Hell & the Voidoids with Robert Quine, Ivan Julian, and Marc Bell. The band released two albums, though the second, Destiny Street, was a less successful lineup that retained only Quine from the original group, and suffered from Hell's distractions, narcotics especially, during recording, as he himself has described. Richard's best known songs with the Voidoids were "Blank Generation" (the title track of the group's original album), "Love Comes in Spurts," "The Kid With the Replaceable Head," and "Time". Richard Hell (1949 - ) born Richard Myers, was the frontman for the early American punk band Richard Hell and the Voidoids. ... Robert Quine (December 30, 1942 - May 31, 2004), a native of Akron, Ohio, was a guitarist known for his innovative guitar solos. ... Ivan Julian, born June 26, 1955, is a guitarist and bassist who has performed with the Isley Brothers, Matthew Sweet, and Shriekback. ... Marky Ramone (born Marc Steven Bell, July 15, 1952 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American drummer. ...

Dim Stars and Hell's books and further life

Hell's only other album set to date was in the band Dim Stars, for which Richard came out of retirement for a month in the early '90s. Dim Stars was considered something of an indie rock supergroup, featuring as it did guitarist Thurston Moore and drummer Steve Shelley from Sonic Youth, Gumball's guitarist Don Fleming as well as some guitar playing by Voidoid Robert Quine. They formed only to record the one album (written and recorded in three weeks) and one EP, both called Dim Stars, and they never played in public. Hell played bass and sang lead vocals and wrote the lyrics for the album. Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music often used to refer to bands that are on small independent record labels or that arent on labels at all. ... In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe music groups composed of members who had already achieved fame or respect in other groups or as individual artists. ... Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958 in Coral Gables, Florida) is an American musician best known as a singer and guitarist for Sonic Youth. ... Steve Shelley is a drummer born 23 June 1963 in Midland, Michigan. ... Sonic Youth is a seminal American alternative rock group formed in New York City in 1981. ... Gumballs are highly toxic, dangerous controlled substances. ... Donald Denver Fleming (born June 11, 1937, in Bellaire, Ohio, died June 4, 1963 in Winter Park, Florida) was an American football defensive back who played for the University of Florida and the Cleveland Browns. ...

In 1996 Hell wrote a novel, "Go Now", that was drawn largely from his own experience, and released a collection of short pieces (poems, essays and drawings) called Hot and Cold in 2001. His second novel, Godlike, was published in 2005 on Dennis Cooper's Little House on the Bowery Series on Akashic Books. Dennis Cooper (born 1953) is a poet, writer and performance artist, most noted for transforming the visual/verbal aesthetic of punk into its written counterpart. ...

Hell's archive of his manuscripts, tapes, correspondence (written and email), journals, and other documents of his life was purchased for $50,000 by New York University's Fales library in 2003. New York University (NYU) is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational research university in New York City. ...

Hell was married to Scandal's Patty Smyth for two years, 1985-86, and they have a daughter, Ruby. (Smyth is now married to former tennis star John McEnroe.) Richard married Sheelagh Bevan in 2002 and lives with her in the East Village, New York City. Patty Smyth (born June 26, 1957 in New York City, New York, USA) first enjoyed mainstream success in 1982 as vocalist and lead singer of the band Scandal. ... John Patrick McEnroe, Jr. ...

Discography

The Voidoids:

• Blank Generation (1977)
• Destiny Street (1982)

Richard Hell: Image File history File links Hellandthevoidoidsblankgeneration. ... Blank Generation is an early punk album by Richard Hell and the Voidoids, released in 1977 on Warner Brothers Sire Records imprint. ... Also: 1977 (album) by Ash. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ...

• Funhunt [live] (1989)
• Time (2002) [which is a much-expanded version of R.I.P. (1984)]
• Spurts, The Richard Hell Story (2005)

Dim Stars: Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Year 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar). ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... This article is about the year. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

• Dim Stars (1992)
• Dim Stars EP (1992)

Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ...

Trivia

Hell had a non-speaking cameo role as Madonna's murdered boyfriend in the 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan, but he starred in director Susan Seidelman's prior movie Smithereens (1982). Madonna Louise Ciccone Ritchie (born August 16, 1958), better known as simply Madonna, is a six-time Grammy[1] and one-time Golden Globe award winning American pop singer, songwriter, record and film producer, dancer, actress, author and fashion icon. ... Desperately Seeking Susan is a 1985 film directed by Susan Seidelman and starring Rosanna Arquette and Madonna. ... Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ...

Richard Hell & the Voidoids covered 'Walking on the Water' by Creedence Clearwater Revival on their debut album Blank Generation. In turn, Hell's 'punk' version of 'Walking on the Water' became an inspiration for a new generation and was covered in 1984 by Hedda Gabler.^{[citation needed]} This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Blank Generation is an early punk album by Richard Hell and the Voidoids, released in 1977 on Warner Brothers Sire Records imprint. ... Actress Cate Blanchett in the title role of Hedda Gabler Hedda Gabler is both a play and a fictional character created by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. ...

References

• Nathan Brackett. The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, Simon and Schuster (2004)
• Bernard Gendron. Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde, University of Chicago Press (2002)
• Clinton Heylin. From the Velvets to the Voidoids, Penguin Books (1993) ISBN 0-14-017970-4
• Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain. Please Kill Me, the Uncensored Oral History of Punk , Grove Press (1996) ISBN 0-8021-1588-8
• Al Spicer. The Rough Guide to Punk, Rough Guides/Penguin (2006) ISBN 1-84353-473-8

Further reading

• Steven Beeber interview with Richard Hell from the "Luck" issue of CONDUIT magazine June 23 2003 — largely about Hell's writing, in which Hell explains his disbelief in free will. (This version is on a blog site and has not been verified as a true copy of the original).
• Richard Cabut and Andrew Gallix. Talk to Richard Hell about his latest novel and album, 3:AM Magazine, 2005
• David Dalton. Hell interviewed
• Steven Grant, Mark Fleischmann, David Sprague. Ira Robbin. "Richard Hell", trouserpress.com.
• Jason Gross. Interview with Richard Hell, Perfect Sound Forever, December 1997 — interview is largely about his writing, but also about music.
• Richard Hell "Hell On the Movies" richardhell.com 2006 — Richard Hell's movie column for BlackBook magazine, which appeared 2004-2006
• Richard Meyers & Roy Suggs. Official Press Biography richardhell.com
• Bryan Swirsky. – Exclusive Interview TRAKmarx, 2004 — About his music days in the 1970s
• Adam Travis. Interviewing Hell (25 February 2005), bookslut.com, March 2005 — an interview notorious for Hell's intensely adverserial treatment of the interviewer

is the 174th day of the year (175th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... BlackBook Magazine is a US publication. ...

Footnotes

1. ^ These British punk-scene figures were: Glen Matlock, original Sex Pistols bassist and composer of most of their music; Mark Perry, founder and editor of the first British punk fanzine, Sniffin' Glue, as well as founder of punk group Alternative TV; Geoff Travis, founder of Rough Trade, the main British punk record shop and early label; and Kris Needs, editor of ZigZag magazine and its famous Rock Family Trees. "Blank Generation" was the only American song listed by all four polled.
2. ^ “Kentucky born Richard Hell deserves credit (or blame) for originating much of the punk imagery and style associated with the London scene” --The New Rolling Stone Album Guide by Nathan Brackett, Simon and Schuster (2004), p 373 "He [Richard Hell] even gave an artistic spin to his torn shirt and cropped hair look, soon to be imported to England as the emblem of punk." --Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde By Bernard Gendron, University of Chicago Press (2002), p. 252 Extensive documentation of Hell’s ripped and drawn-on and safety-pinned clothing, spiky short hair, and “punk” musical style as it existed in 1974-1975 (one-two years before English punk existed), with descriptions of Hell by Debby Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie, and Richard Lloyd of Television as well as the book’s author--From the Velvets to the Voidoids by Clinton Heylin, Penguin Books (1993), pp. 120-125
3. ^ "I came back to England determined. I had these images I came back with, it was like Marco Polo or Walter Raleigh. I brought back the image of this distressed, strange thing called Richard Hell. And this phrase, 'the blank generation.' [...] Richard Hell was a definite, 100 percent inspiration, and, in fact, I remember telling the Sex Pistols, ‘Write a song like Blank Generation, but write your own bloody version,’ and their own version was Pretty Vacant.’”--Malcolm McLaren in an interview in Please Kill Me, the Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, Grove Press (1996), p. 199
4. ^ "We'd met at a little school right outside of Wilmington. It was a mediocre boarding school, co-ed, called Sanford Prep. I'd been sent there because I'd been getting in trouble in school since I was fourteen, and things were looking pretty dire [...] I arrived a little after the start of the school year of 1965-1966, when I was in the 11th grade."--Richard Hell (describing how he and Tom Verlaine met) in the first chapter of Hell's autobiography-in-progress, as published in Vanitas magazine #2, 2006, p. 153