Rockats

Live At the Ritz   digital LP

(Island)

Though Danny B. Harvey wasn't on Live At the Ritz -- the guitarist later joined the Rockats for Make That Move and American Bandstand -- he has just posted all tracks from the historic LP on his Bandcamp site. 

Recently, Barry Ryan, the group's definitional guitarist and backup singer, shared behind-scenes recollections of the record and its origin: 

"Island Records head Chris Blackwell signed the Rockats on the advice of Grace Jones in late 1980. We went to London in December to start recording. For one reason or another, the sessions weren't matching up to our live shows. So the project was dumped and we came back to NY. 

"So, it was decided that the best thing to do was to do a live record. We recorded two consecutive nights at the Ritz, but I believe only the first night was used. Both nights were sold out and that's Billy Idol who introduces the band and also sang on the encore of Chuck Berry's Around and Around, which wasn't included on the release."

In 1981, I grabbed Live At the Ritz the moment I glimpsed it in an Iowa record store. An Iowa-to-Minneapolis transplant the year prior, I'd purchased the "Rockabilly Doll" b/w "Tanya Jean" Kat Tale 45, and gone on to see the Rockats play local club Duffy's two October nights in a row. (I picked up a gray Rockats t-shirt the first night.)

Ritz is as close to a time machine-trip back to Duffy's as I'll ever secure. 

That night, the cavernous club was dim and seemingly filled beyond capacity. Frequently, stories passed around morph during the process. It was true that former New York Dolls drummer Jerry Nolan had previously been a Rockat. But by the time talk reached my ears, someone said the group would that night be debuting a new member -- Sylvain Sylvain. Of course, that proved to be false. But as soon materialized, the actual line-up made a flamboyant-enough splash, themselves.

When house lights dimmed and multi-colored stage ones shone, every starring cat threw himself into frenetic gymnastics while dealing rowdy bop impeccabble in its precision. The outrageously pomped and nattily attired group was much more riveting spectacle than mere pastime. 

Punk-era brashness cranked volume and reinvigorated classic Rockabilly swagger. It surefooted in modern raiment before the Stray Cats loomed on MTV. Originals abrim with rollicking fun shared set-space with covers reinvented with jaw-jutted flair.

Singer Dibbs Preston was and remains in the uppermost tier. Barry and Tim Scott (McConnell) constituted a six-string dyad versed in both tradition and fresh thinking. Drummer Lewis King (nee Curt Weiss) urged others on with the dynamism of a gone superman. And no one could navigate a doghouse -- and dance in circles with it -- like Smutty Smiff; his exultant yelps intensified the sprawling ballyhoo.

I jostled through the crowd and stood transfixed before a thundering speaker for some 15 minutes. And it wasn't until two days had elapsed that my full hearing returned. But I was 21 and didn't care.

Ritz was recorded, mixed, and pressed in only 48 hours, a land-speed record that furthered the disc's urgency. 

The t-shirt I bought at Duffy's in 1980 disappeared sometime over the decades. But my original Live At the Ritz vinyl remains in my collection. And it's not going anywhere.

Recommended: "Rockin' Baby," "Rite Time," "My Way," "Go Kat Wild," "Love This Kat," "Start All Over Again," "Krazy Baby," "50 Miles From Nowhere," "At My Front Door," "Wrong Rite Reason," "Room To Rock," "All Thru the Nite," "I Wanna Bop"

Videos: "Rockin' Baby"   "I Wanna Bop"

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