The Tubes
Taking their cue from Frank Zappa's Mothers
Of Invention, San Franciscan rock satirists The Tubes were one
of the first groups to bring performance art to arena rock & roll.
Fronted by vocalist Fee Waybill, they also pulled in some
heavyweight support as they camped out in 70s America, drawing a fan
club that included Captain Beefheart
and Frank Zappa.
With platform boots as high as Blackpool Tower, his face behind
shades that even Elton John would have
dismissed as too vulgar, the sight of Quay Lude tottering to the
microphone - dangling a 12-inch plastic dick down to his knees - to sing
White Punks On Dope was the centrepiece of their live shows.
Waybill created Quay Lude as his drug-addled alter-ego during the
70s, but his parody of rock star excess would quickly engulf The Tubes,
overshadowing the sometimes great music and marvellous shows they
played.
White Punks On Dope was the dynamic final track to their
1975 debut album, though the song had turned into a sprawling shock-rock
free-for-all by the time it appeared on their double live album, What
You Want From Live in 1978.
The Tubes were dirty and nasty and had naked girls on stage, and
their multimedia stage show - which included a phallic cigarette advert,
a pantie-snatching Tom Jones parody and the
whip-wielding dominatrix Re Styles who appeared during the song Mondo
Bondage - got The Tubes banned from some British concert halls
during their 1977 tour.
By the early 80s they had toned down their image to a more commercial
MTV-acceptable format. By
the mid-80s the band were becoming "fried" (to quote Fee
Waybill) and split up after their Love Bomb album in 1985.
Waybill and keyboard player Mike Cotten left first and the band
struggled on for a while without them.
Having reunited in 1993 with original members Waybill, Roger Steen,
Rick Anderson and Prairie Prince, The Tubes played a one-off show
six-years later. These days they can be seen on a fairly regular basis.
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