It was the third day of my second trip to the UK and I was in London, staying with my friend Paul (whom we had met in Hollywood last year) in Kensington. Both Helen and Mary were in London but I had no way to get in touch with them. But The Dickies were playing! They were opening for The Runaways.
It seems really unnatural to me now to use "movie theater" and "phone booth" when speaking of things in England!
Andy Ellison was the singer of The Radio Stars (and previously John's Children and Jet); I had seen them and met them the previous year; in fact they were the only band I had seen. I had met Billy Idol when he was in LA - just him; Generation X never played in LA, at least when I was there. The Gary I refer to was Gary Tonda who was my off and on sorta boyfriend back in LA at the time; Generation X was his favorite band. But I never saw them either; I think I was in Liverpool when they played London in August. I had a big big crush on their drummer, Mark Laff, if that isn't obvious!
16 July 1978
Only slept till 1:30 this day. We walked through Kensington Gardens, then went to this photography gallery where they had an exhibit of fat New Orleans prostitutes and a punk rock book with a pic of Trudie in it.
Then went to this movie theatre (they serve alcohol!!!) cause Paul had to give a book to this guy and the guy said we could go into the movie. It was some boring coal miner documentary; I bugged Paul and we finally got to go. We ate at a pizza place which was pretty good - had an 'American' (pepperoni) pizza. Then we went to the Lyceum.
A minute after we went inside I saw a head of white hair run past - could that be Helen? - it was!! She didn't know I was coming to London! She said Mary was supposed to come down but she never showed.
So we hung out the whole time after that. The Dickies went over really well, especially "Paranoid" of course. After they played we went to a phone booth down the street to call Helen's mom. But no one answered. [And very few people had answering machines in those days...] It would have been such a crack-up - cause Helen hasn't communicated with her parents for almost three months! [A couple months later they hired a private detective to try to find her!]
I saw the Dickies in the hall; Billy was surprised to see me: "So you came to England two years in a row?" I saw this guy who looked familiar but he talked with a British accent so I decided he couldn't be someone I knew - later Helen tells me it's Mick Jones - duh. His hair is so much longer!
The Runaways were pretty boring - they were much better at the Whisky last Christmas.
Helen asked if she could stay at Paul's too and I went to ask him but then I never could find her again and we had to leave to catch the last bus.
Oh, when the Runaways were playing a guy went by who I thought was Andy Ellison - later I saw him again and I was pretty sure it was - so I said hi. He told me about their new album and said he remembered me; I told him I was gonna go see them next week.
Then outside I saw Billy Idol so I went and said hi to him - he goes, "How did you get over here?" "Flew." I said the Dickies were friends of mine and he said he wanted to see them - I told him they were gonna be at the Music Machine and he said he'd try to catch them. He also said that they [Generation X] were gonna play in August. Ha ha, Gary!!!
All of Generation X were there - I almost died when I saw Mark Laff! I looked away really quick so I can barely remember! Paul accused me of being a groupie!
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