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When
Slash stopped publishing in 1980, Bessy eventually
grew tired of the U.S. and left the country, explaining
his move by saying, "The scene was not fun
anymore, so I bailed on L.A. and the USA, never to
return the day Ronald Reagan was elected." Claude
and his wife, Philomena Winstanley, moved to England
where Claude worked at Rough Trade Records in London
for a few years. Eventually they ended up in Barcelona
Spain. Sad to say, this brilliant rabble rouser succumbed
to lung cancer on October 2, 1999 at the age of 54.
God rest his soul - the punk scene of L.A. would have
been very different without Bessy.
I'm
privileged to be able to say that I made the acquaintance
of this remarkable enfant terrible. I did my acrylic
painting of Claude sometime in 1979 while he was in
a quiet, pensive mood. He wore his favorite Sex Pistols
T-shirt for the sitting. By the way, Claude was an
antifascist, as were the Sex Pistols. The swastika
was an icon unfortunately picked by early punks for
its tasteless shock value and as a statement against
mindless conformity. Click
here
to see a detail of my painting.
My
friends at
Artifix
Records have released
a fabulous CD compilation of live recordings by Kickboy's
band, Catholic Discipline. The live recordings comprise
the only album the band released. To hear in part
what the original punk scene of Los Angeles actually
sounded like - pick up this great 21 track CD.
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