The guitarist of heavy metal/rock beauties Twisted Sister has revealed some details regarding the band’s early history, as well as an upcoming documentary about their “hidden first decade”.
.
With 2013 marking the band’s 40 years of existence, Jay Jay French sets the record straight for the many fans who believe Twisted Sister formed in the early ’80s.
.
As well as revealing an early set of gig dates proving they played their first-ever gig on March 20, 1973, French also details the film about this era, ‘We Are Twisted F*cking Sister!’ from German film maker Andrew Horn.
.
Writing on Twisted Sister’s website, French stated about the upcoming film: “Within the next year, a documentary about the history of the first 10 years of Twisted Sister will finally be exhibited from the film maker Andy Horn. Andy has been working on this documentary for the last four years. The idea came to him after an interview with me concerning another artist named Klaus Nomi who opened for us at the Soap Factory around 1981. At that time, Andy really knew very little about us and became fascinated by the story of our long and winding road to a record deal.”
.
As far as these first 10 years go, French asserts that, “While most of the world thinks that Twisted Sister started in 1984, there are those who know a much different story. The band’s die-hard fans in the U.K. thought the story began a couple of years earlier when Secret Records signed us in England. There does exist, however, a subset of fans who know the real story. Those fans are from the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Those fans spent years supporting us.
.
“Because of the sheer number of super-sized night clubs that started operating in the tri-state area around 1976, there exists a fan base that only knew us with me, Dee [Snider, vocals], Eddie [Ojeda, guitar] and for a short time bassist Ken Neill, with an assortment of changing drummers. However, before that, Twisted Sister played hundreds of shows at places like the Mad Hatter in East Quouge, Mr. T’s & Maxis in Wantagh, in Long Island, The Satellite Lounge, The Wreck Room, Dodd’s, The Colony III, The Joker II, The Searchlite, Spruce Goose, The Capricorn and the George Inn in NJ and the Sahara located in Adams, Massachusetts.
.
“I will say this however about the very early days of Twisted Sister: Our agent worked us to death, playing 5-6 nights a week 4-5 shows per night. Some shows ended as late as 6 a.m.! In those days, you played in one club for 3-6 night in a row. In the case of the Mad Hatter in East Quouge, we played 78 nights between May and September.”
.
The rest of French’s post, which reveals earlier line-ups and tribulations, can be seen HERE
.
‘We Are Twisted F*cking Sister!’ will be out in the coming year. In other news, if you don’t like Twisted Sister, you are a false.
