Rocketship Weird Retro Captain's Blog - Weird Retro

Cult Film Friday: Violated Angels (1967).

2/1/2015

A controversial cult film from Kōji Wakamatsu the auteur of the Pink Film genre of Japanese cinema. He has been credited with having taken exploitation cinema to a whole new level of surreal artistry. His early movies were extremely low budget art-house exploitation pieces, shot in stark black & white sometimes with sudden burst of colour, featuring extreme scenes of sex and violence, mixed with a political message. Often courting a lot of controversy.

Violated Angels (犯された白衣) is a one of Wakamatsu's most well regarded and known movies, Made in 1967, it is based on the killing spree of the mass murderer Richard Speck who in 1966 systematically tortured, raped, and murdered eight student nurses from the South Chicago Community Hospital. In the movie a young man breaks into a nurses' rooming house and kills them one-by-one. There is lots of sexual imagery in the movie, most of the actual murders however, take place off screen. The film was shot in just three short days, much of it seemingly improvised and using non-professionals actresses due to budget constraints. The movie is stark, an unrelentingly gloomy, claustrophobic set piece.

Utter misogynistic exploitation sleaze, presented with an undeniable sense of artistic sparse harshness, adding it the cold detached nature of the protagonist, setting stark blue-print for the future Pink Film genre of movies that would follow after it.

Weird Retro Fact: The Japanese delinquent Girl Boss culture, is examined, along its representation in the Pinky violence sub-genre of Pink Film, in Sukeban: The Japanese Girl Bosses & Girl Gangs.

Weird Retro Fact: Sexual violence is a regular feature of the Pink Film genre, and other aspects of Japanese entertainment culture. Read about the manga and movie fictional anti-hero called The Rapeman: The Weirdest Japanese Superhero?!

Weird Music: The Ladybirds, Not The Only All-Girl Topless Band In The 1960s

29/12/2014

The blog post that got Weird Retro a facebook ban for posting a link on its facebook page.

There were a few all-girl bands around in the 1960s called The Ladybirds it turns out. First there were one of the first all-girl rock bands The Ladybirds from California from example, who opened for the Rolling Stones in 1965. Then there were the British vocal harmony group The Ladybirds who were to perform regularly on the British TV show The Benny Hill Show from 1968 onwards. None of these bands however performed topless. Unlike the The Ladybirds that hailed from the state of New Jersey in 1967, and... Well we'll get to that in a bit!

The "topless" Ladybirds were a five-piece garage rock band, that were no novelty act. These girls learnt to really play, according to Dick Boyd's book, Broadway North Beach, The Golden Years - A Saloon Keeper's Tales, they originally simply pretended to play instruments but ultimately learned to play them. Anyway back in 1968 after being forced out of New Jersey for their apparently lewd costume choice, they headed west. They made it to Las Vegas, where they appeared with comedian Godfrey Cambridge at the Aladdin Hotel, and at some point they made it to California. In California the played at the infamous Blue Bunny Club in Hollywood and found a home at the Tipsy club in San Francisco.

They were managed at various points by Voss Boreta (husband of topless dancer Yvonne D'Angers and manager of topless dancer, Carol Doda) and professional golfer Raymond Floyd. In his youth Floyd was known as a lunatic, lush loving party animal who part owned a club. It was through this that Floyd wound up managing The Ladybirds. In 1998, Sports Illustrated magazine ran an article that mention Floyd and the band, "He [Floyd] was part owner of a bar, Coke's, an investor in a topless girls band and one of Carol Doda's many admirers."

The band even went on tour, there are records of them appearing at the Crystal Room in New York City, Isy's Supper Club in Vancouver, the Town 'n' Country in Winnipeg and Chez Paree, Quebec in 1968. Thus leaving a vacancy at the Tipsy club in San Francisco, so promoter Davey Rosenberg hit on the idea of starting another all-female topless band covers band. The band Rosenberg formed were called The Hummingbirds, and featured famous exotic dancer Angel Cecelia Helene Walker (better known as Satan's Angel) on bass.

Satan's Angel's signature act was to light her tassels aflame, "then extinguishing the flames by means of strenuous mammary rotation". Hence her full stage name being Satan's Angel, the Devil's Own Mistress, Queen of the Fire Tassels.

Anyway, getting eventually to the point of this of blog post. It appears there actually was another all-girl topless band called The Ladybirds in the 1960s, that hailed all the way from Denmark. They formed in 1968, and toured extensively throughout Scandinavian. It's even reported that they made in to the UK, and played in Bristol in 1973. The same year that the band formed they opened for the Yardbirds at the Fjordvilla Club in Roskilde, Denmark, on September 8th 1968. Sometimes then billed on adverts as the New Yardbirds, the band would later change their name to Led Zeppelin. It is that tour of Scandinavia in 1968 that is considered to be Led Zeppelin's first ever tour as a band.

Weird Retro Fact: The original American All-Girl Topless Band, The Ladybirds made into the Weird Retro Top Ten: Bands That Dress-Up In Weird Costumes.

Weird Retro Fact: Read about the storm an innocuous and inoffensive link to this blog post, posted on the Weird Retro facebook page resulted in the page and its admins being banned from facebook for a 30 days. Banned By Facebook: The Nipple Police Strike Again!

Weird Retro Fact: Read about the Wild, Wild World Of Jayne Mansfield (1968), the only known footage of The Ladybirds performing on screen.

Bizarre Profiles: GG Allin (1956 - 1993)

23/11/2014

Born Jesus Christ Allin (you couldn't make it up) GG Allin was a notoriously outrageous punk rock singer/songwriter and artist. His live shows were infamous for Allin's stage performances with his band the Murder Junkies that often involved self-mutilation, pissing and shitting on stage, smearing it on himself and throwing it into the audience. Audiences at GG Allin gigs knew what they were letting themselves in for, and would actively encourage increasing transgressive acts, some audience members getting into full blown fights with Allin.

GG Allin has been described as "the most spectacular degenerate in rock & roll history" and "toughest rock star in the world", but Allin simply referred to himself as "The Rock 'n' Roll Terrorist!" Allin was a true outsider artist, self producing music in a number of genres.

His music was difficult to say the least, poorly recorded it assaulted the ears with no subject off limits and all taboos covered in horrific lyrical detail. Designed to shock, Allin said he wanted to make rock music "dangerous" again. The no-limits on-stage GG Allin first came to prominence in the mid-80s, when a limited released cassette tape of Hated in the Nation came out in 1987, which featured previously unreleased , live and rare recordings of Allin and his work with a number of punk bands.

Also by this time Allin was a heavy drinker, addicted to heroin and would consume pretty much any drug he could lay his hands on. He was constantly being arrested for his violence and regular on-stage nudity, as well as for the outrageous and often illegal stage antics. In 1989 Allin landed in prison for assault on a woman, that Allin claimed was a willing participant along with himself in a series of depraved sexual acts. He was jailed until 1991, during which time he wrote a manifesto and got ready to explode back onto the scene. Allin skipped parole after getting out, so that he could go on tour.to go on another tour. Footage of that tour was filmed for the 1994 documentary about Allin, Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies. The movie showed Allin in full performance mode, naked, shitting on-stage, assaulting the audience. At one point he throws a beer bottle into the crowd, hitting a woman in the face and breaking her nose.

His last performance was on Friday June 27th, 1993 at a small club in Manhattan. The gig was only two songs in when there was a power-cut, which enraged Allin. He went mad, smashing up the club and causing near riotous chaos. He left the club naked and walked down the street followed by a gang of fans from the gig. After a while he headed for an apartment of a friend, to keep partying. During the party Allin took a large quantity of heroin and accidentally overdosed. Sometime in the early hours of the Saturday died, aged 36 years old.

Allin's funeral was a very unusual affair, but suitably mirrored his crazy life. He had an open casket, dressed in leather jacket and trademark jockstrap. His body hadn't been washed since his death and no attempt was made to clean him up of make him look "better", as that would have gone against Allin's ethos. His wishes had been out-lined in a song he'd written called When I Die. Friends posed with the body, gave him booze and drugs. And as he was about to be put in the ground, his brother put headphones on his corpse attached to a cassette player containing a copy of The Suicide Sessions recorded by Allin in 1988.

Weird Retro Fact: Allin was obsessed with serial killers. He had written to and also visited infamous "Killer Clown" John Wayne Gacy in prison a number of times. Gacy painted Allin's portrait, which was used as the album cover to the soundtrack of the film Hated: GG Allin And The Murder Junkies.

Cult Film Friday: Porky's (1982)

14/11/2014

For those of us that grew-up in the 80s, Porky's was for many of us our first exposure to the the teen sex comedy genre of movies. Set in 1954, it tells the story of a bunch of horny high school kids who want to lose their virginity. The movie was panned by critics, but loved by fans, becoming the fifth highest grossing movie of that year. Most criticism was for its sexism and misogynistic themes. Go figure! It was a teen sex comedy aimed at young guys, what did they think the themes were going to be?

The plot revolves around the lads going to a well known dive bar in the Everglades called Porky's, in the hope of hiring finding a prostitute to satisfy their teen needs. Porky ends up ripping off the lads, and the boys conspire to seek revenge against the bar owner, eventually sinking the bar into the Everglades. The movie has some classically childish scenes that no-one who has ever seen the movie could forget.

The shower scene for example, when Ms. Balbricker pulls tug-of-war style on Tommy's cock that he has stuck through a hole in the girls shower room. Or the scene featuring a young Kim Cattrall as the Phys Ed. teacher Miss Lynn "Lassie" Honeywell, who howls like a dog when she reaches orgasm, much to the delight of most of the students and teachers in the gym who can hear her.

The movie spawned two sequels, Porky's II: The Next Day (1983) and Porky's Revenge! (1985).

Weird Retro Fact: Read the Captain's Blog post about the terrible 1983 Atari 2600 game of the movie.

Shindai: The Art Of Japanese Bed-Fighting (1966)

9/11/2014

Just when you thought you'd heard of every Japanese quirk and perversion... Shindai!!! The art of Japanese bed-fighting. With the tag-line "The most exotic, initimate Eastern eroticism ever revealed the the Western World", you could be mistaken for thinking that the book is showing readers a hidden world of Japanese sex.

The book it is claimed to be written by Ellen Schumaker and Tomi Nobunuga, described as Madam Nobunuga. Telling the secret martial bedroom art practiced between samurai warriors and geisha. However the book was actually a satirical joke claimed to have been invented by British humourist and hoaxer Jonathon Routh.

The book has done the rounds of the Internet for years, often mistakenly assumed to be genuine. However the myth still persists, and many websites posting about the book with slight disbelief but still not that surprised that such a bedroom based martial art could ever come from Japan. A testament to how well the book maintains its joke and how weird we all think the Japanese are.

Japanese Chuck Norris Action Sex Doll

7/11/2014

Produced by the Japanese toy manufacturer Bandai in 1982, the anatomically correct Chuck Norris action figure was always ready for "action". Chuck's action hero persona perfectly presented in pouting and posturing plastic. Complete with plastic penis to prove, as if we didn't know already, that Chuck has serious balls.

The figure came with a number of interchangeable outfits, to suit the hard-man's mood. From a kick-ass karate chopping peep-hole kimono to the infamous free-movement gusseted kickin' action jeans, replete with hunky hero ass-less chaps. Just what any rough tough action hero needs when getting down to business at a spit-and-sawdust roadhouse bar.

Sold under the strap-line "Brawling and balling! Chuck is ready for any bar-room or bedroom action." The Chuck Norris all-man action figure was brought out to coincide with the release of his movie Forced Vengeance (1982). An action revenge thriller set in Hong Kong.

A Catalogue Of Fun For Boys!

4/11/2014

Back before the World Wide Web spread porn across the world, and into every feverish adolescent boys bedroom, we who are old enough to remember had the mail-order catalogues that would land on our doorsteps very summer and winter. The unbridled excitement of waiting for your parents to go out, so you could sneak it upstairs so you could flick through the underwear section was more than many boys in the 70s and 80s could bear.

Here in the UK the top catalogues were Kays, Grattans, and Littlewoods. In the US, I understand it was Sears or J.C. Penney's, I guess Victoria Secret's was a bit to racy for most home. Boys would furtively flick through, hoping for a bit of nipple peaking through a bra. They were much more innocent times, and paradise of nylon and polyester. Quickly flicking over the "older ladies" support and gusseted underwear section of course.

Getting caught with a mail-order catalogue in your bedroom wasn't so embarrassing either, as you could always claim your were looking at the "toy section". Obviously your parents didn't believe you for a minute, but it kept the mutual embarrassment of the truth unsaid. The semi-clad models, who looked like ordinary ladies kept the dirty young minds of 70s and 80s kids imaginative and grounded in some kind of perverse reality. Rather than the all-out-there porn that the availability Internet porn brought youngsters of the 90s and 2000s. Obviously the catalogues days didn't last long for us guys that grew-up in that era, as eventually we all came across our parents porn stash, and moved onto the likes of Playboy, Penthouse and the equivalent of the times. Then as VHS video players became more and more accessible in homes, we moved onto grainy copies of Swedish Erotica and Electric Blue. After all one absolute fact of life as a teenage boy was, you learned how to become an expert hunter of jerk-off materials. These days it's literally handed to them on a plate. And they are missing out on the joys of discovering that post-Internet gem, that anyone growing up in the pre-Internet age had as an key rite-of-passage in their adolescence.

Retro Gaming: Plumbers Don't Wear Ties

2/11/2014

Game is s loose definition for what maybe one of the worst games in the history of computing. And that's saying something. This essentially limited option "game" has long been held as possibly one of the worst ever, so bad that it doesn't even make lists of bad computer games, as people who have played it have tired their best to ignore its existence since it first appeared in 1994.

The game was advertised as being a full motion video interactive game. Although only the introduction segment is video, and the rest is still shots with character voices and narration over the top. The game was released on the Panasonic 3DO games system, and has been sited as one of the nails in the coffin of the system. Apparently game makers who wanted to produce 3DO games only had to pay $3 royalties per disc, and were given free reign to produce any nonsense they saw fit. Hence the creation of this nasty piece of work.

The story-line, if it can be called that, is based around to people hooking up for sex. Bad choices (and your choices are limited) are criticised by one of the two narrators (they seem to change through the game for no reason). Too many bad choices are you are asked if your want to start again. Why would you? Surely once you have been through the torture once you would never go back.

Cult Film Friday: Black Devil Doll From Hell (1984)

24/10/2014

The strap-line to Black Devil Doll From Hell is "Was it a nightmare? Or was it for real??" A question that many ask after their experience of seeing this movie. That has gained cult status for its bad straight-to-video shot-on-video low-budget flick that combines blaxploitation with a killer doll theme. (I guess someone had to at some point!)

The story (for what it's worth) is of a religious fanatic that buys a demoniacally possessed black ventriloquists dummy with dreadlocks. She buys it even after the ominous warning of the shop owner, that the doll has been bought by four different people before and always made its way back to the shop. She takes the dummy home and it proceeds to sexually assault her through most of the rest of the movie. The evil spirit of the dummy gets inside her, and they both plan to murder their enemies. That's about it for this 70 minute long piece of utter exploitation soft-porn trash.

Directed by Chester Turner, who also made the companion piece Tales From The Quadead Zone (1987). Both movies for only the most hardcore of cult film fanatics.

Weird Retro Fact: The movie was first mentioned in the Weird Retro In-flight Magazine article about the Vent Haven Museum for ventriloquist's dolls, called A Haven For Devil Dolls. The museum was also mentioned in the article Top Ten: Weird Places To Visit In The USA.

Cult Film Friday: Orgy Of The Dead (1965)

10/10/2014

From the manically creative genius on Ed Wood Jr. comes one weirdest nudie cutie sexploitation movies to ever just about hit the screen. Not actually directed by Wood, that credit goes to it's producer/director A. C. Stephen. The screenplay (for what it's worth) was adapted by Wood from his own novel. There is a plot, but to be fair no-one (including myself) really knows or cares what that is. This movie is no more than excuse to feature 10 different striptease artists go through a series of bizarre ritual bare breasted dances.

Wood's friend and cast regular the Amazing Criswell reprises his roll and pretty much word-for-word speech, from the unreleased Night Of The Ghouls (1959). Along with his undead consort, the seductive Ghoulita also known as the Black Ghoul, they watch the sensual dance of the tortured maidens. The role of the Black Ghoul was written for Maila Nurmi, better known as TV horror host Vampira, but starred unknown exploitation actress Fawn Silver.

Orgy Of The Dead is a fun piece of desperately kitsch mildly erotic cinema, with a darkly comic edge. (Whether the comedy is purposeful or not, it is very funny all the same). The movie makes a perfect piece of background visuals to any retro themed Halloween party.

Weird Retro Fact: The Gold Girl, on the movie poster as being coated in gold, is believed to have been directly copied from 1964's Goldfinger.

Weird Retro Fact: Read the Captain's Blog post on Ed Wood, Bizarre Profiles: Ed Wood (1924 - 1978)