For those of you that have not heard, Teen Idols' guitarist Phillip Hill was hospitalized on Friday, Dec. 4th in Nashville, TN while visiting his mother for the holidays. Here's the story in his own words from Monday, Dec. 7th:

 "I'm finally home from the hospital after getting jumped by four guys on Friday night. These guys were attacking a girl in a parking lot where my car was parked and I tried to save her. They were basically grabbing the girl by the arms and pulling her back and forth. They may have been trying to force her into their car. I walked over and said, "Hey! What the hell are you guys doing?!" She broke away from them and ran over to me. I asked her if she was o.k., and she said yes and thanked me for helping her. Then the guys charged me and tackled me to the ground. I landed on my back on top of a concrete parking block, breaking four of my ribs and collapsing my right lung. Then all four of them took turns stomping and kicking my chest, ribs, and head. One of them ripped the side-view mirror off of my car and started smashing the glass into my face repeatedly.

As they were stomping me on the ground, I noticed that the girl was still standing there crying with her hands over her mouth. She looked like she was debating on trying to help me. I managed to make eye contact with her and yelled for her to "RUN!". Then they started smashing my face with my side-view mirror some more and stomping my face. I guess she got away while I had the thugs distracted. I managed to get into my car and lock myself inside. I started to call the cops, but they saw what I was doing. Then I realized one of the guys had my keys! They said, "Hang up the fucking phone and we'll give you your keys and 30 seconds to get out of here before we drag you out of your car and beat your fucking ass to death." I drove down the street, barely able to breathe because of my ribs and lung. As I was driving, 911 called back. I pulled over and told them I needed an ambulance. By the time the ambulance and the cops got there, the thugs were long gone.

Just another night in the exciting life of a Teen Idol, huh?

I'll keep everyone updated on my recovery, but the doctor says I'll be out of action for 3 months minimum. It's going to be at least 7 more weeks before I can leave Nashville. I'm not even strong enough to hold a guitar right now. I even need assistance going to the bathroom. It's going to be a long and painful road ahead. Hydrocodone is my new best friend."

All upcoming shows have been postponed until further notice as Phillip recovers.

Like many musicians in the U.S., Phillip doesn't have health insurance and the hospital bills from this incident are going to cause a huge financial burden on him, as well as Teen Idols as a whole. Longtime friend and Teen Idols producer, Mass Giorgini has set up a PayPal account to accept donations toward Phillip's pending hospital bills. A link to contribute donations has been set up on the website www.helpphilliphill.com. NOFX and Fat Wreck Chords have also helped out by auctioning off a test pressing of NOFX's recent live album and donating the proceeds to Phillip's hospital fund.

This is only a minor setback and Teen Idols will be back on the road next year! Keep your eye's peeled for updates on this page for upcoming Pogo Punk news!

During Riot Fest Fat Mike of NOFX made an appearance backstage at the Teen Idols show at the Metro in Chicago and surprised Keith on film and used the footage for the new NOFX video "Cokie the Clown". Here's the clip!


NOFX - Cokie The Clown

NOFX | MySpace Video

The Teen Idols' 7 show tour to Insubordination Fest and back was a blast! New Teen Idols members Yvonne (bass) and Bice (drums) held their own alongside Keith (vocals) and Phillip (guitar) and silenced the nay-sayers and proved that this band can still rock the house like no other! Old friends Squirtgun and the Cretins, as well as new friends The Leftovers and Jetty Boys joined Teen Idols on the road and put on awesome shows as well! Every day was like a family reunion for Keith and Phillip with old friends and fans from years past and present coming out of the woodwork to hang out and share the rock and roll experience. Check out the photos from the tour in the new picture albums in the "photos" section! Also send in any personal pictures that you may have taken if you were at any of these shows!

The tour might be over, but it's full steam ahead for Teen Idols! The rest of the Summer will be spent writing a new album that will hopefully be recorded this Winter. Look for a new full length album from Teen Idols next Spring!

Teen Idols hope to see all of you pogoing in the pit at their next scheduled appearence: Riot Fest at the Metro in Chicago on October 10th with Teenage Bottlerocket and the Dead Milkmen!

Keep the faith!

Teen Idols
 

Teen Idols were the surprise guest during the Windy City Sound Clash in Chicago, IL on Sunday, May 24th. Teen Idols' old buddies Mulligan Stu invited Phillip and Keith to join them on stage for 4 Teen Idols songs. Yvonne from the Scissors jumped on the bass and backing vocals to give it the traditional Teen Idols sound. This was a fun sneak peek of the full set that will be featured next month on the road to Insubordination Festival. Here are some video clips and photos from the backstage rehearsal and show!

Practice #1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzgKq7zSSsw

Practice #2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_eVWcU90xc

Practice #3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhKj9SWIKWM

Windy City Sound Clash show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSbnK6V-7lk

For those of you that have an account with Facebook, send a friend request to the new Teen Idols Facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Teen-Idols/100265312440
See you there!

Teen Idols and The Leftovers will be hitting the road together on the way to and from Insubordination Fest! Here are the confirmed dates so far:

6/24 - Chicago, IL @ Reggie's w/Squirtgun, and special guests TBA!
All-ages  $10  7pm

6/25 - Indianapolis, IN @ ES Jungle w/TBA
All-Ages  $10  7pm

6/26 - Columbus, OH @ Bernie's Distillery w/The Give-Ups, The Damn Yous
All-Ages  $10  8pm

6/27 - Baltimore, MD @ The Sonar (Insubordination Festival WOO HOO!!!)

6/28 - Philadelphia, PA @ The Khyber w/The Cretins, Jetty Boys, Percocettes
21+  $10  6pm

6/29 - Brooklyn, NY @ Southpaw w/ The Cretins, Jetty Boys
16+  $8  8pm

6/30 - Cambridge, MA @ The Middle East (upstairs) w/The Cretins, Jetty Boys
18+  $10  8pm

Some of you guitar guys may find this interesting. My main guitar when I played in Teen Idols was my Rickenbacker 370 semi-hollowbody guitar that was specially custom-made for me back in '94. I tried to have Rickenbacker make another identical guitar a few years later as a backup, but they had since stopped making those customizations, making mine a rare one-of-a-kind guitar. The night the band broke up, Heather and I got into a drunken argument on stage. She shoved me into the drum kit while I was wearing my guitar and I landed on top of the headstock, snapping it and splitting the neck halfway down. I got so pissed that I took off my guitar, slammed it on the ground (breaking it further), and quit the band.

Since Teen Idols are back together now (and a good friend of mine works at United Lutherie) I'm having the Rickenbacker restored. Initially my buddy didn't think the repairs would be that difficult. Now it looks like it might be a lot more involved. He's been sending me step-by-step pictures as he works on the guitar. I think it's pretty interesting, so I thought I'd share.

Here's a picture of me with the guitar the day it arrived from the Rickenbacker Custom Shop back in '94:



Below is a recent e-mail from my friend that's doing the repairs with photos included:
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Damn, dude.....
My original prognosis was way off, you really did a number on this one! The strings & truss rod cover was kind of holding it all together, when they came off, the true ugliness revealed itself.



The peghead is broken off for the most part. It's only being held on by a 1" wide strip of wood on the back of the neck. You even managed to but through the rosewood laminate. I've never sen a Rick peghead so trashed!



Here's the part where I scold you.... I wish you would have sent this to me when we first talked about it a few years ago. The longer a break sits, the more chance the wood has to change shape. This thing doesn't want to fit perfectly back together right now but we'll see what some humidifying does for it.

Before getting started, I removed the truss rods.



There are also a number of cracks, 2 in the top, 3 on the back. These will need to be repaired.



Last but not least, the neck is loose on the bass side. It's actually moving around in the pocket.




My first course of action is to glue up the neck. I need to order 3/16" diameter teflon rods to install in the neck to make sure no excess glue clogs up the truss rod channels during the job.
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Visit United Lutherie's MySpace page to see more repair jobs they've done in the past at: www.myspace.com/unitedlutherie