I posted this blog on my other site...but decided to include it here also.

With the recent passing of punk rock n' roll icon Frankie Venom of Teenage Head, some people I know probably would like to know my thoughts on this. Seeing that I have been hugely influenced by them, championed their music to anyone who cared to listen, wrote the tribute song Hamilton Head, and even had the immense pleasure of opening a show for them. My initial thoughts are of sadness and loss..I was in total numb shock yesterday when I heard the news....it was the same feeling years ago when I heard Lennon was shot. To me they both were inspirations to me..the size of celebrity does not matter...it's one's personal feeling of loss. A part of you is gone.  Thankfully today, as sad as I am, I'm also feeling nostalgic, and remembering the man and the music. This is what will live on...this is immortal. Music does not die.

I remember being very young, and hearing a new song on the old CFNY radio station. Through the clock radio in the parents kitchen, I thought it might be a new song by Generation X..it had that feel...I was already way into the punk explosion at the time. I found out after the song finished that this awesome little song was called Top Down by a band called Teenage Head. A month or so later I heard another song by them called Picture My Face...I was hooked.

I ran out the record store and bought that first Teenage Head album...I remembering sitting in my basement bedroom listening to it over and over, staring at the front and back cover and reading all the lyrics. They were from Hamilton, Canada?...wow thats not far away from me. The music spoke to me..it clicked....it was punk but also very rock and roll, the perfect marriage. It was'nt blues rock..it was fast no frills rock and roll. This to me was different. It was'nt London UK or New York...this was ours..Canadian. The tunes catchy as hell, the guitar work was amazing, and that singer..and that voice...bratty, full of attitude, funny, catchy, strong, it had it all.  Frankie Venom was his name...how cool is that!  I was now a fan.  Shortly after I start my first band.

Not much later, the second album Frantic City is released....they have now bridged the punk rock and roll, with rockabilly, and pop, and even a few hard rock riffs...amazing!...its the total cross over album. Punks, boppers, popsters, and hard rock fans get it!

I go to Stars Nightclub in Brampton 1980, Teenage Head are playing two shows that day..one at night for the drinking crowd, and also a matinee in the afternoon for the under-agers.  I am glued to the band as they rip through their set, Frankie bops and jumps....he's the ultimate showman. I walk away from that show totally inspired.   I am never the same......these were defining moments in my early teenage life....and to this day I still feel the same way. I followed their career ups and downs...bought all the albums.  When they were not stars anymore..I was always still a fan. When Frankie had a bad night and looked like hell, I cheered him on. I saw them 15 times over the years...and met them. I talked with Frankie a few times, I even gave him my cd, when we opened for them.  The last time I saw him was after a Head show in April 2008. I shook his hand and said 'Hey Frankie...Andy Butler.' He looked up at the ceiling and pointed his finger as if trying to place the name.. I said 'Hamilton Head' and he looked at me and smiled and said. 'Thats it!'

That was all I needed....that one small connection between us. 

Thanks Frankie. You will be forever remembered.

- Andy Butler /  Oct. 2008