[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r4HLPVNmDg]
Wow, this is really great! Black guy who was part of the glitter punk or glam punk movement along from 1968-1979 with David Bowie, T Rex, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, the New York Dolls, Hanoi Rocks, Jayne County and the Electric Chairs, Lou Reed, the Runaways, and Ultravox.
He was present at the Chelsea Hotel with Sid Vicious on the night that Nancy Spungen was killed. Neon Leon is often offered up as a suspect, but he doesn’t really seem like the type. Another man named Rockets Redglare is also often offered up as a suspect, but looking through a lot of pictures of his face and reading about how he lived his life, I do not think he is capable of criminal homicide (yes I can figure out people’s personalities pretty well if I read a bit about them and see some photos of their face, the more photos the better).
Either Sid killed her himself or she killed herself somehow, or they had a drugged out knife fight and she somehow got stabbed in the process.
Neon Leon had a blonde stripper girlfriend – apparently Honi O’Rourke in this video. Gino Guintallino on drums and John Coiro on guitar. Coiro’s Facebook page is here. Neon Leon has now reinvented himself as the Lion King, has moved to Europe and is apparently still making a living as a performer.
3
20
20
20
I saw Rockets Redglare in several movies, including Steve Buscemi’s “Trees’ Lounge,” and “Animal Factory” as well as Jim Jarmusch’s “Mystery Train,” where he plays a racist liquor store clerk who gets shot by Joe Strummer. Deborah Spungen, Nancy’s mom, seems to have the best handle on the situation, and in her book “And I Don’t Want to Live This Life,” she basically theorizes the simplest explanation was probably the correct one. It was an accidental stabbing, when both of them were struggling over the knife (as depicted in Alex Cox’s great film “Sid and Nancy”).
Redglare was a mess though, and had been addicted to heroin from birth, due to receiving it from his junkie mom in utero. Redglare was basically a NYC Zelig, who knew all the CBGB acts and helped discover Jean Michel Basquiat.
I miss Kurt Cobain.
Sigor Ros is coming to my town in a week or two. These guys cure PTSD with their music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LeQN249Jqw
Man, I have no idea what made me do a search for Neon Leon as I woke up this morning. It just felt weird not having heard of him all these decades. I remember him from the New York Dolls days hanging out at Max’s I also recall the TV news questioning him concerning Sid’s issue with Nancy in the Chelsea Hotel , that was in 1978, never heard again of Neon Leon for the next 39 years! I am surely glad he is alive! and I look forward to buy his bio..