Skippy sez: "We Have Nothing to Hide"

The Boston Rock Storybook is a one-man operation. It's a tribute to the Boston Rock scene, from the point of view of one specific participant...that'd be me. While I would love to start offering currently unavailable recordings of Boston bands covered during the period in question, right now there's nothing for sale here...this is a non-commercial site. Noone pays me to do this, there are no sponsors as yet, and that's how it's been since the winter of 1996, when I started the site as a way of telling stories my girlfriends were all sick of hearing about how cool the scene was back in the day. Everything you'll see inside comes from my own collection, or from the ever-increasing number of musicians and fans who have found the site, and have begun to send me their precious photos, posters and other memorabilia to help me tell these stories. So what started as a strictly personal, weekend activity has burgeoned into a sort of unofficial history, in story form, written on behalf of the bands and individuals that got me- and a whole lot like me -turned on to the great music that poured out of Boston's clubs, bars and studios throughout the late 70's, 80's and early 90's.

"SO JOE, ARE YOU SAYING THAT TODAY'S MUSIC IS INFERIOR TO THAT STUFF?" Hell no, partner, I'm not saying that at all. Just paying props to the scene that paved the way for industry-transforming events that eventually aquired names like Garage, Punk, Underground, Indie, Grunge, and Alternative. Much of the site deals with the late 70's, 80's and early 90's because those years correspond to the period of greatest activity in my own career in Boston. I try to write about what I know. So coverage is heaviest for the periods when I owned So-So Studios ('84-'86), Fort Apache ('86 - '93), and from my tenure as a founding member of Helldorado, the three-man team that began booking bands at the now-famous Middle East Restaurant. Plus the years between '75 and '93 when I played for various lengths of time with bands like Unnatural Axe, Baby's Arm, Slow Children, the Bones, Lazy Susan, Xana Don't, the Kendall Brothers, 500 TV, Mr. Happy, the Local 22's, the Country Cousins, Loren Danielle and Blunt, or worked for bands like the Real Kids, Baby's Arm, Honey Pie, and the Sex Execs.

These are mainly bands I've worked, played, hung out or been friends with, and most articles are anecdotal and autobiographical ("war stories"). That's why it's a Storybook- not a Museum. I write using my own experiences as a starting point, and fill in the historical details as I go along. Hopefully the "personal touch" is something you will appreciate, but if not there's always Chuck White's comprehensive web site Dirty Water, which makes an effort to cover EVERY BAND THAT EVER PLAYED IN BOSTON, a monumental feat. That's not my gig; I write about what I know, and what I've seen and heard for the most part. Some articles are about bands I didn't know that well- but still loved, groups I felt were just too important (to me, anyway) to leave out of the story I'm trying to pass on. Some were added because there was so much interest on the part of the site's viewers that I caved in and wrote an article though I had no real relationship with the band in question.