Clone Single - Early Seattle Music Upchuck Gordon Halpern from the Strokes

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Early Seattle punk/glam featuring influential singer/performer Charles "Upchuck" Gerra. The band Clone featured Jeff Gossard and Gordon Halpern, producer of The Strokes and others.

With Upchuck autograph on single.

Read Gordon's Halpern's review on Upchuck:

I was a stoned-out unemployed keyboard player after serving for one year in Seattle’s top favorite band- The Sorceror’s Apprentice. Many thanks to them, I was fortunate to possess my beloved first Arp Odyssey synth, a Hammond M-3 (1957) organ with matching 147 Leslie Speaker, a Solina String Ensemble, Roland Jet Phaser and a Fender Rhodes electric piano. I happened to be hanging out at the North Seattle home of two of the Downtown Punk Scene’s most popular and attractive young ladies, Suzy and Cindy when they introduced me to a swishy young thing in a buzz cut wearing, yes- a blue satin sailor’s suit! He was introduced to me as Chuckie and he looked like a little alien, but seemed friendly yet serious- oh SO serious! Right away he told me “I’ve heard about you and would you like to be the musical director of my new band?”. I was pretty picky/selective about what kind of bands and musicians I wanted to play with (being an unrepentant Prog-Rocker, replete with my hideous poodle hair-do) but then he tossed in the catchy line “I have a sugar-daddy and he will buy us any musical equipment you want, and besides, I have a big house with a swimming pool and you can live there- if you don’t mind young drag queens and hustlers”!!  How could I refuse, in the state I was in, after all I had no money and was back living with my mom.

We started his band, which I named CLONE with Jeff Gossard, who was already playing guitar with Chuck (or Upchuck, Chuckie or Chucky Buttfucky -some of his many charming names). Mike Davidson (bass) and Dave Drury (drums) were fresh from The Lewd and we were well on our way. Chuck had just recently recorded an amazing single called Jacuzzi Floozie b/w Afterthought, with an super-talented Seattle drummer -Drake Eubanks, whom I never heard about after that.  We worked up a few original songs and threw in David Bowie’s Station to Station as an opener and a cool song by The Runaways called Hollywood which Chuckie gave an startlingly sleazy and passionate vocal performance. He had a very full deep voice and could really project in a powerful, emotional way.

True to his word we got to go “gear shopping” and I hilariously outfitted each member of the band with the latest musical effect (at the time) the pedal-flanger. The result was that everyone in the band sounded like jet-planes taking off, so overall the result was a very funny sounding wall of buzzing noise and hiss. We also got a huge new state of the art PA system so that our little basement next to the big swimming pool- was loud like rock-&-roll bombs going off!

Some wild events occurred at the Palatine Avenue House that are quite fascinating to me still;
The first was the “press only” party that Chuck threw before our first show at The Bird (club). How very irate and pissed off was the rest of the punk rockers from the scene when our unknown band had a well publicized party that most were not invited to! This started a great deal of animosity towards young Mr. Chuck Gerra! But what a lavish party it was; well attended, really fun, plus- the press really did show up!

Next was the fact that there really were teenage male hustlers, and drag queens in every room in that spacious 2-story house. I lived in the attic, taking care of the Columbian Gold with Jeff and Mike, and reading esoteric books about Theosophy. Also up there was a room belonging to our dear Pat who played Lesley Gore’s “Its My Party” every night and every morning, just to set the mood (this got a wee bit old, and on my nerves after a while, to be honest).

THEN There was the famous fight between Chuckie and his sugar daddy in which Chuck threw a tantrum because the new color tv that Mr.B bought for him “wasn’t big enough”! Upchuck then tossed the brand-new, too-small tv through the living room window. The next day -WOW!! the window was repaired and a new, larger tv was delivered as well as the lovely set of plastic pink flamingos for the front yard that Chuckie had been whining about for weeks.

Clone’s first show at The Bird was a night to remember! First off, Chuckie made me put my unfashionable long hair up into a little boat captain’s hat, and then wrapped my bare chest in clear cellophane, over which I wore a white plastic kid’s coat from Goodwill, which was far too small for me. I tied a plastic tiny bong (yes, filled with dirty water) around my neck with some wire, and we all piled into a huge white Limousine that somehow Chuck had miraculously gotten for the show along with it’s Chauffeur from some dodgy backroom dealings at the infamous Monastery (club). Our show went REALLY well, for when we all entereed that derelict little punk club from the stretch white limo and launched into the flanger-filled synth-noise driven version of Station to Station the crowd actually seemed to dig it! Chuckie was truly in excellent form and voice that night– he did have a really cool voice.

Lastly was the very freaky event that happened when I went downtown shopping at Pike Place Market with Upchuck. I never had any money, and Chuckie just happened to have spent all of his cash. We had no way to get home by bus or cab. “No problem”, said Chuck “I’ll have us in a cab in no time, just wait right here”! He then proceeded to walk to the edge of the sidewalk on First & Pike (then known as Penney’s Corner), an infamous place for horny businessmen to pick up and pay for certain services that young guy’s were willing to do for a price. Upchuck just did his “special walk”, and looked invitingly at the potential customers in their cars driving by. Well, in minutes an expensive looking car pulled over and Chuckie winked at me saying, “I’ll be right back!”. Well, he climbed in and that car disappeared, but then surprisingly came back around the block one minute later. Chuckie was led out of the car and placed with legs apart, hands on the hood as he was being searched, written up and arrested by that undercover Seattle Police officer!

This led to a court case in which Charles Garish (another of his names) was tried for soliciting prostitution in King County. Jeff Gossard and I went along to the trial for the weird excitement, and at Chuckie’s request- Jeff filmed the day’s event with a Super 8 camera. I remember the last scene of Jeff’s final movie was a piece of paper with the word “GUILTY!” drawn on it, and as the shot pulls back, you see that paper start to float gently and slowly down into Chuck’s luxurious swimming pool! It was North Seattle Punk Rock Surrealist comedy at its finest.

I was a bit jealous of Upchuck years later, for he was a real mover and shaker and had incredible belief in himself, his voice and his music. Many times got great results in recordings, live gigs (opening for Siouxsie and the Banshees hello!!) and some of our most talented musicians worked with him. None of this was easy to do in Seattle in those days, our town was way more known for fishing and airplane making- therefore doing original music was a really difficult battle. I visited The Fags (Upchuck’s next band) in New York, and they really seemed to have made a gigantic impression on everyone that met them. Chuckie, Paul, Barbie, Danyeal and Ben Gay– they appeared to be the center of attention in New York’s party/nightlife almost as soon as they landed there. No wonder Madonna picked them out to be in her club scene in Desperately Seeking Susan.

That’s a bit of my story with Upchuck. We were friends and associates- rivals and helpers of each other, members of a small close knit scene in Seattle’s punk/new wave days- and I am sorry he isn’t alive anymore to be with us in 2012. Well, perhaps he is and we just don’t recognize him! Kudos to all who remember him, his dreams and that big voice. Poddy!!!