Earlier today, David Thomas was at Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, donating the Torfus sweatshirt that was recently unearthed in preparation for the Coed Jail! tour, which begins next week. After the tour, he will also be donating the lawnmower roller bar that was used on stage at their first ever gig at the Pirates Cove, Cleveland in 1976, and that is now being used once again, by David, in 2016. (On stage to the left of Crocus in photo below)
Clevescene.com covered the presentation – The paper was where Mr Thomas was given a column in the early 70s. Named ‘Croc o Bush,’ David was in partnership with jazz writer Mark Kmetzko, and their names became well known in Cleveland. The ‘Croc o Bush’ became a drink order at the Viking Saloon, which hosted the first outing of a band made up from Scene employees, the Great Bow-Wah Death Band – Crocus on backing vocals. A vacuum cleaner was brought on from stage right. Crocus Behemoth emerged soon after as lead singer of Rocket From The Tombs and then Pere Ubu.
The ‘United We Mutate’ sweatshirt, which bears the image of the Torfus – the icon of the ‘Croc o Bush’ columns – is taking its place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum along with the other items on display there from Pere Ubu’s first outings.
(see http://www.ubuprojex.com/calendar.html for tour dates and places)
Check Clevescene.com tomorrow for the full story.