{"id":3336,"date":"2025-11-10T19:22:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T19:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/?p=3336"},"modified":"2025-11-10T15:41:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T15:41:16","slug":"spock-drugs-and-the-paisley-underground-this-is-the-true-story-behind-the-bangles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/2025\/11\/10\/spock-drugs-and-the-paisley-underground-this-is-the-true-story-behind-the-bangles\/","title":{"rendered":"Spock, drugs and The Paisley Underground: This is the true story behind The Bangles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_code module_class=”custom-cat” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]
\t
\t\tMojo<\/pee>\t<\/div>\t
\t\tFEATURE<\/pee>\t<\/div><\/div>[\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text module_class=”article-title” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”||||||||” header_text_align=”center” header_text_color=”#111111″ header_font_size=”68px” custom_margin=”40px||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]

Ride The Paisley Underground<\/h1>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”intro-text” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_orientation=”center” custom_padding=”||0px|||” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]

AM radio \u201960s pop-addiction brought The Bangles<\/strong> together, as it did other like-minded American groups of the post-punk \u201980s. And after 1984\u2019s debut All Over The Place and videos starring Mr. Spock, serious stardom and Prince were calling. But if the supportive, sympatico music scene the Bangles, the Rain Parade, The Three O\u2019Clock and The Dream Syndicate found together was not built to endure, as Martin Aston<\/strong> hears, \u201cit was a beautiful, fragmented moment.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/gettyimages_71008904_2048x2048.jpg” title_text=”gettyimages_71008904_2048x2048″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA – 1981: Susanna Hoffs, guitarist with the all-girl band The Bangles, performs onstage during a 1981 concert at The Roxy in West Hollywood, California. The Roxy performance was the group’s debut concert.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Vicki Peterson (Bangles, guitar\/vocals):<\/strong> Growing up, we were very much tuned in to Top 40 radio. The radio on 24-7, in the car, our older sister was very good at DJing. It sank into our DNA. By the time we were in grade school, we were singing harmonies in the back seat \u2013 one would jump up, the other would jump down. It really came into play at high school. We formed a fledgling band and performed in clubs around LA, but the band dwindled down in 1980 to just Debbi and me. Then we met Susanna.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Susanna Hoffs (Bangles guitar\/vocals):<\/strong> I\u2019d just graduated from the University of California in Berkeley, and had come back to LA. I had the idea to get an all-girl band together, and made flyers which listed my favourite bands and said, \u201cMust Be Nice\u201d. I kept having to retrieve them from the trash can in the Whisky A Go-Go ladies\u2019 room. I found an ad in The Recycler about forming an all-girl band. When I called the number, Vicki Peterson answered, but it was her roommate\u2019s ad.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

VP:<\/strong> It was right after Lennon had been assassinated, we were completely in a state, I\u2019d never spoken to her before, but we were both pouring out our emotional life to a stranger. We agreed to meet a week later, in her garage. Immediately Debbi and I felt an immediate connection [with her]. Musically, she also had a deep abiding love for the \u201960s: most of our contemporaries were unaware of who The Buckinghams were, or anyone, other than, \u201cOh yeah, we have heard of The Beatles.\u201d We met the Rain Parade through Susanna, she had dated David [Roback] at Berkeley, and stayed friends.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Dan Stuart (Green On Red, guitar\/vocals):<\/strong> Most band members associated with what would become known as The Paisley Underground were born around 1960, in the west: I\u2019m from Tucson. Which meant a lot of long drives with your folks, listening to Top 40 AM radio through one shitty speaker. You\u2019d hear The Mamas And The Papas, The Byrds, The Doors, Dylan was still in the charts. By junior high, it was FM radio and albums, and just around the corner was punk.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate, guitar\/vocals):<\/strong> After punk, I\u2019d looked to England: The Fall, the Bunnymen, Joy Division. America had The Fleshtones and The Gun Club and, in LA, The Last and The Unclaimed, with Sid Griffin on guitar. The Dream Syndicate was based on bands that didn\u2019t sell, the freaks and the beautiful losers, like Big Star. The Velvet Underground was a fair comparison, taking traditional folk-influenced pop and trashing it from the inside.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

VP:<\/strong> We started as The Colours \u2013 English spelling, of course, being Anglophiles \u2013 and then The Bangs, and decided to make a single, to protect our new name [The Bangs\u2019 Getting Out Of Hand, 1981]. Ironically, as there was another Bangs, we became the Bangles later. We were doing things ourselves, found a studio, pooled our day job money \u2013 less than $100 to cut two sides, OK, we are a record company now, how do we distribute the record, Xerox the cover, get the plastic sleeves? We\u2019ll go to our local record store, Rhino Records.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

SW:<\/strong> I worked full time at Rhino, where I discovered a lot of bands, like I\u2019d order five copies of the single by The Salvation Army [soon to become The Three O\u2019Clock]. I told The Bangs I could help as I had a little knowledge about making and distributing records. It went from there to talking about doing shows together.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/gettyimages_74291393_2048x2048.jpg” title_text=”Photo of Rain Parade” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

CIRCA 1970: Photo of Rain Parade, the Bangles’ contemporaries.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

VP:<\/strong> The Dream Syndicate spoke the same language as us, just with a different accent. I\u2019d already seen The Salvation Army play, and I met the Rain Parade through Susanna, as the Hoffs lived down the street from the Robacks, who started the Rain Parade.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Matt Piucci (Rain Parade, guitar\/vocals):<\/strong> Steven [Roback], David [Roback] and I were at school together. We\u2019d bonded over The Doors, Byrds and Beatles, then punk was really exciting. But we tired of the bashing, screaming and sloppiness, and no one else was making psychedelic, song-based music in LA except The Last, who were punky and melodic, like proto-paisley. When we played waltzes with 50 guitars, punks didn\u2019t know what to make of us.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Michael Quercio (The Three O\u2019Clock, vocals\/bass):<\/strong> The Bangs\u2019 first show was with The Salvation Army and [hardcore punks] Social Distortion! That was a weird bill.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

SW:<\/strong> We did shows together, partied together, dated each other. Barbecues at Green On Red\u2019s house were every Sunday night, 40 or 50 people, strumming guitars. There were drugs but not casualties. We were all music fanatics with record collections, who wanted to make records as good as those we loved, which was more important than how wasted we could get or the amount of wild action on the road. The music we played wasn\u2019t in fashion or favour. It quickly bonded us.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

VP:<\/strong> All the connections were made in weeks, or months, and we started sharing bills. The Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, Bangs and The Three O\u2019Clock were all on one bill, at the Music Machine.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

MQ:<\/strong> The LA Weekly interviewed The Three O\u2019Clock and the guy asked, what do you call this scene? I replied, \u201cIt\u2019s the Paisley Underground\u201d. I think it came from a poem my friend Lisa had written, and her friend has repeated the phrase to me. It was an off-the-cuff comment, but a month later, I heard that The Paisley Underground was in an English music paper! I think it pigeonholed the bands as a more revivalist thing that we really were, but everyone loves a moniker, and it gave us notoriety.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/gettyimages_1164783094_2048x2048.jpg” title_text=”Portrait Of The Three O’Clock At The Metro” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

CHICAGO, IL – 1985: Portrait of the members of American Alternative Rock group the Three O’Clock as they pose backstage at the Metro. Pictured are Danny Benair, Louis Gutuerrez, Mike Mariano, and Michael Quercio.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

VP:<\/strong> I thought \u201cPaisley Underground\u201d was brilliant. That was exactly what was going on, a club or a movement, rather than a genre. We were a club, a gang, all mining different parts of the same, musically complementary but not identical at all.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

DS:<\/strong> Before the \u201cPaisley Underground\u201d, people would say \u201cneo-psychedelic\u201d\u2026 it\u2019s that Groucho Marx saying, you don\u2019t want to belong to any club that would have you. We used to call it \u201cThe Paisley Underwear\u201d. If somebody in The Three O\u2019Clock is very concerned about who was and wasn\u2019t in the scene, that\u2019s a fool\u2019s errand.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Debbi Peterson (Bangles, drums\/ vocals):<\/strong> We had an EP [1982\u2019s Bangles on Miles Copeland\u2019s Faulty label] out and all of a sudden we find record companies are interested in us, and we\u2019re thinking, \u201cOh, that\u2019s really nice, but we don\u2019t think we\u2019re ready for it\u201d\u2026 we had this budding baby band going and we hadn\u2019t reached that development we wanted to reach before we got signed to a major label. We were thrilled to death that they were even interested in us. We just couldn\u2019t believe it, we were such a thrash band.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

VP:<\/strong> Signing to Columbia, home of Dylan and Simon And Garfunkel, was thrilling and intimidating. We definitely felt pressure. People said, \u201cYou have no idea how much money is riding on it.\u201d You could buy a house with what got spent on an album. [Producer] David [Kahne] and I only really fought during [Bangles debut album] All Over The Place when I insisted on real strings because keyboard sounds in the early \u201980s didn\u2019t sound lifelike. All Over The Place got a lot of college radio, which meant new fans.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

SW:<\/strong> Making records in the \u201980s was tough because the producer was the star. Like, it would have been hard to make White Light\/White Heat in the \u201980s. Most people in my world had to fight with different drummers being brought in, or working to a click track, or having their music sanitised. It was hard to know how much technology to let in, and when to put your foot down. Love us or hate us, what made Dream Syndicate happy was making a psychedelic, freaky, droning, beautiful noise. But the love-hate ratio started shifting. We wanted more love!<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/gettyimages_1165582269_2048x2048.jpg” title_text=”%22Going Down to Liverpool%22 Video Shoot” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Vicki Peterson, Debbi Peterson, Susanna Hoffs and Michael Steele are chaufferred by actor Leonard Nimoy during the video shoot for their song “Going Down to Liverpool” which was released in 1984.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

SH:<\/strong> [For 1984 All Over The Place single Going Down To Liverpool] My mother [Tamar Simon Hoffs] directed the video\u2026 Leonard Nimoy\u2019s like an old friend of my family\u2019s from way back. We were sitting around and we had this concept of the Bangles sitting in this mystery car being driven to Liverpool or wherever, right? And who\u2019s gonna drive the car? It just occurred to me, Leonard Nimoy would be great, so I called him up, and I thought, \u201cOh God, he\u2019s never gonna wanna do it\u201d, but he said yes!<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

VP:<\/strong> One All Over The Place song in particular, Hero Takes A Fall, made a fan of a very talented man named Prince. He sent two songs that he thought we could cover, Manic Monday and Jealous Girl. Manic Monday really grabbed us because it sounded like we could have written it.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

MQ:<\/strong> Prince\u2026 See what I\u2019m wearing in the video to [The Three O\u2019Clock\u2019s] I Go Wild, and then see Prince in his Around The World In A Day [sic] video. He even changed his hair to look like mine, and then called his \u2028label and studio Paisley Park. We signed to Paisley Park, but Prince didn\u2019t get involved in our next record [1988\u2019s Vermillion], which was very electronic-y, not us at all. You were afraid the label would cut you off, and because they were spending lots of money, they had to be in control.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

MP:<\/strong> I felt sorry for the Bangles. They got put through the mill \u2013 the hairspray mill \u2013 and you know how that goes. Of course, they had the look too, which was still a novelty then, but that only gets you so far. They were great singers, like The Mamas And The Papas, but they could play too, and they were the most professional of all of us.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

VP:<\/strong> I was concerned Columbia were looking at us less as songwriters, more vocalists-slash-models. But we didn\u2019t express or discuss what we really wanted, we were just touring non-stop, and if we had a break, we\u2019d be making the next record [1985\u2019s Different Light and 1988\u2019s Everything would both shift platinum: the group dissolved in 1989]. Don\u2019t ask me about LA in the second half of the \u201980s because I was barely here.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

SW:<\/strong> Enough distance and time has passed since the original scene for all of us to own it. When people want to define you by what you did in your first year, you\u2019re defensive, like, \u201cYeah, great, but check out what I\u2019m doing now!\u201d No one wants to stand still. Now we say, \u201cYeah, that was a special time, let\u2019s celebrate it.\u201d<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]

VP:<\/strong> The Paisley Underground was a very brief time, because that level of camaraderie and connection couldn\u2019t be sustained. All the bands had gone off on tour, all gone in different directions\u2026 but it was a beautiful, fragmented moment, that\u2019s why it feels special for me. I was a proud member, and I still am. It never held us back.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]

This article first appeared in issue 311 of Mojo.<\/em><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-names” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”14px” text_orientation=”center” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Images: Getty<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AM radio \u201960s pop-addiction brought the Bangles together, as it did other like-minded American groups of the post-punk \u201980s. And after 1984\u2019s debut All Over The Place and videos starring Mr. Spock, serious stardom and Prince were calling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":3343,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mojo-presents"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"kschwarz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3336"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3398,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336\/revisions\/3398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}