|
The one
and only John Morton at The Viking Saloon 1975. |
The Electric Eels were
the original anti music heroes. Formed around 1972 in Cleveland, they lasted
three years and played only around half a dozen gigs.
The centre of this
maelstrom was the peroxide haired John Morton and violence whether onstage
or between members of the band and audience was always bubbling under the
surface. Morton, originally drawn to art, wanted the excitement of
performing. In the Electric Eels he combined the two (creating all the bands
artwork). As Heylin in 'From the Velvets to the Voidoids' observes:
"Their roots...led them
to deconstruct rock'n'roll, retaining only the noise element, the polemical
nature of the rock lyric and the confrontational aspect of the live
performance."
One gig had John Morton
and Dave'E'Macmanus being arrested for being drunk and disorderly. The one
wearing a coat strung together with safety pins and the other covered in rat
traps. Morton's hand was broken in the arrest. The next gig he had various
tools strapped to his cast and proceeded to beat the shit out of a sheet of
metal with a sledgehammer. |
