Girl Trouble? More like Legal Trouble.
Last week, I learned that veteran Tacoma garage-punkers Kurt Kendall, Dale Phillips and Bon and Bill “Kahuna” Henderson – aka Girl Trouble – have been sued.
The plaintiffs, Ohio-based Gorilla Productions, allege defamation of character, invasion of privacy and “intentional infliction of emotion distress” in a suit filed in Ohio’s Cuyahoga County last month.
And it all stems from a 3 1/2 year crusade that drummer Bon Henderson (aka Bon Von Wheelie) has waged against what she calls “pay to play” schemes.
A classic version that Henderson describes involves big, national production companies recruiting young, unsigned bands to play rock showcases. Expecting a big break, the unwary bands buy tickets in bulk from the production companies, Henderson said, and then have to turn around and sell them and do most of the show promotion to make their money back.
Some variations incorporate a “battle of the bands” format, she said, which adds more incentive to sell tickets for the show sponsor since audience participation is the main criteria in determining a winner.
Many fledgling bands assume that winning these kinds of contests will lead to getting signed but become discouraged and quit when they don’t, Henderson said.
“We know how bands get famous, and we know what it takes,” she said. “And it doesn’t take that. It takes a lot of hard work and stickin’ together and playin’ little crappy shows and working your way up.”
“Pay to play” is a phenomenon she first saw run rampant in Los Angeles in the 1980s. Then many of Girl Trouble’s So Cal peers complained of not being able to get gigs without paying up front.
Meanwhile, in the Northwest “we were doin’ all our stuff, puttin’ on our own shows and making our own record labels and stuff,” Henderson recalled.
“There’s no way we would have put up with something like that. But nowadays it kind of skipped a generation. Plus, with the Internet it makes it so easy for those (promotion companies). These young bands, they don’t pay attention.”
Case in point: Her nephew. His band, the Freak Outs, were selling tickets for a Tacoma battle of the bands show, sponsored by an out of state company in 2007.
“He was 15. They didn’t know any better,” Henderson recalled. “I thought, well, if he doesn’t know, who else doesn’t know? Then I started finding out from his friends – all these great little bands from Tacoma – they were all doin’ it. I thought this is crazy. I’ve gotta start warning people about this.”
Soon after, Girl Trouble organized an anti-pay-to-play show at the old Hell’s Kitchen on Sixth Avenue. Henderson began to research, report and post commentary on her Never Pay to Play site, www.neverpaytoplay.com , which mentions and drew the ire of Gorilla Productions.
Among the allegations in the Gorilla suit are that Henderson’s site defames the company by saying it “is lying when it indicates it is helping the ‘local scene,’ ” that it sends spam e-mails to recruit bands and by saying “giant gorilla head is taking over.”
Furthermore, Gorilla says it does not put on “pay to play” shows because bands do not have to pay money up front to compete in the company’s battle of the band competitions.
Henderson said she is responsible for the site but suspects there’s a reason behind her bandmates also being named in the lawsuit. “Most bands ... it would break ‘em up,” she said. “That’s not the case with us. These guys are fully behind me, and they feel the same way.”
Girl Trouble’s lawyer said he will attempt to have the lawsuit thrown out.
“It’s obviously brought to harass the little guy,” said attorney Wade Neal of Tacoma firm Johnson, Graffe, Keay, Moniz & Wick. Readers of this column will know him better as guitarist for Tacoma’s Seaweed and the F-ing Eagles.
“We don’t think they have jurisdiction, and basically there’s no merit to the claim. This is a free speech issue. This is the United States. We have to be able to make comments like this out in the market place so that people can make decisions about what they’re doin’.”
Bonus tracks
• In less contentious news around the South Sound, David Bazan of Pedro the Lion fame will headline Tacoma’s Urban Grace Church – 902 Market St. – at 7:30 p.m. tonight; www.davidbazan.com.
• The Halfway to Hot Rod-a-Rama party is also tonight at the Swiss Tavern, 1904 S. Jefferson Ave., in Tacoma;
• The Emerald Queen Casino, 2024 E. 29th St., in Tacoma, has guitar whiz Jonny Lang tonight and country legend Randy Travis Saturday; www.emeraldqueen.com
• And on tap Saturday night at Hell’s Kitchen, 928 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, is the Northwest Street Punk Festival, featuring My Life in Black and White, Aces & Eights and more; www.hellskitchenonline.com .
Ernest Jasmin: 253-274-7389
ernest.jasmin@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/tacomarockcity
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