Actress – Actress

This is Johnny Thunders’ band before New York Dolls. I came across this album in Berlin where there are these incredible record shops and record fairs. I made friends with this guy from Hamburg who had these incredible early Gene Vincent records as well as recordings of Elvis’ early performances. Amazing stuff!

I was trying to talk to Bobby Gillespie about Actress and even he didn’t know about it! But this album is a bootleg of early demo tapes of New York Dolls before David Johansen joined. This was recorded in ’71 and there’s a really early version of ‘Subway Train’. It’s a really feral recording, like Richard Hell with Neon Boys and I love that stuff.

In one record store I found some early Heartbreakers demos with Richard Hell on them and I love stuff like that because I’m a fan boy. Bobby’s just got me some out takes of the Dolls. When I saw the Dolls on Whistle Test that completely changed my life. I could have ended up working in a factory [if not for that]. Suddenly it’s the Dolls and then the next week it’s Jobriath with his astral helmet and I thought, “I want some of that!"