Brendan Mullen Memorial, November 15, 2009 - Echoplex
Part one - Marty Hal Negro Goldberg, John Fleck, The Cutting Edge,
From Los Angeles Times obituary By Randy Lewis
Brendan Mullen, founder of the Masque punk rock club in Hollywood that helped launch the vibrantly anarchic music scene on the West Coast in the late 1970s, died October 12, 2009 after suffering a massive stroke.
Brendan Charles Mullen was born Oct. 9, 1949, in Paisley, Scotland, outside Glasgow, to a Scottish father who loved musical theater and an Irish mother.
At the Masque, Mullen created an underground space that became a crucible for musicians and fans who felt alienated from mainstream society. Anger, frustration and self-deprecating humor flowered in the assaultive music that had been roiling in New York and London, as L.A. bands including the Weirdos, the Germs, the Dils and the Screamers turned up regularly at the Masque for some of their earliest performances. The Masque became home to X, the Go-Go's, the Dickies, the Plugz, the Flesh Eaters and many more.
After the Masque closed, he worked for more than a decade at Club Lingerie, which became celebrated for Mullen's eclectic bookings that ran from punk and pop to jazz and blues, as well as the first West Coast appearances by several New York-based hip-hop acts. He also booked a wider range of performances at the Variety Arts Center downtown in the mid-to-late '80s. Mullen moved on from Club Lingerie to help open other clubs, including the Viper Room and Luna Park.
In recent years he had focused on writing books that documented the music scene in which he had been so instrumental: "We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk," published in 2001; "Lexicon Devil: the Fast Times and Short Life of Darby Crash and the Germs" and "Live at the Masque."
Mullen is survived by his longtime companion Kateri Butler and his three sisters, Pauline Mullen and Nuala Rainford, both of Manchester, England, and Una Earley of Leeds, England.
Thanks for putting this up. Brendan came up over breakfast this morning 7 I came here to find this. RIP Brendan!
spadeofdiamonds 1 month ago