Scene Point Blank: Can you comment on the following people in a few words?
Nancy Spungen
Phil Marcade: Nancy was a nice girl. Everybody puts her down but I think she was okay. I took care of her cat when she was in England. That poor cat was actually strung out on heroin! He had been licking the dirty spoons she used to cook her stuff and left in the sink. That cat was completely hooked-up. He went "cold turkey" at my house and attacked me!! I had to go to the hospital.
Scene Point Blank: Bob Marley
Phil Marcade: I smoked a joint with him in a dressing room in Boston without having any idea of who he was.
Scene Point Blank: Sid Vicious
Phil Marcade: I once had a fascinating conversation with Sid about vacuum cleaners!!
Scene Point Blank: Johnny Thunders
Phil Marcade: Best rock ‘n’ roller New York ever had.
Scene Point Blank: Debbie Harry
Phil Marcade: Sweetest, nicest girl ever. She wrote the foreword for my book just for the asking. She's a pearl and a great singer.
Scene Point Blank: Mickey Ruskin
Phil Marcade: I never met him.
Scene Point Blank: Jayne County
Phil Marcade: If you don't wanna fuck her, baby, fuck off!!
Scene Point Blank: Cookie Muller
Phil Marcade: Greatest girl in the world. A dear friend of mine.
Scene Point Blank: Wayne Kramer
Phil Marcade: I love Wayne. Playing drums in Gang War was a blast and a half. There is a "bonus track" on the CD version of All Killer, No Filler with Wayne playing "Empty Heart" live with us in 2001. It's fabulous.
Scene Point Blank: Legs McNeil
Phil Marcade: Legs is really a sweet guy. He put me up when I returned to NYC to launch my book. Years before, I was honoured to be interviewed by him for his book, Please Kill Me.
Scene Point Blank: Lester Bangs
Phil Marcade: I never met him. I love his writing.
Scene Point Blank: Willie Deville
Phil Marcade: Greatest white singer New York ever had.
Scene Point Blank: Are any bands from the period that The Senders existed that you feel never got their dues?
Phil Marcade: In the late ‘80s, The Raunch Hands were amazing. I think they should have been huge.
Scene Point Blank: How do you feel about being called the world's best bar band?
Phil Marcade: Great, real great, haha! We spent so many years passionately trying to learn the ancient art of being a proper bar band. We studied every trick in the book that ignites a reaction from the audience and makes a bar crowd go ape wild. We'd bring bags of streamers we'd throw at the audience to throw back at us. Give anything to your audience to throw at you and they'll be glad to. Or we'd refuse to stop playing a certain song (“Crazy Date”) until everybody (including us) was lying on the floor. Stuff like that. We'd probably suck in a stadium but in a bar... The best part is that we don't know the nice folks at New York Press who called us that in 2000. If it had been just our friends it would be less good!
Scene Point Blank: Are you still playing in any capacity?
Phil Marcade: Yes, every now and then. I just sang and played harmonica on the Far Flung latest recording, like two weeks ago. The Far Flung is my good pal Brett Wilder's band. We recorded a song called “Toy Boy.” It's already on YouTube.
Scene Point Blank: Are you still painting?
Phil Marcade: Yep, all the time. When I'm not painting, I'm drawing or doing collages.
Scene Point Blank: Do you still largely keep your ear to the ground for new bands? If so, what is hot on your radar currently?
Phil Marade: I love Daddy Long Legs. They've been around for a few years, though. They're from New York. I think they're really great.
Scene Point Blank: Do you still have a large record collection and regularly add to it?
Phil Marcade: Yes, especially 45s. It's not that large, I suppose. Maybe a little over 800 45s, I don't know. But they're all great and some are even quite rare. It's all old rhythm & blues, rock ‘m’ roll, rockabilly, garage, surf, soul, and girl groups. Oddities too. For a while, I collected 45s of ‘60s pop hits played on sitar, like “Jumping Jack Flash” by Ananda Shankar and many others. I kind of slowed down for a few years, then I discovered Discogs on the internet and went nuts again.
Scene Point Blank: Someone describes your book Punk Avenue: Inside the New York City Underground, 1972-1982 and yourself as the punk rock version of Forest Gump. Seems you were attending almost every important cultural event, i.e. Ramones’ first gig/early New York Dolls’ rehearsals etc. If you ever saw the Peter Sellers movie The Party...you are often cited as “stumbling” upon the early NYC scene much like in The Party where Sellers' character accidentally gets sent an invite to an elite Hollywood Party. I wonder if that is a fair comparison or if you don't get the credit of being at the right place at the right time because you had an ear for the buzz on the street and also had a desire to largely consume rock ‘n’ roll (and make it!).
Phil Marcade: Hahaha! Yes, Punk Avenue is indeed a bit like a Punk Forest Gump, and much like The Party too. Sometimes, it was just pure luck and some other times it was just logic. The Ramones' first gig (or their third, actually, as I was told later) was at a party on West Broadway in ‘74 thrown by our good friends Benton and Omni, especially for me and my pal Bruce to supposedly "introduce us to the New York Underground." The invites read "A party to introduce Philippe and Bruce to the New York Underground." So it was no coincidence. A lot of times, becoming friends with people who later became legendary was like a "domino effect." If you met this guy, then he'd introduce you to this other guy, who'd introduce you to… etc. And, of course, if you really dig meeting all these oddballs, it will snowball.
Scene Point Blank: How did Covid affect you, both personally and creatively?
Phil Marcade: That was scary, wasn’t it? Sadly, it took the lives of two good New York friends: Sal Capi, who played drums with The Rousers, and Howie Pyro, who played bass with The Blessed and D.Generation. My girlfriend and I ended up both getting it too but, obviously, we survived. Lockdown was okay by me, though. I painted a lot and even wrote a few tunes. I loved ordering food from the supermarket instead of going there. I also loved walking thru the deserted city at night, all alone. We were so lucky that scientists found a vaccine. Imagine if they didn’t? This could have turned really bad,
Scene Point Blank: Can we expect a Senders’ reunion show with this release?
Phil Marcade: Sadly, no, because Wild Bill Thompson, our beloved guitar player, passed away a few years ago. He was definitely essential to the sound of the band and we couldn’t do a true Senders reunion without him. I miss him a lot and I wish so much he had been around to see that new LP. He would have loved it. He would have loved the drawing of him that Bruce Carleton did for the front cover. I thought of Bill a lot while we picked the songs to be on the album. I tried to include all his best guitar solos. My favourite one is the solo he plays on our cover of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Do The Do,” written by Willie Dixon. It’s amazingly good and his “phrasing” really shines on that one. He ruled!
Scene Point Blank: How would you like to be remembered?
Phil Marcade: Often!
Scene Point Blank: Parting thoughts?
Phil Marcade: Thanks a mil' for your interest in The Senders and all.
Do get All Killer, No Filler as soon as it comes out, everybody, and remember, if you do anything... DO THE SENDER THING!!
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Released November 18, 2023
