Phil Gammage is from Houston and went to college at the University of Colorado. He was walking through one of the classroom buildings early in the school year in 1977 and heard some raucous music being played. It seems that a fine arts professor at the college, Jerry Kunkel had been to the CBGB club, the punk-rock mecca in New York City; there he had heard Ramones, Television and some other early punk bands. He came back to the university inspired to start a rock band himself.
The practice session that Phil Gammage heard was Jerry Kunkel on lead vocals, his new wife Marsha Vann Kunkel on bass guitar, and Jerry Budwig on guitar. Phil picked up a guitar and plugged in; by the end of the night, he was asked to join the band. Drummer Peter Roos was originally from New England and had also seen Television; he joined the band shortly afterward.
Originally called Sidewalk Strut, the new band took the name Joey Vain and Scissors. In the spirit of the times, several of the bandmembers took new names: Phil Gammage was Phil Damage, the drummer Peter Roos became Peter Vacant, and their original guitarist Jerry Budwig took the name Sevin Sister (a play on the bug killer Sevin Dust I guess). The Kunkels kept their real names.
In early 1978, Joey Vain and Scissors had the good/bad fortune to play as the opening act for Elvis Costello on campus at the Glenn Miller Ballroom. This was the biggest crowd they had ever played for, but the audience evidently was expecting Ramones clones and were hostile during their set. The discouragement from that experience soon led to the band breaking up. Jerry Kunkel would shortly be appointed head of the Fine Arts Department at the University of Colorado, Jerry Budwig moved to San Francisco, and Peter Roos became the drummer for the Nightflames, whose first concert was opening for Joey Vain and Scissors at their final performance in March 1978.
(March 2015)
