THE LITTLE KINGS
Stiv Bators, the front man for one of the best punk rock bands the Dead Boys, had a tempestuous relationship with Bomp! Records’ Greg Shaw. He was trying to reinvent himself as a pop singer and released one excellent album in 1980 called Disconnected and a lot of other singles.
In about 1985, Stiv Bators was recording a new version of a Moody Blues “B” side, “The Story in Your Eyes”; and the flip side was going to be a cover of the Richard Berry anthem “Have Love, Will Travel”. Anyway, for “Have Love, Will Travel”, Greg Shaw was hoping to bring in one of the stable of young rock bands that he had signed – but no, Stiv Bators had to have the Little Kings; Shaw described them as “an adequate but rootless Hollywood glam [rock]-damaged band with tattoos – drinking buddies of his I guess”. One of their guitar players, Gore Verbinski was in several other bands in that period and started making rock videos after a while. His debut Hollywood film was Mouse Hunt in 1997; he also directed the 2003 mega-hit Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl as well as the first two Pirates of the Caribbean sequels.
(September 2012)
