by Simon Cousins | Oct 25, 2019
Gary Numan on air with me at the KROQ studio. This picture is copyright (C) 2019 Joel Gelfland Photography, and is presented here with kind permission. Album: Everything Album Categories: 80s Tags: #1980s #Gary Numan #new...
by Jed Gould | Jun 30, 2019
In a world seemingly obsessed with diversity and individuality, it's somehow harder to stand out. One area making this easier is the legal trend toward protecting hairstyle. Do you have a story about new wave hair discrimination from the 80s?https://t.co/FSv4bw9C4bIn...
by Jed Gould | Mar 30, 2019
One of the bands I had forgotten I interviewed, Big Country, except for this Debbie Leavitt photo. The Scottish must find it oppressive in the US these days, particularly if they smoke. Album: Everything Album Categories: 80s All Tags: #Big Country #KROQ #Jed the Fish...
by Jed Gould | Mar 30, 2019
photo by Debbie Leavitt Album: Everything Album Categories: 80s All Tags: #1980s #rockabilly #KROQ #rock of the 80s #Dave...
by Jed Gould | Mar 30, 2019
photo bt Debbie Leavitt. Album: Everything Album Categories: 80s All Tags: #clash #1980s #Joe...
by Jed Gould | Mar 30, 2019
photo Debbie Leavitt Categories: 80s All Tags: #flock of seagulls #1980s #mike...
by Jed Gould | Mar 30, 2019
Eddie Money and Bryan AdamsBackstageDay on the GreenSF CA Album: Everything Album Categories: 80s All Tags: #Eddie money #Brian Adams #Day on the green...
by Jed Gould | Mar 30, 2019
REMexclusive photo seshChicago 1984by Debbie Leavitt Categories: 80s All Tags: #1980s...
by Jed Gould | Mar 15, 2019
The Weird Science/Dead Man's Party synthesizer. Danny actually asked for this back, and I tried several times to return it. I think it was Leon of Oingo Boingo who sewed the cover for it. If this isn't cool memorabilia, I don't know what is. Album: Everything Album...
by Simon Cousins | Mar 10, 2019
Don't be fooled by the smile. This was torture for David Byrne, and he's only smiling because the interview was over. He is one of the truly fascinating artists I have ever spoken with, and I am a huge fan. Not necessarily of the Red Momo album, which he was there to...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
Jed The Fish and Dusty Street at a party in Santa Monica. Photo Debbie Leavitt. Album: Everything Album Categories: 80s All Around the Station Tags: #KROQ #Jed the Fish #rock of the 80s #Dusty Street #Santa Monica #Debbie Leavitt #Nightclub #b&w #backstage...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
Wendy O. Williams, of the electrical taped-nipples and porn past, was the perfect front woman for a punk outfit. They would destroy things. Cars, TVs. Wielding a chainsaw with a chainsaw voice, she always had political sentiment whether it made sense or not. I can...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
Backstage at the Bowie Glass Spider tour, the most amazing guitar player Adrien Belew, entertains KROQ DJs Lewis Largent and Jed The Fish, Dodger Stadium, 1987. This was the tour Peter Frampton played guitar as well. Album: Everything Album Categories: 80s All Tags:...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
When we were on a listener vacation to Hawaii, Danny and buddy Jed The Fish had truly a blast. Partying in one of the suites at the Reef, a few days later 300 KROQ listeners went to see Oingo Boingo at Aloha Stadium. Album: Everything Album Categories: 80s All Tags:...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
By 1986, Depeche Mode were about to be huge. Here we display a listener license plate in the KROQ control room in Pasadena. Despite claims to the contrary, I played Just Can’t Get Enough the week after it was released in London. I played it because I had heard of the...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
I think this was for the True Stories album, as David moved closer to a solo career. Always an impeccable dresser. Pasadena control room. Album: Everything Album Categories: 80s All Tags: #Jed the Fish #KROQ #rock of the 80s #David Byrne #1980s #b&w #Control...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
The one that almost got away was Elvis Costello. A fan since 1977, I thought of him as this elusive, difficult artist that would have nothing to do with me. Along came Trust and that changed a bit. True, the LP needed help, but I have rarely met such a gentleman. He...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
Just after the interview, the station was swarmed with fans. Here is the boldly-named Elvis, before he got in his limo. Pasadena. Album: Everything Album Categories: 80s All Tags: #Jed the Fish #KROQ #rock of the 80s #Elvis Costello...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
Just after the album, the band came to the Pasadena studio. Album: Everything Album Categories: 80s All Around the Station Tags: #Jed the Fish #KROQ #rock of the 80s #KROQ Studio #Control Room #Erasure #1980s...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
At least I stood up for this one. Erasure with Jed The Fish. Album: Everything Album Categories: 80s All Around the Station Tags: #Jed the Fish #KROQ #rock of the 80s #KROQ Studio #Erasure #1980s #b&w #Control...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
It's rough for the American radio listener to hear a heavy Liverpudlian accent. Paul McCartney learned to clean his up a bit, Ian McCulloch not so much. His subdued voice does not help. At least he left a sizable souvenir booger on the wall of the Burbank men's room,...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
One of my true heroes, Zappa wasn't especially kind when I interviewed him. I honestly was not great at it. He insisted I got into radio to get laid, and actually it was because even as often the best qualified journalism graduate, the news stations were obligated to...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
The thing I remember most about this interview is I got Bono to imitate Naked Lunch author William Boroughs. Evidently, the greatest lead singers are adept at imitation. I also remember they smoked like chimneys and brought a case of Guinness, promptly consumed by...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
Before they got huge, Wang Chung stopped by the KROQ studios to promote Points on a Curve. I always thought Jack Hues was an odd sort of good-looking, like he was genetically modified. They actually made themselves into a verb, as in "everybody Wang Chung tonight."...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
The Ramones were seven albums into their career when Dee Dee and Johnny Ramone visited the Pasadena studio in 1983. Never afraid of the hard work it takes even an established band to live on, I did tons of appearances with them, sometimes nights for in a row. Maybe...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
I must have met with Richard Butler a half-dozen times, and we always had laughs. One night before a show at the Forum he asked if I had decent seats, and I said, yeah, not bad. When he came onstage and saw me dead center in the front row, his eyes jumped out of his...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
Now this was audacity that could never happen today. KROQ took 200 listeners to Hawaii. Twice. The first time the GoGos played and Richard got hired. The next time Oingo Boingo played at Aloha Stadium. April Whitney, R, next to Freddy Snakeskin. Then Danny Elfman,...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
He was always such a genteel person. Shortly after this interview in 1982, he led a crowd of people from the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach across PCH into the Pacific Ocean. His last encore song that night was I Go Swimming, to be release the next year. Here, he's...
by Jed Gould | Jan 15, 2019
I know, how many photos of me in the Pasadena control room can you stand. But there I was with INXS shortly before the first US Festival in 1982. Great smile on Michael Hutchence. Album: Everything Album Categories: 80s All Around the Station Tags: #Jed the Fish #KROQ...
by Jed Gould | Jan 15, 2019
A rare photo of early 1980s KROQ Program Director Rick Carroll to the right of Lou Reed. Jeff Naumann, in the blue shirt, was a promo guy for Virgin in the 80s. Oh, my god. He got so yelled at by Lou that day when he asked him to sign his copy of Metal Machine Music....
by Jed Gould | Jan 15, 2019
Girl harvesters Depeche Mode with three winners at varying stages of innocence. I'm sure at least one wound up at the Sunset Marquis that evening. A truly legendary KROQ group -- and a favorite of Richard Blade's -- they did perhaps the most concerts for us. If guys...
by Jed Gould | Jan 15, 2019
Getting away with murder, Part Two. The second and last of two annual trips with KROQ listeners to Honolulu. I love it when Danny Elfman of Oingo Boingo grabs me by the hair. Album: Everything Album Categories: 80s All Events Tags: #Jed the Fish #KROQ #rock of the 80s...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
This guy is as genteel as Peter Gabriel. Steven Patrick Morrissey, in his solo years. When Johnny Marr was playing with the Smiths, he grabbed a drumstick and bashed his guitar with it during The Queen is Dead. He then threw it right to me. A security guy was --I...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
This reminds me of when I got in trouble with a girl I'd just broken up with. She got so mad at me she emptied a vacuum cleaner bag into my car, two weeks in a row. You see, the girl I'm with is her sister. I always liked hanging out with Joan Jett. I was in the...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
I can only describe my ridiculous hair as a follicle fountain. Depeche Mode has been in the station more times than I can count. Andy Fletcher is probably the member least like a tempermental artist. Album: Everything Album Categories: 80s All Tags: #KROQ #Jed the...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
Rodney and I both took credit for supporting Adam Ant. This was probably the day of a show at Perkin's Palace. Since I arrived in 1978, this mural was the only permanent evidence of the radio station's existence. I would describe his mood during my interview that day...
by Jed Gould | Jan 15, 2019
Warren Zevon I miss. Alcoholism. Just adore his music. To Warren's right is KROQ Music Director Larry Groves. Larry was Program Director Rick Caroll's Music Director. He was known for the saying, "Ricky don like it." That's what he would say to promotional people to...
by Jed Gould | Jan 15, 2019
These guys were as weird as their music. Accomplished jazz musicians, they almost created the group as an insult to the music industry. Very fun to talk to, they relished their mystery. Mystery is something missing from today's art in general. Movies especially. So...
by Jed Gould | Jan 15, 2019
Kate and Fred stopped by for an interview after I had carved a jack-o-lantern in the KROQ control room. It was a sad time for the band with Ricky having passed just months before. They did not tour for the album. Warner Bros. Promotion person Paul V. was outraged at...
by Jed Gould | Jan 15, 2019
I wish you had a color photograph so that you could see how hideous these curtains were. Always drawn, they hid all kinds of secrets. Here, Dee Dee and Johnny Ramone, at this point were seven albums into their career. Subterranean Jungle interview. Album: Everything...
by Simon Cousins | Jan 15, 2019
On the couch with RUN DMC... Album: Everything Album Categories: 80s All Tags: #KROQ #Jed the Fish #rock of the 80s #Run DMC...
by Jed Gould | Jan 15, 2019
The day I asked him about the lyrics for Hungry For You. The part in question says “Mais non pouvons faire ce que nous voulons.” I asked him why the line said must I pooo poo fester on the poo poo lawn. The way he corrected me indicated it was a serious question. Very...
by Jed Gould | Jan 15, 2019
Once established as Talking Heads members, Chris and Tina ventured out with a solo project. Tom Tom Club had an instant hit with Genius of Love, and I was still wearing free tee-shirts. This was their first son. Album: Everything Album Categories: 80s All Around the...
by Jed Gould | Jan 15, 2019
During the Whammy tour, if you took a photo backstage with the B-52s, you had to wear a hat, a wig, or otherwise be goofy. Their last time out with Ricky Wilson, left. Album: Everything Album Categories: 80s All Tags: #Jed the Fish #KROQ #rock of the 80s #B52's #1980s...
by Jed Gould | Jan 15, 2019
This was a group actually grateful for their success. This was when they were touring extensively with groups like Depeche Mode, Eurythmics, and INXS. Animotion was from Los Angeles. Album: Everything Album Categories: 80s All Tags: #Jed the Fish #KROQ #rock of the...
by Jed Gould | Jan 15, 2019
Whadday know. Amazing who you run into in the KROQ control room. I can't figure out why Bonnie Raitt was there, other than to sniff something with our program director. I'm sure he did her the courtesy of actually playing her album for a week. She was sweet. Album:...
