Peel Slowly and See

It's the longest hangover ever as Black Banana celebrates 25 years of debauchery.

The long standing disco ball holds its head up high, turning slightly, slowly, steadily, surrounded by a heavy, heady cloud of cigar smoke. The familiar floor to ceiling length mirrors, the ones lining the dance floors that have always been friend/lover/partner to drunk or dosed disco dancers and/or roller skaters.

Nothing else though, not heads, not hips, not pouty spinning lipschticked faces turned that slowly and little else was quite so covered as the grande dame of American after hours boites — the Black Banana — turned a quarter century old. Is this a record for an after hours venue? OK, I'm sure it would be if somebody hung in the place for 9130 consecutive days; but then again, some of the folks I spied during Saturday's brief stop at the BB seemed as if they had been there that much.

There was no floor show last Saturday; no parade of drag queens or fashion models, just a champagne celebration of all the stuff that was, and some groovy stuff that may just be on the way again.

"It was funny to see the mix of the oldheads and the new kids," says DJ Lee, BB's primary spinner and host of their usual dance soiree "Love Deluxe" from 9 p.m. until 4 a.m.

"You'd look over and see an older straight couple that you'd swear you'd met when they first met and then you'd check out another corner and see a handful of older drag queens giving tips to the new front. Everyone comparing stories, war wounds. It's symbolic of nightlife history. I think that people who are here, though, represent the future of this space."

Another BB DJ, Mel Toxic — yes the very same Toxic from WDRE and now WYSP (see Spacejunk) — remembers a slightly older BB; for it was Mel (1982-86), along with DJ's like Jeff Gross, John Stango (who just opened another show of his paintings at BB as well as in Daffy's window) Ricky Lee, Gigi Meoli and eventually Wink, Doz, Nick and rest of the boys who created Vagabond, who made BB the home of house, Euro house, high energy disco and all sorts of electronically impulsive beats.

"It was the height of decadence" says Toxic. "The Pinnacle. It was Garrick (Melmick, the now deceased one time owner of the space, which is now owned by Kirk Beckman) who gave me my first paying gig. We were like kids on the loose; spinning everything, doing all that great video montage stuff on the monitors. And everyone came there. Everyone. Sandra Bernhardt! Rob Halford!"

As we laughed at the bad celeb aspect of it all, we also reminisced about the tragic end of the BB partying system: privacy.

"That porthole in the men's room. That no door thing downstairs," remembers Toxic, "There was always the danger of walking in and seeing some guy with his pants around his ankles taking a dump."

All this is nothing in comparison to the upstairs bathroom that had a two-way mirror. Be it sex, drugs or both at the same time, I think I've had a few folks walk in and/or see me and the rest of the oversexed BB clubfucks through the glass in the most inopportune of situations.

Then there was that fire. Years later, I think Kirk blames me and my birthday party for that! Yikes, nightlife history. Somebody the other night asked me in confidence, "Hey sport, are you done eulogizing Revival?" Yes, I do miss that space very much, but BB was/is different. It's funny to think that as a kid of say 16 or 17 that Black Banana was the first after hours place I could sneak into (LCB ALERT: YOU CAN'T DO THIS NOW. HONEST!) and just be amazed at what was going on. Professional types like lawyers, secretaries, doctors etc. were there acting "underground."

This, to me, was the ultimate in twisted; far seedier than watching protopunks shoot up or hanging round Second Story watching people pushing poppers under their noses.

The Black Banana was also known for its couture employees and clientele. Be it clothing or art, style was BB's calling card, the same card flashed in the revival of panache taking place at the Continental.

Between what seems to be happening with Beckman's renewed interest and, say, a bartender like Scott (the tall one) Butting's idea of a revisionist BB: like a great set of legs, BB's still got em.

Talking about parties: Let no one forget that the true social event of the season was the weekend wedding of one of CP's own (or former owns) Sonny Vellozzi to South Philly's own Lisa DeFranco, who is no relation to the DeFranco family of "HeartBeat" ("Its a Love Beat") fame. If only! Vellozzi, a one time member of such legendary musical conglomerates as Hey Jude, the Mod, and various Four Seasons cover bands, was once a City Paper ad rep. Many of you longtime CP fans may remember him from his various singles parties around town (never a lonelier bunch of people have you ever witnessed), his sales largesse ("How many E's in that band's name?") and of, course his mysterious other life as "Vellozzi Photography" — the originator of ladies boudoir/glamor photography.

SPACEJUNK: Hey, speaking of BB, the BB's Mistress of Beauty, Natassia, has been doing fab gigs — Wild Parties — every Monday eve at Ortlieb's with Joey from Sugar Moms and Una. Get there quick; rumor has it they may move to Marabella's or some where else looking for a hip Monday night!... With rumors running rampant about Dandelion being dropped from Ruffhouse/Columbia Records, it was time to find out the truth. Yup. After two records —I Think I'm Gonna be Sick and Dyslexicon — some recent heavy radio play for their single "Weird Out," and the loss of their drummer Dante (now playing in Rudy & Blitz), Dandelion is no longer on the label. On the record, Ruffhouse publicist Glenn Manko told me that "Ruffhouse/Columbia did not exercise or pick up the option for the next Dandelion record, leaving them free to pursue other avenues. It was not a mutually beneficial relationship anymore." Although numbers weren't confirmed, I heard previous to this that the sophomore Dandy disc sold over 10,000 copies; not bad when you consider that new local releases like The Caulfields and Wanderlust have moved units in the 10-15,000 range. Apparently, it twarn't enuff!... Promotions guru/lounge lizard extraordinaire Nathan Lerner is now editor-at-large for Main Street Magazine, formerly known as the Monthly in ye olde Manayunk. Originally contracted as consultant, Lerner quickly rose in rank, which means we can look for a major upheaval in terms of style and multi-syllabic phrasing... It's more than just nipple piercings and tribal drumming when Dancing Ferret Concerts brings rubber favorites Genitorturers and A?'s new harsh ravers Drill (who played a great set there a few weeks backs) to Asylum on Dec. 8 for a real early evening show. Call 427-1087... Managing guy Dave Jay, the very same dude who holds the future of E-Tribe in his cold clammy hands, has just picked up Cory (kind of like Gimme only harder, featuring members of Gimme to boot), who'll be playing at Doc Watson's Dec. 15, and 6 To the Universe, the mammoth Allmans-as-painted-by-Pollock act that has been playing Philly like a like a brushfire. Hear these guys before they explode, literally... Inadvertently I mentioned that Dave Grey, IdleWild songguy, had left said aggregation. He hasn't; I meant bassist Greg D. who I never liked anyway... Is WKDU's DJ Alex gonna continue the Love Lounge every Thursday for his house party "Wunderbra"?... After their show at the Troc, all 300 members of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones piled into Silk City to hook up with Napoleonic Boston buddies the Upper Crust... What the hell was Jennifer Jason Leigh doing at the Overpass in Manayunk last weekend? And why didn't somebody get me her numbah!?..By the by, the Toxic WYSP story continues: I may have jumped the gun a bit on confirming Mel as the MD at the quickly refurbishing 94 FM but wait and see. "I'm proud to be at the Dallas Cowboys of Philly radio," says Toxic of hanging out with big boys like Bill Campbell, Howard Stern and Debella. "These guys play to win." Hey, maybe they'll make him sports director with all that talk!