"I guess I'd most like Bomp to be remembered as a label utterly dedicated to the people who care most about music: the fans and collectors."
Very sad news, Greg Shaw, fanzine publisher, magazine editor, band manager, author, indie label owner (Bomp), and rock historian, died on Tuesday, October 19 from heart failure at the age of 55. There are fewer and fewer true believers around: those who dedicate their lives to getting the word out about the music they love - in Greg's case, a particularly appealing blend of garage rock, retro-pop, psychedelia, and punk.
The label's Shaw bio is here:
- Rumors about him range from the fabulous to the incriminating. He is believed by some to live in a large house filled with swinging go-go girls where he hosts an endless LSD party. Others think of him as something like "the Anti-Dick Clark", a shadowy, behind-the-scenes character who has manipulative fingers in everything. To those who know mainly his background in punk (a Berlin newspaper in 1989 referred to Greg Shaw as "The Pope of Punk") he may have a certain image, very different from that of '60s cultists who have mainly felt his efforts to inspire a revival of garage-punk music. Other people, in other cults, hold still other views.
The fact is that he's been involved in a hell of a lot of stuff, all growing out of his love for classic (but obscure) rock & roll, and his extraordinary level of activity in rock fandom over three decades.
COLLECTING CULTS
Greg was born in San Francisco in 1949. He grew up with rock & roll, hearing it on the radio from early childhood. As soon as he could afford to, he began buying and collecting 45s by Elvis, Fats Domino, Little Richard, et al. By the time he was in high school he had hundreds of them, but that wasn't the end of his penchant for collecting stuff. He had a room full of science fiction pulp magazines going back to the '20s. As an active member of SF fandom he went to conventions, was friends with a lot of authors including Philip K. Dick and Robert Silverberg, and found a social life among fans many years his senior that he didn't have with kids his own age. The mindset of "fandom" took hold, giving him a lifelong preference for dedicated amateurism (not to mention an ironic sense of humor combined with a chronic shyness that's commonly misunderstood, or mistaken for aloofness). And as a fan, of course he bought himself a mimeograph machine (for younger readers, that's a hand-cranked drum full of ink that you cover with a stencil, basically a sheet of wax that must be cut on a typewriter, to print up your own writings. In the days before xerox, this is how fanzines were made, right up to sometime in the early '70s) and started cranking out zines.
Article comments
1 - Jim Carruthers
What's really sad about this obit is in the coming years how rare the statement: "he/she made a real difference in music" will be.
But geez, 55? That's mortality looking you in the face.
There was an article in The Observer today about Iggy Pop who was a Bomp! veteran.
2 - Mike Kole
Eric- thanks for this post. I wouldn't have known about Greg Shaw's passing if it weren't for you putting it up here. (Nose deep into political grindstone.)
I'm eternally grateful to Shaw and Bomp! for the Stiv Bators solo LP "Disconnected" and for the Wierdos' ep "1977, 1978, 1979", and Shaw's contributions to the Nuggets and Pebbles comps.
Man, 55 is just too young.
3 - Julie Patchouli
Greg Shaw was and still is a pioneer in the Rock N Roll World. He introduced particular genre's to many generations that without his introduction probably would not have seen the light of day due to its rarity and obscurity. This is Julie Patchouli, bass player for the famed "Pandoras" signed to Greg's label Voxx.
Greg Shaw's inspiration and true enlightenment will be missed. Greg was always big hearted, eventhough we, (the"Pandoras") never recieved a salary per say, Greg paid us in merchandise, he would allow us to run wild in his warehouse and pick out whatever we wanted.... I felt like a kid in a candy store!! Thanks Greg !! We love you and miss you.....
Sincerely
Julie Patchouli
4 - Eric Olsen
thanks Julie, I saw you guys play a few times in LA and you rocked!
5 - Douglas Mays
Yes, BOMP was a label that made a difference in the modern world. Greg's work was a crucial cog in the wheel of modern independent music in the USA. The artwork alone on some of the albums were worth it (Calamari/Zincavage/Pettengill).
Anyway, good job Greg, maybe you can serve as A&R for the astral world. We could use it here on earth...
peacloveguidance
6 - Susan (Sutton) Crawford
I first got to know Greg through Phonograph Record Magazine, which I LOVED. I was 16 and had written to ask for a copy of the issue with a cover article he wrote on John Fogerty, saying how much I loved it. Imagine my surprise when it showed up in my mailbox with a really great letter from Greg himself. A few years later, I had become a big fan of Dave Edmunds et al, and started going to alot of club shows in L.A., just an hour from where I lived (Ventura), and had printed up a fanzine of two of my own (Top Of The Rockpile). Again, Greg helped me out. He had that wonderful little Bomp store where I could find so MANY cool things, where so MANY cool people hung out, spilling out onto the sidewalk in that cheesy L.A. neighborhood it was in. In my mind, it will always be there, a freeze-frame memory, circa 1977.
Thanks for being there, Greg, and...do they have mimeograph machines where you're at now??? I bet they do.