Imagine a young, dark-haired woman standing in front of the Penn Station bus terminal in New York City, worn suitcase clutched nervously in her hand. Fresh off the bus, this is her first time alone in the big city and it is a little scary. But as she gazes above the crowd to the soaring skyscrapers all around her, she remembers her dreams and her determination makes her take a deep breath and head into the crowd toward an uncertain future.
So it might have been for Laney. She came to the city from the much more rural Rochester area to follow her dreams of success in the entertainment industry and to leave behind a relationship gone bad. Before long she was, like so many other people in the city on similar quests, working two jobs just to break even. One at a coffee shop on the East Side of Manhattan during the day and the other bartending at the The Continental during the night. She was more fortunate than many though because one of her two jobs, bartending at The Continental, became the springboard that launched her toward the realization of her rock 'n' roll dreams.
It started out innocently enough, she was working where the music was, she loved the music, the bands were there...so she made friends with them. She started her own Myspace profile and "friended" the bands that she knew. She said that before too long the number of friends grew and then they started using her page as a sort of central point from which to network with each other and stuff and at that point an idea began to form in her mind. "Why not mix business with pleasure," she thought. And so, six short months after she got off the bus, Laney the dark-haired girl fresh off the bus became Lady Lane, Mistress of the Groupies — and the Rock N' Dolls were born.
Laney's concept for the Dolls is a simple one, I suppose. They are modeled after the classic concept of the rock groupie. In Laney's words, groupies are "girls who happen to like other girls' company and travel in flocks to service the bands." Sounds interesting guys, doesn't it (especially the "service the bands" part)? But before you get the wrong idea, Laney says that "...the Rock Dolls are a divine living piece of history, these are the women of Rock N Roll. These beautiful, girls deal with Band promotion, Publicity, and Rock Star support."
Groupies with a paycheck, perhaps? Rock 'n' Roll cheerleaders might be more appropriate. They dress like groupies, stand in the audience at the shows they put on and squeal like groupies and by doing so stimulate audience reaction and at the same time they get to be a part of the show themselves. The concept seems to be one of having the promoter become part of the promotion themselves. That is a pretty novel concept to me but it seems to be working. The girls appear at all the live shows that the company puts on and make sure the band's needs are met and the crowd is entertained.
Article comments
1 - Sister Ray
Fascinating and perturbing.
Could you spell out for a middle-aged rock fan, exactly what services the bands are paying for? If a band hires them, is it understood that sex is part of the deal?
Is her goal to be hired by a record label to handle publicity? I don't think women who want actual, credible careers in publicity would want to encourage the idea that sex with the act is part of their job.
Half of me is thinking, "go, girl," and the other half is seeing the potential for sexism and exploitation, which are not exactly unknown in rock 'n' roll.
In a brutally honest, cynical way, I question the appeal of a rock band that has to pay young women to be its groupies.
2 - enki
Interesting take on the story... On the one hand I don't think that having sex with anyone is a requirement of the job any more than the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders are required to have sex with the team. But the team does pay the cheerleaders to be there because they add something to the show and the fans like them being there. The cheerleaders promote the team.
In the case of the Dolls the scope of the job is larger. The Dolls set up the gigs that the bands play at so it is more like the dolls are paying the bands than the other way around.
As far as the "services" go, beyond booking the bands and "cheerleading" they would include whatever else needs to happen to make the show a success from schlepping some equipment to giving out schwag from the sponsors to keeping the band supplied with bottled water or whatever during the performance.
The idea, as I said seems to be adding another dimension to rock promoting and the best analogy really is probably to think of them as rock cheerleaders.
3 - Sister Ray
OK, the cheerleader analogy makes sense...new concept in rock fandom....nice work if you can get it; sounds like fun :->
4 - Al Barger
This is great if it works for her, but I don't see it. Now, it might be just that she and her girls do great business based largely on traditional marketing type functions.
But the cheerleaders thing seems like it would end up backfiring. I would regard it as fakery, and once an audience starts figuring out that the groupies are on payroll I'd think they'd turn on the band. Actually paying people to go out in the crowd and pretend to cheer for your band would be like a preacher hiring congregants to come in and pretend to be moved by the spirit, or a faith healer paying shills to fake a healing to work the crowd up.
That'd certainly be the end of your preaching if you got caught at it. Who wants to listen to a band that has to pay chicks to squeal for them? The only way they could even maybe salvage a bit of rep at that point would be if it were clear that the Dolls really were putting out- and in particularly perverted manner, with pictures.
5 - enki
Al,
I don't see any deception involved. The show is billed as being put on by the rockin dolls and the dolls MC the show. The girls do it because they like the music and I don't think they are going to book bands that they don't like so if they want to cheer I think it is genuine. I have been to several shows that the dolls put on and it seemed to me to be all in good fun and I think everyone there knows that. I still think it is a cool concept.
6 - Lady Lanes Cousin
Don't let these peoples negative attitude reflect your dreams keep it up Lady Lane !!!!! (See you in a few days !)
7 - shayla rene white
why are you doing this.
8 - Rock and Roll
Sounds like a good idea, this isn't really that groundbreaking though - dance clubs have had attractive hostesses paid to dress up and add to the vibe of the club for a long time - this is a natural extension into the rock and roll scene.