Bloody Mess
Celebrating 25 Years of American Punk Madness
By Jenna Somerset
Detroit, USA: It’s a late, hot and humid August Friday night as I try repeatedly to reach one Bloody F. Mess and his music collaborator/girlfriend Bridget Nine by phone in Peoria, Illinois for a scheduled phone interview. Celebrating 25 years in the US punk rock scene, you still don’t know what to expect from Bloody, just like his longstanding reputation as chaotic punk rock lead singer for multiple bands dating back to the early 1980’s. But just like any great rock star, he may be a fashionably late, but he doesn’t ever fail to deliver.
In those 25 years of music, Mr. Mess has definitely seen and done it all. Bouncing between, punk, rock and country, he started his musical foundation in punk rock back in 1983. Answering an ad on a record store wall, Bloody began his career as lead singer for punk rock band Chips Patrol, which quickly changed names to Unaccepted. After playing the backyard party circuit, Unaccepted disbanded in 1985. Moving on to hard rock, he joined the band Emerald which did cover songs and a few originals. Quickly recognizing Emerald was not suited to his style, he soon parted ways.
After leaving Emerald and sporting a new Mohawk, he formed the band Bloody Mess and the Hate. In true punk fashion they decide to play punk rock dive clubs and biker bars with the hope of creating so much mayhem and havoc they would get banned from returning. Their plans worked as the band had a two year run of chaos in which angry crowds, police venue shutdowns, riots and destruction became the norm. Their final show was at Illinois Central College in East Peoria, IL in 1987, opening for the Chicago band Naked Raygun, and saw Bloody performing in a straight jacket with documented footage on ABC TV with Bloody kicking angry punk rockers in the face.
After a short stay in Greely, Colorado, he teamed up with Virginia band Psycho Drama featuring Lisa Suckdog. Less than a year later, he was back in Peoria forming Bloody Mess and the Skabs. The Skabs had a long 8 year run and were signed by Black and Blue Records. The band toured 22 states, including New York City, Philadelphia and Nashville. They wound up appearing on The Phil Donahue Show, The Rolanda Show and Passengers out of London to discuss their use of convicted serial killers John Wayne Gacy and Kenneth Bianchi’s (The Hillside Strangler) artwork on their album cover released on Mephisto Records (600 copies pressed) in 1988. They released numerous recordings including a 7-inch on German based No Risk No Fun Records, two full length CD’s “Hung Over and Stoned” and “6th Grade Field Trip”. They eventually disbanded in 1994 during their “Hung Over and Stoned” US Tour.
In 1995, he once again rose from the ashes to create Bloody and the Country Trash Punks. Although never publicly performing, they released a five song 7-inch record on Baloney Schrapnel Records that same year. Leaving the Country Trash Punks behind, Bloody put together another band called The Renegades, shockingly a country cover band, and put his punk madness to rest for two years. The Renegades played over 75 shows until evolving into The Vaynes, a hard rock/bubblegum cover band. Soon after, the Vaynes became Bloody and the Vaynes quickly releasing a 7-inch record on Fanatic Records. They performed a mixture of punk and hard rock and opened for a number of acts including Nazareth, The Dead Milkmen and Mudvayne. The band put out a full length CD through Black and Blue Records. They eventually broke up after a five year run, with Bloody starting a career in radio broadcasting. He was known as the radio personality Reverend Derek Moody in the show “The Church of Rock and Roll” in Peoria.
In 2003, he put together Bloody and the Transfusions which had a strong 5 year run until this very August. The band performed a mix of punk and rock and was well received. Having witnessed one of their last shows this past May in Kenosha, Wisconsin, it was immediately apparent the punk rock scene has great love, affection and respect for Bloody and his Transfusions. A packed crowd arrived early at Hattrix, a Kenosha nightclub known for bringing in underground acts and immediately “transfused” them, a Bloody term, when he hit the stage. Punks slam dancing and banging, bodies moving and excited screams brought us all the way back to Bloody’s craziness and madness of the 1980’s. Interesting to me was the wide range of ages in attendance to catch Detroit band Choking Susan and Kenosha’s Pistofficer, showing punk is alive and thriving in Wisconsin. And seeing him perform live, nothing has changed with Bloody F. Mess over all these years. As the crowd loudly sang the chorus of “Divebar Superstar”, it was easy to tell their own superstar was on the stage and rocking down the house.
To celebrate Bloody’s 25 year anniversary, Black and Blue Records is releasing songs from 1985 through 2008, almost spanning his entire career. You can find it and other releases at www.blackandbluerecords.com.
Catching up with Bloody and his collaborator/girlfriend Bridget Nine by phone, I got the chance to discuss their new group “The Bloody Mess/Bridget Nine Band” and ask some candid questions to both of them.
SCM: Bloody, in setting up the interview, Bridget Nine informed me you both do your interviews naked…is this true?
BFM: Yes it is and my genitals are resting in a Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket right now.
SCM: Let’s start with your name, Bloody Fucking Mess…is there a story behind how you got that name?
BFM: When I was a kid in my early teens, all the great punk rockers had these cool names…Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious…my friend Kevin Rotten and I were listening to a Sex Pistols song “Bodies” and one line went “body, screamin’, fucking bloody mess” and he said you should call yourself “Fucking Bloody Mess”. So I changed it around to “Bloody Fucking Mess” and it stuck, never went away.
SCM: Bridget Nine, we have to ask about your name too…what’s the story behind it?
BN: It’s a long story, I began professional modeling when I was 14 years old, print and runway, right as the heroin chic look was coming into fashion and models like Kate Moss came on the scene. Designers started calling me BB and I didn’t know what it meant. This went on for a while until Karl Lagerfeld finally told me BB referenced Bridget Bardot, they thought I looked like her. Then my boyfriend at the time wrote a song called “Bridget’s Bedroom” so the name Bridget stuck. Nine came about because I have always had a stigma about the number nine.
SCM: Bloody, thinking back to when you were a kid, would you have imagined a long music career? Did you have other aspirations?
BFM: When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a DJ, which I did for years. I also wanted to be a rock drummer. I never imagined I would be a lead singer or playing this long. But look at Alice Cooper, I saw him the other night and he is still rocking hard at 60 years old! It seems age no longer applies as it once did in music.
SCM: Bloody, what were your early inspirations and why did you follow a path into punk rock?
BFM: Top four groups influencing me: Bay City Rollers…my all time favorite band, The Beatles, Abba and Kiss. I am a fanatic about all these groups. I can tell you everything about them. I know, you are thinking Abba? But all these groups really reflect my personality in a way. I went with punk rock because there is no real separation between crowd and performers.
SCM: Bridget Nine, tell us about your music, modeling and movies and how did you wind up in California?
BN: I grew up in a musical family. My grandfather and father were professional musicians. My father’s best friend was stand-up comedian Sam Kinison and my dad looked very similar to Sam in build and features. He was also very close with the Kinison family, and when Sam died, Bill Kinison, his brother, sold the movie rights to the book “Brother Sam” to Howard Stern, the radio/TV personality. Howard tried to get the movie made so my family moved to California to try to get the role of Sam for my father. The movie fell through and was never made. I can’t exactly remember when, but 4-8 weeks after moving there, I was walking down Hollywood Boulevard when I was asked right on the street to be in a movie filming at that moment, “L.A. Woman”, so I signed a release and was cast right there. So that’s how I got to California and started doing movies. (Her movie credits include: L.A. Woman – 1998, WHITHINT - 2000, 009-74-2292 - 2001, Below B - 2002, The Raven – 2003, The Rabbit Guerrilla – 2003 and Tattered Dream - 2006.) I was also asked to pose in Playboy twice, but turned it down both times.
SCM: Some women would kill to pose in Playboy. Turning it down twice, can you tell me why you did it concerning the multitude of doors it could have opened for yourself in music, modelling and acting?
BN: I didn’t want the reason for success or fame to be because I posed naked. It’s important for people to know that I don’t think Playboy is smut and I do adore Hef and all the girls. I have met them and they are all great people.
SCM: Bloody, 25 years of performing, you have to share one of your best stories with us. I know there must be many.
BFM: There are so many crazy and insane stories I don’t even know where to start. Ok, how about this one. I went down to film a Phil Donahue show on John Wayne Gacy when I was with the Skabs. When I got there, they separated me from the rest of the guests and put me in a dressing room that belonged to the late actor Chris Farley. It was part of the Saturday Night Live stage. I was smoking down and high as hell…in fact I remember wearing this shirt with weed leaves on it. I wound up breaking into a locker while waiting to go on and nabbing Chris Farley’s Saturday Night Live script for that week, in fact I remember Pearl Jam and Emilio Estevez were the guests written on it. Farley’s locker was filled with all this low fat food. I thought that was hilarious. I had the script until my ex-wife stole it. Then there was the one with the Nazi’s and controversial punk rocker GG Allin in Chicago. We were touring on a Greyhound Bus doing spoken word performances. We had a show in a warehouse in Chicago and I thought it would be funny to invite a bunch of Nazi’s and Skinhead’s to our event, so I hand wrote a letter and invited them. GG thought it was genius. During the show, GG winds up taking a shit onstage and throwing it in the lead Skinheads face, which did not go over well. The crowd went crazy trying to get to GG. We wound up getting put in a meat cooler to escape them and had to hide out in there for over two hours. Some of the stuff was just pure insanity.
SCM: Bloody, it’s quite obvious you have the looks, talent and personality to go commercial. Punk has always maintained an anti-sellout sentiment. Your songs like “FMFU” reflect your similar sentiment. Does your past beliefs and values come into conflict with your current goals and objectives in your new project or do you plan to stay anti-corporate/anti-commercial?
BFM: Great question and something I have thought a lot about. I have always been anti-rock star. In fact one of my songs is titled “Don’t Worship Me” in regards to that same idea. I have always been anti bullshit and never worried about nor made great money doing what I love to do. I have never been on a full-time tour or been commercially sponsored and I plan on keeping it that way.
SCM: What does punk rock mean to you?
BFM: Dirty, sleazy, political, social, a look…really too hard to put into words. Basically back to the roots stripped down rock and roll and thinking for your self.
SCM: Every underground rocker is reliant on fans of the band for support and word-of-mouth promotion. How do you look at your promotion today in contrast to when you started in 1983?
BFM: I am not as motivated today as I was in my younger days doing flyers and mega promotions, trying to book as many gigs as possible. I think I have gotten a little lazier. Our MySpace is pretty plain, nothing fancy. I am now doing quality over quantity.
SCM: Most singers are usually extreme extroverts in life. How are you off the stage?
BFM: I am really pretty anti-social. I used to go out all the time, but now I would rather stay home working on my performance, reading and listening to music.
SCM: We know you have traveled all over the United States. What has kept you from going to perform overseas, especially since you have built up a good fan base there?
BFM: Basically laziness, lack of money and inspiration (laughing). But really it has been because of coke, pussy (laughing even louder) and no passport.
SCM: Looking back on The Skabs controversy created with your serial killer artwork album covers, how do you feel today about all the controversy created? Do you still own the original artwork?
BFM: I still have the original artwork locked away. In looking back, it was a cheap and gimmicky way to get attention and it was successful. Besides being paid to appear on a BBC program, I never made any money off it.
SCM: It is rumored you are planning a spring tour in the UK or Europe. Is this true and what are your plans?
BFM: Totally true. We would like to do one gig in Scotland, one in Ireland and two nights in England with my new band. I have Scottish heritage, so I really look forward to seeing Scotland. We are starting rehearsals next week.
SCM: It’s Friday night. What are you two doing for fun?
BN: (Laughing) If not adopting refugee orphans and fighting crime, we usually watch movies, listen to music and create things.
The Bloody Mess/Bridget Nine band is currently putting together a new website.
They can be reached at www.myspace.com/bloodymess1 , www.myspace.com/bridgetnine or www.myspace.com/bloodyandthetransfusions.