Hooters, Zombies and My Mother
Halloween is upon us. Let’s do something about Zombies.
*Dedicated to the memory of the late legendary Philly DJ and all-around Good Citizen, Pierre Robert, who was a tireless booster of local Philly bands like the Hooters.
I don’t usually get autobiographical, but this one hits close to home…like, literally, directly next to my home. I was born in 1980. That was also the year a Philly New Wave band called The Hooters was formed.
My family lived in a Northeast Philly rowhome on the 1200 block of Unruh Ave.
Today, this place feels gray and dulled, like a stack of old magazines left out in the elements.
But I remember it as a warm, colorful neighborhood packed with young families, streets book-ended by local bicycle shops and water ice stands, front lawns simmering in the summer humidity while we grilled hot dogs and waited for 4th of July fireworks.
As it happens, my first 4th of July was also the same night the Hooters played their first live show together. Precocious as I was for a 5-month old, I had no idea they were our neighbors.
Nervous Nights
Actually, the Hooters didn’t live on our street. They just made a huge racket practicing in somebody’s basement there.
My mother loved to tell me how she would be forced to knock on the neighbor’s door and say something to the effect of “Keep it down, you Hooters! I’ve got a sleeping baby over here.”
Sounded true enough. And over the years, I repeated the story frequently but without any real confirmation that the noisy neighbors were the same guys who went on to clock a clutch of killer MTV-era hits in the coming years.
But the Hooters loomed large for me as a Philly kid. There was something reassuring about seeing our local boys wedged between exotica like Prince and Duran Duran on MTV.
Let’s rewind for a moment.
Never Enough
Principal songwriters Rob Hyman (keys) and Erik Bazilian (guitar) met as students at the University of Pennsylvania and began playing together all the way back in 1971. They even released two full-length late-’70s LPs for Arista as a group called Baby Grand. Both were produced by friend and fellow Penn alum Rick Chertoff.
At their worst, they could be mistaken for a Styx side project.
At their best, they aspire to the blue-eyed soul of fellow Philadelphians, Hall & Oates.
Either way, these records don’t particularly hint at what was to come. And the less said about the confusingly off-topic album art, the better.
One Step Beyond
After their albums made minimal impact, Baby Grand disbanded. However, the core of Hyman and Bazilian remained intact, as did their friendship with producer Rick Chertoff.
Three years later, Hyman and Bazilian recruited Dave Uosikkinen (drums), John Kuzma (guitar) and Bobby Woods (bass) from another local band called Hot Property.
They became the Hooters in 1980. Rob Hyman – a lifelong collector of Jamaican records – says he was inspired to form the new band after seeing Madness in concert. The British two-toners were already enjoying charting success with their blend of New Wave, ska and reggae. Hyman wanted to put his own local Philly spin on the formula.
The Hooters took their name from a specific brand of melodica, an instrument popularized through its use in reggae. The handheld synth would figure heavily into their sound.
All You People In The Street
The Hooters played Philly’s club scene extensively, building a dedicated following with strong support from the city’s most influential rock radio station, 93.3 WMMR.
One of their biggest champions was a San Francisco-born DJ and deadhead named Pierre Robert. Pierre arrived in Philly in 1981 and never left. I mention it here because this legendary DJ remained with WMMR until his sudden passing this week at age 70.
During his 45 years in Philly, Pierre was the friendliest face in the crowd at every local show and a tireless champion of Philly artists like Hall & Oates, Low Cut Connie, and The Hooters.
So it was that an outpouring of local support landed the Hooters a memorable opening slot for the Who during their 1982 visit to Philly’s JFK Stadium.
At the time, the Hooters had already released several local singles including an early cut of “All You Zombies”.
These singles would form the basis for their first full-length LP – 1983’s independently released Amore.
The Hooters became especially well-known in these early years for their fiery live performances. But Rob Hyman, pulling double-duty as the band’s manager, was suffering from a mild case of burnout. This led to a brief hiatus for the band in 1983.
Suitcase of Memories
That same year, Rick Chertoff was working alongside a promising young New Wave singer named Cyndi Lauper, recently erstwhile from a failed venture called Blue Angel.
Lauper managed to secure a deal with a small Epic Records imprint called Portrait. Chertoff invited his old friends Erik and Rob in as session players on her upcoming solo debut–She’s So Unusual.
It was during these sessions that Rob and Cyndi sat at a piano together and conceived “Time After Time”.
It would be the second single off her first record. The first single, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, was also written by a Philly-based singer. Robert Hazard recorded the original in 1979.
With her cover version, Lauper landed her first charting hit. She followed it with the release of “Time After Time”, scored her first #1, and became a defining personality of the MTV era.
Day By Day
Lauper’s success inspired Hyman to relaunch the Hooters, replacing original members Kuzma and Woods with former members of Robert Hazard’s backing band, the Heroes — Rob Miller (bass) and John Lilley (guitar). (Rob Miller was injured in a car accident shortly thereafter and replaced by Andy King.)
This lineup of the Hooters signed to Columbia records and made their major label debut in 1985 with Nervous Night. Like Lauper’s debut, this one produced four major charting hits with “And We Danced,” “Day By Day”, “Where do the Children Go?” and a shiny new version of “All You Zombies”.
And We Danced
1985 marked the peak of Hootermania (at least in Southeastern Pennsylvania). Their major-label debut garnered extensive MTV airplay, Rob Hyman received a Grammy nomination for his work with Lauper, and Rolling Stone named the Hooters the best new band of the year.
They even played the opening slot on the Philly side of Live Aid, much to the chagrin of concert organizer, Bob Geldof. The former Boomtown Rats singer and reputed jerkface was quoted as inquiring, “Who the fuck are the Hooters?”
Tons of people would learn the answer to that question over the next year. Live Aid kicked off the era of the massive benefit concert, and the Hooters were all over that shit.
In 1986, the Hooters performed in front of gigantic throngs of humanity at the Louisiana Superdome for America Rocks, a concert benefiting the restoration of the Statue of Liberty; and at A Conspiracy of Hope, a benefit concert on behalf of Amnesty International, held at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Through it all, they also remained a local fixture.
Satellite
The Hooters toured extensively throughout the late ‘80s and early ‘90s with notable runs in Australia and Europe.
They even joined self-proclaimed fan Roger Waters for a 1990 staging of Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
In 1995, after 15 years and 3 million albums sold, the Hooters disbanded and parted as friends. That same year, Erik Bazilian crashed the charts with a new arrival named Joan Osborne. Her recording of Bazilian’s “One of Us” reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and received three Grammy nods that year. Osborne’s debut album was produced, as you might have guessed, by Rick Chertoff.
One Way Home
In 2007, the Hooters reunited and they remain extremely active in the Philadelphia music scene. Over the last decade, the members of the Hooters have shared the stage with other local legends like Todd Rundgren and Hall & Oates, as well as next generation stars like Philly’s powerful piano-pounding party band, Low Cut Connie.
In fact, it was at a Low Cut Connie show when I finally got the chance to verify the story my mother told me all those years ago. I met Hooters original drummer Dave Uosikkinen directly after an absolutely killer performance.
I shook his hand and told him I lived on Unruh Ave 45 years ago. A smile of recognition came across his face.
“Oh man,” he said. “We had some times on Unruh.”
*Denouement
The section above was originally intended as the end of the article. Then on Wednesday, October 29th, Pierre Robert passed away suddenly at age 70. To his final days, he was full of life and full of love for our city and its music.
If you lived in Philly and you went out and saw music here, you saw Pierre. He was more than our voice on the radio. He was out there on the floor with us. As I began writing this story earlier in the week, I had no idea Pierre Robert was attending his last live performance.
On October 25th, Pierre took the stage at the Keswick Theater in Glenside, PA to introduce his old friends, The Hooters.
Rest In Peace, Good Citizen.
