Stooges played on 2 1969 TV shows - according to Ron Asheton

The Stooges on TV - from interview with Ron Asheton

Question: Did you ever do any local TV shows?

Ron Asheton:

Oh yeah. We did Robin Seymour’s Swingin’ Time. It was on channel 9. It was a Canadian show and it was on every day, either before or after… I used to love to watch Where The Action Is, Hullaballoo was on at night, but it was on just before or after Where The Action Is. And Robin Seymour, who used to also have the sock hops that brought in all the acts, so imagine being on local TV, just pantomime, but it was just so much fun to see your favourite recording stars doing, you know, it’s a joke, like, it’s so crisp… you can tell the guys go “I’m not gonna wash my hair, I gotta gig.” So we did that and the first thing these guys go, “Please guys, don’t bring any pot, don’t try to smoke dope.” They were just like 13, 14, 15-year-old kids. So sure enough, I go in the john to take a pee, there’s Iggy and Dave Alexander trying to smoke dope before we did our stupid two pantomimes. So it was such a joke… first one we did straight, I didn’t get high because I want to be a professional, it’s about trying to play along with the song, it was real hard for my brother because you can’t fake hitting the drums so he did taps and stuff. And I’m just chugging along and trying to pretend I’m doing it, by the time of the second song it was so ridiculous, and Robin was such a jerk of a guy that when the camera came to me during a solo I’d go… hands off (laughs), just little things, to me. But Iggy was getting into it OK. So he actually took the mic and, it was an accident, he bloodied his lip and it was red, and blood. And Robin always does an interview and right at the show talks to the singers… singers are always frontmen so I’ll talk to him. So Iggy’s going, “Yeah…” sorta like he was Peter Lorre (laughs)… he was acting, it was just how he felt. He’d go “yeah…” and Robin’s just giving him “well, hey,” it’s supposed to be a wholesome show and he’s being really weird. It was “…hey…”

And so the next day, I watched it, cuz they filmed it the day before, and it’s kinda neat, but… so two days later, I watched the show by chance and Robin Seymour goes, “We have gotten so many letters about this group.” I’m going, “Wow!” He then goes, “I promise we’ll never have them on again!” (laughs). “Allright!!” That was even better.

And we did one in Philadelphia, the Hy Lite (?) show, which was the same thing, local, they put us on a little stage, we pantomimed “1969” and “I Wanna Be Your Dog.”

waow so it is in existence, did no stooge fans record it, or did the stooges not get a tape or anything?

ssounds like it would be cool to see

thanks per!

Quote :

And so the next day, I watched it, cuz they filmed it the day before, and it’s kinda neat, but… so two days later, I watched the show by chance and Robin Seymour goes, “We have gotten so many letters about this group.” I’m going, “Wow!” He then goes, “I promise we’ll never have them on again!” (laughs). “Allright!!” That was even better.

that parts hilarioius!

WOW- brilliant - thanks Per!!!

Wow,

That's the Canadian Broadcast Channel. It might be worth looking into as Ontario is right on the other side of the Detroit River. It must be from the first album also, so spring to summer of 1969.

I live in Windsor, ONT and saw a partial re-broadcast of that show in '86 or so. Black & white footage, original band standing immobile while Iggy rolled around. Unfortunately I was helping my old man lift something very heavy at the time and couldn't make it to the VCR or volume button in-time. I waited years for them to show it again, but they never did.

So, as of 1986, THIS FOOTAGE STILL EXISTS!

Very cool. Thanks for sharing this with us!

good to know trailerborn, it must be somewhere!

While I'm at it, the Stooges played my high-school in Windsor in early 1970. (W.F. Herman secondary school - named after the founder of the local newspaper). I have some photocopies from the 2-page spread in the 1970 yearbook that I made in the 9'th grade. Iggy still had very long hair, so I'm guessing early '70 before the Funhouse haircut & trip to LA for recording.

My photocopies are aged and abused beyond belief (had em' up on the wall for years) so they aren't really suitable for scanning anymore. When I get some time off work, I might try to arrange a visit to my old school and try to scan something.

A lot of space is wasted on a close-up of Scotty's drum-kit , but there is a great shot from side-stage of Iggy & the band and an AWESOME pre-show shot of Iggy in a t-shirt plugging in cables to a huge set of amps w/ 'Stooges' stenciled on them. Seriously, Robert Matheu needs to get these in his photo-book, especially the last one. I'll see if I can help out if need be.

A friend of mine in local radio asked Iggy about this directly on-air during a 'Skull Ring' interview a few years back. Iggy didn't remember any trips to Windsor, but the photos don't lie. A few months later Iggy mentioned in a print interview ( I forget where) that the original Stooges might have played in 'Windsor, Canada'. They did - the photos & film don't lie.

My buddies father was at the Herman show. He says that the lights dimmed, the amps roared, then the power cut-out and all you could hear was a loud chorus of "FUCK"s from the stage. After a few minutes they got things sorted and played Funhouse in it's entirety.

Iggy played Windsor again at a local bar 'California's' years later during the 'Instinct' tour. The show a few weeks earlier at St. Andrew's in Detroit was excellent, but this was better because I spent the entire show literally sitting on the tiny stage with Iggy jumping around and over top of me. We got there early to start drinking and saw his touring band warm-up. Andy McCoy sang a few tunes (lousy voice), one of the roadies sang a few (a bit better) then Iggy strolled in. He led the band trough a new ending for one of the new songs then he launched into a min-concert for me and about five of my friends. He even did 'Set Em Up Joe' at my urging. Good times. I'll shut up now.

again thanks trailerborn, for all this informaiton, thats amazing, looking forward to seeing those shots, and defintily try and get them in the matheu book

wow. i wonder if that tv station archived that footage?
it might be worth looking into.
with ron's death the footage now has a reason to be "unearthed".

hopefully someone can contact the station about going into their archives and retrieving this lost masterpiece!

jimmyo wrote:

wow. i wonder if that tv station archived that footage?
it might be worth looking into.
with ron's death the footage now has a reason to be "unearthed".

hopefully someone can contact the station about going into their archives and retrieving this lost masterpiece!

yes indeed!!!!!

all this word about old footage is blowing my mind.. .thanks trailerborn!

do you know what is this footage ?
http://www.researchvideo.com/footage-galleries/underground-music-footage-gallery.html

i was thinking the delta pop festival '69.

trailerborn wrote:

I'll shut up now.

No, please don't!

soldier wrote:

do you know what is this footage ?
http://www.researchvideo.com/footage-galleries/underground-music-footage-gallery.html

the photo looks like the leni sinclair b/w footage,her deltapop footage from the stooges and mc5 is colour