Ungano's, Feb 1970

UNGANO'S, FEB 1970 - Per

The Stooges were back in New York for a four-night stand, Saturday to Tuesday, February 21st to 24th 1970, at Ungano’s, their first New York headline billing. The opening act was Liquid Smoke, a blues band. Ungano’s was a small Upper Westside Manhattan club with a capacity of barely 200 people. Iggy managed to persuade Elektra’s Vice President Bill Harvey into giving him $400 for cocaine, explaining that he needed it to get through four punishing nights.

The Stooges performed on Ungano’s floor level and had trouble squeezing their amplifiers and equipment into the small area, which was made even more cramped by the presence of mirrored columns. Having added a red dog collar and silver elbow-length lamé woman’s evening gloves to his repertoire, Iggy leaped onto the small cocktail tables at which most of the crowd was seated, stomping his boots and upending drinks. For the encore at one of the shows, as the band generated an intimidating wall of feedback, Iggy stepped out from behind the amplifiers with his fully erect penis exposed. He touched the tip of his member to the end of the neck of Ron’s guitar, the feedback stimulating him to an orgasmic high. Mouths were agape in the audience and the shock of the final moments left many in stunned silence as the show ended. “Iggy was only arrested once [Romeo], but I thought they might take him away that night at Ungano’s,” admits Silver. “He and Ron start moving toward each other, and Ron points the head of the guitar at Jim. So Jim takes out his dick and Ron touches the end of the guitar to it and starts going crazy on the strings, feedback, etc. The crowd who were about to contract disco fever in a few years were not into it. It completely freaked them out.”

The Cash Box reviewer described the Stooges’ Ungano’s shows as “unique” and “groundbreaking,” as he felt the band was “the beginning of a new concept in rock, the theatre of rock carried to its logical conclusion, living theatre.” Dan Goldberg of Record World praised the band as “loud, powerful and throbbing, with a force that puts them in a musical category something like the old Cream stripped of its heavy blues influence.” He felt Iggy’s sexuality was “Jaggeresque” and that he was particularly effective in a small club environment where he could confront the audience personally. Fred Kirby of Billboard was also genuinely thrilled, depicting the Stooges’ set as “erotic.” He felt their act “curiously worked as the large weekday crowd tried to anticipate Iggy’s next move.”

The Ungano’s shows were attended by several young people who within five years would become prominent figures of the New York punk rock movement, including Jim Carroll, Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye, and future members of the Dictators, the Ramones, Television, Blondie, and Suicide. Danny Fields brought along the Andy Warhol crowd. “Everyone was there, the whole scene, all of the Max’s back room, thanks to Danny,” remembers Leee Black Childers, who was part of the Warhol scene. “They were screaming about how fabulous Iggy was. I was starting to become a photographer, so I went there to photograph him. I went with Wayne County, my roommate at the time. We couldn’t believe our eyes! I can’t remember if there were any other photographers there. Dustin Pittman was there, but he wasn’t a photographer yet. He was still only a pretty boy. Geri Miller, the Warhol ‘superstar,’ went there to become a groupie. She was sitting in the front and during one song, Iggy stalked down to her. She was grinning up at him and he grabbed her by the face. His whole hand covered her face. He dragged her by the face and when he took his hand off her face, she was still grinning. She became a big fan.”

haha, Jim and Ron...too much info


and interesting description...'like the old Cream stripped of its heavy blues influence'!

this gig is an explosion
absolute filled with superlatives
what a story!!!!
imagine each one of these famous people in the audience
probably could tell their version with other totally crazy details..
would be an incredible book!!

Quote :

He and Ron start moving toward each other, and Ron points the head of the guitar at Jim. So Jim takes out his dick and Ron touches the end of the guitar to it and starts going crazy on the strings, feedback, etc.

and ppl think that that bowie on knees in front of ronson thing was a whole sexual explosion thing between men and a blurring of gender etc, lol this mustve been equally mezmerizing and weird lol

these were explosive shows, sounds like the stooges just let loose

jaggereque? lol yeh rite, jaggers a pussy compared to iggy, jagger'd never go that far!

Sounds like a very exciting show ........ thanks Per

Imagine seeing that at that time.
Great read, thanks for posting it.

Hi All Iggy Fans,
I just want to comment on Lee Childers comments about the Ungaro's concert om 1970.
In 1970, I was, indeed, a film and still professional photographer, having
already made several Underground films of the Warhol Superstars, Candy Darling, Taylor Mead, Jackie Curtis, Holly Woodlawn. I not only photographed
all the the Iggy & The Stooges 1969 and 1970 New York concerts, but used
to hang out with Danny Fields and Iggy before the shows in Danny's loft.
We all used to walk over to Max's together.
Iggy and I had a great understand; he would let me photograph him up
really close and NOT BREAK MY CAMERA. (Iggy had a habit of breaking photographers cameras at shows). Iggy and I had a great relationship. I am soon to release my book, Iggy in New York 1970-1970. But if you want to get a sneak peak of some of the photos, link to my website: dustinpittman.com.
Enjoy. Iggy is the best. The Godfather of Punk.
dustin pittman

Sounds great, will you be selling these through your website?

that amazing dustin, welcome to the forum, thanks for the info, can't wait!

interesting, thanks dustin!

Dustin ! I know who you are !

You must have some of the rights to the ungano's photo's ? Or you took some also ?

In my magazine "Changes" from December 1970, your listed as the photographer on some of the photo's I believe.

Nice to see you here ! Looking forward to the book !

Now whens that Unganos tape gonna surface?

thanks for the news dustin.

Hi Dustin, I'm a fan of Candy Darling and Holly Woodlawn,saw Holly in a cabaret show in London in the 70s ...... welcome to the boards. Ted

Wow, Dustin can't wait. Love the pics on your site. Thanks!

Recent interview with Dustin Pittman that has some stuff about the Stooges:

We caught up with Dustin on the set of a fashion shoot in the Adirondack Mountains and he spoke to us for more than an hour about he came to be one of the most talented camera-wielders of recent times.

MAX’S KANSAS CITY: I was going through your website and online portfolio and it’s just mind-boggling to me how much you’ve captured and recorded of popular culture. Congratulations. That’s a lifetime and a half of work. Kudos to you on that.
Dustin Pittman: Well thank you, thank you so much, that’s very kind of you.

MKC: How does it feel to be one of the most respected chroniclers of popular culture? Do you ever wake up sometimes and just think, “wow!” – and you’re still doing it too!

DP: It’s really kind of amazing that I am still doing it. I’m grateful, you know. They’re still shooting the same way I shot before, you know, traditional cameras, and now I’m shooting of course digital and traditional and the thing is, you know, the same way I kind of operate the is still the same in all areas. I’ve always been like that.

I’ve never been stuck with one thing. Just music, or just fashion, or just celebrities, you know whatever it is. I always have been grateful in that I was able to do what I felt like shooting. It’s been really great. And also, I guess a lot of it, I was above radar, but a lot of it stayed below radar too. It was really kind of great. My career’s been really steady and very fulfilling. As you already know, my archive is pretty immense

MKC: Did you always intend for your life to sort of unfold this way? Or did it just happen? Sort of being at the right place at the right time?

DP: You know it just happened. It’s so funny, the way things work. I remember at 9-years-old trying to get into shows and concerts with my camera.

MKC: Where were you living?

DP: Upstate New York. I was outside of Utica. And all these girl bands and all these great bands would come and play, right? I didn’t have tickets or anything, so at that time there were no roadies, I used to tell the guys, “oh let me carry your guitar in.” So I would carry their stuff, but I would be backstage the whole time shooting. It was amazing. We’re talking about early, early stuff. It was crazy; I was able to mingle and get around and get all access. And at that time, of course it was years before the word paparazzi or anything that prevented people from having more and more security, so it was great, there was no such thing as security at that times. It was all loose. It was like that all the way up until the late ‘70s. In the ‘80s it started getting kind of crazy. But you know, those days, that kind of freedom was not only myself as a photographer, but also as a person – everybody was wonderful, I was able to mingle and just sit down and smoke a joint, you know what I mean?

MKC: Right, I totally understand,

DP: Danny Fields who was a very good friend of mine was Iggy’s manager. Iggy used to come to New York, and he had an incredible reputation for smashing photographers’ cameras. No way could a photographer shoot Iggy in concert. He would smash the camera in two seconds. But Iggy and I were friends. He used to stay over at Danny’s place over on 20th or 21st street, a couple of blocks from Max’s. I used to go to Danny’s all the time, and we used to do our thing and hang out. And Iggy and I always had a pact. That I would be able to photograph him the way I wanted to photograph him, in concert, and he wouldn’t smash my camera. It was fantastic. And I got incredible, incredible pictures. Everyone was always totally frightened to death to get close to him.

MXC: How is Iggy in person? All the images you see of him are so strong, is he that intense?

DP: Incredibly intense. Iggy then is a different Iggy from now. He’s an incredible guy of course a great personality. But he’s an incredible together businessperson. You know, Iggy’s a show.

MKC: Right …

DP: And that’s what’s amazing about it. Now, he’ll go out and give it his all, but it’s a show. I’m not trying to demean it, but it’s like Iggy and the Stooges’ regular style. Whereas before, Iggy was rock n’ roll, it was raw. And I mean raw. At that time when Iggy first came around, he was hated by the press. They couldn’t stand him. They couldn’t stand what him and The Stooges were all about, they thought it was all noise. Like anything else in new directions. But the thing is it was really crazy because he was able to come around with this personality and it was fantastic, nothing was like that. At this time you had this boring, monotonous, arena rock. It was disgusting. This huge pomp, and it was all props and show biz. And when Iggy came, it was this kid in torn jeans and bare-chested with his dog collar on his neck, cutting himself with glass, and doing all this stuff for the audience. The people, their mouths were wide open just gasping for breath.

MKC: Wow ….

DP: Yeah I mean that’s what it was. It wasn’t anything that had come around like that. Those times were incredible. I mean to witness that, especially those few early ones. When he was just getting his feet wet. It was amazing, man. Truly amazing. It turned my life around.

to see the rest of the interview which is non-Stooges stuff: http://maxskansascity.com/staging/view/www.dustinpittman.com