Official history page, The Hellcats (1985-91)

Music:

The intention of the slide show is to have captions and the "random" style slideshow with vertical scrolling on the Friends slideshow, but Myspace has got the slide shows screwed up currently so that only the slider style without captions appears. Hopefully they'll fix this soon, though I'm not holding my breath. We're still trying to get more of the photos up documenting our history. This is just a starter and we don't have the history text up yet either!

If you mouse over an image in the slideshow, you will see a caption but if they ever fix the slideshows, the captions will play without you needing to do that. Use the controls on the right side of the slideshows to control the speed and direction the slideshows move or stop them from moving. It appears now that if you click the slideshow, you are taken into the photo gallery.

It's important to note that the "friends" slideshow is just showing people in our photo gallery who knew us apart from playing in our group but do not indicate all the friends we have. We do not intend to slight our friends by posting a few non-band photos in the slideshow. We did feel that Panther Burns performance pics and photos of those we knew on tours belonged somewhere but we don't have photos of all our friends unfortunately.

PLAYERS (mouse over pictures to view caption info):

FRIENDS (mouse over pictures for caption info):

Final line up: Diane Green (cofounder), Lorette Velvette (cofounder), Lisa McGaughran (cofounder), Misty White, Su Ondine.

Briefly members: Giovanna Pizzorno (1986-1987), Linda Heck (1985 first lineup), Brenda Brewer (1985 first lineup), Doug Easley (Dec. 1987 - spring 1988), Benny Carter (Dec. 1987 - spring 1988), Elizabeth Pritchartt (1987), George Reinecke (stood in for Lisa on the summer 1988 tour).

Guest musicians on recordings or shows: Gracia Steele, Richard Rosebrough, Jim Spake, Susan Tatum, Jim Watkins, Ron Easley, Kristi White, Dee White, Melissa Dunn, Nancy Apple (tried out one show), A.C. (backup harmony vocal one show).

Influences:

General influences we all shared (partial list): Tav Falco's Panther Burns , The Jaynetts, the Shangri-las, surf music, Charlie Feathers, Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside, Cordell Jackson, Muddy Waters, The Odd Jobs, Irma Thomas, The Insect Trust, Herschell Gordon Lewis, the Ronettes, Allen Toussaint, Tura Stana, Dr. David Evans, Wilson Pickett, High Water Records label, J. Blackfoot, The Sex Pistols, Doug Easley, Ross Johnson, The Ramones, the Clash, Velvet Underground, Fleetwood Mac, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, The Cramps, Patti Smith, The Rolling Stones.

The lead singers chose the songs and each additionally had particular influences that affected the band's sound, song topics, and spirit. We all added a number of other major influences to our lives in the years following the group, but these partial lists are restricted to what impacted us during The Hellcats period, not the rest of our lives post-1990.

Lorette: Memphis Minnie, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Lil Green, Skip James, Slim Harpo, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Lightning Hopkins, The Cramps, Charlie Feathers, and lots more.

Diane: Patti Smith, Dead Boys, Mink Deville, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, the Stooges, The Stranglers, Girl on a Motorcycle, She Devils On Wheels, Jean Michel Basquiat, Dadaism, Jean Cocteau, the occult, connecting with the dead.

Lisa: Ray Davies, The Dead Kennedys, Eugene Chadbourne, The Cousteau Society, Greenpeace, Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, The Beatles (together and as solo artists), Chrissie Hynde, CSNY, Neil Young, Byrds, the Turtles, Big Star, Alex Chilton, Joe South, Marshall Chapman, David Olney, Don Covay, Ike Turner, Thomas Bingham, Teenie Hodges, Jackie DeShannon, Wanda Jackson, Travis Wammack, Mudboy & the Neutrons; Skeeter Davis, tons of 1960s & 1970s rock radio and folk rock artists, Johnny Cash, Rosanne Cash, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Memphis Minnie, Jessie Mae Hemphill, WEVL, the Modifiers, the Neon Wheels, the Randy Band, REM, The Replacements, Ike and Tina Turner, Steve Cropper, Mar-Keys, Sonic Youth, Sinead O'Connor, Booker T. & the MG's, Stax, Sun, Moon Records, Hi, Ann Peebles, The Box Tops, Lee Hazelwood, Nancy Sinatra, k.d. lang, The We Five, the B-52, Tav, Ron Easley, René Coman, Elvis Costello, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Cat Stevens, Phineas Newborn Jr.

Drummer Misty's Grateful Dead and "Deadhead" influences impacted the spirit of the group at the time. Giovanna's European tastes and Buddhist chants influenced the group during her time with us as well, as did the general energies of each member with us. Giovanna sang lead on a European ballad once at Antenna as well.

Local predecessors: The Marilyns predated us a few weeks and should be remembered as an interesting 1980s Memphis band of a related genre in 1985, although over the years they changed genres. Other female-led rock band predecessors in Memphis: The Klitz from the 1970s, and Anzel may possibly have started before our early 1985 beginnings too.

Lorette video from around 1991 (blog updated with edits)

Giovanna and Diane news, friends gig poster

Acquiring pics, song notes, show memories

Happy birthday this week to Lorette

a video we like + Myspace slideshows still screwed up

The Pippin, Birthday, MUSE, and The Farm School

The Crossroads, The HiTone, Jessie Mae + history notes

Diane Greens art + MUSE project

mp3s and video

band member thoughts page

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