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November 6, 1986 was a momentous night in Tallahassee FL. The Reverend Billy Graham was bringing his Crusade to the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center. The faithful from North FL, South GA and Lower AL were all flocking to the show. One such group arrived in a church van from south GA. To beat the Civic Center's $8.00 parking fee, they chose to park on a nearby side street. A quiet little street, an over-grown lot occupied most of one side of the block, a run-down little chapel and a dirt parking lot on the other. Being strong, country folk they thought nothing of the two-block walk to the Civic Center and took off with Jesus in their hearts. The Holy Rollers were unaware that another momentous event was being held in Tallahassee that evening. The legendary hardcore band Bad Brains was appearing at CA Chapel. To be sure, the cream of Tallahassee hardcore society was coming out to see one of the best bands around. Just as church group returned to claim their van, the CA crowd came pouring out into the street at the end of the first set. The group of three men in ill-fitting suit jackets and four women in ankle length skirts, hair in top knots and kerchiefs, were forced to walk by the Mohawked, shaved head, dyed head, goth attired crowd to retrieve their vehicle. Just as the sanctuary of the van seemed assured Too Tall (6'9" 245 lbs./ 201 cm 111 kg) came lurching out of the bushes. Quart of beer under one arm, zipping his up his fly, the sight was too much for one church sister who fell in a dead faint in the middle of the street. Not wanting to add to the tensions Too Tall headed quickly back to the club. A couple of locals were quick to comment though. "Bet you wish you paid for parking." and "Oh man you should have used the bathroom before leaving the Civic Center." Sure enough, the poor woman had wet herself. Wouldn't it be great to have a tape of the Crusader's conversation as they fled Babylon for the safety of their South GA homes? --Too Tall   "Christian crusade evangelist Rev. Billy Graham gestures during a Wednesday news conference as he fielded questions. Graham, who began his ministry nearly 50 years ago in Florida, said he's prayed that the 8-day crusade beginning Sunday in Florida's capital city will bring Christ to the unsaved and unify Christians in Florida and South Florida."
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 This story is cross-posted from PanhandlePunk.com. Note: this was originally posted 2/23/20. See the end of the post for additional updates. I started going to shows around 1985, which made me a little late to Tallahassee’s punk rock party. I dove into the scene headfirst though (not literally – I wasn’t much of a stage diver). At the time I had great reverence for local punk pioneers like Slut Boys, Sector 4 and Hated Youth. Flash forward to 2015. Around then my interest in collecting early North Florida punk recordings and ephemera was intensifying. I wanted to know more about my hometown’s early punk history – especially those years before I started attending gigs. I hoped to build on my existing flyer collection. And of course the internet had become a great resource and networking tool for gathering this information. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was transitioning from avid collector to an archivist of North Florida’s largely unchronicled punk rock history. Back in the day, the Florida Flambeau was a critical source of local cultural and musical information, and many of the old issues have been uploaded to the web. I stumbled onto the following passage from a gig review featured in the November 1, 1978 edition: “Next to appear was the area's onlv punk band, Mad As Hell. While the audience booed them and showered them with balled-up beer cups, it was, in spite of itself, reacting the way punk audiences do in London and New York. Mad As Hell got the audience mad as hell and should be very pleased with themselves for getting this type of response from a Tallahassee crowd.” Whoa…there was a punk rock band in Tallahassee as early as 1978? I had no idea. The Slut Boys were the Godfathers of Tallahassee punk rock by any standard that I knew – and they didn’t form for a couple more years. I asked myself: “Who in the hell were Mad As Hell?” Florida Flambeau gig review, November 1, 1978. A bit of time passed during which I wondered about this mysterious pioneering punk band from my hometown. I researched other references to Mad As Hell and found very little information. Who were these guys? The one bread crumb of a clue I found was buried in an archived 1979 FSU yearbook: MICKLER, B. Leisure Services & Studies, B.S.; Member FRPA, Intramural Sports, Foreign Language Club, En-joy Travel & Leisure, Drummer of Mad As Hell, Member of Rex Trailor. I did a bit more digging and found a drummer in Birmingham, Alabama named Ben Mickler on Facebook. On May 23, 2016 I sent the following message: Hi Ben, were you the drummer in a late '70s band from Tallahassee called Mad As Hell? I am trying to track down any info about, or recordings by, this band. I grew up in Tallahassee, played drums in a couple mid-80s Tallahassee punk bands, and have recently been working to document and archive as much about the history of Tallahassee's punk music scene as possible...the earliest reference I'm aware of to punk in Tallahassee is in a 1978 Florida Flambeau article citing Mad As Hell as "the only punk band" in town. I'd love to know more about the history of the band. Thank you! Two and a half months later, on August 10th, I received the following reply: Hey Jon. Yes, I was drummer for Mad as Hell, possibly Tally's first punk band. Along with Johnny O and the late, great Randy "the Ripper" Hill. We formed in Dec 1978 and played around Tally for a couple of years. My response: Hi Ben, thanks for getting back to me! Are there any known recordings of Mad As Hell? Man, I would love to hear them if so. I am a dedicated collector and archivist of early Tallahassee punk music. I will gladly pay for the trouble of getting a copy of a recording if it's at all possible. What venues did you guys play? Cool to see you are still at it. Thanks again for hitting me back. I never received another response from Ben Mickler despite reaching out again multiple times. My efforts to track down “Johnny O” led nowhere. I was able to discover that the Randy Hill in question later went on to play in a band called “Cactus Jack and the Cadillacs” in central Florida. At this point I still wanted to know more, but had mostly answered my own question: “Who in the hell were Mad As Hell?” I continued my efforts to document and preserve Tallahassee punk rock history, most notably founding Panhandle Punk Productions and working with bands to piece together the “Trouble With A Capital T” compilation album. I also started a Facebook group that attracted many of the folks from Tallahassee’s old scene. “Mad As Hell” came up within the group, and one of my friends and old band mates Mookie Burnette offered this recollection: “They were a cover band that did punk songs. They were attempting the "punk show" in Tallahassee. "Fuck you! You suck! Not really. Thanks for coming." Not bad, very entertaining.” Then in November 2018 the last part of the puzzle was solved, thanks to Know-It-Alls front man Burk Sauls who messaged me the following information: Oh, and Doug and I were talking about the elusive "Jonny O" of the band MAD AS HELL, who were basically a punk cover band, but were a really pretty radical thing in a town where at the time, ALL live club bands were country or southern rock or cover bands playing Jimmy Buffett and The Band and 70s soft rock covers...Jonny was always the nicest guy - I had many great conversations about bands and music with him back then... a kindred spirit... and I was always impressed by how he somehow got away with playing the various clubs in town with his teased-up hair and eye-liner.. ha. And the Molly Hatchet and Lynyrd Skynyrd fans seemed to be into it. I think he probably converted a bunch of those old southern rockers. haha. In my memory of the early 80s Tallahassee scene they were - I believe - the first band to address the presence of "punk" and "new" music... Maybe simultaneously with the Slut Boys, but Mad As Hell were more likely to have played the bigger venues because they were more "pro" sounding and had a "show" kind of stage presence... I have memories of them doing Sex Pistols songs.. Ramones... and even an Elvis Costello song or two.. very similar to the Slut Boys set list in their early days, but Mad As Hell were a bit more "glam" and kind of dressed in that UK inspired punk style a bit... Sort of like Generation X... They always sounded really professional and tight. Anyway....Doug sent me this... and I present to you the mysterious Jonny O: Burk’s message contained a now-defunct link to an attorney in Tampa: J. Steele Olmstead. Almost immediately I sent him a lengthy email, detailing my efforts to document early North Florida punk and to learn more about his old band, an excerpt of which is below: I’m interested in additional info about Mad As Hell’s history, and especially whether any recordings, photos, news articles, or gig flyers exist…As Tallahassee’s first band to openly embrace the punk sound and aesthetic, I feel Mad As Hell deserves it’s due. On February 3, 2019 I received the following email response from Johnny O: You are correct about being overlooked. We were on the Vanguard. I was in London in 1975-76 and saw the punk and band scene up close. I brought punk back to Tallahassee. Randy Hill and Ben Mickler were musicians who wanted to play in a band. I had the idea for the 3 piece and wrote all of the (bad) songs. I convinced Ben and Randy to try punk. We did pure, unharnessed, dissonant, angry punk originals about unfairness, inequality, irritating stepparents. and punk covers. My favorite cover: Turning Japaneses by the Vapors. No one did that racists, sexist, social embarrassing song. No one could do what we were doing because we were misfits. College grads who could not get jobs with our degrees. That disappointment and anger came out in our songs. It was so bizarre, because punk was born in London out of a working class ethos which for reasons of the financial structure of English society and London's concentration of young people, resulted in anger at the unfairness of the prospects the kids faced. When I brought punk to North Florida, other musicians didn't see it as a viable alternative musical format. Punk was not business friendly. No one was doing what we were doing. We toured to central Florida and played in New College for Halloween in 1978. We were interviewed on campus radio and perhaps the recordings are still down there. As to the gig, some things are best left undiscussed. I can only say, I did not do the acid. We recorded an EP with three songs at Eli Studios. The sessions were engineered and mixed by Rick Ott. We pushed the edges, until we got a real singer. Bryan Pritchard who was from the Illinois punk pop scene. He'd watched a local band go international - and wanted to replicate that. Randy and Ben got tired of Tallahassee audiences throwing objects at us and on stage, in a feeble attempt to replicate London and by that time NYC and LA audiences. So we added more pop and changed our names to "The News." When Huey Lewis starting charting we changed our names to something I knew: The Derailleurs. I see some band in the 90s stole the name. My dad died in 1980. John Lennon then was murdered. I lost my way and quit the music business to recover. I finally did, but the guys had stopped loving what we did and joined another group called Crew22. I was gone to law school by that time. It’s now February 2020. Who in the hell were Mad As Hell? Now I know. Of course I still have questions…does anyone have the studio or interview recordings Johnny O referenced? How about old gig flyers or photos? Hopefully time will tell. Johnny O didn’t respond to follow up messages. I did send a message to engineer Rick Ott which has thus far gone unanswered. If you have recollections of this band, share them in the comments below. And please contact [email protected] if you have access to Mad As Hell recordings, photos, flyers or ephemera. This post will be updated below as additional information about Tallahassee’s first punk rock band Mad As Hell comes to light. Jon Bleyer PanhandlePunk.com UPDATE: March 27, 2020   The above promotional announcement for Mad As Hell's 1978 Halloween show in Sarasota was taken from the 10/20/78 edition of "Blessed Relief", a student run newspaper at New College (h/t Peter Schow).
"An incredible Band that destroys the labels of Punk and New Wave with raw, hard-driving rock 'n roll. Mad As Hell will perform their renditions of the Stones, Queen, Vibrators, Beatles and the Who, along with such unbelievable originals as "Sammy is a Dope", "Do the Patti Hearst", and "I Think I'd Rather Die". Hailing from Tallahassee, this power trio will assault you with a sound which will make this Halloween party unforgettable." And here is a similar promotion from the 10/27/78 edition. The tongue-in-cheek quotes are hilarious: Presumably the song titles referenced in these ads are on the elusive Mad As Hell demo recording. Please contact [email protected] if you can help with tracking down a copy of said demo. __________________________________________________ And here are a couple more related sources that were not included in the original post...first, a letter to the editor printed in the December 1, 1978 Florida Flambeau from Stephen Byrne indicating Mad As Hell also played a Halloween show in Tallahassee that year – but were not well received by some audience members: I'm mad as hell. What particularly pissed me off was the rude response of some members of the audience at the Halloween concert. To be more specific, some concert-goers had the disrespect to shower a certain band. Those members of the audience had every right to show their distaste. However, the method which they chose to employ was definitely in poor taste. Every performer deserves a certain respect, whether or not their material agrees with the audience. These particular members of the audience failed to show the least bit of respect. I. for one, found their actions inconsiderate, immature, and unbefitting of college students. Stephen Byrne _________________________________________ Finally, here is a letter from Mad As Hell's own John Steele Olmstead published in the February 1979 Florida Flambeau: Rock ‘n’ roll will never die Editor: I feel a compelling force to reply to Mr. Ken Lewandoski in his editorial "Blue Money" of Nov. 29, since he was so deliberate in closing with "OH, how long. Lord, how long?" Okay, I'll tell you! Rock will die when people no longer feel bad. Rock will die when boring jobs and dead ends no longer bother young minded people. Rock will die when frustration and pent-up urges are sedated by total happiness. Rock will die when 2.000 to 50,000 people can get together and have a great time, get high on themselves, or music, or anything else there and not fear of being in danger (think about it). Rock will die when politics, or other public affairs come as honest as a performance by a true artist of popular music, or when everyone there agrees on their purpose for being there (think again). Rock will die when the penchance for being avante-garde for the sake of being avante-garde is purged from the ranks of those starving jazz musicians. Rock will die when country music removes its "hankering” for cliches, limited instrumentation and progressions in chords. (Observe Mr. Buffett's success of late, or Mr. Willie Nelson's or the First Original Hank Williams.) Rock will die when no one wants to hear it any more. Rock will die when it stops diversifying…punk rock, country rock, wrench rock, power rock, techno-rock. southern rock. New Wave, folk rock, California rock (most notably L.A. rock) (Any business major will tell you the secret to success is diversification…got it?) Rock will die when another type of music, call it what you will, replaces the acceptance and interaction that a rock and roller trades with the audience, the people he or she lives for and loves. Rock will die when there are no more masochists to be rock stars left, (contrary to popular belief it is NOT easy to keep your head above water financially and still be an honest performer despite what People magazine says about rock and rollers. Do you believe everything you read?) Rock will die when I look at my audience and they are bored while I'm performing. Really Kenny, do write about something you DO know something about. John Steele Olmstead ------------------------------------------------- August 18, 2020 update: John Steele Olmstead message via Facebook: "Mad as Hell demo. Gave it to my bass player years back for some reason and he lost it... I should have said drummer. Should have known he'd lose it... he's a drummer." Like in NYC, every new fashion on 5th ave, Broadway shows (and) punk genre' starts in the big cities first. Small towns get on the scene after the vibe starts in bigger places. Tallahassee is an interesting small town full of political hypocrisy & ripe for the revolutionary music punk affords it. Our town was built on the broken hearts of Native Americans who's sacred underground waterfall cavern- as popular as mecca, was decimated with toxic waste only 2 blocks from the state Capitol and pumped full of hazardous waste- too hazardous to walk on until just a few recent years.. We share the broken hearts of the Native peoples who were pushed east, who's drums pounded in protest, then we opened another bigger dump next to a pure water aquifer and pushed them out of existence. A broken heart is in Tallahassee, so close to where Ca Chapel and the art community is. It's as if the spirit of protest and decimation was our inheritance. We protested when Presidents came to town and we protested the Injustice from the hanging chads of Shithead G.W. Bush. We protested with tee pees on the Capitol building- for legalization. We protested (and got rid of) the figure-head of the Tallahassee springtime parade- (the genocidal maniac) Andrew Jackson (who made horse reins out of Indigenous human skin & Adolf Hitler literally studied his genocidal techniques). In the early 80's, The Rock Against Reagan tour came through town and asked Sector 4 to come on tour with them. President Ronald Reagan had a lot to do with punk bands starting/ forming, as that's when the full steam murder machine of the White House gave fuel to punks in every town and village across america.
My longest lasting punk band was Sector 4. Punk drummers were pretty scarce, so I was welcome to crash on band member's couches- long as I kept drumming. At first, Sector 4 carried out (our) earlier childhood dreams- of being Jedi Knights defeating the evil empire while screaming about justice for earth. Many people were band-hopping in '81. Somewhere around that time I met the Sector 4 boys, who were 2 years older than me- and rode it out 'til '85- singing songs first about Jedi punks and finally moving on to Melodic screams to an Anti-Orwellian "1984" Genre'. We were in place just before 1984- riding the wave of anti-Reagan, anti-Orwellian music into '84. we were fully present in that date-stamp with time and reason. We grinded our political/musical axe while stunt crashing bicycles with wild abandon all over town. Riding on our own energy and risk was the life. We worked low pay jobs and often lived in the ghettos- being right at home building a $5 lid of pot in the back of black folks pool hall bars. I was only 15 or so, living half on my own & losing interest quick in high-school and anything that wasn't directed to a meaningful end. All i knew is that the earth had meaning, our music had meaning & that gave purpose. Finding spontaneously awakening, like minded people-we awoke: Radical earth lovers who didn't care for society norms- who saw all of civilization as a blatant lie aimed at destruction of the earth. Those in the scene for the right reason expressed voices as one brother/sisterhood. Venues were often something that formed through friends- and many friendships were formed through those venues- the scene grew this way. Music community as a proxy for hope, creativity, activism and friendship (love). At CA chapel I would always look up at the sign. long before we were there, It used to say "Calvary" chapel, but all letters were gone off except for Ca Chapel. How that happened, maybe George knows? Seriously and often gazing often at the sign, I would sing some Bob Marley song (or the positive like). I had a genuine feeling that the oppressed people of African descent had worshiped there in all seriousness. It wasn't a white man's church, so that's why (I think) it felt great there to us punks. I always looked up to and honored the sign of "Ca" chapel and dwelled on it's meaning. I would think: "Ca", also meant "shit", such as "ca ca"- And we are punks, the "shit" of society- and here we are expressing total original, artistic, musical expression- right from the gut. It very much felt like we were family- even those with forked tongues, of envy, needing healing, and those who we just met at any given show. Ecstatic, lasting friendships were formed overnight under the mosquito thrashed street lights and old cracked sidewalks. and the music was organic, ever-fresh, pounding expression we put our souls into a music that we owned. The outside forces was still "the man". Sons of the south would drive by in a parade of 4x4's, full of pissed off white teen men. We'd look up and both sides would jeer- but mostly our side smiled. I was around the corner coming back from my car when a parade of trucks had just turned on the side street. Dark, it was tense as the sausage fest of rednecks jumped out of their trucks and started coming towards me. In their unchecked stupidity, they surrounded and pushed me to the ground. I stayed half up and down as they kicked and punched- i scrapped back. Somehow there was a little kid at the show- probably 9 years or so. He walked around the corner at that time- and for some reason it scared the daylights out of the dipshit crew and they started to leave me alone and group up. When I saw their cowardice- i ran straight back into the crowd and started wailing on the biggest guy i could find- just to get slightly even.. anyway- they high-tailed it. the end. IMO, Sector 4 had one main purpose- to expose the twisted untruths in the world and awaken the truth in people. We had any songs about the anti-Orwellian state- Our songs included protests on endless war in the middle east, the human toll on war, corruption in the white house and government, songs about the founding fathers, the Indigenous peoples of this land, Anti Reagan, Anti Nuclear war, cosmic order, time, space travel, as well as gentle subjects like no revenge and being as true as a Jedi and wise as Yoda. In the hippy era, there was lots of nonsense songs, same with punk era- but both genres were original, filled with protest and awakening. As the "quickening" in the world became more squelched in, the sound in music's urgency to awaken also vibrated faster. After punk era, it seems the closest thing to music, revolution and awakening is the constant drone of dance beats and electronic music- which was extremely underground and born out within the womb of earliest of punk/new wave scenes. Europe and all western countries are part of this musical revolution- but only a small percentage of this art/acivism music aimed for higher ideals, activism & awakening- while the rest was brought down by the drunk fun going on (as in the music). That "fun" with all types of lyrical themes is our punk family celebration. Here we are- a community with a heart, a family. And each show was a family reunion. For the most part we got along. To know your true allies took communication. Shows and dancing was a blast of nature to explode clear doubts and for me it helped expand my bubble of peace, trust and growing- For those who lived the audaciously cheap life for arts-sake survival- we dove into each others' lives. The bad apples didn't last in the scene, often moving out of town after leaving sociopath waste behind. In the fight against everything from Darth Vaders to Nazi Feministas- to jam as creative activists- positive vibes always win. Punks not only spit, they spit at shit, and spit out the shit we're fed. Feb '85, we were interviewed by our dear friend Linda Hall for a Flambeu article. In that interview I sad: "we are striving for a positive peace nation. People in the US are so far gone, we have to sound negative to point out what's wrong. Society as whole doesn't act on love, they act on money". Sad that it's true today. Sector 4 had split up in summer of '85. '86 came around and for me and the climax of punk was dead- partially stolen by Metal and Pop-ish sellout-ness. Many bands in the Tallahassee punk scene kept authentic, but I didn't feel the revolution as much. The stepping stone spoke was saying time to move higher with the traction gained- and seek into the fog of future for a more sublime voice- closer to the cause and effect i came seeking in this life. Around this time, my g/f of 2 years tried to get back at me for cheating on her by spreading a horrific lie/rumor about me. I've tolerated all these years ignorant skinheads and nazis talking shit and stalking me, so especially when I felt our generation of punk had died- that was the icing on the cake. Once at the end of my time in the punk scene, I held a drum workshop at CA chapel. One person attended it, and years later he did say he learned something he used his whole life (as a drummer). Sector 4's music led me to positive original music on guitar, with much of my message dedicated to the plight of Mother Earth, the Moon, and the higher vibes as inspired by brothers Bob Marley and Peter Tosh's lyrics. To end, Instead of sharing a Sector 4 lyric, I'd like share one that i feel represents a prophetic ability (about world affairs) coming from this first generation of punk. The lyrics below are from the band "Lords of the New Church" and the song is "open your eyes". Video games train the kids for war Army chic in high-fashion stores Law and order's done their job Prisons filled while the rich still rob Assassination politics Violence rules within' our nation's midst Well ignorance is their power tool You'll only know what they want you to know The television cannot lie Controlling media with smokescreen eyes Nuclear politicians picture show The acting's lousy but the blind don't know Open your eyes See the lies right in front of ya Open your eyes They scare us all with threats of war So we forget just how bad things are You taste the fear when you're all alone They gonna git'cha when you're on your own The silence of conspiracy Slaughtered on the altar of apathy You gotta wake up from your sleep 'Cause meek inherits earth six feet deep Open your eyes see the lies right in front of ya Open your eyes  |
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