Steve Richards

Ever try to meet people in Vancouver? You'll have better luck preventing Janet Gretzky from betting on the Turin Olympics than you will convincing someone to talk to you in a bar. So there you stand, wondering "Who are those people I see every time I go to a show?" You're too shy to ask, so we do it for you.

WHO ARE YOU? "Steve Richards."

IN MY 9-TO-5 LIFE I'M A: "Writer, self-publisher -I run a rock 'n' roll and B-release fanzine called Sockamagee!-and I also work at the PNE as a gardener and labourer. I'm also thinking about doing spoken word at some point, but that would be after 5 p.m..."

IF YOU'RE BUYING, I'll HAVE: "I like my Guinness but I'd also take Big Rock from Calgary."

THE BEST SHOW I EVER SAW WAS: "I would have to say the Ramones, the four out of five times I saw them. The first time was when my dad took me to see them in 1980 at UBC's SUB during the End of the Century tour. I still have the T-shirt from that show. DEVO in '79 was another best. I was 16 years old and they changed my life. I went to school the next day and really saw things differently. It's funny, back then I didn't know very many people who were into new wave and punk rock; my dad was ahead of his time. Then I met my friend Mike Armstrong who was the lead singer for East Van Halen and, from there, I went on to be the singer for Jimmy and the Olsens who became the Flaming Coyotes and then for My Three Sons, which won third in the Shindig in '84."

I WISH PEOPLE WOULD SHUT UP ABOUT: "Scenesters….I believe in community, whether it's art or music, but I'm not too crazy about the people who beat their chests because they think they belong to a certain scene."

THE LAST CONCERT T-SHIRT I BOUGHT WAS: "I've got about 60 of them, but I think the last one I bought was from the Nina Hagen show at the Commodore in January of last year. It's very garish but very beautiful."

IN THE MOVIE OF MY LIFE, I WOULD BE PLAYED BY: "I hope it's not ego talking, but I think I would have to say Christopher Walken."

HOW ARE YOU FOLLOWING IN THE LUMBERING STEPS OF FRANKENSTEIN?: "It's not a well-known fact, but Boris Karloff worked at the PNE as a carpenter during the 1920s before he went to Hollywood to become Frankenstein. Me and my coworkers joke [that] Frankenstein belongs at the PNE. I was already a big fan of Karloff's, I saw all the old Universal films when I was a kid because my parents would let me and my sister stay up late. A couple years ago I watched a Hammer Film movie, which was the inspiration for my Frankenstein Created Women tattoo. It's a black-and-white tattoo of a very gaunt Frankenstein."

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