Hell Hole

Sid Terror, the leader of the (original) Undead wrote me after seeing this picture of Dave Vacant, hoping I had pictures of the Undead at Hell Hole which, sadly, I don't. Sid, sent some great stories from the pits of late '70's San Francisco. Some of his stories are excepted from his up-coming book.
His stories (with pictures) are published in the California section of Punk Rock Stories

Sid Terror and The Undead
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Sid Terror

Introduction to the Dave Vacant stories:

Steve Harlow - I remember you and of course, remember the Undead! Unfortunately, that picture of Dave is the only picture I have of any of you. I was at the Hell Hole only one night, I didn't take pictures of the Undead playing. As a matter of fact, this picture might not actually have been taken at the Hell Hole, I don't remember where it was taken, I wanted to include a reference to Hell Hole that you and Dave were associated with.

By the time of this picture Dave Vacant was a character I had known for over a year. He came up to Sonoma County, where I lived then. He was going with an older lady (my age) who made paintings of horses and had a daughter. She and the daughter were fixtures on the scene. I met him and them through a young girl, Niika, who helped me finish out the last few months of my radio show, "No Show" on KMLS-FM in Santa Rosa in 1980. We had Dave on the show for an (incomprehensible) interview which is now lost.

I always have remembered one thing you said from the bandstand the time I saw the Undead at Hell Hole. At one point, Dave, oblivious to the rest of the band, either playing the wrong song or just plain playing wrong, you leaned into the mike and loudly asked, "What's the matter, Dave, your brains fall out of that hole in your cheek?"

(a side note - the late Georgia Stafford (died in '84), a popular painter in Dallas, Texas painted a very cool painting from this picture in 1982, she kept the same title. Though she gave the painting to me at the time, I didn't take it with me when I left Dallas a couple of months later. Maybe, somewhere, someone has the painting.)

Sid Terror - "Wow, I sure would like to see that painting of David and his fiance! Wonder where it is now?

"That David Vacant story is funny, because I think he introduced every girl he went out with for more than a week or two as his "fiance". I remember that mother and daughter too, but for the life of me I can't remember their names. I really had a thing for the daughter, who looked like a young Jean Harlow, but I was too much of a goofball to ever do anything about it. David and I used to go up to their place in Petaluma on occasion and spend a few days. In fact, I have a photo of him that was taken in their back yard.

You are right, David Vacant was a real character. I never could get a straight story from him about anything, including where he was from or if he had family. He was always a pretty transient guy, living in those scary Tenderloin hotel rooms...

I recently heard from a couple of sources that he is living in Portland Oregon now, still renting rooms and with no phone of his own, so it is still impossible for me to track him down. He got his name from Johnny Rotten when the Sex Pistols were in San Francisco. He explained to Rotten that he was squatting on someone's roof at the time. Rotten replied "You ARE pretty vacant!" and the name stuck.

More of Sid Terror's stories of Dave Vacant with the photo of Dave Vacant gone Rockabilly
go here > >.

Other Sid Terror stories with pictures.
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