ABOUT BACKSTAGE PASS

Backstage Pass was formed in 1976 as a mostly female punk-pop band from Los Angeles. The group was one of the city’s earliest punk bands and recognized for helping to build and launch The Masque, Hollywood’s most iconic punk venue.

On November 11, 2018, about forty years after dissolving the original group, a Backstage Pass reboot performed at a Radio Free Hollywood Reunion with numerous other local bands of the era. The new incarnation featured original members Marina del Rey (Marina Muhlfriedel) and Genny Schorr, along with Gwynne Kahn, Jessie Jacobsen, Chris Bailey, and Karen Benjamin, all veteran members of the L.A. music scene. Since then, the band has taken on a new life, playing shows and developing new material – resuscitating the drive and blind ambition that first instigated it. After all – is there anything more punk than going out and kicking ass in your 50s and 60s?

In 2019 Semi-Pro Records, an independent label in East Nashville, released a limited-edition Backstage Pass ’77 pink collector’s cassette of live and studio tracks from the late 70s. Two years later, in 2021, Genny and Marina were featured in a Dr. Martens documentary about the History of Women in L.A. Punk, along with Exene Cervenka, Patty Schemel of Hole, The Linda Lindas, and L.A. Witch.

Marina Muhlfriedel started Backstage Pass on a whim with original bass player Joanna Spock Dean. News of the band spread quickly. Before ever playing a note, the fledgling group was announced in Britain’s “Melody Maker” and “Sounds” music newspapers and in Rodney Bingenheimer’s “Phonograph Record Magazine” column. Genny Body (Genny Schorr), Ché Zuro, and Barrakuda Majors (Holly Beth Vincent) were other key members. There were several incarnations of the band, all comprised of female musicians, except for a series of male drummers. Drummer Rod “The Perve” Mitchell played with Backstage Pass longer than any other drummer. Mike Ruiz from Milk n’ Cookies and Hilly Michaels also performed in various lineups.

The band spent its earliest months rehearsing at the legendary Cherokee Studios in West Hollywood. The building had an upstairs practice room with a one-way mirror and Alice Cooper, David Bowie, and others would watch the girls figure out their instruments. The band’s relationship to Stiff Records founder Jake Riviera, Elvis Costello, and British punk band The Damned finally coaxed them out of the rehearsal room and onto the stage. They played extensively in Southern and Northern California on bills with Devo, The Mumps, Wall of Voodoo, The Nuns, Elvis Costello (opening at the Whisky on EC’s first U.S. tour!), The Screamers, The Weirdos, and others. Backstage Pass was featured in seminal punk publications including “Backdoor Man,” “Slash Magazine,” “Flipside,” and others, and photographed by notable rock photographers including Jenny Lens, Brad Elterman, Donna Santisi, and James Stark. The band has since been included in myriad books about the era.

One of the band’s songs, “Legend (Come on Up to Me),” appears on a Rhino Records punk anthology “Saturday Night Pogo” and was covered by Redd Kross in the cult movie “Desperate Teenage Lovedolls” with Spock singing lead.

Backstage Pass dissolved in 1979. Marina formed Vivabeat, a techno-pop band signed by Peter Gabriel to Charisma/Polygram Records. Vivabeat went on to have a series of charted dance club tracks, including “Man from China” and “The House is Burning (but there’s no one home).” Holly Vincent created Holly and The Italians and had a hit record with “Tell That Girl to Shut Up.” Ché’ Zuro became part of The Orchids, formed by Kim Fowley. Genny Schorr had been a contender to join the Runaways before joining Backstage Pass and later turned down a role in The Go-Gos as she was co-owner of Strait Jacket, a punk fashion store. Instead, she went on to join the original lineup of the cow-punk band The Screamin’ Sirens with Pleasant Gehman. Spock continued to perform with several local bands as a bass player and percussionist. Marina, Genny, and Spock continue to be interviewed about their wild days in L.A.’s early punk scene.