In The Beginning - Peter, Rick & I were hanging out constantly after high school. During this time we were deeply into music and were seeing every show we could. Rick, who dressed the most punk out of all of us, was shocking to most of the people in SE Mass with his attire and tooth ring. He definitely was a character & highly influenced by the English music scene. Actually, it was during this time, that Richard was showing his proclivity as a performer as he gave shows for his coworkers/friends in the Raynham MA, Shaw's parking lot by standing on cars and imitating various singers. Probably after tiring of these simulated performances (& the other comic relief he was prone to provide...........very funny guy!), I think he just decided that being in a band is what he wanted to do. In my mind he always showed a gift for performing (and is one of the funniest people I've ever known). Peter might have the most passion about music of anyone on the planet. We really loved music but Peter really, really LOVED music..........................and it wasn't a stretch to see him end up in a band. I on the other hand never had a strong desire to be a performer. I had the normal fantasies about being in a band but nothing that consumed me...............not until I became exposed to punk. When I joined them I don't think I really thought we would even play out. I think if I had............I may have never joined (HA HA!). Richard & Peter were much more intent on starting a band than I was. I was @ UMASS, getting closer to graduation, and having a hard time thinking about entering the corporate/work world. I don't know if I wasn't ready or just bored by the thought, but it took me some time to come to the conclusion that I should join them. In the end I was so hooked that I dropped out 9 credits short of a degree to concentrate on the band (maybe not the brightest move I ever made.................but I'd do it again). I was also becoming separated from most of my other friends during this time since none of them could understand why I could throw everything away to be in a band (and a punk band no less!). Early on I was just hanging around with Rick & Peter (like we always did) as they tried out different guitarists. I remember one show in Rick's garage with Gary on guitar in which I was responsible for loaning equipment, providing between set music (The Dead Boys Caught with the Meat In Your Mouth a particular favorite at the time) & lifting the garage door at the apex of the intro to 10 scared bystanders in the driveway. Hey............................you have to start somewhere! I have no idea why I decided to join them. I had taken some guitar lessons when I was younger and had a basic understanding of chords, but the last thing in the world I wanted to do was perform. Being a performer is about as far away from my character as you can get. I literally had never played a guitar standing up. As you can see from the picture below there was very little indication in this 1970 picture of what was to come:

My recollection of those first practices with my guitar up around my neck is pretty funny. Since I had a basic understanding of music I was able to guide Peter a little on how to play. I remember finding a used Fender Precision for Peter (who bought it without ever having touched a guitar) and how happy he was when he got it. He was pretty serious about wanting to do this. Some unrelenting arm twisting led to some practices by the three of us. Which led to some more practices. And before you knew it we were all hooked. Those early practices were in Richard's parents cellar in Assonet. Some of our first performances were by the 3 of us (sans drummer) in that cellar for about five people. It was very surprising to me, considering the racket, that his parents didn't kick us out right away. We actually practiced there for about 2 years before they couldn't take it anymore. Needing another place to play, with everybody else's house off limits, Robin's (Peter's girlfriend and future wife) friend Debbie Skillings graciously let us practice at her grandmother's house (which we did until 1984 when Peter, married and with child, joined the homeowner class and we started to torture his neighbors...................

On Politics/Religion (or topics you should never discuss...........) - You can tell we never believed that axiom. I never thought of us as trying to start a new political system, become flag bearers for any existing and/or overthrow the current government. I always looked skeptically at all political systems because they are all, in essence, driven by greed (for either money, status and/or power). In my opinion there is no system that will care for all equally and fairly. Instead of aligning ourselves with a political system I always described us as humanists. I think we just applied some common sense to how we think people should be treated. We may have had very little effect politically, but I think we tried to set up a dialogue about the issues that we cared about & set an example of how you should conduct yourself in this world. I know I have always tried to be non-racist, fair and compassionate in how I deal with people. I believe very strongly in trying to help the less fortunate (especially anyone who is cold & hungry.........absolutely no one should be cold or hungry in the United States). If everyone approached their fellow human beings in a similar manner, we may have no need for any overbearing political system. If we had ever made any real money it would have been fun to do some good in the world. While some people believe music & politics don't mix, I always preferred some intelligent message in the lyrics as opposed to the 1,000,000 song about cars & girls (fine subjects but done to death!). While I could understand why some people could be drawn into leftist ideals like communism, we really weren't interested in becoming a flag bearer for any particular political movement. We had many shows that turned into violent episodes due to this element we attracted. We never regretted anything that happened and just accepted this as part of the package that came with picking that band name. I always looked at the name from a perspective of defining us as coming from the working class, rather than associating us with the Communist movement. Where religion was concerned we all came from normal, oppressed catholic upbringings. I saw enough in my days in catholic school to know I didn't want to entrust my spirituality to other mortals. We were never against religion or religious beliefs per se (that is highly personal), but just challenged the organizations that claim to know what's best for us and decided to take those matters into our own hands. I never believed, for example, that I should have to confess my sins to another mortal when I can discuss that directly without an intermediary. Seeing the crisis in the Catholic church today solidifies my belief that religions often get into trouble as they interpret the bible and other religious documents and pollute them with their own biases and man made rules. Rules such as not allowing priests to marry are not natural and are bound to cause the problems we've seen with the rampant pedaphilia. This principle of man's interpretations (or mis-interpretations) of history doesn't just apply to the Catholic church but to all organized religions.............all of which are really multinational corporations masquerading as holy sanctuaries and hiding behind all the afforded protections.

On Fashion in Music - One of the things I was rebelling against was fashion. I hated the costumes and overblown stage shows of the bands of the late 70's/early 80's. I always felt it had nothing to do with music and was unnecessary. While I did like some flamboyant bands like Bowie and Kiss (mostly just the music), we were really trying to counteract the emphasis on fashion and elaborate stage shows in music. We were the anti-fashion band. We got up on stage in the clothes & hairstyles we wore every day. We very often only asked for continuous white lights when we played. That coupled with our pasty white complexions formed a truly hideous stage appearance..............one we reveled in. Wasn't much of a visual show but it was honest and created the stark backdrop we were looking for. No drum stick flipping, no singer in leather pants, no guitar solos or wagging tongue and no high testosterone bass player! Here are some examples of that gruesome stage appearance:

We used to have this running joke that we were the only band in the world that could be photographed in color and still appear like it was taken in black & white!!

On Musical Style - I was always drawn towards heavier music growing up. Anything with a distorted guitar I liked. When I was about 10 or 11 I started taking guitar lessons at a music school called Derossi's Music in New Bedford, MA. Playing (or trying to play) the awful pop songs of the day or some classical pieces really never grabbed my interest, So in turn I never really applied myself that much. I remember we had some ensemble band competitions where I ended up having to prepare & play a solo, & pieces for 3 man & ensemble bands. Didn't like most of it except the one ensemble where I was the only guitar that was electric & instead of plucking the same notes as the other drones, I was playing the underlying chords alone. But even that wasn't enough to keep me going past a few years. It was during that time my parents bought me an electric guitar and amp. My father found a used Strat & Vox amp in the paper and we got it for $250. Eventually in the Proles I beat the hell out of what turned out to be rare, valuabl, vintage gear. The Vox was a California made solid state version of the famous 2X12 tube combo called the Viscount (which had built in tremolo, reverb and top boost settings). The Strat was a 1955 version (sunburst with a maple neck). It literally was a crime the beating it took (which I'd do again in a second!). I used to punch the hell out of it for fun and effect. I used this equipment for the entire Prole run (adding a Mesa 4X12 late in the band's existence). Before the Proles that amp & guitar sat unused for many, many years. I think the problem was I could never get it to sound distorted like the heavier music I preferred. It had a very clean sound. Once I got talked/tricked(HA HA!) into joining Peter & Rick, I discovered the greatest invention ever known to man............................the distortion box. Whoa! I finally could make a noise that I actually liked hearing. The box I used exclusively in the Proletariat was a MXR Distortion Plus. Starting the band in 1980, that signature sound evolved over the next few years. The basic Prole sound came out of that equipment combination, a scooped mid setting and a unique pick attack. I added a MXR Dyna Comp later. I was always looking for a brighter edge in order to get out the sound I was looking for.....kind of an exagerrated scooped mid. It happened somewhat by accident early on when I only had a few guitar picks and they would become chewed up as they deteriorated from the beating they took hitting the strings. Using this jagged edge started getting the harsh attack I was looking for. Later I would buy Fender extra heavy picks and literally create shark teeth down a whole side using a file. Attacking the strings (I didn't know of anyone doing that) by literally scraping that side of the pick against the strings, set the basic tone of the band. Most of the songs were played this way although later on I would add a Fender light pick and strike the strings in a more normal fashion on songs like "No Lesser Of Evils". It would have been interesting to see what we could have done with modern equipment/recording studios of today. All our stuff was recorded on pretty simple 8-track equipment. We were pretty creative combining/bouncing tracks to extend the limits but it was still budget recording. One of our favorite techniques was to take advantage of the fairly empty building Radiobeat was located in (the building on Boylston Street near Fenway Park housing Papa Ginos) by setting up amps to create echo chambers that added ambiance to the guitar sound. Despite all the challenges it was fun and we were very lucky to be able to put extra time in the process due to Lou Giordano's & Jimmy Dufour's largesse...................

I always believed that we made up any lack of musical virtuosity by playing with emotion. I can remember shows where I would have blood all over my guitar from beating on it so much (or cutting myself from attacking the strings). I had a tendency to punch the guitar in an effort to produce interesting sounds (and for a release). Unfortunately those early Strats could barely stay in tune and it forced me to have to tune up constantly. Later on in Churn it was so nice to have guitars (with a few mods) that I could keep in tune and still play hard. We just didn't have the money for equipment in those days. But despite the problems we really fed off a crowd and usually had our best performances when the crowd was really into the show. We played off that feedback well.....................as most bands do. It's during those special shows that you realize how awesome it is to be able to play original songs for strangers and get positive feedback. There isn't a feeling like it in the world. Our favorite thing would be when we had a new song and we were playing it out for the first time. Those first few times the song is just so fresh & powerful you feel like you could play it for hours on end. Even existing songs would weave in and out of that fresh state. The biggest battle in The Proletariat sometimes was which songs to play during a set, because each individual had a different feeling about which songs were fresh to them. In the end though there is nothing like a new song to play out to keep you going. Conversely, I don't think I could ever be playing the same songs for 30 years like Aerosmith, The Stones, etc. That has got to be boring as hell.............................or just a job! My ideal band would be one which the set changed 25% every show with new songs always being added. Every 4th show would be a 100% turnover in the set list..................

On Musical Influences - Going to high school during the 1974-77 range, I hated most of the popular music. I sought out anything with a harder edge: Early Bowie, Early Stones, AC/DC, Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, Aerosmith, Neil Young, Iggy Pop, Kiss, etc. While the Beatles were dominating the airwaves the only songs I liked were Revolution & Back In The USSR for their harder edge. But it wasn't until I heard the Sex Pistols in 1977 that I found exactly what I was looking for. I think up until that point I viewed what a band did like how I viewed what a brain surgeon did........................incredible & unreachable. Most bands we listened to weren't on the fringe of society. In the Sex Pistols I found the rebellion every teenager is looking for. What they did for music was incredible. While they may have been influenced by some of the NY Punk, they took it to a level that just kicked the establishment in the ass. And I loved that. That they could create such a stir with emotion & ideas rather than musical virtuosity was amazing to me. And Sid Vicious showed every teenager at the time that ANYONE can play an instrument and be in a band. That period opened a floodgate to some of my favorites to this day: The Clash, Ramones, Gang Of Four, Patti Smith, Buzzcocks, Siouoxsie & The Banshees, etc.). As we started playing out we hear people compare us to The Fall, Wire, Killing Joke, Crass etc. and discovered those bands by the comparisons. Later on I became more influenced by American punk & hardcore, which in my opinion, took over the lead from England by 1981. People who say they aren't influenced by other bands are lying. I actually believe we are influenced by every sound we hear. I think the best bands combine numerous influences (by every member) into something unique. Something that we are proud of is I think that in a lot of ways The Proletariat were very unique. It's a style that is pretty identifiable to this day. But that doesn't happen overnight. It took awhile for us to shed our influences and find our style. With the money available today & the way bands are launched into the limelight by MTV today, you can see numerous examples of bands not developed to the point where they have found their style. Many of them sound very derivative (Hello "Puddle Of Nirvana!). In a lot of ways I'm grateful we never had to grapple with money & fame............................As far as bands that I respect today, Rage Against The Machine is at the top of the list. They remind me so much of ourselves it's not even funny.............powerful band & an important message. Nirvana praises have been sung to death but they were a band that made me think about playing guitar again and was the germ that led me to being in Churn after not playing for ten years. They were an extremely important, influential band. When I think of their commercial breakthrough though, I think of all the great US punk bands that came before them................toiling in relative obscurity but paving the way for commercial punk success that none of us could have ever predicted.

On Hardcore - We came from distinctly different places (musically & politically) than the hardcore bands we played with, We were more influenced by English bands and leftist politics............much different than most hardcore bands. And we were older (early 20's). But I always respected the DIY approach, camaraderie & violent release aspects of the music/movement. Local bands like SSD & the FU's had a power behind what they were doing. We got to play with most of the best from that era: Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Circle Jerks, Dead Kennedy's, Effigies, Angry Samoans, Husker Du, Channel 3, Negative Approach, Jerry's Kids, Flipper, Jody Fosters Army, Black Flag, F.U.'s, The Freeze, Crucifix, SSD, etc. Any non-hardcore punk band saying they weren't influenced by these bands are probably lying. Some of our sound developed as a result of this influence (especially on myself & Peter who really liked the fast, aggressive nature of it). My only problem with the movement was how elitist and regimented it became. In some ways their rebellion took on the sameness of what we were trying to escape..............substituting a new uniform (musically & fashion wise) where very little deviation was condoned. And some uninformed members of that group took that style as an excuse to carry out their hatreds of others. However, you can't blame them for banding together in that us against the world mentality. Being in a band kinda makes that approach necessary to survive. One of the amazing things to me is how to this day there is a thriving underground punk/hardcore scene. Even in SE Mass there are many bands and there is actually a yearly festival with punk bands from all over the world. Pretty amazing to me & I'd like to think we had something to do with paving the way for this (although it took 15 years or so). These kids still know about & look up to The Proletariat, Gang Green, SSD, F.U.'s etc. as local pioneers...........................pretty amazing if you ask me. Not bad for a movement that most people were praying would go away...............and fast! I remember how much the mainstream bands in Boston hated us (and other punk bands). There was a point where punk dominated the local clubs and regular rock bands couldn't even get a show. And they despised us for that because they couldn't understand why people would want to watch such lousy musicians (HAHA!). Peter & I did a video magazine show once at Emerson College where they had us pitted against some local rock band who used the forum to rip us. But we had the last laugh..............they still couldn't play anywhere but the suburbs. When it comes right down to it, they totally missed the boat on why punk survives...................it's a movement based on rebellion (something every teenager is naturally attracted to).

On Boston/Providence - Boston was a great place to play music in the early 80's. What I liked about Boston was we were able to find people who accepted our brand of noise. Southeastern Massachusetts was not the place to be punk in the early 80's. Almost all of the clubs featured cover bands. We did end up playing a couple of local clubs (Smugglers & Bogies in New Bedford & The Lafayette Club in Taunton) but I'm pretty sure they either banned music or punk bands soon thereafter! Our goal was always to play in Boston so that didn't matter much to us. We were so green as a band (and musicians) those shows helped us anyway. I also have to admit we liked shocking them. People were either violently against us or they just stared in disbelief. I think the first show we played in Boston was at a legendary early 80's club (to us anyway) called The Underground. May have been 7 or 8 people there that night but it didn't matter to us. We were just happy we got to play in Boston. As a matter of fact everything from this point on was gravy in our book. Playing in Providence was also very special to us. Geographically it was closer to SE Mass than Boston. We were always very well supported there and had many great shows in Providence at the Living Room (thanks to Randy Hein-who literally gave us any show we wanted) and other local spots. In both places we felt at home and met many great people.......................

On Support - We were truly lucky to have some great friends, champions in the press/radio and other supporters. I know I'll forget to list many of the people by name here (but they are not forgotten in spirit), but we really couldn't have accomplished as much without the help of people like Lou Giordano, Patrick Norton, Jimmy Dufour, Gerard Cosloy, Shred, Randy Hein, Mick Miller (RIP) , Jim Marciano, Doug Cuillio (RIP), Debbie Skillings, Al Quint, Katie The Cleaning Lady, Mission Of Burma (Peter Prescott, Roger Miller, Clint Conley), Joyce & Randy Milman, Carmelita, Rick & Zippy, Tristram Lozaw, Sheena, all the other people who helped roadie for us, gave us money, came to shows, wrote about us and just generally supported us. For anyone I've forgotten here please forgive my failing memory...........................drop me a line & I'll correct. Lou Giordano literally was there for everything: from engineering all recording sessions..........to doing sound for almost all our live shows..........to producing all the recorded product with me..............to loaning/repairing equipment - this guy did so much for us we could never repay him. Truly very talented & a great guy. It's awesome for me to see his success to this day. This guy worked his butt off and deserves everything he has achieved. At various times Jimmy Dufour engineered, produced, loaned equipment & donated so much time at his Radiobeat Studios that the undelivered bill could resemble the national debt of Guam. Gerard Colsoy just understood what we were trying to present and his unwavering support was greatly appreciated. Misson Of Burma was the band we admired most. They were (and still are as evidenced by their recent 2002 reunion shows) a phenomenal band. We looked up to them like big brothers and our inclusion on many shows with them are some of our favorite memories to this day. Patrick Norton was there from the beginning and helped us in so many ways (from finding drummers/roadie/booking shows/putting out CD's - Churn/etc.). When it comes to live shows we were always very affected by the crowd support. The better the support the better we played. To play in front of an appreciative audience while playing original music is an unbelievable thing to experience. It's a feeling that belies anything else I have ever felt.

On being in The Proletariat - This band meant everything to us. Everyone gave up a lot to concentrate on the Proletariat. I spent 100% of my time on this band to the detriment of work or finding a job. That decision to leave college and not enter the working world came back to bite me when I couldn't get even the simplest job because I was over qualified and people wouldn't hire me because they thought I would leave too quickly. So I just concentrated on the Proletariat. Some days I was literally on the phone all day talking to people. We were always a very accessible band. We hated those bands that hid in the dressing room and didn't want to talk to anyone (yeah we mean you SLF!). Both Rick & I did the bookings. I handled most of the other business. Peter bought the van and drove to every show.......many times having to go to work on a couple of hours sleep. Tom brought to the group a lot of his friends to help us as roadies. It was a team effort. Many of the people who tried to help us would try to guide/mold us into what the believed would make us successful...............whether it be visually, politically or musically. But we always stuck to our guns and did it our way. I used to call it our anti-success strategy. I think we were afraid of what being successful would mean to our credibility. We didn't make our decisions based on $'s (as evidenced by the large percentage of benefit shows we played). We did what we wanted on our terms and let it stand on it's own merit (whatever that may be). We sold records worldwide and received countless letters from fans in countries as diverse as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, France, Spain, West Germany & England (in addition to North America). And we met a lot of great people along the way. In terms of what we wanted to achieve we were extremely successful in my mind.........................................................................

On Favorite Shows - This is tough but my top six would be:

1) Bradford Ballroom (Boston, MA 2/24/1983 - Mission Of Burma's final Boston show) - Just the fact we were invited to be part of this Burma event ranks it up there @ #1. There were somewhere between 3-5000 people there, a great room and just a monumental event to us.

2) Spit (Boston, MA 6/26/1982 - WBCN Rock 'N' Roll Rumble) - We happened to win our opening night to get to the final 6(out of 24 bands). This was pretty big since it was very unusual for a punk band to make it in this event. Most of the bands were more accomplished, traditional rock or art punk. The night started badly when my amp blew before the soundcheck and we had to take it cross-town so Lou Giordano could work his magic. Got back late but played an inspired set due to the fantastic support of the packed crowd.

3) Storyville (Boston, MA 3/4/1984 - Dub7( formerly 007), Sorry) - A great show with bands who were good friends of ours. This was a period after the Soma Holiday release where our confidence was growing and we had a great turnout for the show. We really felt like we were coming into our own..................

4) Mavericks (Boston, MA 4/23/83 - Husker Du & Sorry) - Getting to play with one of my favorite bands, Husker DU, was a great moment. I always considered them to be one of the best bands in America. Great melodic noise band who just ripped...........

5) TIE - Simon's (Pawtucket, RI 8/1/1981 - Johnny Thunders) & Lupo's (Providence, RI 8/14/1981 - The Dead Boys) - Both in this list not because the show was so memorable but because the headliners were. The legendary Stiv Bators squatting on a perch & begging for drugs in the dressing room after the show (all 55 lbs of him) and Johnny Thunders begging me to trade him my Strat for 2 Les Paul's after which he proceeded to shoot up in the bathroom leaving a trail of blood everywhere (probably because he didn't get the guitar HA HA!)

6) The Living Room (Providence, RI 7/8/83 - Bad Brains) - Truly a unique experience in every way. Phenomenal & highly original band who were incredible live. But my favorite memory was all the tossed green salad, coffee and ganja consumed by these guys in the back room.................

On Churn - This band was essentially a duplicate of The Proletariat. Again it took us awhile to find our songwriting style again after the long layoff, but we did after about a year & half of playing. We literally hadn't played our instruments in 10 years when we started Churn, but it came back quicker than I thought. We released one 5 song EP and by the end of this band we had about 15 songs ready to record that might have been some of the best stuff we ever wrote. Very Prole like but with added dynamics/melody. It's too bad we didn't get it recorded & only left that five song EP behind. We were playing better than ever in this band and could have done something special. However, we found out how hard it is to be in a band, living out of town, while working full time and having adult responsibilities. Getting in at 3AM and having to be at work early (and function at a high level) at our advanced ages made it obvious to me that this is a young person's game....................................................................again we had incredible support and met some great people. I for one was definitely glad we attempted it.

On a final note: We are keeping this site active as a place where all Prole fans can relive that era and keep in touch. Thanks to all for their e-mail's and support over the years. You'll never know how much it was appreciated......................thanks!