I met Rebecca when White Trash Debutantes played with Lick The Pole at The Town Pump in Vancouver for Music West... We have kept in touch and when I discovered Rebeccaa was in LOs Angeles I decided to interview her...
Punk Globe: Thank you so much for the interview Rebecca . Can you give the readers some background on yourself?
Rebecca: Hey there Punk Globe Readers! You might know me as one of the girls from the infamous underground performance punk band Lick The Pole. Before that by age 9 I was writing, directing and starring in various backyard and summer day camp productions my first paid gig was when I won the part of a dancing Smurf in a musical revue at Canada's Wonderland. Next I was hired to be a ZZ Top girl during the Eliminator Tour, I modelled and did pretty good for someone who wasn't tall, I've done some acting but I never caught the bug. The thing that I'm obsessed with is writing and directing. I've directed some videos that some people have thought were not bad. I live in LA downtown with my partner Glen who is pretty fabulous and a total babe. He's also really smart!
Punk Globe: When we met each other in the 90's you were living in Vancouver and you were one of the singers in a fun campy band called Lick The Pole. Tell us about the band?
Rebecca: The story of Lick the Pole began in a Taxi dancing club in downtown LA under a bridge. I was a fairly popular employee, Joolz was a disaster and Annie was the greatest Taxi Dancer known to mankind. She could juggle 5 customers at once. They gave her back massages, hanging on her every word, laughing hysterically at all her jokes. Boy, that girl knows how to light up a room. Long story short it wasn’t long before we said fuck this shit let's be rockstars. We flew back to Vancouver and put a band together made up of friends and members of my family.
Punk Globe: Is the correct spelling Lick or Lik The Pole? On the poster for the show it seems that it was spelled Lik.
Rebecca: Well that’s because my cousin Danny kept spelling it wrong on the posters for some reason. Anyway for the record the band is called LICK THE POLE.
Punk Globe: was Lick The Pole your first band or had you been in other projects prior? Before I left for LA to model I started a band called Sex With Nixon. My cousin Danny replaced me after I left town. I was also in Shark Sandwich with members of SLOW, FLASH BASTARD and this guy Nick who had been stalking me. We did KISS covers. I was also in the legendary Prime Ministers of Canada which played one show when The Presidents of The United States cancelled at the Town Pump. We put the band together in an afternoon and the reviews were the greatest thing any of us have ever experienced. But it was lightning in a bottle and now lives on only in infamy.
Punk Globe: Tell us some of Lick The Pole's inspirations?
Rebecca: We were inspired by strippers, groupies and Drag Queens. We owe it all to those fabulous three.
Punk Globe: Sweet!!! Tell us who was in the band and what they played?
Rebecca: There was two separate bands. In the first band there was my cousin Joey Sather from Sex With Nixon on drums. Jay Sly original Sex With Nixon guitar player on guitar and I think he's not only one of the most talented guitar players in Vancouver but he's world class. Rod Bruno on guitar. He was dating Annie at the time. ha ha. Danny Sather also on guitar also another cousin. Annie M on vocals and she co-wrote all the original songs with Danny. I don't think we covered any of the original songs in Band number 2. Joolz LaFabula the woman who could put Courtney Love to shame and would make Nancy Spungeon feel like a poser was on spoken word vocals. And she was a genius! Joolz LaFabula the woman who could put Courtney Love to shame and would make Nancy Spungeon feel like a poser was on spoken. word vocals. And she was a genius. I thank my lucky stars that I ever got chance to experience being on stage with that master of an audience. I just felt like a fan and I was sharing a stage with my favourite rock star. So the girls loved each other. Anyway we got a lot of attention quickly, Annie got pregnant and Joolz and I put Band number two together pretty much right away. Band number two consisted of Chris Taylor from the Payolas on drums, Bill Morrison who plays with Skinny Puppy and is a brilliant director who deserves an enormous amount of respect, Rich Priske on bass from the Real Mackenzies etc etc and Tony Baloney who is the rock star's rock star. And that's when things got interesting.
Punk Globe: How many times did White Trash Debutantes and Lick the Pole play together?
Rebecca: All I remember from that time is that Joolz was obsessed with you. She was a huge Ginger Coyote fan and it was a very big deal for her that we were playing with you guys. And we all became huge fans. And we also always felt like you guys were part of our family.
Punk Globe: We were Rebecca!!! I remember we tore up The Town Pump when we played there.
Rebecca: Both bands were not pretty in your face sex mixed with a bit of light (Vanilla S&M). I don't remember much about my time at the Town Pump except that I had my own room downstairs so that I could bring male companions somewhere convenient. And still within liquor sales range.
Punk Globe I was impressed with the I fell in love with the Town Pump good sound system and big stage. I really loved the Cobblestone Streets where the club was located and I remember fog horns... Did you enjoy playing there as well?
Rebecca: I feel like I got to play in a place that will forever be remembered in rock and roll history and it totally lived up to that reputation. Mostly because the staff, Sonny and Randy were fucking Princes.. All the staff made that place world class.
Punk Globe: Tell us more about Lick The Pole did you release any records?
Rebecca: Chris got us some recording time because of Bob Rock and I got to sing in the vocal booth that was set up for Steven Tyler and I remember seeing all his graffiti scrawled into the wood and I remember thinking, Wow you've really made it and you're are totality in over your head.
Punk Globe: Tell us about some of your stand out shows that you played? I would like to get it into the Chilliwack debacle but that is an episode in itself. Possibly two. It was the only time I ever got totally naked on stage.
Punk Globe: Jimmy Cummings told me about a Bowie Birthday Bash you played with I Braineater ...
Rebecca: How cool was that? Jim is the closest I've ever come to meeting a Warhol. He featured me in one of his movies and if anyone from our underground scene deserved to have mainstream success it's him. I think he's a genius and sweetest guy ever!
Punk Globe: When did the band decide to call it quits? We never quit. We just stopped before it wasn't fun. We are just waiting for the right time to come back.
Punk Globe: Are you still in contact with your band mates?
Rebecca:It's all good. There is no loss of love there's just some geographical obstacles.
Punk Globe: Tell us more about your fabulous father ?
Rebecca: My biological dad is Brian Russell. He is a noted session musician at a time when those guys were the sound of everything. My step father is Jim Shaw and he directed all the Canadian Variety Specials and Tommy Hunter Shows on the CBC as well as every news and live camera edited program the CBC made for about 15 years. He taught me everything I know about directing.
Punk Globe: I was really surprised to see you at The White Trash Debutantes show Los Globos in Hollywood and more shocked to hear that you were living in Los Angeles. What prompted the move?
Rebecca: L'amour, L'amour, L'amour.
Punk Globe: I understand that you are now involved with film. Tell us what you are doing?
Rebecca: I'm going to make a top secret movie soon. I am writing the script now. It's a women in prison dystopian exploitation film.
Punk Globe: Tell the readers about what you are working with our mutual pal Bif Naked?
Rebecca: Bif and I have been discussing taking her best selling autobiography I Bificus and adapting it into a film. I am in continuous inspiration when I think of her. She is a joy to work with. I think the world of her.
Punk Globe: This has been a wild and traumatic time for us to reconnect. With Covid 19 and the Riots for the murder of Floyd George .. It was really funny I forwarded you some photos that my pal Michael Schmidt and it ended up being like next door to you.
Rebecca: That would be a dream come true! I live for fabulous costumes! If anyone out there knows Bob Mackie please tell him I'd do anything for one of his gowns.
Punk Globe: Do you have any Internet Addresses that you would like to share with the readers?
Rebecca: r.russell@theguildsmen.com
Punk Globe: Describe yourself in three words?
Rebecca: LOVE SEX ENTERTAINMENT
Punk Globe: Any Last words for Punk Globe readers?
Rebecca: As my hero and mentor, director Bruce Macdonald likes to say at the end of our meetings, Upward and onward!
