The Senders' lead singer/founder Phil Marcade about his colleague and erstwhile Johnny Thunders. Thunders appears on Left For Dead Records' release of the first definitive collection of the rip-snortin’ recorded legacy of New York City’s Rock ‘n’ Roll diehards, The Senders. Titled All Killer No Filler (1977-2001) the compilation features over two dozen tracks, captured in down and dirty local studios and in sweaty dives between 1977 and 2001 all previously unreleased or long out of print. All Killer No Filler (1977-2001) is being issued as 2 x 12” vinyl LP featuring 27 tracks in a gatefold sleeve, a 2 x CD also in a gatefold sleeve and with four additional bonus tracks. The packaging includes separate liner notes by music journalists James “The Hound” Marshall and Tim Stegall as well as a Peter Crowley who oversaw the Senders session for a Max’s Kansas City Records seven-song single, material that appears on this album. I hope you'll consider covering this release with an interview, feature, news story or album review. Please let me know if you need a DL, stream or CD.
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Johnny Thunders and I became good pals in '74. I worked as a roadie for the Heartbreakers in '75. Johnny had been friends with Steve Shevlin (the Senders bass player) since the late 60s. He actually introduced me to Steve and Steve and I formed the Senders in '76.
In the summer of '78, Johnny called me from London to say "hi". I told him that our guitar player - Jorge Ritter - had just quit the band and that, therefore, we were looking for a new one. It so happened that Johnny just had a fight with The Heartbreakers and wanted to do something else for a bit. He wanted to do some gigs in NYC without the Heartbreakers and came up with the idea that I would book some gigs and that he would "join" the Senders for these gigs, make some money and have some fun before we found a permanent guitar player. He had met a young talented french guitar player named Henri Paul in Paris and suggested bringing him along to participate.
So I booked some gigs (three nights at Max's and two at Hurrah's.) and Johnny promptly flew in from London with Henri Paul. He took these gigs rather seriously and surprised us by insisting on rehearsing only Senders tunes and make it Senders shows rather than JT shows with the Senders backing him up. So we rehearsed at Steve's loft for a few days. He loved a song I wrote called The Living End and went on to play it in his solo shows for years after that. We were lucky because Johnny was in top shape during these shows with the Senders. Not drugging and playing great. Soon after these shows, we met Wild Bill Thompson and he became our permanent guitar player. Johnny made up with the Heartbreakers and went on the play with them."
