What about Vince Welnick?

It’s been a busy couple of weeks over at LOUIE Central. I recently purchased another DV deck, and I’ve been transferring a lot of old videos to the big hard drives.

One of the interviews I just transferred was an impromptu interview I conducted with the recently-deceased Vince Welnick. The event was the 2002 Haight Street Fair in San Francisco, and Vince had just finished playing a set with his old band, The Tubes. I asked Vince if he had any interesting LOUIE LOUIE stories, and he proceeded to tell me about how he would use the song as a celebration of sexual gratification for his lady friends. It’s a funny story, and if I were to use it, it would definitely eliminate any chance of getting this film shown on the Disney channel.

As I watched some of my concert footage of Vince, I decided to assemble a quick little tribute to him, and share it on YouTube. The audio is definitely over-modulated and distorted, but the video is solid.

As this footage also features Chet Helms, it’s something I’ll offer to my friend James MacLeod, who is producing a documentary on Chet. Anyone that has any footage of Chet should send an email to James MacLeod via chet-video @ rantical.com or call (650) 355-3276.

To recycle my own description….

The date was 6-9-2002. Merl Saunders, who’d been playing at Haight Street Fairs ever since they began, had just suffered a stroke, and folks were wondering if he was going to survive. Family and friends assembled the Merl Saunders Band for the Haight Street Fair as a tribute to their dear friend that was in a hospital, trying to heal.

This is a quick snippet from that show, feauring Vince Welnick, piano player for the Grateful Dead, the Tubes, and Missing Man Formation. You’ll see some random images of Chet Helms, George Michalski, Lee Houskeeper, and other friends at this festive San Francisco performance in the Haight Ashbury district. You’ll hear Vince sing a small sample of the Beatles song “Tomorrow Never Knows.