Day 99: Boxes of Buttons and Badges Part Two

In 1974 or perhaps earlier, Todd declared that he would run for president in 1984, which seemed such a long time away. (That would have been the first presidential election for which he would be eligible, i.e., over 35, but I think he was having a laugh.) Here's my homemade 1974 campaign button.

And here are three more badges I made, using photos cut out from magazines.

These ones I think I bought, or were given to me.

More storebought badges on top with a homemade one on the bottom right. The black and white Todd buttons were given away at the 1978 Roxy shows. I went to all 14 of them, so collected a bunch.

I believe that a couple of the badges above were sent to me by Johnny Cash Phillips from Glasgow. We had met in front of a record shop there when he noticed my homemade Nazz shirt. When he sent the Todd badges to me, he included one of himself! When I told him I had found this the other day he remarked that this is where his hair went... ;-)

Nick Lowe was on CBS; I think this was a promo I got at work. This was the John Foxx version of Ultravox; I did not see them at UC Davis but later that week at the Whisky-a-go-go and The Fleetwood. I think Robin Simon gave me the badge.

I saw the Radio Stars the first time I went to London. It was a great gig. I made the Union Jack badge.

As you can see, it was just a sticker that I had stuck atop another homemade Todd badge...

In 1979 they sold bendable pose-able aliens from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. We thought they bore a strong resemblance to Howard Devoto and we gave one for a laugh to Pete Shelley. I think my "Howard" doll is in my storage place in London, though it might have been lost. I acquired this button at some point. It does not look so much like Howard, though.

I think Frankie Marley gave me this big button. I guess imitation maple syrup is a major part of a better breakfast.

The mirror of this Buzzcocks badge is slightly cracked. I never had much luck.

I never did see Generation X. They never played in LA. Never was much of a Billy Idol as solo artist fan, but I still like his original group.

It's funny; when I pulled out these badges last week I was trying to remember when and where I saw the Mutants. Since they were from San Francisco, I figured it must have been on a trip up there. But then yesterday I was looking at my 1979 journal, and I wrote about how one night I kept going into the Hong Kong to get more Mutants badges. And how I caught their last song and wished I had snuck in earlier to see the whole set because they were really good. (I do not remember ever paying to go into the Hong Kong.)

These badges were from my first trip to England, summer 1977.

I might have made the Peter Perrett badge, or else I got it where I got the little one, in England.

More Buzzcocks badges...

The Boomtown Rats were on CBS. Most of these badges I got from work, I was a photographer's assistant at their LA gigs at the Coconut Grove (at the Ambassador Hotel; very few bands ever played there - great venue!) and Frederick's of Hollywood (can't think of any other bands who played there); the small pink badge is from that gig.

My Liverpudlian pen friend turned boyfriend Mick Reid was in a band called Crash Course. Other members included Pete Wiley and Rob Jones of Wah!, and Andy Eastwood from the Sex Gods/Balcony Dogs. Anyway, Mick gave me these badges. I wonder how many others still exist in the world. None, I am inclined to reckon.