Last month we heralded the arrival of Jan Crocker’s new Boston Flashpoint website, an archive of incredible video footage and photographic history of the city’s punk and post-punk scenes in the years surrounding 1980. Our jump-off was the 35th anniversary of the closing of the Underground, but Crocker made it clear he had so much more to offer than just lost glimpses of the infamous Allston venue.
Last night, he made good on that promise by unveiling an interview clip with Suicide’s Alan Vega, who died on Saturday at the age of 78. Vega was in town with Suicide as they were on tour with the Cars, and either before or after a local stop at the Paradise he attended a Punkt Data gallery showing at the Boston Architectural Center. Boston’s Oedipus tracked him down, and got Vega to chat for a live remote of his Demi Mode show for WTBS.
“Alan shares his stories of touring with the Clash in Europe, being punched out by skinheads, and tear gassed in Belgium,” Crocker writes. “All in a days work of artist who put it all on the line whether you liked it or not. RIP Alan Vega.”
Watch the Oedipus + Vega interview here via Boston Flashpoint, and check out a live clip below of Suicide performing at long-lost rock club Hurrah in October 1980.