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Title:The Cramps At The Napa State Mental Hospital
More Titles:The Cramps Live At Napa State Mental Hospital
Publisher:  Target Video
Country:USA
Format:VHS
Date:1983
Region Code:None
Genre:Music, Documentary
Rating:10.0  Rate
Collection:  I Own It     I Want It 
Community: 1 Owns
Price Guide:Valuation Page
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Notes

Xerox cover on one side, hand colored with felt tip markers, trimmed to fit sturdy plastic snap case

Recorded on T-60 VHS video cassette

Images



Comments and Reviews
 
Richard Vollin
5th Jul 2017
 Rated 10/10
The performance took place on 13 June 1978 at the Napa State Hospital, Napa, California.
It was a free concert by the Mutants, from San Francisco, and The Cramps from New York City.
The event was arranged by former CPS (Child Protective Services) activities specialist Bart Swain, through booking agent; Howie Klein.
The band originally booked to appear on this occasion was the Readymades, a notable San Francisco based new wave/punk band, but either by divine providence or fate, The Cramps and Mutants performed the show.
Video footage of The Cramps was taped using a battery powered Sony Portapak two piece camera/recorder unit (possibly the AV-3400, with a ½" U-Matic S 20 minute cassette).
It is believed either Target Video founder/director Joe Rees, or associate Jill Hoffman-Kowal videotaped the show. It should also be noted that many still photographs were captured by photographer Ruby Ray, who can be clearly seen documenting the event throughout. Many of her images can be found on the Internet (mostly uncredited).
Mutant band vocalist Freddy Mutant (Fritz Fox), and lead guitarist Brendan Earley both contend that their performance should have been documented on video.
However, Ruby Ray did photograph them.
Excerpted quote by Target Video founder Joe Rees, from an interview conducted for the L.A. Record by Chris Ziegler, entitled "TARGET VIDEO: LIKE WATCHING SOMETHING BIBLICAL", published 30 April 2009, regarding the Napa State video: "...The same with the Napa State Mental Hospital. You think that could go on today? No way! There would be like fifteen lawyers standing outside the gate licking their chops. One of the greatest things about that event—even to this day I am so moved when I watch that video over and over. But the thing of it is—those people who were going through such a heavy experience in life and were confined to that mental institution, the freedom and the happiness that they had that day during that event was almost like a miracle! It was almost like watching something biblical—something from a Cecil B. DeMille film but in a real sense, a true sense. Nobody was acting and I have never seen anything in my life so moving and I’ve been told that a thousand times. We were at the right place at the right time but we had the right thing in our hearts. We wanted to have an experience and it all came together with magic."

footnote # 1:

This contributor first stumbled into The Cramps traveling medicine show during their first foray outside of New York City's Bowery, (as I like to refer to as) my "Baptism by Fire" on 07 April 1978, at the Atlantis Club in Washington, D.C., two months prior to their Napa event. I had heard of The Cramps in drips and drabs, in the pages of Richard, and Lisa Robinson's Rock Scene magazine, a rag devoted primarily to NYC glam rock, and the burgeoning punk rock movement.
Needless to say, The Cramps opened many doors, and left an incalculable, indelible, life long impression on me.
I was now totally corrupt, and, as I won't retrace the circumstances leading up to this moment, suffice to say, it had to do with an employee of a local record store; the Penguin Feather, seeking a gig as a DJ, and my giving him a lift to the Atlantis Club that evening, and as The Cramps lay waste...

footnote # 2:

The Atlantis Club was located at 930 F Street, NW, in the Atlantic Building, adjacent to Ford's Theatre (where U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated).
Atlantis owner Paul Parson's was quoted in the day's following The Cramps ill-fated booking with support group, The Puppets as: "...too controversial, too destructive. No club is ready for that kind of destruction. The Cramps are not healthy."
The Cramps were told 'never to return.'
Soon after, the Atlantis closed it's doors, and the building was purchased and re-christened the Nightclub 9:30 on 31 May 1980, and there, The Cramps enjoyed many a return engagement.

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Disc
Crucifix And M.D.C. - Target Video - USA (1983)
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