Justin Savage keeps hitting home runs with his Sunday Slashers film series. He is bringing the Stiv Bators documentary "Stiv: No Compromise, No Regrets" to The Palace on Patten Parkway at 7 p.m. Sunday, April 28. Admission is $10.
The film itself is worth seeing, but Savage reached out to Frank Secich, bass player for Blue Ash from 1969-'79 and later the Stiv Bators Band, among others. He is currently the rhythm guitarist for the Deadbeat Poets.
Bators was a charismatic singer and frontman for the Dead Boys, one of rock's original punk bands. He later partnered with the guys in Sham 69 and they created The Wanderers. When they broke up, Bators co-created The Lords of the New Church. Bators was hit and killed by a car in Paris in 1990.
"Stiv: No Compromise, No Regrets" was directed by Danny Garcia and released earlier this year.
Secich not only agreed to come to Chattanooga to talk about the film and Bators, but he agreed to do a Q&A, and he will perform a few songs with the Ghetto Blasters. He was so agreeable, Savage said he kept asking for more things, and Secich agreed to have the Ghetto Blasters meet him on the road four days prior to the Chattanooga stop and the two will play gigs together each night on their way here.
"He just kept saying, 'Yes,' so I kept asking," Savage said.
"I'm just normally that sort of agreeable," Secich said.
"I grew up with Stiv in Youngstown [Ohio], and recorded with him, so I have this good connection. He was such an interesting character with an interesting story. What the movie comes down to is he was a wild man on stage and a gentlemen off of it."
Love, Peace and HappinessSecich says he enjoys traveling, talking about his experiences and playing, though he gave it up for awhile. Around the same time Bators died, another friend committed suicide, and Secich gave up music for awhile.
"I'm having more fun playing now at 67 than when I was 24."
* I have a particular bias toward the local group Love, Peace and Happiness due, in large part, because they played the weddings of both my son and daughter, and the dance floor stayed jampacked at both from first to last note.
I bring this up because the group is celebrating a quarter century of playing the funk, soul and R&B hits of James Brown, The Temptations and every other great artist of the past 50 years. Congratulations to Valitus Edwards, Lutrell Brown, Ken Parks and the rest of the powerhouse party machine.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.