Post by Female Guitar Players on Jun 11, 2012 2:30:49 GMT -5
Blog - June 11-2009 What Happened To Your Band?
« Thread Started on Jul 17, 2010, 11:47am »
From MySpace
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Q. & A. From Fans - What Happened To Your Last Band Witch's Mercy?
What Happened To Your Band?
Question: What happened to your last band Witch's Mercy?
Answer: I dismembered the band, Witch's Mercy, in 1987 for so many reasons. Most of them are the really stupid reasons which accompany our youth really. I mean, I was just with the wrong people and couldn't find the right players anywhere. Such people just didn't exist in Toronto at that time. I got sick of doing everything. Writing all the songs, writing all the lyrics, getting all the gear, getting all the gigs, making all the calls. I was a street-kid for 5 and 1/2 years; I had to do the work my Self or not at all. And before this, when I lived at home, I was musically active in bands and orchestras and had a very defined discipline and knew how to work with other people. As much as I loved my friends, they had no experience whatsoever and treated the band more like a popularity contest attention getter with they're own friends in High School, rather than treating me with respect or taking the band seriously. I put up with it all for a very long time. If there had been other opportunities, I would never have hung on to it for so long.
Everyone else in the band lived at home with their family, in their princess bedrooms, and all the music equipment they had, their parents bought for them. They never had to work for any of it. I got fed up with the girls not showing up for practice, or not having practiced at all. I would hit the roof when lyrics weren't written, and stuff wasn't done. They were more interested in spending two hours in the bathroom putting their make-up on just to come out and sit on my sofa and look at each other, then just fucking sit down, shut the fuck up, and PLAY. They often didn't even show up for practice, or would bring other people with them and that would screw up the practices altogether. I also got tired of who screwed who's boyfriend, and whose boyfriend came onto whose bullshit.
All I wanted to do was PLAY MUSIC. And with Witch's Mercy, it just didn't happen. We looked good, and when we did play, we played good. But it just wasn't enough for me. All of the girls were still in High School and lived at home with they're families and had curfews and such. I was older, and having been on my own for five years, I was independent. I wasn't interested in waiting for someone else's parents to give me permission to live my life or tell me what to do just because I was friends with their kid. Forget it! Ridiculous!
Many things were taken for granted by the girls, and I really do believe that this was just a maturity thing. They still lived at home and were being provided for by mommy and daddy. They had yet to step out of the nest into the big wide world of reality and do it for themselves. They had great basements to jam in, and their parents didn't mind. They didn't like me, but they were very intrigued by me to say the least. They knew I was an young adult and I think that they thought I might help their kids grow up and accomplish things they could not with their children. But not in a positive way however. I mean this in the context of allowing their kids to hang out with me, someone who was a wild and exciting person, but obviously responsible and mature enough to not pose a huge threat, but probably innocent enough to make a mistake they could exploit to get rid of me when necessary, in order to teach their kids a lesson. I was fully aware of this, and so between some of these parents and my Self there was a bit of a silent head fuck going on. Turned out it was they're kids who remained clueless because I never said a word. Like I said, all I wanted to do was PLAY MUSIC, and back then, I just did whatever it took to make that happen.
Being in a band, my music, wasn't just some weekend hobby....it was my life and had already been my life in more ways than any of these other young girls could fathom. I was years ahead of them musically anyways, and I just couldn't find other women, my own age, who could do what I could do or what I wanted to do. So, one day in 1987, I just completely freaked out on them all, because I had a recording studio set up and they wouldn't show up even for that. I threw all their crap out onto the street and locked my door. I never spoke to any of them ever again.
And that's what happened to my band! But in truth, my band was never Witch's Mercy. I AM WITCH'S MERCY. I AM BLACKIE STEELE. THERE IS NO OTHER. "Witch's Mercy" was an insult my Mother used to screech at me when she had no one else to blame for her fears and countless other problems. She would say things like this to me instead of swearing, which was against her religious beliefs! So the name really had nothing to do with the girls. It was a reflection of the relationship my Mother had with me.
Thanks so much for the question.
Love and hugs...BlackieSteele...xoxox
« Thread Started on Jul 17, 2010, 11:47am »
From MySpace
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Q. & A. From Fans - What Happened To Your Last Band Witch's Mercy?
What Happened To Your Band?
Question: What happened to your last band Witch's Mercy?
Answer: I dismembered the band, Witch's Mercy, in 1987 for so many reasons. Most of them are the really stupid reasons which accompany our youth really. I mean, I was just with the wrong people and couldn't find the right players anywhere. Such people just didn't exist in Toronto at that time. I got sick of doing everything. Writing all the songs, writing all the lyrics, getting all the gear, getting all the gigs, making all the calls. I was a street-kid for 5 and 1/2 years; I had to do the work my Self or not at all. And before this, when I lived at home, I was musically active in bands and orchestras and had a very defined discipline and knew how to work with other people. As much as I loved my friends, they had no experience whatsoever and treated the band more like a popularity contest attention getter with they're own friends in High School, rather than treating me with respect or taking the band seriously. I put up with it all for a very long time. If there had been other opportunities, I would never have hung on to it for so long.
Everyone else in the band lived at home with their family, in their princess bedrooms, and all the music equipment they had, their parents bought for them. They never had to work for any of it. I got fed up with the girls not showing up for practice, or not having practiced at all. I would hit the roof when lyrics weren't written, and stuff wasn't done. They were more interested in spending two hours in the bathroom putting their make-up on just to come out and sit on my sofa and look at each other, then just fucking sit down, shut the fuck up, and PLAY. They often didn't even show up for practice, or would bring other people with them and that would screw up the practices altogether. I also got tired of who screwed who's boyfriend, and whose boyfriend came onto whose bullshit.
All I wanted to do was PLAY MUSIC. And with Witch's Mercy, it just didn't happen. We looked good, and when we did play, we played good. But it just wasn't enough for me. All of the girls were still in High School and lived at home with they're families and had curfews and such. I was older, and having been on my own for five years, I was independent. I wasn't interested in waiting for someone else's parents to give me permission to live my life or tell me what to do just because I was friends with their kid. Forget it! Ridiculous!
Many things were taken for granted by the girls, and I really do believe that this was just a maturity thing. They still lived at home and were being provided for by mommy and daddy. They had yet to step out of the nest into the big wide world of reality and do it for themselves. They had great basements to jam in, and their parents didn't mind. They didn't like me, but they were very intrigued by me to say the least. They knew I was an young adult and I think that they thought I might help their kids grow up and accomplish things they could not with their children. But not in a positive way however. I mean this in the context of allowing their kids to hang out with me, someone who was a wild and exciting person, but obviously responsible and mature enough to not pose a huge threat, but probably innocent enough to make a mistake they could exploit to get rid of me when necessary, in order to teach their kids a lesson. I was fully aware of this, and so between some of these parents and my Self there was a bit of a silent head fuck going on. Turned out it was they're kids who remained clueless because I never said a word. Like I said, all I wanted to do was PLAY MUSIC, and back then, I just did whatever it took to make that happen.
Being in a band, my music, wasn't just some weekend hobby....it was my life and had already been my life in more ways than any of these other young girls could fathom. I was years ahead of them musically anyways, and I just couldn't find other women, my own age, who could do what I could do or what I wanted to do. So, one day in 1987, I just completely freaked out on them all, because I had a recording studio set up and they wouldn't show up even for that. I threw all their crap out onto the street and locked my door. I never spoke to any of them ever again.
And that's what happened to my band! But in truth, my band was never Witch's Mercy. I AM WITCH'S MERCY. I AM BLACKIE STEELE. THERE IS NO OTHER. "Witch's Mercy" was an insult my Mother used to screech at me when she had no one else to blame for her fears and countless other problems. She would say things like this to me instead of swearing, which was against her religious beliefs! So the name really had nothing to do with the girls. It was a reflection of the relationship my Mother had with me.
Thanks so much for the question.
Love and hugs...BlackieSteele...xoxox