Nightclubbing heads west

Pat Ivers & Emily Armstrong (1979)

This week's episode of Nightclubbing finds Pat & Emily leaving New York and heading west to California where they stay at the Sam Wong Hotel, and make friends with the Dead Kennedys.

For die-hard NYC punks, the West Coast seemed a little daunting. It was so bright! But in the fall of 1979, we went to Los Angeles to be on a panel at an early MTV music video conference. We stayed at the Tropicana Hotel, which was the preferred accommodation for traveling rockers. Jim Morrison and Tom Waits had lived there – on this trip, it was Nina Hagen and The Slits hanging at the pool. Continued here.