‘Wendy O. Williams Live and Fucking Loud’: The story of rock’s most outrageous live album
The pages of punk rock history are chocked full of the bizarre, shocking, and revolutionary. Expectedly, for a music scene that rose from the dark and dirty underground scene of major cities like New York, punk attracted some unusual characters and inspired many of them into a life of artistry. Nevertheless, even the most outrageous figures in punk could not stand up to the defiantly weird and wonderful persona of Wendy O. Williams.
After running away from home at the age of 16, Williams travelled across the states, working various strange jobs before eventually landing in New York City in 1976, where punk rock ground zero was. Initially, though, Williams’ experience of the city was not illustrated by rising groups like Talking Heads or the Ramones. After all, Williams had only ended up on the East Coast after responding to a job advertisement for live sex show performers, which eventually led her to a career in pornography. It was only when her manager-come-partner Rod Swenson suggested starting a band that Williams’ interest in music rose to the forefront.
On Swenson’s recommendation, Williams formed Plasmatics in 1977. Performing in local clubs like CBGB’s, the band quickly made a name for themselves, not for their musical proficiency but for their raucous and bizarre live performances. Taking The Who’s end-of-set destruction of instruments to an entirely new level, Plasmatics would often take chainsaws to their equipment, smash up venues with sledgehammers, and even blow up cars live on stage. As you can imagine, the band soon grew to have quite a dedicated following.
Plasmatics did release some incredible studio material, which blended the seemingly disparate worlds of punk and metal, uniting the warring factions of music fans. Their discography includes the wildly overlooked LPs New Hope for the Wretched, and Beyond the Valley of 1984, but it was their live performances which came to define the band. Even after Plasmatics dissolved and Williams pursued a solo career, her live performances still enjoyed a dedicated audience.
Perhaps the most infamous of Williams’ live shows came in 1985 when she visited Camden Palace in London. Years prior, when the singer had visited London with Plasmatics, their planned performance in Hammersmith had been cancelled by the Great London Council over health and safety concerns, so when she returned, Williams certainly had something to prove. Although her performance in Camden – presumably – passed safety inspections, it was just as shocking and chaotic as fans expected, if not more so.
Joined on stage by figures like Lemmy Kilmister and Michael “Würzel” Burston, Williams’ set in Camden was a sonic whirlwind that perfectly encapsulated her wild onstage persona. Performing a variety of her best-loved tracks, including ‘Fuck ‘N’ Roll’ and ‘Jailbait’, the set was immortalised in the concert film Wendy O. Williams Live and Fucking Loud From London!, which is essential viewing and listening for any great punk performer.
Williams was never at risk of achieving mainstream success, by the very nature of her performances and music, but Live and Fucking Loud helped to cement her position as a true icon of punk rock – particularly during an era that male musicians largely dominated. Even today, her legacy can be felt within the performances of figures like Amyl and The Sniffers’ Amy Taylor. Nobody did it quite like Wendy O. Williams, and we have video evidence of such a fact.
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