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Silke Berlinn, a proto-punk" vocalist known for her broad-ranging vocal style, “the proto-punk rock Janis Joplin," compared with Ronette's vocalist, Ronnie Spector, Tina Turner.

  She sang in choirs at the age of six, & at fifteen, forbidden to join a band in NYC, she hitchhiked to California. Upon arriving in San Francisco, Berlinn was instantly recruited to sing in well-known blues bands (she, an unusual commodity: a white, East Coast teen who sang blues like James Brown) with local blues legends Hi-Tide Harris; Anthony & Andy Paule; & while working with old-school Oakland favorite, Cool Poppa, was mentored by Charles “Blue Boy” Huff, who, with Sam Cooke, formed "The "Soul Stirrers” 

While working with Cool Poppa, she met guitarist, Robbie McKenzie, who had started a band called Mink deVille, and would recruit childhood friend, Willie Borsey, living in Stamford, CT  at the time, and married to Palm Beach Clothing heiress, Susan “Toots” Berman.  Berlinn & McKenzie moved to NYC with Mink deVille as the band began its legendary ascent.  McKenzie, with numerous warrants for his arrest in NY State, was spooked by the publicity the band had garnered & he & Berlinn fled the state for California where they started a new band, Fast Floyd & the Firebirds. 

After recording her second album, "Bizarre” (backed by Bill Graham and Jerry Pompeli), Berlinn & McKenzie fell out.  McKenzie’s violent temper & growing erratic moods had given Berlinn adequate reason to fear for her life, while she was getting closer to guitar virtuoso Keeth Paul (David Bowie, NY Dolls, Richie Scarlett.) Berlinn soon left McKenzie for original Addictions’ guitarist, Keeth Paul (ne Dailedenas, RIP) 

Berlinn first left San Francisco & moved to Hollywood, but when McKenzie found her, she, artist, Vicki Schrott (RIP), & Jill Hoffman (TARGET Video)flew to New York City with a loan from Jill's father. Shortly afterwards, she was joined by Paul, Brendan Earley (Mutants,) Franko St Andrew (Offs), Steve Berman(Victims) & fashion designer, Joann Berman (no relation), who would go on to become the seminal iteration of “The Addictions.” 

At various times, the band included Jerry Nolan (NY Dolls, Heartbreakers, Teenage Lust); Richie Spinoza; Luigi Scorcia (La Cosa Nostra, Johnny Thunders last band); Steve McKay (Iggy Pop); Ruben Siguenza (Mink deVille); and saxophonist, Manhattan Rob Walsh. 

Berlinn's credits include works & recordings with members of "Blondie" (Frank Infante, Clem Burke;)  "Fountains of Wayne," & "Jesus & Mary Chain" (Brian Young); "The Hooters; " Billy Idol (Matt Lee);  "The Germs" (Don Bolles); The Mutants;  Mink deVille;  FANG (Sam McBride); Screamers (Paul Roessler,) RIkk Agnew (Adolescents, Christian Death,)& Gitane Demone. Rolling Stones engineer, Brad Samuelson, produced Berlinn’s first album, “Bizarre.”  A three-record deal with Don DeVito of Columbia Records, (negotiated by former Blondie manager, Gino Riccardi) Berlinn failed to fulfill after suffering a nervous breakdown in the late eighties.

Berlinn has been linked romantically with Cheetah Chrome (Dead Boys); DeeDee Ramone (Ramones); Jerry Nolan (Heartbreakers, NY Dolls, Teenage Lust); Luigi Scorcia (Johnny Thunders); bluesman, John Hammond, Jr;  Robbie McKenzie (Mink deVille, Fast Floyd, The Offs); Keeth Paul (Bowie, Richie Scarlett, New York Dolls, Teenage Lust.)  Berlinn warns potential suitors:  “...most of the musicians I was involved with are dead."  

"Palace of Perversion”, a volume of poetry was first published by Boston College.

Berlinn has written three memoirs: “Alcohol Heats the Blood”; “Gallerina” & “Queen of the Underground.”  A passage from Queen of the Underground: 

Cheetah Chrome: "What's that?”

Silke Berlinn: “Keeth slashed my wrist with a straight-edge razor one night when I said I was depressed, and wanted to die. I was living in San Francisco at the time, in The Mutants’ loft at Bryant & 3rd. Artist, Vicki Schrott, with whom I shared my room, found me at about three in the morning, in a dead sleep, while I was bleeding to death.  She forced me to get up, against my will, then dragged me to San Francisco General where I got 60 stitches. It ended my thoughts of a  guitar-playing career which hadn’t started and which was a relief, because then  I didn’t have to sit around playing guitar chords all day.  I always fall in love with the weirdest people"

Influences

Velvet Underground, Iggy Pop, Thunderclap Newman, Motown, Phil Spector, 60s garage bands, Mink deVille, Tina Turner, Ronettes, Bush, GG Allin, Flamin' Groovies, T-Rex, James Brown, Wilson Pickett 

PopVulture Magazine


On Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 10:33 PM, PopVulture Magazine mag@popvltr.com wrote:
Hey Silke thanks for getting back to me, info on the way! (keep an eye 
on your bulk mail for an attachment)


On Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 2:37 PM, theaddictions@aol.com wrote:
Sweet, why not?

406.600.7000


Mar 6, 2014, PopVulture Magazine  wrote:

Hey what's up Silke? We'd like to talk about a rising artist feature for you in PopVulture Magazine, interested? 
Mayer 

Cool so I'm on your page, my music director found you online and we dig your stuff. PopVulture is a global entertainment mag, we're 
based in California and cover content around the world with approx 25,000 weekly readers. Please take a minute with this interview and send 
it back with bio, album cover, promo pic and preferred websites. We'll get a feature set up as soon as that stuff gets sent back (no strings attached). Please send everything to this email thread thanks!

You've been making moves in San Francisco, how'd you get into music?

“I started singing when I was around six, mostly in church 
choirs and glee clubs, I left home when I was fifteen because there were problems at home my parents wouldn’t even let me be a cheerleader, let alone a singer in a rock band, so I was outta there. 
I’ve had some unlikely opportunities to work with some pretty famous 
blues guys. I can’t say how much I learned from Charles ‘Blue Boy’ Huff, who was one of Sam Cooke’s original Soul Stirrers, talk about singers, he really taught me a lot about singing. And there were 
others

Congrats on the success of 'Ball &Chain', who are some of your influences?

I was largely raised by a black nanny named Lulu who she played AM radio all day long to the consternation of my mother, I was weaned on black groups, girl groups, gospel because of Lucille. My influences are Tina Turner, Darlene Love, Nico, Velvet Underground, anything by Phil Spector, maybe Grace Slick, she wasn’t necessarily the greatest singer, but she had a lot of style & was ahead of her time. I always thought she was cool as hell. ;I didn’t really listen to many white singers, I couldn’t learn enough from them. A lot of people have compared me to Janis Joplin, whom I never really liked or listened to. Maybe because of the black gospel influence. I didn’t ever like her song selection.

What are some of your proudest moments in music?
Oh I don’t know, I don’t think in those terms. I’ve been lucky, but I’m not very materialistic &probably 
don=92t have the same career goals as a lot of musicians. While I do promote the band’s music, I’m not really comfortable talking about 
myself. I’m just a singer. My ego isn’t all tied up in this. I’ve had several bad stints with heroin addiction, and this affected my values. When I was in my early 20s I got pretty well-known in 
NYC, and I know what a music career brings &doesn’t bring. 
I like to sing, & I probably shouldn’t say this in case Sony’s listening (which they may be) but my dream was always to be an underground cult star, I never wanted to be a Pop Star, my goal was to appeal to other musicians.

What cool stuff is on the horizon for you? 

Just did a duet with Sammy McBride of FANG, and Ron Rancid 
has also expressed interest in&doing a duet with me. Rikk 
Agnew & I will be starting a duet at Paul Roessler’s studio, 
Kitten Robot, in a couple weeks. Paul’s also mixing &
producing my next EP which I did with my band in Oakland. 
Arion Salazar from the original Third Eye Blind was our bass 
player, and when he joined the band, it really started to sing. 
Carl Green, the famous black tenor sax player, is also on the next 
record. I just moved to LA, and things have really exploded since 
I got here, My manager, keyboardist, and great videographer, Mark 
Ludlem, has been shooting video almost non-stop. We covered Social 
Distortion’s Ball &Chain which has almost 60,000 hits 
in less than a month. With Sammy, we did Jackson and 
that’s got over 20,000 hits in a week. LA has been good to me 
thus far. If anyone’s asking, nothin’s happ’nin in the Bay 
Area. Forget it. Dave Jerden had me come down to meet him in 
LA a few months back about producing some songs and he 
said, “Silke, you’re wasting yourself up there. You gotta 
be in LA. It’s the only place in the world to be a musician 
today. Sadly, that’s true. There is no scene in the Bay 
Area.









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