Retro: Kimmer

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MARK SISTO: AUSTRALIA 1974 BRAWLS...ENEMIES...CAMARADERIE Posted: 07 Oct 2011 08:06 AM PDT Mark Sisto My friend Mark Sisto and I had a long chat this past Friday about his first trip to Australia and how he became the "Minister of Defence" for Radio Birdman. The MC5 had John Sinclair and Radio Birdman had Mark Sisto... It was such an interesting discussion that we agreed to share it with my readers....RK MARK: Oh yeah , the early days (Radio Birdman) were like gang warfare brawls....enemies... camaraderie MARK: It was 1974... Detroit has gone into a slump of the spirit. THOSE stupid cars with the huge bumpers STUPID with reduced compression most the great local bands had broken up ballrooms closed. Booze was the new drug...many went west. I went west in 1972 but i came back with the intention I'd go west, and keep going... so in 1974 I faked to the east and went to NYC then boarded a ship for Australia. KIMMER: WHAT WAS THE SHIP LIKE? HOW MUCH DID IT COST? MARK: A container ship. $850..which was alot of money then, that was close to what the airfare was from west coast. KIMMER: HOW LONG DID IT TAKE? MARK: One deck was reserved for passengers... 28 days, went thru Panama...the old sailors told us NOT to go into the Bars in Colon, so what did we do? Me and high school buddy Gary Hilleboe went to Colon, on the Gulf side of Canal Zone. We should have had our throats cut, but we were blessed with a cloak of a vibe of some kind... KIMMER: WHAT HAPPENED? MARK: We were in a bar.. The killers were there, but they must have been feeling lazy that day... a woman warned us to get out, she didn't have to tell us twice. KIMMER: HIT MEN OR FREAKS? MARK: Local cut throats... thugs with that life is real cheap look about them. KIMMER: OK BACK TO THE BOAT...LOL MARK: We had taken a case of Stroh's Beer with us and rationed our selves one beer a day which wasn't enough for 28 days. Saved one for equator crossing. KIMMER: DISCIPLINE FOR SURE... MARK: We saw Cuba go by the passenger window..yes , at sea one must maintain discipline. KIMMER: DID YOU WAVE AT FIDEL? LOL MARK: We had a beer for the occasion...wasn't much to do, they did have shuffle board. We watched sea gulls, albatrosses, as we got to the South Pacific there were Dolphin shows, acrobatics.. Did the watching the drained water experiment to see if the water went the other way... KIMMER: DID IT? MARK: I don't remember, but we did it at least 15 times on equator crossing day... KIMMER: 15 TIMES AND YOU DON'T REMEMBER? MARK: We also brought some pot with us, we got stoned for that occasion, eventually we got to New Zealand. KIMMER: WHAT ABOUT NOW DOES IT FLUSH BACKWARDS? MARK: No, toilets have a predisposition.. MARK: in Auckland (we found no Auks, but we looked). We asked what the dangerous bar was. So we went to this bar, played pool. These guys asked us if we wanted to step out the back to have a smoke. KIMMER: OH OH! MARK: so we accepted the invitation. As we approached the back door the guy let us pass first,which felt funny.. as I was walking thru the door way I had alarms of danger go off in my head. Next thing I heard was the breaking of glass. I thought the guy had broken a glass to use as a weapon so I swung around and swept his knee, he dropped, then I kicked him in the trachea...then we both ran like hell. The alley was closed in and had an echo, sounded like we were closely followed... eventually got winded, and turned around and saw no one, then I said to Hilleboe,"maybe the guy just dropped his beer?" KIMMER: LOL!!! MARK: Marijuana can be a dangerous drug..PARANOIA! TILTED PERCEPTIONS... KIMMER: INDEED... TOTALLY! MARK: Between New Zealand and Australia we got in this HUGE storm and being from West Bloomfield. MI I guess I developed the habit of seeking danger, because we didn't have any and felt we were missing something important, and didn't want to get soft. Prior to that I was from Dearborn Heights, and as a boy up until I was 9, there was plenty of rumbles , but just kid stuff, no one really got hurt, but I felt it sharpened my senses. KIMMER: WAS THE STORM LIKE A HURRICANE? MARK: Storm ,, waves got big, then real big..we smoked some more dope, as we weren't going to go thru customs with any... We went on the deck and lashed our selves to the rail to watch the show. HUGE F**k off waves, rolling like canyons, the 700' long ship was climbing slow up and down these mountains of water. Crazy, eventually we went in, Not knowing they had done their 3rd head count,making sure all souls were still accounted for. Uh there was some pissed off sailors..eventually we made it to Melbourne.. Got off the ship, went into town and partied, then came back around dawn to go through customs...still drunk and stoned... KIMMER: DID YOU HAVE FRIENDS IN OZ OR A TOTAL STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND? MARK: I knew one family , a family friend from Detroit but they were in Sydney. Got to Sydney , this was June of 1974. Ended up in Darlinghurst. KIMMER: WHEN DID YOU MEET DENIZ TEK OF RADIO BIRDMAN FAME? MARK: 6 months later... Darlinghurst was party land, masses of young hipsters... I had met this girl , Lizzy? Libby? She said, Oh I know this guy from Detroit, you must meet him. I only lived about less than a 1/4 mile from Deniz, we both drank at Frenches the local hang out, but we never crossed paths. I was just about to take off from Sydney, but hung around for a few days, to meet this other guy from Detroit. We both knew this girl Lizzy.. she introduced us. So , I meet Deniz at his pad... he wore beads and a bracelet, , I felt like I knew him. as he walked down the stairs I noticed he did this simple act (walking down this narrow staircase) with a great deal of attention and focus.. I found this interesting... "This guy must know something". We both found many things in common. Many years later, I told him about this...Funny, he knew why, there was a loose board in the stairs, and he had slipped on it, and fell, almost breaking his head , so he wasn't doing some Zen exercise, it was just self preservation from having a scare from a fall. MARK: We were both "ethnic" from upper middle class Wasp-Jewish neighborhoods, Deniz Turk, Me Spanish. We were both way into the Detroit Music scene, WABX, Zap Comics, the whole 9 yards... had much to share in stories and attitudes. So ,I went along to a Radio Birdman gig , this was first week of January 1975... now you know the REST of the story KIMMER. KIMMER: WHAT WAS IT LIKE? MARK: Crowd was somewhat sparse, in those days , they often didn't know what to do, a bit confused, the didn't know if it was cool of not... KIMMER: WHAT DID "MINISTER OF DEFENCE" MEAN? MARK: The MC5 had one, so what the f**k, I needed a Title.. I was like MC, spare Roadie and , security occasional back up singer..yeah, all that...

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