| Cheap Chick
Interviews:
The irony is multi-faceted. Cheap Chick is an all-female tribute to a band whose muscular, energetic power pop sounds contrasted highly with the flowing-maned, leather-clad, occasionally self-indulgent swagger of late 1970s stadium rock.
Also ironic is that the members of Cheap Chick are all seasoned professional musicians who had at least one swing at major success with original music, but fell victim to the unexpected (and often unexplained) ebbs and flows of the music business. Record companies were interested, and then not. Managers were supportive, then combative.
Further, in the 70s, when Cheap Trick, perhaps arguably, had its greatest impact, the band consisted of two guys, lead singer Robin Zander and bassist Tom Petersson, who easily fit the role of dreamboat rock stars, along with a drummer (Bun E. Carlos) who looked about as rocking as a bank teller on a lunch break, and lead guitarist Rick Nielsen, whose fine chops were belied by his appearance, best described as just plain goofy.
With Cheap Chick, those roles are played by four attractive women, without a goof in the bunch.
Cheap Chick's story begins with Pam Moore, known as "Pam Cheatersson," the band's 12-string bass slinger.
Pam had worked a variety of "day jobs," including teaching junior high, serving as a drag-racing journalist and even as a head elf at Macy's department store.
Unsatisfied with such "lofty" positions, she and two friends formed a surf-rock band, the Neptunas, and their exploits got them included in Music Connection magazine's list of top ten unsigned bands. The trio - nicknamed Pamita, Leslita and Toastita - were hailed by the Los Angeles Times as having "enough twangy guitar and camp for a half dozen Frankie and Annette flicks."
Yet, the major-label deal the band sought never materialized and the band folded.
Then Pam experienced the surrealism of tribute band nirvana when she attended a show by a group of Led Zeppelin imitators.
"I saw all these people that day just going nuts," she told L.A. Weekly. "It was one of the freakiest things I'd ever seen."
A truer epiphany, she said, came when she saw an all-female AC/DC tribute band, Whole Lotta Rosies.
"I actually got inspired by seeing another all-female tribute band," she told Village Voice. "I said, "Ah! I want to do that. What's a band that I would love and would want to play and do."
Cheap Trick, she said, had been a favorite in junior high and a band whose music she had rediscovered in recent years.
Cheap Chick got off to a somewhat slow start in the fall of 2002, but within a few months had secured a stable lineup and a full plan of attack.
Judy Cocuzza had established a reputation as one of L.A.'s most respected drummers and had played in a number of bands, including those with such names as Borax, Bobsled and Stay at Home Bomb. A band called Butt Trumpet evolved into Betty Blowtorch, whose four-year history was filled with national recognition, touring and even a movie, but dissolved into a mess of lawsuits and even the death of a bandmember.
She joined Pam in Cheap Chick in late 2002 as "Bunni Carlos," and even interviewed her namesake for DRUM! magazine in 2005.
Kristi Callan, aka "Robbin' Zander," moved to L.A. via Texas, Oklahoma and New York, and spent a decade as lead singer/writer/rhythm guitarist of Wednesday Week, a band often described as a cross between early Bangles and the Pretenders.
Despite good reviews, plenty of touring and some TV appearances, Wednesday Week fell apart in the early 90s, and Kristi spent the next decade singing backup with several artists and playing in an original country band, Lucky.
She was initially somewhat reluctant to be a part of a tribute band, considering such as a "joke," but changed her mind when she met Pam. The two found that they were both mothers of two and had both been huge Cheap Trick fans as teenagers, and Kristi, as she told Village Voice, actually wanted to "be Robin Zander" when she was a teen.
"'Cause he had this pretty blonde hair," she said, "and nice clothes, and sang really nice. So I wanted to be him."
Completing the lineup was lead guitarist "Chick Nielsen," Robin Beacham. Robin had played in two popular bands in her native Texas, XOX and the all-female Velvet Hammer, but sought greener pastures and a major label deal, so she headed for Los Angeles in 1991.
Working with such acts as Majenta Jets, the fame she sought did not materialize. Disgusted with the music business and eventually "hitting the wall," she stopped playing guitar for a time.
Then, like Moore, she was inspired by seeing Whole Lotta Rosies, and met Cheap Chick shortly thereafter.
With its lineup solidified, Cheap Chick then went to work on building its reputation through rock-solid live performances, even, on occasion, performing Cheap Trick's landmark Live At Budokan album in its entirety, and Moore's uncanny gift at marketing.
"Pam should really be working for one of those big PR companies," guitarist Beacham said. "I really don't know why she hasn't been tracked down by those companies."
"Pam is amazing," Callan added. "She knows everybody, and everything we've been able to do is because of her."
Moore has been able to secure numerous endorsements for Cheap Chick, helping to take care of what she calls "gear acquisition syndrome," or "GAS," for short.
Cheap Chick has played in L.A.'s largest clubs, taken part in a compilation CD featuring all Cheap Trick tributes, traveled to Japan and even, in 2005, played Cheap Trick's hometown of Rockford, Ill.
And, in the process, established themselves in a field of tribute bands largely dominated by all-male acts, perhaps most of which are solidly based in the heavily testosterone-soaked arena rock of the 70s.
How ironic.
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