If you like this photo, stay tuned for nineteen other great concert photos Bernadette is sharing with us after her story!

Picture it -- London, 1991. I didn't write down and don't remember the exact date, but it was after June 16th but before July 4th. I know because when I saw them in the picture book, they were after the first pictures of my godchild(who was born June 16th) but before my annual Independence Day throw-down(this was before the days of digital cameras that printed the date on the pictures...or at least before I had one). Oh, sure, they were probably some of the worst pictures I've ever taken -- my finger was in the lens, the film was overexposed, and would you believe I was still wearing/growing out my Eighties haircut? (Hope you kids bought stock in Aqua Net while it was hot, because you could've made a fortune off my investments alone) -- but I could tell what they were. TVV, Brixton Academy.

At the time my aunt had put in enough hours at her job at British Airways to earn ID90's("buddy passes", allowing the holder to earn a 90% discount on a fare on B.A. The catch was, wherever your final destination, you had to connect through London Heathrow) and my boyfriend at the time (along with enough friends to arm the president -- I don't know what they thought was going to happen) decided we should all go. You know, we're only young once, live life while you can, because when we're old at 22 we're going to wish for these days. Plus, a member of my posse of fine young specimen had these tickets(I never did figure out how he got them) to see this band called Transvision Vamp.

To us New Yorkers, they were an "underground" band, a "college" band. In other words, they were barely a pebble's plop in the lake. If you had the foresight, you bought the vinyl at a sidewalk sale somewhere in the West Village and hoped they'd be worth something someday. If you were lucky you got your hands on an import. We were at the cusp of the 80's/90's, and this wasn't Blondie/Ramones/CBGB's in the 70s we were talking about.

But what the hell. A concert's a concert, and since when am I one to complain about free?

What a show! It was noisy, it was trashy, it was screamin' loud. It was Transvision Vamp. My boyfriend at the time just slumped over in his chair. See, he was an aspiring musician, playing in a crappy band with a couple of my other buds(they called themselves, of all things, The I.M.F. It stood for "The Incredible Mind Fucks." 'Nuff said?) and the first thing he uttered was, "Christ, now we need a chick to front us. That broad put on a hell of a show." (Hey, I never said he was Mr. Sensitivity)

I wasn't a "Trannie", per se. I liked the music, and I laughed for days when I realized who the bass player of Bush was(laughed for months when I read the statement that went something like "the bands we were in were never successful, good luck finding the albums"...as I cocked an eyebrow at my vinyls...one, two, three...99 cent bin, you find it you keep it...hey Davey, you might want to reconsider that statement...), but that was it. No big whoop. The pictures? Even less of a whoop. Put them in my picture book, right after the first pictures of my godchild, and forgot I had them.

Well, the details of the circumstances surrounding how these puppies came up again are pretty fuzzy, and whatever I remember is too painful anyway. But whatever... thanks to(an apparantly decent) scan job, you can have the pictures too! You'd probably appreciate them more than me anyway, and I'm a nice giving person by nature...well, almost all the time.

As for Mr. Sensitivity? Classical music training. He's a music teacher now. We're still good friends. Never did get married. The I.M.F. broke up in 1993 after cymbal player(kid came from a strict Italian family and wasn't allowed a whole drum kit, officially it was "the sound they were going for anyway") Giuseppe Francesco("Joey Cheech") went to work for his father as a mechanic and record scratcher/all-around wiseass Randolpho Antonio(Anthony, pronounced "Ant Nee" in true Five Boroughs form) sired a baby girl with the girlfriend everyone loved to hate.

And they never did get a 'chick' to front them. Oh well.

CLICK HERE to enjoy the twenty beautiful pictures Bernadette is sharing with us. Unfortunetely, images need to be reduced in size for internet load time, but if you would like a larger picture, feel free to mail transvision@geocities.com. These pictures are of such outstanding quality and professionalism, that I had to make some wallpaper for our computers out of them. You may download them on the Images page. Thanks Bernadette!

Bernadette also happens to be a professional writer (one of her MANY talents). CLICK HERE to read the articles she has written, including several Tex Axile's solo efforts.

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