Women In L.A. Punk, Part XXII - Gerber, aka Michelle Bell

This interview was conducted over a year ago and I've been dying to post it ever since it was finished. Well, the long wait is over and it was worth it because Gerber has kindly allowed me to share some photos from her own scrapbooks.

All you people who keep asking me to interview Gerber can stop asking. It's finally here.



If you're at all familiar with the Germs, then you know that Gerber (Michelle Bell) was very close to Darby Crash. She went from being a muse to a musican and figured into several bands in L.A.

Gerber's interview appears exactly as she wrote her responses to me. I felt it was important to keep it just as it came to me - with typos and all - because it shows so much of her personality. I asked her if I should correct it or run it as it was and her response was as follows:

"fuck thr typos
thats me Yes
i chopped many a head
but Dennis from Social D
was the funniest
hrthought he ws gonna get laid like i a car
then he ran around all nite holding onto this one lil long peice I couldnt get off
he jssust held it all nite and tols story of woe
like that girl..... blah blah blah ...
they wwerent even a baand then
but he cmae looking for me next week
with a rod stewart spikey kindda cutt
suuper cutt
haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

If there was an "It Girl" of the Masque, that would be Gerber. Like a punk Delilah, she claimed hearts as well as manes. Any party with Gerber in attendance was 100% guaranteed not to be dull.



In her interview, Gerber writes that punk "set me free to scream my truth...it needed to be screamed." Her interview answers, like Gerber herself, are all in CAPS. She was funny, feisty, unapologetic and in-your-face. And she still is.

Click on the Women In Punk thumbnail to read her interview: