Women In L.A. Punk, Part XXIII - Debbie Schow

My home computer recently crashed and took with it quite a large portion of my online archives at www.alicebag.com. That's bad news because it literally took my husband months and months to scan the images and write the code for hundreds of web pages. The good news is that the vast majority of the Women In L.A. Punk section is intact, with the exception of a few photos. It's important to me that this series of interviews remains available for researchers and those who are curious because it provides a direct, unedited source of first-hand recollections for the women who lived through and created the early L.A. punk scene.

One of those women was Debbie Schow. Debbie Schow and I met briefly at Kim Fowley’s cattle call for Venus and the Razorblades, his post-Runaways project. Debbie had been involved in the local music scene before punk really took off in L.A. and she started photographing the bands and scene. Later, when Nickey Beat joined Venus and The Razorblades, he introduced me to her formally. I remember her being unusually serene and elegant and I wondered what someone like her was doing hanging out with Kim Fowley.


Blue Debbie by Debbie Schow.

Debbie was around to photograph the transitions from glitter to punk, then punk to post-punk. She is also a musician in her own right. She’s started to go through her archives of negatives and I’m certain we’ll be seeing more of her work in the future. For now, Debbie has graciously allowed me to share some of her photos of Wall of Voodoo, X and others, including a previously unpublished color photo of X at Union Station in Downtown L.A.

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