Venus and the Razorblades

Venus and the Razorblades were a short-lived New Wave rock band from Los Angeles, put together by Kim Fowley after he severed professional relations with The Runaways. Fowley sought to put together a band with a teenaged male singer and teenaged female musicians backing him up. They put out a novelty single called "Punk-O-Rama" on the independent label Bomp! Records trying to capitalize on the punk rock fad of the late 1970s and then broke up. (An album came out later, which is extremely rare today.) The recordings featured session players associated with Fowley projects such as guitarist Mars Bonfire, formerly of an early version of Steppenwolf and keyboardist Billy Bizeau, formerly of The Quick, as well as members of the band itself. The band's song "Young and Wild" was sometimes covered live by Van Halen when they were still a Los Angeles bar band. Fowley then tried to make guitarist Dyan Diamond into a big star, and got her a deal with Elektra Records ; due to the late 1970s not being very conducive to the bubblegum pop/teen pop genre, Diamond had no success. Singer Steven T., allegedly a rent boy, recorded a disco album which similarly had no success.

External links

• All Music Guide