THE VOGUE - 1984-86

The Vogue 

2018 First Ave 

Intro from Clark Humphrey’s book, “Loser”: 

“Ex-Tugs employees Alan Lucier and Ted Ladd joined with former Wrex partner Aaron McKiernan to revive WREX as the Vogue, opened on Jan. 15, 1983. Terry Morgan and Carlo Scanduzzi helped design the space, turning the new wave video bar into a blue-neon intimate disco with DJs on the weekends, bands on the slow nights of Tuesday and Wednesday.”

Longtime Vogue booking agent Claudia Gehrke (Claude Lemon): 

“I started at the Vogue before there was live music. I came in on the ground floor as a door girl when it opened, because I lived with Upchuck, and the owners knew that I knew the Tugs crowd and wanted them to hang. This would’ve been 1983. Back then the gay scene pretty much owned the club. Aaron McKiernan was picking up the remnants of WREX. The entire place was very different before live music took over. Art shows, kinda upscale snob, mixed with some great talent behind the bar. The music sucked, but the big-screen video was one of a kind. The opening of “Thriller” on the big screen, for example, was a big deal. I was just a door girl, but I wanted to DJ. Eventually they let me DJ a Prince night. Initially the Vogue was only open weekends (for the benefit of the wealthy Bellevue 'yuppie' crowd), but they eventually expanded to Thursdays. Then I got the Wednesday slot, more of a funk-punk thing. After a while, I started railing for live music. I had to fight to have more than one band on a bill in the beginning, and then I came up with my formula for Tuesday and Wednesday, to be a little different from each other."

1984 

September 1984 

26 - Cinema 90 

October 1984

7 - Next Exit 

18 - Beat Pagodas 

 November 1984 

 8 - Fade To Black 

15 - 3 Teens Kill 4, Room 9 

 1985 

January 1985 

9 - Visible Targets 

23 - Green Pajamas 

30 - Colour Twigs 

February 1985 

6 - Life In General 

March 1985 

13 - Pop-O-Pies 

20 - True West, Rebel Blade 

April 1985 

17 - Work Party 

May 1985 

1 - U-Men 

15 - Cabaret Voltaire Video Presentation 

21 - Brides Of Frankenstein, Paisley Sin 

22 - The F-Holes 

29 - Go Four 3 (Vancouver BC) 

30 - Day For Night Fashion Show 

June 1985 

5- Grapes Of Wrath 

July 1985 

9 - Brides Of Frankenstein Video Shoot 

10 - The Vipers 

17 - Room 9 

19 - Napalm Beach 

31 - The 57’s 

August 1985 

7 - The Dripdrys

14 - Beat Pagodas

21 - Feast 

28 - Durango 5

September 1985 

25 - Paisley Sin 

October 1985 

2 - Violet Caste 

8 - Wally Danger: Fashion Show & Art Opening 

9 - Bark In The Dark 

16 - The Frames 

23 - Me 

30 - Stanley’s Wife 

November 1985 

6 - Skin Yard 

13 - Variant Cause 

20 - The Hood 

27 - Napalm Beach 

December 1985 

18 - Rebel Blade 

1986 

February 1986 

5 - No News 

12 - Living Dolls 

19 - Paisley Sin 

26 - Life In General 

March 1986 

26 - Usual Suspects 

 April 1986 

 9 - Eve’s White Horses (w/members of Napalm Beach) 

16 - Fastbacks 

23 - Room 9 

30 - Usual Suspects 

May 1986 

29 - Allright! 

June 1986 

11 - Melting Fish 

18 - Green River 

25 - Paisley Sin 

July 1986 

2 - Life In General 

8 - Cherry Bombz 

9 - Living Dolls 
16 - Fastbacks 

23 - Rhythm Pigs, Skin Yard 

30 - Half-Japanese (Baltimore), Velvet Monkeys (D.C.) 

 August 1986 

 6 - Lethal Gospel (S.F.), Vexed 

13 - Queen Annes 

19 - Shark, Hayden 

20 - The Thirty (NYC) 

24 - Bacchanalia 

27 - Room Nine 

September 1986 

10 - Green River (record release) 

October 1986 

1 - Bundle Of Hiss 

8 - Bark In The Dark 

15 - Frames 

22 - The Brittn’s 

28 - Sympathy Cards, Stanley’s Wife 

29 - Serious Dark Angels 

November 1986 

5 - Clay Alien 

12 - Life In General 

19 - Inspector Cazbo & His Secret Angels perform “The Great Galactic Rock Show” 

26 - Feast 

December 1986 

16 - Pure Joy 

17 - ADRD