(Image: Arnel, Spanky, Flaco, Lurch and Genocide Circa 1980’s)

From the day that I first got my Lads Arm Band, people started to change all around me. People I knew and people I didn’t know would stear clear of me if they hadn’t already. Once I was truly ensconsed “in the life” many people I knew for many years wouldn’t hang around me. The Lads were fucking notorious, they were both hated and revered. That said, all sorts of of new people entered my life….Hundreds of new people…The Lads were a huge club but the hangarounds were a mass all their own..There were literally hundreds and hundreds of hangarounds from all over the place and they’re still around even today.

Things didn’t only just change for me. My friend Lurch had some hippie that kept ducking him for months because he owed Lurch money. Well, we went over to get the dough at his house in the Valley one day and he hid in his house and wouldn’t come out because of the ass beating we had promised him. So… we left our calling card outside on his front sidewalk ~LADS~ .That Hippies mom was so terrified after seeing the graffiti outside her house she settled up with Lurch right away so unfortunate incidents like these wouldn’t happen again. And, she even asked Lurch for permission to remove the graffitti in front of her own house.

Something I never saw coming was…The Women!… The Lads actually have groupies…I was in a relationship for many years and it wasn’t until my later years that I experienced how weird the chicks could get about the whole Lads thing…. There were times there that I couldn’t believe the shit they would say to me …What the hell do you say when a pretty lil girl you don’t even know walks right up to you with a big smile on her face and says “wow, you’re a Lad… fucking you would be like fucking a rock star? ….You don’t need to say anything, you just fuck her!

Something interesting about those Arm Bands… Each arm band is like the other but yet different in their own way. Each arm band was done by hand by Alex in the true DIY Punk Rock way. So each arm band has it’s own individual characteristics. I found this out over time by making t-shirts, sweatshirts and buttons for the club. I was forced to look at the image for hours at a time while doing the setup until I knew every pen stroke of my own arm band. Now, I immediately know when I’m looking at an image of my own arm band or someone else’s. Looking at the other remaining arm bands in existence next to each other you can see the subtle differences in each. I don’t know how many arm bands were made or given out over the years but from what I’ve heard through the Lads, I know there aren’t many left. Some were snatched in fights and some were lost either through moving, incarceration, drug addiction etc. The Image above courtesy of Marlon

The Image above courtesy of Lurch

Kenny Aka Puppet circa 1980

There were also many Lads from that era that did not receive an arm band due to negligence, short sightedness or laziness. I know who you are and I’m honored to have known you, fought by your side and drank all your beer and smoked all your weed. I thank you.