A Philadelphia-based punk rock band formed sometime back in the late 1970's, the result of a fiendish journalistic prank that backfired (ask David Fricke). We were fueled by a consuming passion for all things rocknroll and an intense relationship with our mentors The Cramps. We were Mick Cancer, Alison (the) End, Tim Trauma and Rich Lustre. We were neophytes at the nascent edge of punk, existing in that netherworld between inspired amateurism and calamity. We were loved and loathed. Somehow, we became legends. The initial incarnation ot the Sickidz lasted into 1980, offering wildly apocalyptic theatrical performances while playing the Philly/N.Y. circuit and opening for such punk illuminaries as (of course) The Cramps, Iggy Pop, Gang of Four, Contortions, Siouxsie and The Banshees, etc. We even fashioned a series of shows in San Francisco, the most significant with The Dead Kennedys at Mabuhay Gardens. We played for the last time in October 1980 at The Starlight Ballroom in Philadelphia. Then, in the waning days of the year, Alison (the) End passed into another dimension. We recoiled. We retreated. And then we returned, torn and frayed and fractured, but nonetheless determined. We produced our first recording, the Rhythm Gurl tribute single. We changed faces and we went on. A revamped version of the Sickidz continued to perform extensively and issued new records, notably LSD on The Rebel Kind neo-psych compilation and the I Could Go To Hell For You EP produced by Lux Interior and Poison Ivy Rorschach. Unfortunately, in the mid 80's, we turned our backs on each other. Years later, it's hard to remember why. Nor does it matter, it's our business. We did other shit, had other lives, ignored our past. But the past can creep up on you..... In 1999, the stars was aligned and Sickidz reformed. We are Sickidz.
