About The Queers
The Queers are an American punk rock band, formed in 1981 by Portsmouth, New Hampshire native Joseph “Joe” P. King along with Scott Gildersleeve , and John “Jack” Hayes . With the addition of Keith Hages joining on bass in 1983 the band started playing their first public performances. The revised line-up played a total of six live shows between 1983 and 1984. This earliest era of The Queers formation initially broke up in late 1984; however, Joe Queer re-formed the band with an all-new line-up in 1986. In 1990, after several more band line-up changes the band signed with Shakin' Street Records to release their debut album, Grow Up. The album earned the band notability within New England, but with the release of their next album, 1993's Love Songs for the Retarded, on Lookout! Records, their following grew.
In 2006, after releasing six albums on Lookout! Records, the band rescinded their master rights from the label, citing breach of contract over unpaid royalties. Later that year they signed with Asian Man Records.
The Queers' cover of "Wipe Out" was featured in the 2007 Columbia Pictures and ImageWorks Studios mockumentary film Surf's Up, produced by Sony Pictures Animation and National Geographic Films.
The Queers were formed in 1981 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The original line-up consisted of guitarist/vocalist Joe Queer, bassist Tulu, and drummer Wimpy Rutherford. Tulu introduced Queer and Rutherford to The Ramones in 1976 but it would be another five years before they formed The Queers shortly after Joe returned to New Hampshire having spent a summer in Manhattan Beach, California. While Queer was on the west coast he saw many of the original Los Angeles punk rock bands including The Zeros, The Germs, Black Flag, The Dickies, Fear, and Angry Samoans. All three had previously played in earlier punk bands before forming The Queers including The Objects and The Falling Spikes, and Tulu released a solo single in 1981. Tulu stated that their band moniker had nothing to do with homosexuality, and meant queer as in someone strange or an outsider.
The 1981–1982 original line-up rehearsed in Tulu’s basement but never publicly performed. Their earliest songs were cover songs by The Dave Clark Five, The Monkees, and The Ramones. Sometime in 1982 Queer, Tulu, and Wimpy found themselves hanging out listening to punk rock records that Joe had purchased while living in Manhattan Beach, California and had brought back home to New Hampshire. One of the punk rock records the trio put on the turntable was the Blood Sausage EP by The Meatmen. After listening to the record they all were collectively of the opinion that they could "do much better" and commenced to write original songs. Tulu then wrote The Queers' first classic, “We’d Have A Riot Doing Heroin”, right on the spot “in about two minutes” and the band was truly born. Those earliest original songs were subsequently recorded on The Queers' debut record. After releasing the Love Me EP, the group disbanded for a few months while Tulu temporarily moved to New York City, New York in late 1982. While the band was on temporary hiatus, Joe and Wimpy got together and over the course of a few hours in one day wrote enough new songs for a new record. A phone call was made to Tulu to inform him that they had written a great new batch of songs, discussed re-forming the band, and recording another EP. After a fortnight, Joe and Wimpy drove to New York City, located Tulu, and drove back to New Hampshire with newfound enthusiasm and confidence. In 1983 the new line-up found Queer remaining on guitar while Rutherford switched from drums to lead vocals and Tulu from bass to drums, while their friend Keith Hages joined on bass. This line-up recorded the Kicked Out of the Webelos EP and performed approximately six live shows , and broke up for a second time in 1984. Shortly after the breakup the Webelos EP was released and Tulu then went to college in Arizona while Queer and Wimpy continued to reside in New Hampshire. While never releasing a proper album at the time, the 1996 compilation A Day Late and a Dollar Short compiled the Love Me EP , the Kicked Out of the Webelos EP , a studio session dating from 1993 recording original songs that were written in 1983 but not recorded in the band’s original era, demo tracks in 1991, and an East Orange, New Jersey live performance in 1994 on independent community radio station WFMU.
In 1986, King formed a new version of the band with DMZ guitarist J. J. Rassler, bassist Kevin Kecy, and drummer Hugh O'Neill. The band broke up again in 1987 after King bought a restaurant, but the next year were re-formed by King and O'Neill, with Sean Rowley on rhythm guitar and new bassist B-Face. Sean Rowley left the band in 1990 to attend art school. In 1990, this line-up released the band's debut album, Grow Up, on a small English label called Shakin' Street Records. When Grow Up caught the attention of Screeching Weasel frontman Ben Weasel, he convinced Lookout! Records owner Larry Livermore to sign The Queers, who released their second album, Love Songs for the Retarded, on Lookout! in 1993. To promote the album the band went on tours with Screeching Weasel and Rancid.
By now the band had developed problems with drug and alcohol use. Larry Livermore, who was in the studio with the band for Love Songs for the Retarded, recalled that while Joe King was able to stop drinking, heroin remained an issue for both King and Hugh O'Neill. The other members staged an intervention for O'Neill, who was forced to take a leave of absence from the band to deal with his addiction.
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