Johnny Thunders (vocals/guitar) and
Jerry Nolan (drums) gained fame in the pioneering proto-punk band
New York Dolls. By early 1975, the Dolls were disintegrating amid poor record sales and tensions within the band, and Thunders and Nolan quit during a tour of Florida in March 1975. Coincidentally, that same week
Richard Hell (vocals/bass) left
Television. After returning to New York, Thunders and Nolan invited Hell to join their new band, and Hell agreed. The three dubbed their new band the Heartbreakers. Their first gig was on May 30 of that year, at the Coventry, a rock club in Queens. (
Tom Petty's band was also named the Heartbreakers, but they did not begin gigging until 1976.) The trio auditioned several candidates for a second guitarist, and soon added
Walter Lure to the lineup. Lure, who had up to that point been the guitarist for the New York
glam punk outfit The Demons, played his first show with the Heartbreakers on July 4, 1975, at
CBGB. The band quickly became one of the most popular and well-known underground bands in New York City, headlining shows at CBGB, Mother's (located across from the
Chelsea Hotel), and
Max's Kansas City. In the band's early days, each member took turns on vocals, with Hell bringing in songs (such as "
Blank Generation") originally written for Television, and Thunders contributing new material as well. Lure began singing lead on some songs and co-writing with Nolan. The combination of the style-conscious Nolan and Thunders with the beatnik Hell and gangly Lure made for a visually arresting and musically powerful group. As Blondie's
Clem Burke said, "You could call them the punk rock Beatles. Each person really stood out." and studio demos were released in 2019. Although initially the band members shared songwriting and singing, Hell increasingly attempted to impose his will on the band. At a rehearsal in early 1976, Hell laid down an ultimatum – he would sing most of the songs in the set, with Thunders relegated to one or two songs per set. Thunders walked out, and Nolan and Lure followed; with all three united against him, Hell wound up leaving the band. His final show was on May 14, 1976, at the Rathskeller in Boston. After auditioning several bass players, the band settled on Boston transplant Billy Rath. Hell went on to form his own band,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids. released in May 1977, which sold well despite being criticized for its poor sound. Nolan admitted "I think it's okay, but not great," and Lure added "The record wasn't really up to par production wise." – were eventually released as a live album in 2015. After the Village Gate shows, the band returned to England to attempt to finalize the album, entitled
L.A.M.F. (New York gang slang for "like a motherfucker".) Nolan was most vocal about his dissatisfaction with the recordings, and attempted to remix the album himself – but with no better results.
Track Records pressured the band to release the album by October 1977 in order to get it in stores for the holiday season; Nolan threatened to quit if the album was released as is, and when the other three members agreed to Track's demands, Nolan followed through and left the band. Upon its release, the album received excellent reviews, but still drew criticism for its poor sound – especially compared to
the Clash and
Sex Pistols albums released the same year. Much of the blame went to Keen, who was not a trained recording engineer, but problems with the mastering process likely affected the record as well. L.A.M.F. would ultimately be remixed and rereleased multiple times to try to extract the band's raw power from the master tapes. As Childers said, the album's failure to capture the Heartbreakers' live sound was "the biggest, hugest fuck-up in the history of rock 'n' roll." With Nolan out of the band, Thunders, Lure, and Rath recruited the Sex Pistols' Paul Cook to play drums on a fall tour of the UK, but soon asked Nolan to rejoin as a hired musician. Nolan finished the tour, but then left again to start a new band, the Idols. The Heartbreakers did a short European tour in November and December with
Terry Chimes on drums, after which Lure and Rath returned to New York to attempt to recruit a permanent replacement on drums. The band again found themselves without a recording contract when Track Records went bankrupt – fortunately, due to a provision Childers had inserted in their contract, they were able to recover the master tapes for L.A.M.F. as well as other live recordings. But without a new recording contract, Thunders decided to attempt a solo career, and the band ultimately broke up in early 1978. Thunders remained in London, playing shows with various musicians, and recording his solo debut
So Alone (which featured Lure and Rath on a few tracks.) That summer, the three found themselves in New York and decided to play some "farewell" shows – as Lure acknowledged, "we were all strung out, we were all in town, and we all needed money." Minus Nolan, the band booked a series of shows at
Max's Kansas City with drummer Ty Styx sitting in. Realizing that the band would not last much longer, Max's booker Peter Crowley arranged for the shows on September 16, 1978, to be recorded for a live album, The eventual release, ''
Live at Max's Kansas City '79,'' would become an immediate classic, capturing the band's live energy as
L.A.M.F. had conspicuously failed to do. Nolan eventually rejoined the band in March 1979, and the reunited quartet continued to play regularly in New York throughout 1979 and 1980. But there was no attempt to write new songs or record new material – the gigs were purely "rent parties" to help the members stay afloat financially (and pay for their addictions.) In 1984, the band was able to rerelease a remixed version of
L.A.M.F., and did a reunion tour of Europe in 1984 that led to a live video and album recorded at The Lyceum Ballroom London on March 25, 1984. Billy Rath left the band and the music business after the reunion tour, and was replaced by Tony Coiro. Thunders and Nolan continued their careers solo and (in Nolan's case) with other bands; they toured together in 1986 and 1987. Lure formed his own band, the Waldos, as well as occasionally playing with Thunders at New York gigs. The Heartbreakers' final show was on November 30, 1990, at the Marquee in New York City, with Coiro on bass. Although both Thunders and Nolan were in deteriorating health by this point, the show went well. == Post-Heartbreakers ==