Grand Mal (1977) Grand Mal was a short-lived band which formed in July 1977. Its first lineup consisted of Don Vinil on vocals, Craig Gray on guitar,
V. Vale (of
Search & Destroy punk zine) on bass, and Todd Robertson on drums. Due to his magazine commitments, Vale quickly left the band and Will Shatter replaced him, despite having no previous musical experience. The quartet played only three gigs, sharing bills with bands such as the
Avengers,
the Dils, and
the Dead Boys. During their last show at the
Mabuhay Gardens in
San Francisco, California on November 7, 1977,
Rozz Rezabek stepped in as the band's new vocalist, after jumping on stage, not allowing Vinil to continue performing. Vinil then left the band to start
the Offs, and Grand Mal became Negative Trend.
Negative Trend One (1977–1978) On December 14, 1977, the band played their first show under the name Negative Trend at the Mabuhay Gardens. Rozz Rezabek was now the singer of the band, and the rest of the lineup remained the same. During a show with the Avengers at Iguana Studios, during which
Sandy Pearlman was in attendance (although he was really only there to watch the Avengers performance), Rezabek broke his arm while performing on stage after tripping over a microphone cord. Rezabek was notorious for his electrifying performances, On January 14, 1978, after playing six shows in the southern United States, the
Sex Pistols played their final show at
Winterland Arena in San Francisco, California. The day before the show, someone spray painted the walls of Winterland with the words "Negative Trend". Before the Sex Pistols went on, Malcolm McLaren demanded that
Bill Graham, who set up the show, allow Negative Trend to go on before the Sex Pistols. Before the show had started, McLaren asked
Howie Klein who the worst band in San Francisco was, and Klein responded saying that it was Negative Trend. McLaren told Graham that if the band were not allowed to play, the Sex Pistols would refuse to play. Graham agreed to let Negative Trend go on after the Sex Pistols. However, by the time the Sex Pistols left the stage and Negative Trend got set up, there was nobody left in attendance, so Negative Trend never got to play. The record was released in September 1978 by the label Heavy Manners. Side one of the record included the tracks "Mercenaries" and "Meathouse", while side two had the tracks "Black and Red" and "How Ya Feelin". The record has been re-released two times, once in December 1983 by
Subterranean Records, and again in April 2006 by
2.13.61. After the first gig, Tom Mallon took over Hood's position as bass player. After the second gig, DePace was forced to stop playing due to his commitments with the band Flipper. Tony Sales then replaced DePace on drums. The band went on to play a few more shows before splitting up in 2010. == Former band members ==