Formation ''. Crash (born Jan Paul Beahm) and Smear (born Georg Ruthenberg) decided to start a band after being kicked out of
University High School for
antisocial behavior, allegedly for using "mind control" on fellow students. Their original name was "Sophistifuck and the Revlon Spam Queens", but they had to shorten the name as they could not afford that many letters on a T-shirt. The (initially hypothetical) first line-up consisted of Beahm (then known as Bobby Pyn, and later as Darby Crash) on vocals, Ruthenberg (under the name Pat Smear) on guitar, an early member named "Dinky" (Diana Grant) on bass, and Michelle Baer playing drums. This line-up never played in front of a live audience. In April 1976, the band added Lorna Doom (born Teresa Ryan) on bass, with transitional member Dottie Danger (later famous as
Belinda Carlisle of
the Go-Go's) on drums. Carlisle never actually played with the band, as she was sidelined by a bout of
mononucleosis for an extended period. She was replaced by her friend Donna Rhia (Becky Barton), who played three gigs and performed on their first single. Carlisle remained a friend and helper of the band (she can be heard introducing the band on the
Germicide: Live at the Whiskey recording, produced by
Kim Fowley), only leaving because her new band, the Go-Go's, were becoming popular and, as she put it, "I was really disturbed by the heroin that was going on".
Nickey Beat, of various noteworthy Los Angeles bands including
the Weirdos, also sat in on drums for a time. The band's first live performance was at the Orpheum Theater, a 99-seat venue on the
Sunset Strip in then-
unincorporated area West Hollywood, California (later the location of
Book Soup). Smear recalled: "We made noise. Darby stuck the mic in a jar of peanut butter. It was a dare, we had no songs or anything! Lorna wore her pants inside out, and Darby covered himself in red licorice... we made noise for five minutes until they threw us off". much to the band's displeasure. It was released in July 1977 on the What? label. were similar to the sound achieved on later Germs recordings. The Germs recorded two singles (with alternate tracks), an album-length demo session, and one full-length LP,
(GI), records, and has a near-mythic status among punk rock fans. The album was produced by Joan Jett of the Runaways. Some European copies of the album also credited Donny Rose on keyboards (the song "Shut Down" was recorded live in the studio and featured melodic, two-fisted piano). The Germs were featured in Spheeris's documentary film
The Decline of Western Civilization along with
X,
Black Flag,
Fear,
Circle Jerks,
Alice Bag Band, and
Catholic Discipline. Following the release of their only studio album,
(GI), on
Slash Records, the Germs recorded six original songs with producer
Jack Nitzsche for the soundtrack to the film,
Cruising, starring
Al Pacino. Doom wrote one of the songs. Only one of these songs, "Lions Share", ended up on the Columbia soundtrack album. It was featured for approximately one minute in the movie, during a video-booth murder scene in an
S&M club. Other songs from this session did not appear until the 1988 bootleg ''Lion's Share
, along with four tracks from their infamous last show at the Starwood. The Cruising
sessions were finally released officially on the CD (MIA): The Complete Anthology''.
Dissolution and suicide of Crash The end of the band came when Crash, who had become increasingly impatient with drummer Bolles' antics, fired him and replaced him with his friend and lover Rob Henley, a fellow heroin addict. Shortly after the Germs split, Crash and Smear formed the short-lived
Darby Crash Band. Circle Jerks drummer
Lucky Lehrer joined the band on the eve of their first (sold-out) live performance when, during a soundcheck, Darby kicked out the drummer they had rehearsed with. The band, described by Smear as "like the Germs, but with worse players", played only a few gigs to lukewarm reaction before splitting up. Shortly after that, Crash contacted Smear about a Germs "reunion" show, claiming it was necessary to "put punk into perspective" for the punks on the scene. However, Smear has said Crash told him privately he wanted to earn money for heroin with which to die by suicide. Since Crash had described this scenario many times in the past, Smear did not take him seriously. Crash died by suicide on December 7, 1980, at age 22. Unreported at the time, Crash had overdosed on
heroin in a
suicide pact with close friend Casey "Cola" Hopkins, who ended up surviving. She later insisted that he did not intend for her to live, nor did he change his mind at the last minute and intend for himself to live. According to
Spin, apocryphal lore has Crash attempting to write "Here lies Darby Crash" on the wall as he lay dying, but not finishing. In reality, he wrote a short note to David "Bosco" Davenport that stated, "My life, my leather, my love goes to Bosco". Outside the world of the Germs' fans, news of Crash's death was largely overshadowed by the
murder of John Lennon the next day. A local news station mistakenly reported that Crash had died from taking too many sleeping pills.
Aftermath After the Germs ended, Bolles played with several other L.A. bands, including
Nervous Gender,
45 Grave,
Celebrity Skin, and
Ariel Pink. In fall 2009, Bolles joined the cast of punks, mods and rockers web series
Oblivion. In 1993, Slash released
(MIA): The Complete Anthology, with liner notes by
Pleasant Gehman. The film was theatrically released on August 8, 2008, and starred Shane West in the role of Darby Crash. Smear, Doom, and Bolles reactivated the Germs with West as singer. They played on the 2006 Warped Tour and toured clubs in the US later that summer, and again in 2007. They once again played on the 2008 edition of the Warped Tour, on the Vans Old School Stage. Some members of the punk rock community such as
Fat Mike and
Jello Biafra were critical of the band's decision to perform with West. In a July 2009 article, Bolles spoke about the band's plans to re-record old material for a planned box set titled
Lest We Forget: The Sounds of the Germs. The band rearranged songs from the
Germicide live album and the
Cruising sessions; they planned to record several Darby Crash Band songs as well. Live recordings, both old and new, would have made up the rest of the box set, which Bolles hoped to release in 2010. West left the Germs in 2009. In December 2013,
Charlotte Caffey of the Go-Go's played bass for a one-off gig, a memorial for Bill "Pat Fear" Bartell, when Doom could not be located. On January 16, 2019, Doom died of breast cancer. ==Members==