:: THE STORIES :: THE SHOWS :: CONTRIBUTORS ::

Tina Lucchesi: Tom starting booking shows at the Chameleon on Valencia Street under “The Fuzz Club.” He started with the Mummies and some mod bands. He loves the 60s. He’d MC the shows. It was hilarious and he was really into making a scene. Kinda like a modern day Z-Man from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, but more rock-n-roll. I was with Russell (Quan) at the time and we started hanging out with Tom a lot. We were totally stoked on his drive and for giving a shit about all these garagey punk bands that nobody gave two shits about and thought sucked. Then he opened the next phase... the Purple Onion.

Beth Loudmouth: Tom has always reminded me of the actor Crispin Glover, in his roles in the movies Rubin and Ed or River’s Edge. He has the same voice, kind of whiny. I’d get in the weirdest conversations with him when I’d call him to book a show. He’d always keep me on the phone for a long time. I remember him telling me “I can’t go outside because people want to see what I’m wearing” and other off the wall crazy shit. He was so strange, but it was amusing. I wish I had taped some of our phone calls!

I had a little crush on him but he’d always blow me off when I was flirty. I had this fantasy of making out with him, ha ha. One night he was rejecting my advances and finally yelled at me “I like boys!” which was the first time he actually came OUT and announced he was gay, but we all had our suspicions. It wasn’t long after that that this older guy, Maurice, who was obviously his boyfriend, came into the picture and worked the door and helped Tom run things.

Tom would flip out all the time and just yell at everyone. One thing that often got him riled up was the state of the men’s bathroom and plugged toilets. He would pick random people he’d lose it on (for a mulititude of reasons) and scream at them to “Get out! Get out!” and “Never come back!” He pissed off a lot of people this way.

Jon von: Tom was completely off the wall but I gotta hand it to him for being a key to the development of the SF low-fi garage scene. He did a lot of weird stuff and was difficult to deal with but he also put all his time and effort into making it happen.

Carolyn Keddy: I met Tom at my 23rd birthday party at Epicenter Zone. It was where I met a bunch of soon to be friends from the garage scene. The Phantom Surfers played. A few months later at a Miramar Street party (the house where my band ford rehearsed along with many other bands) I was standing on the stair landing to the second floor. I jokingly told Tom he couldn’t come up the stairs, he went off on me in what would be his soon to be classic form telling me that he has been in the scene much longer than me and I couldn’t tell him that he couldn’t go upstairs, etc. I said I was just joking and he calmed down. 

Tom was always out at shows. He loved music and was always excited about it. He would listen to my KUSF radio show and call in with requests. I would give away tickets to the Purple Onion and promote the shows. So we had a good relationship. Running a club is a hard, thankless job. I am amazed Tom was able to pull it off for 6 years.

Dulcinea Gonzalez: Just a complete character... too many odd things to mention. I remember sitting in a booth with my boyfriend at the time, and Tom had gone into the men’s restroom. He discovered that the toilet was bogged (a perpetual Purple Onion problem) and came out of the bathroom ranting and raving. He looked over at our table and decided that the culprit had to have been my boyfriend. In classic Tom fashion, he started yelling and screaming at him and then promptly kicked us all out of the club. I remember that I got so mad that I took Tom’s scarf and flushed it down the women’s toilet in retribution.

Jay Hinman: A truly comment-worthy individual, and someone whom, if you’ve ever seen him in person, you’ll never forget. A cross between Davey from The Monkees, Z-Man Barzell and Quentin Crisp. Because I was also into garage-ish bands, we’d sometimes talk about local music, but usually any conversation would spin off into nonsense and paranoia and gossip. By that time I wouldn’t be talking any longer and just actively listening. Even that would get boring and uncomfortable after a while, and I’d go off and mark the occasion in the brain so I could tell friends later what absurdities I’d just heard.

Jay Loudmouth: Tom was part of the entertainment, for better or for worse. He could be a dick. Someone would always clog the toilets and he would randomly accuse someone and kick them out. Once, after a show, he closed the gate and locked out Motards and X-Rays all the way from England and wouldn’t pay them. He eventually paid them very little through the locked gate. It got tense.

Michael Lucas: A multi-faceted man: a volatile repressed Catholic who was easy going except when he was manic; a mover, as shaker, a dreamer.

I remember him telling me about his problems opening because the SF Health and/or Building Departments kept finding minor violations. It was obvious to me that they were looking for a bribe, but Tom just kept fixing up each minor thing and had them come back until he wore them down and they passed him.

Similarly, when an ASCAP or BMI goon came by to shake him down, he refused, saying that none of the bands played any ASCAP or BMI songs. When the goon pointed out the jukebox, Tom told him that he was going to remove all the BMI and ASCAP songs - and he did, even though that meant putting in some fairly rare garage singles.

Carolyn Keddy: Before the Purple Onion I just thought Tom was eccentric. He was a little weird, but we all were. I always enjoyed talking to him. I like weirdos. During the PO years I assumed it was the drugs that made him act the way he did. He wasn’t that way when the PO started, but it definitely progressed and got out of control by the end.

Tina Lucchesi: When I first met Tom I thought he was just some rock-n-roll lover maniac. I hung out with some wacky people and nothing phased me. But the end days of the Purple Onion Tom was not stable. I think partying, stress with money and the club shit, along with mental illness stuff and not taking his meds made it a recipe for disaster.

Dulcinea Gonzalez: Tom used to say the most off the wall shit, but that’s probably why we kept hanging around to see what he would do next. 

Jon von: Was Tom stable? Ahahah… is the Pope Catholic?!

Jay Loudmouth: No way Tom was stable, but neither am I.

Michael Lucas: Tom was “reliably erratic,” at any rate!

Jay Hinman: Actually, I think he was stable. He was just a total eccentric oddball. My understanding is that bands got paid; shows mostly started and ended on time and Tom was able to eat three meals a day and still dress like a 60s beatnik/ swinger/ hipster.
 
Pete Colpitts: Towards the end the PO had kinda a weird violent vibe at times and Tom would act really erratic. I remember one night after a gig Tom hadn’t paid the bands yet, he had them wait out front while he locked the gate and “went in to get the money,” but he ended up not returning. The bands were kicking the gate and screaming but he never came back.

Beth Loudmouth: I remember a night, near the end of the Purple Onion when someone was taking a picture of Tom, and Tom tried to rip their camera off their neck. It was a nice camera. Tom just lost his shit. I remember feeling kinda worried, like, things weren’t really normal and it wasn’t so funny anymore. It seemed more disturbing than comical. That was the one of the turning points for me... where I wasn’t laughing as hard at Tom’s antics as I had been in the past.

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