Randy Gun

Randy Gun

Randy Gun is a self-taught musician and songwriter who began his professional career in New York City’s highly charged punk/pop scene in the mid-1970s. For the next fifteen years, Gun was a member of the thriving downtown scene and was involved in the bands or played on records by The New Doloreans, The Randy Gun Group, Harry Toledo, the Erasers, Arthur Russell, Ice, Lido, Rhys Chatham, The Jody Beach Band, and David Van Tieghem. 

Gun was a founding member of the power-pop quartet, The Necessaries, founded in New York in 1978.   In addition to playing guitar, Gun shared the group’s songwriting and lead vocal responsibilities with Ed Tomney, while Ernie Brooks (formerly of The Modern Lovers) played bass and Jesse Chamberlain (son of sculptor John Chamberlain), manned the drums. The Necessaries first single “You Can Borrow My Car,” was produced by John Cale, a founding member of The Velvet Underground, for Spy Records at Big Apple Studio in 1978.   Jacket design was by John Chamberlain and Ernest Thormalen.  Leaving the band soon after the record, Gun released his own single, “I Apologize” produced by British musician Chris Spedding in 1980 for Shake Records. 

The Necessaries album cover verso, Spy Records, 1978, design by John Chamberlain and Ernest Thormahlen, with Ed Tomney, Randy Gun, Jesse Chamberlain and Ernie Brooks 

(Left) The Necessaries single featuring “You Can Borrow My Car” and “Runaway Child (Minors Beware)", recorded at Big Apple studio, New York and produced by John Cale, September 1978 for Spy Records, New York. 

(Above) The Necessaries single featuring “You Can Borrow My Car” and “Runaway Child (Minors Beware)", recorded at Big Apple studio, New York and produced by John Cale, September 1978 for Spy Records, New York. 

As a member of Peter Gordon’s seminal art-rock band, Love of Life Orchestra (LOLO), founded in 1977, Gun frequently played at The Kitchen - downtown New York’s famed avant-garde center for video, music, dance and performance -  among many other venues.   Gun recalls riding on the plane with John Cage and other LOLO members to perform in the progressive music festival, New Music America, organized by the Walker Art Center over eight days in June 1980.   Other participants in this ambitious program included Laurie Anderson, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, and Steve Reich.  Touring with LOLO internationally, Gun performed in Basel, Geneva, London, Vienna and Zurich, with additional venues in Italy. 

Gun played both guitar and bass in The Kitchen’s groundbreaking two-day benefit festival, Aluminum Nights, June 14-15, 1981, which featured performances by John Giorno, The Philip Glass Ensemble, DNA with Arto Lindsay, The Feelies, Lounge Lizards, Meredith Monk, among many others, and videos by Vito Acconci, Talking Heads, Lawrence Weiner and Nam June Paik.  Gun joined the 30th anniversary concert celebrating that show, Aluminum Music, in 2011.


Gun played bass in Iron Voices, artist Robert Longo’s performance work in collaboration with Gordon that premiered at The Kitchen in May 1982.  The next month Gun joined  Rhys Chatham on The Kitchen Touring Program when Glenn Branca and his act dropped out. They played nine cities from Washington, DC to Toronto with an eclectic bill of performing artists that included Eric Bogosian, Oliver Lake and Jump-Up, and Fab 5 Freddy with break dancers from the Rock Steady Crew. 


Gun’s guitar work can be heard on LOLO’s many recordings. Gun recorded with Gordon and David Van Tiegham for Twyla Tharp Dance on Broadway at the Gershwin Theatre, New York in 1984. Later that year, he performed Gordon’s award-winning ballet score, Secret Pastures, commissioned by Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane for The Brooklyn Academy of Music/Next Wave festival in Brooklyn. Premiering on November 14, 1984, Gun performed live in this celebrated production that featured set and graphic design by Keith Haring and costumes by Willi Smith. To this day, Secret Pastures is celebrated for its collaborative nature, its “fabulous score” and “virtuoso players” (See review, A. Kisselgoff, The New York Times, Nov. 17, 1984). 


Gun had notably performed three years earlier with Bill T. Jones’ for his American Dance Festival premier, Social Intercourse, accompanying three vocalists and an organist to raving musical reviews. 


The following year, November 29th and 30th, 1985, Gun performed music that he composed with Gordon, Van Tiegham, Linda Hudes, Gene Tyranny and Ned Sublette with the Love of Life Orchestra at BAM’s Next Wave Festival. 


Gun was an occasional “orchestra” member on Glenn O’Brien’s public-access cable television show, Glenn O’Brien’s TV Party, a celebrated combination of live music, sensational interviews and general hijinks. A particularly raucous and charming episode features Debbie Harry on the pogo stick, with Gun on guitar and fellow musicians in accompaniment. See video below.


Mr. Gun continues to perform with Love of Life Orchestra to this day, while maintaining an active interest in scoring stage and film projects. 


Janis Gardner Cecil and Randy Gun

Debbie Harry, TV Party, with Glenn O’Brien (bending over in Superman shirt), Randy Gun, Ernie Brooks is blocked by arm, Walter Steding with hat.   

Footage of Glenn O'Brien's TV Party. Used with permission ©Estate of Glenn O'Brien.

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