Tribute to Bobby Durango and Rock City Angels

Bobby Durango RIP

Here’s how we reported the death of Bobby Durango earlier this week:

Rock City Angels frontman Bobby Durango has died. No details have been confirmed but the band say:

“Yesterday we received the shocking news that our founder, singer and beloved brother Bobby Durango passed away. It would be greatly appreciated if we could all refrain from posting any personal theories about the circumstances and instead celebrate the man’s life. He certainly left us an amazing soundtrack.”

His girlfriend adds: “No more pain; no more suffering; I feel so blessed to have known, loved and been loved by you, Bobby Durango. He did it his way!”

Now read on for a tribute to Durango and his band…

Words: Geoff Barton

Take a look at the name: Rock City Angels. How interesting can a band with such a snooze-worthy moniker be? It’s so dull, they might as well have called themselves Angelic City Rockers. Or Angels From Rock City. Or Rockers From The City Of Angels. (Even though they actually hailed from, er, Florida.)

And while we’re on the subject of names, how seriously can you take a band with a lead singer who shares his surname with a Dodge Durango, a monster American SUV of the most fuel-guzzling, bull-bar-baiting, pushchair-crushing, global-warming-inspiring kind?

Step forward Bobby Durango (for it is he), a man known as both ‘Bobby Bondage’ and ‘Bobby St Valentine’ in previous lives.

As if all that wasn’t enough, Rock City Angels once had an actor in their ranks. An ACTOR! How poncy is that, dahlings? Yes, readers: incredibly, Johnny Depp was once a member of this band.

Finally, it’s somehow apt that the genesis of Rock City Angels took place when three guys (Durango, together with bassist Andy Panik and an early member called Matt Cloutier) met in a cinema where The Decline Of Western Civilization was being shown.

I’m of the suspicion it was Part I of the movie series, which dealt with the LA punk scene circa 1980. But the way Rock City Angels’ crazy career developed, that pivotal encounter should’ve really taken place at a screening of Part II, which was about the LA hair metal scene.

“Hey! Wouldja lookit that! W.A.S.P.’s Chris Holmes is downing a bottle of vodka in a swimming pool! Kiss’ Paul Stanley is in bed with some groupies! Cool! Let’s form a band!”

It has a certain ring about it.