Friday, February 10, 2006

RIP: Alpo (Real Kids).

1 comment:

Lindsay Hutton said...

From David Laing...

Just heard that Allen 'Alpo' Paulino, founding member of the one of the greatest rock'n'roll bands ever, the Real Kids (and an early member of the mighty Cheater Slicks, co-leader of the Primitive Souls and an on-again/off-again Nervous Eater), died today in Boston. Not sure of what happened yet but Carl Biancucci of the Classic Ruins told me Alpo went to bed with a cold and never woke up. Alpo was one of my heroes for
the past 25 years and releasing the Primitive Souls EP and meeting Alpo, Billy Borgioli and John Felice in the mid-90s were two of the highlights of my life. Alpo was a great guy - a smart-arse but charismatic and charming as hell, and ly impossible not to like. I never saw the original Real Kids play - never had the chance to see one of their reunion shows even - and now I never will.

Anyway, let's hope Alpo's death does not go unnoticed by the rock world at large (esp. Mojo, Uncut etc). If all he'd ever done was play bass on that first Real Kids record he would've been one of the greats to be sure... My favorite Alpo moment on record though is his b/vocals on the live version of 'Bad To Worse' on the 'Grown Up Wrong' album - he sounds like his hearts about to burst. That's about as thrilling as rock'n'roll
gets in my book.