J.C. Penney Princess, Billy Dare & The Pumps, Las Vegas Show Band, Gay

A Note From Billy...

Before Las Vegas, before the Gay Circuit, before The Pumps were The Pumps, before Mikey Pump and even before we threw the "Miss" before Billy Dare to avoid all the confusion (Is she a real girl? Is she a drag queen? Is he a man?), The Billy Dare Band played on the Boston original circuit. And it was there the song, "J.C. Penney Princess," was launched -- a tongue-in-cheek, theatrical number that was nothing like the hard-edge punk stuff the band was doing at the time. And with the introduction of that one song, everything changed.. and fast!

Suddenly we started to notice more and more guys coming to our shows. We didn't think much of it since we were playing for $1 a ticket and were just happy to see numbers. Then one night, after a few months, a guy came up to us at a club in Cambridge, MA called T,T, The Bears, and said, "You guys really don't know, do you?" He proceeded to point out that our entire following was made up of gay men. And to think all along I thought I had become a sex symbol!

Anyway, he suggested we play the Gay Circuit which, being a baby-band, took us by surprise. We didn't even know there was a Gay Circuit! Lo and Behold, not only did we learn there was indeed a Gay Circuit, but that it was HUGE! Problem was, gay clubs traditionally have dance or drag formats and rarely, if ever, hire bands.

After a good amount of begging, pleading and God only knows what else, Todd finally landed us a gig at The Front Runner, a members-only club in Manchester, NH... and they paid us $200 which, at the time, we thought was a fortune considering original bands rarely make anything.

The whole night was AWESOME! My only regret is that we weren't at all prepared when career-lightening struck. From that single gig we were instantly launched into prosperous, fulfilling and positively blissful career that repeatedly took us to gay clubs and resorts in 22 states east of the Mississippi for years on end. But we had no CDs, no merchandise and no clue. It seemed we were ALWAYS touring we didn't have time to record or anything -- just gig, gig, gig. We just kept on going from city to city, club to club, having an absolute blast on zombie-time.

Basically it was that one song, "J.C. Penney Princess," that launched our career. Although sometimes I get so tired of it that I wish I never wrote it, to this day we still use it to open nearly every show. It's become an old friend.

And by the way, it was that first night at The Front Runner that the up-until-then-nameless-band became The Pumps. Trying to convey the fact that we were a musical act, the club had billed us as Billy Dare and her Three Piece Ensemble... a shoe that just didn't fit. So on the spur of the moment we took on the name, The Pumps.