Stiv Bators documentary to get screening in Valley

By GUY D’ASTOLFO

dastolfo@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The new documentary about the late punk-rock legend – and Girard native – Stiv Bators will get a Mahoning Valley screening.

“Stiv: No Compromise, No Regrets” will be shown at 10 p.m. Friday at West Side Bowl, 2617 Mahoning Ave. Admission is $15 in advance, $20 at the door.

Bators was the no-holds-barred front man for the Dead Boys, the Cleveland-based punk pioneers who made an indelible mark when they first arrived in the late ’70s with their debut album “Young, Loud and Snotty.”

Before that, he was part of the Youngstown music scene, where his wild antics came to light with his first band, Mother Goose.

Bators tragically died in 1990 when he was struck by a vehicle in Paris.

The documentary, by director Danny Garcia, got its world premiere in Cleveland on March 23.

It includes never-released footage from private collections and interviews with Bators’ colleagues, friends and former bandmates, who tell a lot of wild stories. These include Frank Secich of Sharon, Pa., who is best know for his bands Blue Ash and Deadbeat Poets.

Secich first met Bators in those early days in Youngstown and was part of Mother Goose.

Listed as a producer of the film, Secich came on board a year and half ago when Garcia reached out to him for songs.

“There are six songs in the film that I wrote and Stiv recorded,” said Secich. Two other songs (“Psyhedelic Gas Station” and “Stiv Bators Ghost Tour”) by the Deadbeat Poets are used in the film’s opening credits.

By the way, the Deadbeat Poets songs, and a third by Roomful of Strangers, were recorded in Youngstown by Pete Drivere at Ampreon Recorder.

Secich has taken part in post-screening discussions about Bators in Cleveland, New York and Pittsburgh, but he will not be able to attend the West Side Bowl event.

Secich said “Stiv” captures Bators’ incredibly outsized personality and career.

“It’s a good movie,” he said. “It celebrates his life. It’s a fun watch but it’s not an expose. You’ll clap and cheer.”

Secich maintained a friendship and a professional connection to Bators for most of the late rocker’s career.

“In the early days, we always had his band open for Blue Ash,” he said. “I also played on all of Stiv’s solo stuff from 1979 to 1981, and toured with the Dead Boys at that time.”

Secich and Blue Ash still maintain a following in Europe, and he will play several solo dates there in the near future. The full band will release a new album – its first in 40 years – in the second half of this year.

Meanwhile, the Deadbeat Poets, which also includes Drivere, will release a new album in August and will play a record-release show at Cedars West End at that time.