Wayne Kramer, guitarist in the MC5, has passed away aged 75, after suffering from pancreatic cancer.
I loved the MC5 LPs and was lucky enough to see the reformed band with the surviving members and guest stars – once in London and once in Glasgow.
Detroit News obituary – https://eu.detroitnews.com/story/entertainment/people/2024/02/02/mc5-guitarist-wayne-kramer-has-died-at-age-75/72456133007/
Some footage of the MC5 from 1970 – https://youtu.be/dfDoUIh23Wg
Wayne spent time in jail in the 70s following a drugs bust, and later founded a charity to help incarcerated prisoners make music – Jail Guitar Doors, named after the Clash song which mentions him.
There was a great documentary film made about the band, Are You Ready to Testify. I wrote a short piece for the Glasgow Herald on the MC5 and the possibility of the film when it was in the early feasibility stages, and was delighted that the film-makers used that to source more funding, going round Detroit waving it and saying “THIS IS A NATIONAL NEWSPAPER IN SCOTLAND! THEY’RE INTERESTED!”. I saw the film at a film festival in London around 2002, and it is one of the best music documentaries I have every seen. Great interviews with the people involved, and Wayne narrates it.
Sadly, Wayne withdrew his support for the film after some film festival showings – he felt he should be paid more. Maybe they will now be able to find a path to releasing it. More on the film here – https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics/the-mc5-movie-you-may-never-see/ and here – https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/mc5-true-testimonial.50279/
I saw the DTK/MC3 at The Garage in Glasgow – Wayne with surviving MC5 members Dennis Thompson and Michael Davis and guests including Nicke Royale from the Hellacopters, Mark Arm from Mudhoney and Johnny Walker from the Soledad Brothers. They were all great, but the star was Nicke Royale who looked like he had stepped through the dry ice wearing his white Mosrite and said “Tonight, Matthew, I’m going to be Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith out the MC5”. He nailed every single note, every bend, all the attack – it was wonderful.
They were a revolutionary band, and they kicked out the jams.
Great post dude.
Nice piece of writing, hombre – I wish I’d seen them up close and live.
And pancreatic cancer is a bastard.
MC5 should be so much better known than they are. This epic is my favourite song of theirs.
I agree – High Time is a killer album!
This is a sad loss. Just over 2 years ago I was on the Outlaw Country cruise from LA down to Mexico.
Lucinda Williams was playing with band and guests Charlie Sexton and Wayne Kramer. Wayne came bounding onto the stage like a hurricane, stumbled on the floor got up and proceeded to deliver a blistering cameo. Would love to have seen MC5.
Great post, El Hombre & here’s hoping the film does see the light of day at some point.
Brother Wayne is one of my musical heroes & I also had the distinct impression he was a real mensch, very generous in his acknowledgement of others & always keen to encourage the Yoot, as well as pretty candid about his personal flaws.
I only saw him once, on his 90s tour to promote his solo album ‘The Hard Stuff’, which I love to this day. He was outstanding!
The existing footage of the MC5 is sparse, which both does them a disservice & adds to the legend, I suppose – but what there is is mostly breathtaking & is head & shoulders above any other rock band of the era that I’ve ever seen.
I’ve watched the Wayne University park footage countless times & it’s an amazing sociological time capsule as well as a blazing band at full throttle.
This colourised clip is a cracker, Brother Wayne is exemplary, & I particularly love those moments when the audience collectively gets off its arse ( literally) because THIS is what the event is all about & you don’t sit down to ‘Kick Out The Jams’!
Thank you for posting that El Hombre. I first heard the MC5 on the Age of Atlantic sampler from 1970(?), which had some truly great tracks on it. Fast forward a few decades and I was looking forward to the new MC5 album later this year… and hope that will still happen. Meanwhile, I will make do with the happy memory of MC50 supporting Alice Cooper a few years ago. They blew dear Alice away in my view. Also on stage that night were The Stranglers, who I very much like. However, given the ‘family audience’ gathered there for the pantomime act later on, The Stranglers played it straight and and ‘non-threatening’. As for Wayne Kramer, he was a great presence. I remember him summing up Donald Trump as “an orange-coloured fool”, which was better and harder-hitting than any string of expletives could ever be.
R.I.P.
I saw them in London supported by the Sun Ra Arkestra. A double bill which worked in Detroit in the 60s and 70s, but not in London in the 2000s.
I appreciate them much more now than I did when I first heard them in the late 70s when I thought the best punk bands were better. They were a great rock ‘n’ roll band.