Wendy O Williams & The Plasmatics - The DVD (10 Years of Revolutionary Rock 'n' Roll)

DVD, MDV Visual
2006

Banned in London, busted in Cleveland and Milwaukee, the legendary Wendy O. Williams (aka "Queen of Shock Rock", "Queen of Punk," "Dominatrix of the Decibels", and "High Priestess of Metal") and the Plasmatics, the band of changing musicians built around her by radical anti-artist Rod Swenson, revolutionized American culture and music creating a seismic shock wave still being felt today.

"Way more than a rock band," as John Levy said in a recent interview on VH1, Wendy O. Williams and the Plasmatics "were a phenomenon." They introduced the mohawk to mass American culture, fused punk and metal when these groups despised each other and produced stage shows which included the chainsawing of guitars and the blowing up of full size cars that Roman Kozak of Billboard called "The absolute limit of what can be accomplished in rock and roll theatrics" and have yet to be equalled today.

First performing in 1978, by 1981 they were introduced by Tom Snyder on his late night TV show as the 'greatest punk band in the world', By 1982 their next album, whose companion video had the fearless Williams driving a school bus through a wall of TVs, climbing to the roof and jumping off before it blew up, was described by the LA Times as the 'best slice of heavy metal since the last AC/DC album'. The following album, produced by Gene Simmons of KISS (and featuring Ace Frehly, Paul Stanley and others) got Williams a nomination as 'Best Female Rock Vocalist of the Year" and an accompanying video had her going from a moving car to an airplane on a rope ladder without a safety harness.

Here for the first time in over 3 hours of material, featuring a 2 hour 'rockumentary' including live and other footage never released before, as well as an additional hour of live and video performance footage, is the story of the full 10 jaw-dropping years, the 8 studio albums, arrests, controversy, triumphs and challenges, plus interviews with critics, historians, band and crew members most of it never seen before. This DVD shows why Wendy O. Williams and the Plasmatics were an absolute one of a kind, and why in the words of rock critic and historian Malcolm Dome Wendy was completely "in a league on her own."