Sad news for garage and punk fans

Another great one leaves us prematurely:

* Bomp Founder Greg Shaw Dies At Age 55*
Friday October 22, 2004 @ 05:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

According to an online message posted by his wife Phoebe, Bomp Records founder *Greg Shaw* passed away earlier this week. After a mysterious rise in his blood sugar, Shaw was admitted to hospital last week. On Tuesday night Shaw went into cardiac arrest and, after a fight, passed away. He was 55 years old.

While Shaw may not be particularly well-known to outsiders, within the garage rock community, he's regarded as a true pioneer. An obsessive record collector, Shaw got his start in the music biz as a prolific zine publisher. In the '70s, Shaw worked as a freelance writer for just about every major American music magazine and was named the editor of Phonograph Record Magazine (PRM). He also began to publish the Who Put The Bomp (or, simply, Bomp) fanzine.

In 1974, Shaw issued a *Flamin' Groovies* single through Bomp Magazine. Thus began the birth of Bomp Records. Shaw also took a gig as the Groovies' manager and got them signed to Sire Records.

After touring the world with the Flamin' Groovies, Shaw returned to the United States and began spreading the garage rock (a term that many credit him with coining) gospel. He put together the Pebbles series of compilations, which dug up the very best in obscure '60s garage rock.

Over the years, Bomp has released records by *Spaceman 3, Modern Lovers, The Sonics, Iggy Pop, Beachwood Sparks* and countless others. Shaw took a particular interest in *The Brian Jonestown Massacre* and appears in the new BJM/*Dandy Warhols* documentary, Dig!

I never met him or managed to interview him, but he was one of the leading lights in keeping the spirit of garage rock alive from the sixties until today. I have a whole section in my upcoming book on the fight among punks over whether Shaw's promotion of "power pop" was a good thing or bad, but I never heard anyone say a negative thing about him personally. Only recently have people begun to understand and appreciate his importance to rock history.