Chilling, Thrilling Hooks And Haunted Harmonies: The Big Stir Records Halloween Grimoire Part 2

 BIG STIR Records wanted to celebrate Halloween in their own way and with the artists they love. The result was released on October 10 and is called “Chilling, Thrilling Hooks And Haunted Harmonies: The Big Stir Records Halloween Grimoire.” Rather than telling you about it in one of our usual columns, we thought it would be nice to have some of the artists who participated share their Halloween memories!

Thank you to those who agreed! Happy Halloween to you all!

THE ARTISTS, THEIR MEMORIES, AND THEIR COSTUMES

BRANDT HUSEMAN of Splitsville: Matt (Huseman, my twin brother and also of Splitsville) and I, and our friend Eric, went to a Halloween party dressed as dead rock stars Sid Vicious, John Lennon, and Brian Jones. We took pains to make sure the makeup and costumes were consistent with how they died. Not everyone got it but the ones who did were blown away.

Brandt Huseman of Splitsville: “Here’s me in my skeleton kigurumi. It’s not just for Halloween you know…”

GRAHAM PARKER: Not a Halloween memory, but a moment of terror on the road! On a very early tour of mine with the Rumour, we were driving past Stone Henge well into the wee hours in a Transit van. A man on a scooter was in front of us and appeared to be deliberately slowing us down. No other vehicle was on the road. He suddenly turned his head back in our direction, but under the helmet there was no face, just empty darkness. We were blasting opium mixed with hash joints, it’s true, but that had nothing to do with it. As far as costumes go, I have (or had) a “celebrity mask” of myself – come on, everyone’s got one! – but it was torn to pieces and ornamented with rope candy for the cover art of my last album, “Last Chance To Learn The Twist”.

Graham Parker’s “celebrity mask” of himself, before its deconstruction for the cover art of “Last Chance To Learn The Twist”

IAN WRIGHT of The Jack Rubies: As far as Halloweens go, most recently (and memorably), was the release of our single "Poltergeist" around Halloween '23 by BSR, which got the whole ball rolling again artistically, pour Les Rubis leading to the release of our first album in decades! Back from the grave, in a sense!

Ian Wright of The Jack Rubies on Halloween

BLAKE JONES of Blake Jones & The Trike Shop: What could be better Halloween fun than hopping through a cemetery in the small town of Selma, California while preparing a music video for Big Stir's Halloween album?

Blake Jones and Chelsea Jones in costume for the video for “Halloween Wind,” the new track from Blake Jones & The Trike Shop on “Chilling, Thrilling Hooks and Haunted Harmonies”

MARK ENGLISH of The Gold Needles: Fondest Halloween memory? My wife and I attended The Damned’s ‘Night Of A Thousand Vampires’ gig at the London Palladium in 2019… in costume, so I was one the 1000!

Mark English of The Gold Needles and his wife in costume for The Damned’s live concert “Night of A Thousand Vampires,” 2019

RICK HROMADKA: I was so into Halloween when I was a kid. My fondest memories were probably when I was 11 or 12 - dressing up like a werewolf. I actually went to a hobby shop and had my mother purchase spirit gum to apply all the fur on my face. But it really was a bitch, taking it off!

Rick Hromadka in costume with Brigitte Sturmer, 2024

RICHARD ÖHRN: Halloween as a tradition in the way it is celebrated in the USA hasn’t existed in Sweden very long. We had none of it when I grew up, there was only a vague image of it through American movies. We have, however, a tradition of lighting candles in the graveyards. However, carving pumpkins, dressing up as monsters and eating candy is still quite new here, although my kids have adapted quickly:) So, my most memorable memory of Halloween is the mysteriously glowing gloomy graveyards, as well as trying to find a way to dress up my kids for Halloween parties in recent years, being short of any supply from my own childhood!


LADY DARKEVYL (a.k.a Lori Franklin): Our porch on Halloween night is populated by jumping spiders, twisting cocoons, Ouija Boards and ghosts. One year, a group of kids went through the gauntlet for candy while the smallest, dressed in fatigues, took one look and burst into tears. His mom picked him up and said "My soldier. He is not so brave." Years later, she proudly informed me when it was his first time making it to the door.

A gallery of costumes through the years, alone and together, from Lady Darkevyl (Lori Franklin) and Chris Church

JOHN ARMSTRONG of The Speed Of Sound: Over here in the UK and especially when I was younger, Halloween wasn’t anything like the magnitude it is now. Bonfire night is five days later and was a much bigger thing; they’ve sort of merged together now with Halloween becoming the senior partner. But folks of my age missed out on it because it didn’t really exist before the very late ‘80s! However, in October 2019, an extraordinarily creepy doll appeared on my street looking for a home, and I’ve posted this equally disquieting photo of it on social media for Halloween every year since.

The creepy doll posted every year by John Armstrong of The Speed Of Sound.

THE INCURABLES: We always love putting on a Halloween show, so all our best memories of Halloween are onstage!

A gallery of The Incurables in Halloween costumes (some real, some virtually enhanced) over the years.

DOLPH CHANEY: Back in 2021 I put out the first of what’s now three explicitly Halloween-themed tracks for Big Stir Records… a single called “This Halloween” which still gets spins every October somewhere out there in radioland. For the promo photo, I dressed up as a trick-or-treater,, costumed in some vintage new-wave threads and rocking sweetly enough to belong in Charlie Brown’s bag!

Dolph Chaney in the promo photos for his 2021 single “This Halloween”