Harold Gee
by Kevin Freitas
I spent a few hours the other day with Jay Johnson, a sculptor and respected artist here in San Diego, reminiscing about his humble beginnings, the Pawn Shop Gallery, the punk scene, and the myraid of friends and encounters Johnson made in the early 80's downtown - one of which was Harold Gee.
photo: Harold Gee
Johnson who was on the verge of ending his Californian surf and ceramic-clay throwing days and looking for a change, found himself downtown on occaison just as the seedy underground life of peep shows, dive bars, clubs, and winos were about to experience a new wave of artistic and musical punk rock birthing, unlike anything San Diego has seen since. Johnson met Harold Gee in one of these start-up clubs, called the Skeleton Club, its short-lived existence (until the city apparently shut it down) was began by Laura Frazier and Tim Mayes of now Casbah fame.
"Xterminators, Fall 1979" (at the original Skeleton Club located in the basement of the Keating Building - photo: Harold Gee
According to Johnson, Gee was somewhat of a raconteur, an extremely creative character, writer, male-stripper, and photographer, he was (from what I could tell from Johnson's description) the Weegee (without the blood and gore) of the San Diego music scene in the 1980's. And like Weegee with camera in hand, Gee also had a prescient knack of showing up where the action was, his antennae alert to the next band playing in some yet undiscovered underground club. He was the company you wanted to keep and someone you inevitably ran into anyway - wherever you went. A bit of a huckster in the most charming way, he was always coming up with new projects and/or publications to sell just to get by. Gee eventually left San Diego after learning how to design and make jewelry, he currently lives in New Orleans.
I've included a link to Gee's Flickr photostream that covers in photos, the underground scene in San Diego between the years of 1981 and 1986. I've also included a link to an extensive in-depth website and blog that also covers San Diego's musical scene during this time period and will help put a story behind the many faces in Gee's photos.