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Punks, hip-hoppers, Disco Stus: Martin Scorsese wants you

Can you look like this? Martin Scorcese and Mick Jagger want you! via Flickr user Pual Townsend
Can you look like this? Martin Scorcese and Mick Jagger want you! via Flickr user Pual Townsend

Do you frequently tell people how you miss “the old New York?” Did you move here with a studded leather jacket, a collection of Dead Boys records and a fierce desire to shoot up on St. Marks, only to find that the new drug of choice on the LES is frozen yogurt? Well, for once you’re in luck, because Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger are casting for a new HBO series and they need some background extras to portray punks, disco fans, early hip-hop fans and other denizens of 70s New York nightlife.The full ad reads:

People to portray psychedelic rock fans, punk rock fans, disco club-goers, early hip-hop fans, 1970s NYC pedestrians and Connecticut residents (men with shaggy hair/side burns/long hair, women without highlights), people with 1970s cars, and ‘60s Warhol Factory types.

What the series is exactly goes unmentioned, but the clues point to it being a series called Untitled HBO/Rock ‘N’ Roll Project. We’d suggest working on the name, but hey, we’re not the ones with the Oscar. So whether you dress like a disco queen or a guy who used to hang out at Max’s Kansas City, or you can throw together an outfit that makes it appear as such, get yourself to the open casting call on April 21 at the Church of St Paul the Apostle (405 West 59 Street). If you’re in SAG, they’ll see you from 10am to 12pm and if you’re non-union, your auditions will be between 1pm and 4pm. Either way, it’s finally a big chance for you to be on HBO without having to sneak your way into the background of that Girls shoot happening on your block.

14 Comments

  1. amira

    No one in the NYC punk scene looked like this.. These are British punks and they had a very unique look. The US punks looked different. Don’t go dying your mohawk pink and audition because if casting has any clue, they won’t hire punks who look like this

  2. Huh, I spent ’77 thru ’79 practically living at CBGBs and Max’s, I was a Dead Girl , and lived thru it all. Shouldn’t he be talking to us if he wants some real deal information? Agree with you totally, NY punks looked nothing like the photos here…sigh, we were blasted for being original punks and now they’re cashing in on our lives.

  3. i was the original Lighting Director at CBGB, Designed the CBGB and OMFUG, The Home of Underground Rock,
    Founded Anamaze Records and Production, one of the first Five PUNK Labels in America, Produced. managed and occasionally performed in STARTOON. (“ROCKIN’ON THE BOWERY” and others) on ANAMAZE records. I lived what others wrote about, photographed, recorded and described.
    COSMO OHMS

    Contact: [email protected]

  4. I’d like to say I was a 70s punk in London and no one looked like this either until the eighties when the look (and attitude) became very generic and boring.

  5. chrisr

    Punks in New York in the 70s didn’t look anything like the ones in this photo. That’s the generic “UK82” look, which happened in the early 80s in Britain, when they all decided that the best way to express their individuality and nonconformity was to dress more or less exactly the same as each other with the only variations on the theme being which colour to dye their 12-inch mohicans, how many studs to have on their leather motorcycle jackets, and which bands to have on the back. That look then spread around the world, and still exists more than three decades after the fact. But if you want 70s New York, this is not the look you want.

  6. m.king

    Corbra lounge tonight, Chicago il, 234 s.Ashland, punk bands from the 70s an 80s, playing tonight. This is where u find punk rockers, because of the bands, silver abuse an so forth, Chicago still has a lot of old punk bands floating about.exactly it started here from stages which is metro now, in early 70s , yhe cramps, television, sid, iggy, then move to newyork quickly. Get ur facts straight. Been a roadie since then I should know.

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