The year was 1973, and a rebellious teenager growing up in Germany informed her parents she was going to move to San Francisco to be a rock star. That girl, 17-year-old Pearl Gates, set intrepidly off with not much more than a plane ticket and a little pocket money to make her mark in one of most exciting musical scenes of the decade.
Gates did not waste her chance. Despite her youth and inexperience with the city, she quickly established herself by becoming enmeshed in the city’s theatrical rock and performance art movements, most notably with the Tubes’ pioneering live show and with scene counterparts Leila & the Snakes.
As part of the latter, she met the Stench Brothers (a.k.a. bassist and drummer Hilary and John Hanes) and guitarist Peter Bilt, changed her name to “Pearl Harbor,” and with their collaboration eventually started her own band. That group was dubbed Pearl Harbor & the Explosions— a deliberately provocative name choice in an era that hadn’t yet forgotten the ‘40s.
Although showing promise with debut single “Drivin’” and a slickly cohesive full-length album to follow— which not only helped pioneer the burgeoning New Wave sound defining the early ‘80s, but also brilliantly incorporated shades of the members’ individual interests such as jazz and rockabilly— the group wasn’t destined for longevity. Leaving the remaining members to continue under the banner Peter Bilt & the Expressions. Gates relocated to England shortly after the album’s debut, became Pearl Harbour, married the Clash’s Paul Simonon, and went on to a solo career delving into the punk and aforementioned rockabilly scenes.
While the band’s story has largely fallen underground to all but serious aficionados of the early New Wave movement, the time has come for a light to shine on its slight but creatively significant output.
