[kj] OT Former POISON IDEA Guitarist PIG CHAMPION Found Dead - Feb. 1, 2006

[Alex Smith]

A dubious honor to be sure, but I've passed this news onto my fellow editors at MTVNews Online, so hopefully it'll get a mention (so the Good Charlotte and Fall Out Boy fans can say "who??")

Very sad.

Alex in NYC



-----Original Message-----
>From: Christof hamille <wessidetempest at hotmail.com>
>Sent: Feb 1, 2006 9:16 AM
>To: gathering at misera.net
>Subject: [kj] OT Former POISON IDEA Guitarist PIG CHAMPION Found Dead - Feb.	1, 2006
>
>I am crushed
>
>Former POISON IDEA Guitarist PIG CHAMPION Found Dead - Feb. 1, 2006
>Thomas "Pig Champion" Roberts, guitarist for POISON IDEA, died at his home 
>in Portland, Oregon, Monday night (Jan. 30). A founding member of the 
>seminal punk band, he continued to appear with POISON IDEA throughout the 
>late Nineties and into the new millennium, despite officially quitting the 
>band in 1993. Variously described as "spectacularly fat," and "the single 
>largest man in hardcore history," Roberts crowned himself "Pig Champion" 
>after hitting an impressive 450 lbs. on the scales. The highly regarded 
>guitarist was revered by a devoted following worldwide. No further 
>information is available at this time.
>
>According to the Taang! Records web site, POISON IDEA was formed in 1980 in 
>Portland, Oregon by frontman Jerry A., Roberts, bassist Chris Tense, and 
>drummer Dean Johnson. The group debuted three years later with the EP "Pick 
>Your King", cramming 13 songs into a 16-minute time frame; the "Record 
>Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes" EP followed in 1985, fine-tuning the 
>band's blistering sound and fatalistic worldview. Thanks to their 
>notoriously insatiable diet of drugs, alcohol, and junk food, the members of 
>POISON IDEA all ballooned past the 300-pound mark by the time of the 1986 
>full-length "Kings of Punk". Tense and Johnson were then dismissed from the 
>lineup, although the former returned in time for 1987's "War All the Time", 
>recorded with second guitarist Eric "Vegetable" Olsen and drummer Steve 
>"Thee Slayer Hippy" Hanford; Tense was then replaced by bassist Mondo for 
>1988's "Filthkick" EP. Both the "Darby Crash Rides Again" and "Ian MacKaye" 
>EPs followed a year later, another period of roster tumult which made way 
>for the addition of guitarist Kid Cocksman (soon replaced by Aldine 
>Striknine) and bassist Myrtle Tickner. POISON IDEA returned in 1990 with 
>"Feel the Darkness", with a series of live releases (the "Official Bootleg" 
>EP, the "Live in Vienna" EP, and the "Dutch Courage" LP) preceding 1992's 
>"Blank Blackout". A collaboration with Jeff Dahl appeared a year later, 
>concurrent with the covers album "Pajama Party"; however, in the wake of Pig 
>Champion's subsequent departure POISON IDEA disbanded, releasing their June 
>6, 1993, farewell gig at Portland's La Luna as "Pig's Last Stand".
>
>
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