Thursday, February 09, 2006

Real Kid Allen 'Alpo' Paulino, RIP

Dave Laing writes:

Just heard that Allen 'Alpo' Paulino, founding member of the one of the
greatest rock'n'roll bands ever, the Real Kids (and an early member of
the mighty Cheater Slicks, co-leader of the Primitive Souls and an
on-again/off-again Nervous Eater), died today in Boston. Not sure of
what happened yet but Carl Biancucci of the Classic Ruins told me Alpo
went to bed with a cold and never woke up. Alpo was one of my heroes for
the past 25 years and releasing the Primitive Souls EP and meeting Alpo,
Billy Borgioli and John Felice in the mid-90s were two of the highlights
of my life. Alpo was a great guy - a smart-arse but charismatic and
charming as hell, and ly impossible not to like. I never saw the
original Real Kids play - never had the chance to see one of their
reunion shows even - and now I never will.

Anyway, let's hope Alpo's death does not go unnoticed by the rock world
at large (esp. Mojo, Uncut etc). If all he'd ever done was play bass on
that first Real Kids record he would've been one of the greats to be
sure... My favorite Alpo moment on record though is his b/vocals on the
live version of 'Bad To Worse' on the 'Grown Up Wrong' album - he sounds
like his hearts about to burst. That's about as thrilling as rock'n'roll
gets in my book.

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