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The story of The Smashing Pumpkins to date, has been a never ending soap
opera. Conflicts, depressions, drug addictions, tour trouble, even death...have all
been part of the mix.
Yet, there have also been glorious moments of triumph, when love, joy, affection, success, and happiness helped the band members overcome the hardships.
The whole story begins like this...
The band was formed in 1987 by Billy Corgan, 20, and James Iha, 19.
Billy had played with a band called "The Marked" (named in reference to birth marks that both Billy and the drummer had). And James's previous band, was called "Snaketrain". Billy and James shared a common desire...to try something different and blaze a new trail for themselves.
Billy worked in a used record shop, and lived with his dad. James went
to school studying Graphic Arts. In their spare time they played
together, and wrote songs. Who
ever thought they would become one of America's biggest bands.
After some time of playing together, Billy and James got enough material to make their live debut in a Chicago Polish bar. Billy played bass, and a drum machine kept time.
Later that night, outside the club, they met a 19 year old girl by the
name of D'Arcy Wretsky. D'Arcy and Billy got in an argument over a band,
"The Dan Reed Network" that played that night. Billy expressed how he
didn't like how they bounced around on stage. D'Arcy said that she liked to
bounce around on stage, and let it slip that she played bass guitar.
Billy siezed the moment and offered D'Arcy to play bass in the band. He gave her his phone number. She was skeptical about it at first, but decided to call anyway. Despite a horrible audition she soon became the third Pumpkin.
The three Pumpkins made their first appearance together in front of 50 people at the Avalon, a club in Chicago. It wasn't a great success but one man, Joe Shanahan, offered them another gig if they could replace the awful drum machine with a real drummer. A friend then mentioned a 24 year-old jazz drummer, by the name of Jimmy Chamberlin. Jimmy was also skeptical about joining the band, but he agreed to join anyway.
On the Pumpkins forth gig they opened for "Jane's Addiction". Billy said that they "rumpled the feathers of the local bands because we were getting the gigs that they wanted." Cliques in Chicago to this day still harass The Smashing Pumpkins with accusations of selling out.
When the four were ready to record, they sought help from then unknown produced Butch Vig. Billy was quickly learning about the difficulties in persuading a group of people to embrace his ideas. He also found it hard to motivate the band to be dedicated and hold up to the rigors of recording, as he was.
'I Am One' was the Pumpkins first single released in 1990 on the label Sub Pop. Then Tristessa and La Dolly Vita was released in March of 1991. 'Gish' followed in its original form followed that May . To date Gish has sold over 700,000 copies.
"If there was a simple ethic for the band when we started, it was that
we could do anything we wanted to do and that we wouldn't be held down
or limited by being a rock band," Billy said after Gish's release.
Many of the songs reflect a tormented and anguished view of his life
that could only have been written by someone for whom such experiences
were very real. The band appeared to be on the fast track to success,
the path would prove to be all uphill trek.
The band went on tour for a year and a half. It was about this time that the Pumpkins personal lives began to unravel.
First, James and D'Arcy, who were dating at the time, broke up while on the road. "All the normal stuff that would happen between a boyfriend and girlfriend who had broken up after a long time relationship was happening, only we were stuck together," says James. This did noy affect the Pumpkins musically, but it did emotionally.
Just then Corgan started to feel insecure about himself and was nearly suicidal. He was also depressed about the loss of his seven year girlfriend, Chris Fabian (whom he later married).
Next, Jimmy revealed his addiction to alcohol and drugs and said that he wanted to enter rehab.
It was about that time that Virgin records picked up the Pumpkins and signed them. When they returned to Chicago Billy found himself with writers' block. "We barely had any songs written and the record company is saying you're going in the studio in two months, and i'm thinking theres no way," said Billy.
Billy worked his way through the depression, and was able to write more and more
songs. "We were just trying to be whatever we thought we
should be, what ever everyone wanted us to be." That attitude helped him
get through this phase of self doubt.
The Pumpkins popularity was on the rise thanks to the song "Drown" on the soundtrack to the film "Singles."
They entered the studio with Butch Vig again, and started work on the second LP "Siamese Dream."
Billy tried to face up to the band's problems. He reproached James and D'Arcy for their laid back attitudes, and was disappointed with Jimmy's relapse to drug use. He got tired of waiting for the other band members to come around, so he ended up playing most of the guitar and bass parts himself for the album.
Somehow the Pumpkins finished the album, but a month behind schedule. "Siamese Dream" was finally released in July of 1993. It entered Billboard top 200 at number 10. To date it has sold over 3 million copies.
When they went on tour they had more difficulties, even though they were maturing and getting better musically.
In 1994 the Pumpkins were paid just about the highest honor in rock music at the time, when they were asked to headline that year's lollapalooza tour.
Soon after Lollapalooza, the band once again returned to Chicago to write material for the next release. Before any of their new songs were recorded, a collection of B-sides was released in October 1994, on an album called "Pisces Iscariot".
For the next album, Corgan had dozens of songs to go through. So he decided the new album would have 28 songs - a double album later titled "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness".
Band relations improved. Corgan relaxed a bit, and D'Arcy and James were featured on the new album's tracks playing their own instruments. As in the past, Billy sought perfection in the studio. This time he did not work with Butch, but he chose co-producers Flood and Alan Moulder to help with his new ideas.
With a better outlook and newly found strength and maturity, Smashing Pumpkins look as though they have triumphed over the collective and personal demons that followed then around from the previous years.
The double CD was released in October of 1995.
Mellon Collie became popular very quickly. Especially after the release of their first single "Bullet With Butterfly Wings."
They started touring in January 1996. Things were going well and everything seemed to be just great. But then, a series of events showed otherwise.
They released the single '1979', then filmed a video for it. But a part of the video was lost when one of the production people drove off with the only copy of that shoot on top of his car. It was never found. They had to reshoot it.
Then, when they were in Bangkok in February, Jimmy overdosed outside a hotel while he was with the new touring keyboarder-Jonathan Melvoin. Jimmy told them that he didn't need help and he would stop his drug use.
While in Australia, Jimmy's dad died. They canceled some shows and returned to Chicago. After about a week or so the Pumpkins went back to where they left off.
May 11, 1996 The Pumpkins were in Dublin Ireland. The crowd was very rowdy. The band stopped a number of times after seeing all the people getting hurt from moshing down there on the floor. The Pumpkins canceled the show after hearing that a young girl was seriously hurt. The next day Bernedette O'Brien was pronounced dead of internal injuries. The band canceled the next day's show, and sent out there sympathies to Bernadettes friends and families.
The Pumpkins resumed the tour and went on their way.
Shortly after that in Madrid, both Jimmy and Jonathan nearly died of drug use.
They fired Jonathan, but asked him to finish up the European
leg of the tour. They said that he at least owed that to them.
After finishing up the European tour they returned to the US to do the US leg of the tour. Jonathan talked his way back into the band. Saying he was clean. He not only had the band convinced but he had himself convinced also.
The band were playing sold out shows and everything seemed to be fine for the time being.
But things would get worse. On July 11, the band was in New York City. They had three sold out concerts planned in the next three days in Madison Square Garden. That night Jimmy and Jonathan were sharing a room in a different hotel than the other band members.
The two shot up heroin at 11:30. Jimmy and Jonathan passed out. When Jimmy woke up he found his friend dead. He tried to revive him but failed. He called his tour manager Gooch. They could do nothing. They called the police. At 4:15 Jonathan Melvoin was pronounced dead.
The band was taken down to the police station that morning. D'Arcy, James, and Billy were released, but they kept Jimmy. He was susequenrlty released, but was charged with heroin possession. He had a court date for August 13.
The following Monday, July 15, Jimmy checked himself into a drug rehab.
Tuesday, July 16, the three remaining Pumpkins issued the following statement:
"Today we are very sorry to tell our friends and fans that we have decided to sever our relationship with our friend and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. This may come as a shock to some, to others not, but to us it is devastating. For nine years we have battled with Jimmy's struggles with the insidious disease of drug and alcohol addiction. It has nearly destroyed everything we are and stand for. We have decided to carry on without him and we wish him the best that we have to offer. The three of us plan to seek an immediate replacement and to finish the touring that we had started at the beginning of this year. We would like to thank everyone for their well wishes and support in this very tragic week."
The statement was signed: The Smashing Pumpkins: Billy, D'Arcy and James.
The three wanted to resume the tour so they went out searching for a new drummer and keyboarder. They picked filter's drummer, Matt Walker, then they welcomed The Frogs' drummer, Dennis Flemion, on keyboards.
A couple of postponments pushed Jimmy's court date to October 8.
Since then the band has resumed where they left off, touring and playing sold out shows.
In interviews since the incident, Billy and the band has said a number of times that Jimmy was out of their lives 110%. They seem to be happy with there new drummer and keyboarder.
In a recent MTV interview, Tabitha Soren asked what is going to be different with the Pumpkins. Billy's answer..."Smiles. We are all smiles now. We are smiling now. The new Pumpkins! "
No one is sure about the future makeup of the band besides the three remaining original members. But whatever the future holds for the Pumpkins, they will always be in all our hearts.
In conclusion, money and fame could not help the pumpkins through the hard times.
What did help however, where the love and loyalty of their fans. This is especially
evident from this statement by Billy:
"The thing that makes it all worth it is when someone comes up and says 'I had a really hard time in my life and your album really helped me.' As long as that happens, all the idiots in the worked and all the stupid press can say anything they want to, it just doesn't matter."
Nikki