Stories for Shorty: A Collection of Recollections from the Jockey Club 1982-1988

by Betsy Young (Editor), Chuck Byrd (Editor)

Anthology of recollections of late, lamented punk rock club in Newport, KY located just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.

During the height of 80s punk was the home of the legendary Jockey Club. Nearly every touring punk band made their requisite stop in Newport, Kentucky at the now infamous club owned by Hallman “Shorty” Mincey and his brother, Haynes “Tiny” Mincey.

Twenty years after its demolition, the cast of characters affectionately known as "the freak show" share their stories about the bands, the people, and Shorty as they remembered them. Everyone from Joey Shithead of D.O.A. to Eerie Von to the Human Zoo himself, Bevo, contributed in not just conveying the importance of The Jockey Club to the Cincinnati area music scene, but just how much it really meant to the people that were there.

255 pages, Paperback

First published November 22, 2008

Reviews

[Mark Flanigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really made me wish I had experienced the glory of the JC, but I just missed it, as I discovered punk in earnest around 1988. Wish there was something like it for the METRO/Club House, which was my version of the JC. A loving tribute to a place held dearly to the contributors' hearts.

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential if you ever went to the Jockey Club in Newport, KY.

[Francis S. Poesy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book about the Jockey Club ever and quite possibly the only one.

[Mark Rubenstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bit of a mixed bag, really, as these sort of compendiums do tend to be. While some of the submissions were quite well written, others constitute Crimes Against Timber. Maybe it's a very fine line between careful editing and honoring the ethos of punk rock. Both the good and the bad, however, share one common trait: the successful evocation of a time and a place which, for those of us who were there, was golden.