Gene Loves Jezebel News

(9/18/98, 6 p.m. PDT) - Gene Loves Jezebel fans recently got quite a scare, when GLJ's Sept. 12 show at the Country Club in Reseda, Calif. was canceled at the last minute because singer Jay Aston had reportedly been hospitalized after suffering a seizure. But those fans were relieved when they showed up at an Aston solo gig last night (Sept. 17) at the Moondog Café in Hollywood and found Aston to be in fine health.

Fans in last night's audience called out to Aston--who was playing acoustic material from his new solo album, Unpopular Songs--asking if the seizure rumor was true, and Aston suddenly lapsed into VH1 Storyteller mode, taking a break between songs to explain what had happened.

Apparently, Gene Loves Jezebel were driving home from a gig at Club Congress in Tucson, Ariz., pulling an all-nighter in order to make it back to Los Angeles in time for the Country Club show. Aston had admittedly been "drinking Jack Daniel's all night long" and was "stressing out" over upcoming GLJ shows in Portugal and England (he was worried that the previous week of U.S. tour dates had left his voice in ragged shape for the overseas dates).

The band was taking a break at a truck stop in the "middle of nowhere" in Arizona when Aston suddenly had a seizure brought on by a combination of alcohol, stress and fatigue, and fell to the ground in front of GLJ drummer Joel Patterson. "It was really freaky," said Patterson. "There was all this blood--he fell face-down and cut his nose open and chipped his tooth. He was completely knocked out and we had no idea what was happening. "

Paramedics arrived at the scene and took Aston, who had never experienced a seizure before, to a local hospital, where he underwent a CAT-scan. The CAT-scan's results thankfully came back normal, and Aston was released after a period of observation.

Gene Loves Jezebel will still play in Portugal Sept. 21 and will headline a Gothic festival at London's Astoria September 26, as planned; the Country Club date will be rescheduled for sometime in November.

But GLJ fans in the L.A. area should be warned: Jay Aston's estranged twin brother, Michael Aston, has been gigging around Southern California under the Gene Loves Jezebel moniker, even though he is no longer a member of the band. Jay Aston has taken legal action to stop this, and warns that shows by the real Gene Loves Jezebel will always be billed as "Gene Loves Jezebel featuring Jay Aston and original members" (also in the current GLJ lineup are longtime bandmates James Stevenson and Peter Rizzo).

Michael Aston left GLJ in 1989 and rejoined in 1995, but conflicts between the brothers during the recording of GLJ's self-released new album, You Love It, caused Michael to split for a second time, according to GLJ manager Taylor Robison. (Michael's vocals were subsequently removed from the album's final mix.)

Apparently there's not too much love between Gene and Jezebel--or, more specifically, Jay and Michael--these days. When asked, "What is the worst thing about being in rock 'n' roll?" during an Aug. 27 online chat on myLAUNCH, Jay replied, "Having a twin brother."

-- Lyndsey Parker, Los Angeles