Biography
Rock & roll began as the province of teenagers, while punk rock championed the notion that listeners should form bands of their own; the Student Teachers fused both impulses as a group of adolescents who entered New York’s late-1970s new-wave milieu simply by being present at the right moment. The ensemble took shape in 1977 after sixteen-year-old keyboard novice Bill Arning attended a John Cale performance at CBGB and struck up an acquaintance with fellow teenagers David Scharff and Phillip Shelley. The trio quickly resolved to start a band, reasoning that membership would provide both recreation and complimentary entry to clubs that waived cover charges for musicians. Arning handled keyboards—the sole instrument then in anyone’s possession—Shelley took up guitar, and Scharff became lead vocalist; two classmates of Arning’s, Lori Reese and Laura Davis, completed the lineup on bass and drums, thereby supplying the only all-female rhythm section then active in any mixed-gender New York ensemble. Following an initial appearance at a dance held at Friend’s Seminary, the Quaker school attended by Arning and Davis, the band secured its first paid engagement on Easter Sunday 1978, supporting a bill at Max’s Kansas City. Their set consisted of concise, angular pop distinguished by jagged guitar figures and vintage organ timbres, and they soon circulated through venues such as Max’s, CBGB, Hurrah, and Tier 3, frequently appearing alongside Richard Hell, the Mumps, Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, and other contemporaneous acts. Keyboardist Jimmy Destri of Blondie befriended the group and produced a demo tape that attracted the attention of Terry Ork, the label head who had previously issued Television’s “Little Johnny Jewel.” Ork issued the Student Teachers’ debut single in 1978, coupling “Christmas Weather” with “Channel 13.” Shortly afterward the lineup expanded to six members with the addition of guitarist Joe Katz. In 1979 the band contributed two Destri-produced tracks, “Looks” and “What I Can’t Feel,” to the sampler Marty Thau Presents 2x5. A romantic involvement between Destri and Laura Davis generated friction that prompted Davis’s departure; percussionist Hayden Brasseur assumed her role. On Halloween 1979 the Student Teachers opened for Iggy Pop and the Cramps at a prominent showcase, after which they prepared a four-song EP. By the time the record reached stores the group had already dissolved, and the release was titled Easter 78, Halloween 80 to mark the band’s lifespan. Shelley subsequently performed with the Mystery Dates and the Nitemares, Scharff entered the record business and issued fanzines, and Arning operated art galleries in New York and Houston.