The Storefront Hitchcocks

A Little More About The Band

This is an unlikely story of the formation and development of one of Rock's most influential musical forces, the Storefront Hitchcocks.

Our story begins with the childhood lives of the brothers, Delmore and Ruffhaus. They were reared near Cherry Hill, NJ, a suburb of Philadelphia (which translated from Native America Indian means ‘shopping mall’). Growing-up in a large, close-knit, loving family the boys were surrounded with classical and jazz music. None of these finer elements influenced the pair.

Burdened by self-inflicted neurosis and an over abundance of body hair, the boys were shunned by other neighborhood children. They retreated to their own world of bad music and clothing. A former class-mate remembers this trying time in the boys' lives:

"Delmore had these weird habits, like, he was a nail-biter. Which really wouldn’t be so bad, except he didn’t bite his own nails."

Enter Oral.......

Originally rejected by the Temple University Orchestra and Choral program, Oral fell prey to the hard life of North Philadelphia. At the bottom of society he met the disheveled Delmore Atom, who now had the habits of referring to him self in the third person as "the human stampede", and never using the same public telephone twice. Delmore had, at one time, a promising television news anchor career. His fortune had changed abruptly however, as a result of his only true media experience, the now famous Mario Andretti incident.

The trio, accompanied by Delmore's brother, the homely Ruffhaus, who was related to Delmore only by birth, began experimenting with writing poetry, and the occasional cross dressing escapade. These early efforts, although not documented, clearly proved the basis for much of the bands later work. Sound man, and sometimes bassist with the band, Ruffhaus, remembers these times fondly.

"It wasn't much of an organized effort, really. We relied on Oral, being the only one with any real musical talent in the group. Mostly, we just followed him around, hitting him with sticks, beating him over the head until fell. Then we'd kick him until he started screaming bloody murder. That's when we'd capture his finest material. It was really hard work.... I mean, it was all we could do to have paper and pencil to write down what he said."

Between creative sessions, the boys frequented local pubs and the race track, where they befriended Coop. Coop was trained from early childhood to be a professional horse jockey. A sudden growth spurt on the last day of high school, and a frightening allergy to horse dander, dashed those dreams. A practiced finger-tapper, Cooper realized if he held sticks and tapped, there could be something to it.

Their paths crossed on the fateful day they found themselves working the same mark. Along with finger tapping Coop had developed an earnest worried look, and the habit of spending too much time in the bathroom. While at the track, he would use these talents to lure unsuspecting members of the opposite sex into his confidence, eventually covering all his bad bets for him. The boys, on the other hand, would mostly just follow old ladies around and take their money.

The European House Boys……

In the rainy days that followed their first encounter with Coop, the boys found themselves in search of a stopgap for Oral’s waning libido. After minutes of soul searching and days of rummaging through trash cans, it struck them, start a band. The question was, but how? Sure, Oral could play guitar and sing, and the boys had actually become quite good at fighting with each other in public (often attracting small crowds), something was needed to complete the picture, to tie the experience together, a drummer. Coop remembers the exact moment:

“Who? Me? All I remember is the moron twins called me from a payphone somewhere in New Hope and asked me if I wanted to tryout as drummer for a new band. Christ! If I had only known it was the two who beat-up Sandy (Goldstien) at the track two weeks before………Naturally, I said yes of course……… Damn!... They cost me fifty bucks that day!..... And I ripped my shirt…… Running from security….. I still can’t go back there,….. Jesus!.... I can still see the look on her face as they pushed her down and took her purse….. At least they let me pick a name for the band.”

So with the initiation of Coop, the group began their first organized musical effort. The European Houseboys began playing neighbor hood garages, after hours clubs, and bath houses. Although never commercially successful, the band did gain notoriety for never playing the same location twice. Even rehearsals were in different locations. Although not discussed publicly by any of the band members, a common theme noted in close circles included that things, significant, and sometimes unusual, were often missing upon the boys departure. Oral responds to these allegations:

“Circumstantial, all the evidence was circum