The Mau-Mau's

The Mau-Mau’s were started in 1978 by Rick Wilder (Formerly the singer of the Berlin Brats) after returning from a trip to London in 1977. The original short lived line-up was Greg Silva (on Guitar) Rod Donahue on Bass and Rick Sherman on Drums. They started out playing at The Masque in Hollywood. Greg was replaced by Mike Livingston in 1979 after he moved to New York and Rod was replaced first by Oscar Harvey and then by Scott Franklin (currently bassist in The Cramps). Rick had been chosen to be MC of the Penelope Spheris movie The Decline of Western Civilization but was dumped after he insisted he be able to say what he really thought of every act before their clip (it was probably not going to be too complimentary) The Mau-Mau’s are probably the only one of the original bands from The Masque that do not appear in The Decline. Wilder’s somewhat eccentric attitude toward the record industry and the generally extreme lifestyle of the bands members contributed towards a long period of obscurity despite being well known by most in the early Los Angeles punk rock scene. They have appeared on Magnum PI in a scene with OJ Simpson and were included in the compilation Hell Comes to Your House. The Mau Mau’s also recorded an original song called Psychotic that featured Robby Krieger from The Doors playing lead guitar.