CBGB may live on only in our memories and backlots, but last night on the Bowery the punk spirit was alive (or at least briefly resuscitated) when Ramones fans gathered at Bowery Electric to peruse a collection of Joey Ramone's personal belongings currently being sold off in a massive auction.
New Hampshire-based RR Auction is handling the auction of 81 of Joey Ramone's items. Ranging from guitars to t-shirts to Ramone's passport, the items are expected to fetch "well over $100,000," Bobby Livingston of RR Auction told us. Apparently the Ramones used to be friends of the auction house, which is how the collection ended up coming their way. "The Ramones were our customers, they'd actually buy autographs from us," Livingston said. When they were ready to sell his belongings, "the estate contacted us and we were very happy to [handle the auction]."
Ramone's brother, Mickey Leigh, was on hand and told a crowd of fans that "It's not quite like saying goodbye to Joey, but saying goodbye to his belongings is a similar feeling," adding that "the hardest thing to say goodbye to is his pants, because we were both tall and skinny so it was really hard to find things that fit well." We imagine the $100,000 will help ease the pain—although there are admittedly few things as great as a pair of well-fitting pants.
The auction runs through February 21st and is currently accepting bids on the company's website. If you're too punk to shill out thousands to own Joey Ramone's totally boss Zeppelin records, take a minute to relive that bizarre time the Ramones went on Regis and Kathy Lee.
