Saints in Hell

Saints in Hell was a band formed in the early eighties that consisted of a young Tom Keifer on guitar, Halfbreed Billy Gram on vocals, Paul Barbas, then later Eric Brittingham on bass, guitarist Kurt Ritchie, and drummer Sal "Poison" LaTorre. Greg Reider was briefly on guitar prior to Keifer. The band got its name from the Judas Priest song "Saints in Hell" on their 1978 Stained Class album. Later Keifer and Brittingham formed the hard rock band Cinderella.
The band did perform some original material, but mainly played cover songs. This cover material consisted of lots of Alice Cooper, UFO, AC DC, Plasmatics, Dead Boys, Kiss, Judas Priest, Sex Pistols, Black Sabbath, Scorpions and Aerosmith, along with the band's unique interpretations of a lot of lesser known material. While many of the bands whose material was covered is categorized as classic today, such was not the case in the late seventies and early eighties. At the time, the NJ, Pennsylvania and Delaware club scene prospered in a way that it never has since. There were clubs featuring live bands , often 6 or 7 nights a week, in every town on the map. The booking in these clubs was controlled by a few select agencies, many with reputed criminal ties (in later years this would prove to be a fact, as one of these "agents" was mobster Tyronne DeNittis). This resulted in the fact that these agencies actually controlled the material that the bands they booked would play. All of them played the accepted Top 40, "safe" classic rock of the day ala Zepplin, Foreigner, The Cars, Blondie, Jethro Tull, Boston, Heart, etc. Keifer, Ritchie and Gram had all at various points worked in bands booked by these agencies. Gram as the "instigator", managed to convince both Keifer and Ritchie to walk out on bands that were booked through these agents, to form something more edgy, aggressive and non-conformist, an act that was not only brazen for the three, but was under threat of career suicide, amongst other nasty things. The word was spread by these agents that the newly formed Saints in Hell were blackballed in the Tri-State area. Undaunted the band proceeded to book themselves in Maryland and other markets further south.
At this point, in a very short time, the Saints in Hell became a hugely influential on other bands/musicians, and oft-forgotten force. Along with the band's unconventional choice of material, and heavy makeup that was actually very unpopular at the time,...the members had no eyebrows and wore strange attire that was like a cross between The New York Dolls, Leatherface, A Native Warrior, The Road Warrior and The Pope. The band had various custom stage sets that were very horror movie influenced and used ridiculous amounts of pyrotechnics. The band spilled lots of blood, both stage and real, in their act. Gram became notorious as a result of his performances as the band's frontman. Not only was he prone to brandishing large snakes and spitting copious amounts of fire, he was also acknowledged for his verbal tirades on the microphone. Gram bashed Conservatives, Politicians, Police, Government, Evangelicals,and Censors alike, while he championed Freedom of Expression, Rebellion, Creativity and Marijuana. All of this laden with profuse obscenities, as well as slapstick humor. The band became instantly popular wherever they appeared, which drove several NJ and Philly club owners to risk the wrath of the local agents and book Saints in Hell, ignoring the blackball status. Gram's volatile personality, combined with the very solid music skills of Keifer, Brittingham and the rest made Saints in Hell a unique band that many feel were ahead of their time.
The band's shows may have made their fans happy,...but such was not always the case with new venues that booked the band based on the word they were good, not realizing what the band's performances were like. This lead to the Saints in Hell being banned amidst controversy from many clubs. Reasons ranging from Gram's language, to setting the roof on fire. However, it should be noted that the band's breaking of the aforementioned talent agencies' stranglehold on club bookings, was the probable catalyst that changed the entire music scene of the area, leading to the original metal scene of the mid eighties and the death of the dominance of club's featuring top forty cover bands.
Saints in Hell would also become notorious for an incident that occurred on December 7, 1981 (ironically the anniversary of Pearl Harbor). The band was playing at a a club in Pennsauken, N.J. called Menagerie, when a pyrotechnic device malfunctioned and sent 37 people to the hospital including Keifer and Brittingham. The accident was covered in local newspapers like The Courier Post and Philadelphia Bulletin, as well as on all the Philly news broadcasts. The explosion also resulted in a joint Pennsauken Police/NJ state Police/ ATF investigation.
Keifer was in the band for about ten months. In magazines interviews, Tom has been quoted as saying "That band was just out of it's mind. It was a sick band." The band used makeup similar to that used later by Mötley Crüe. Tom also stated that none of the members got along. He said "We'd try to rehearse and after five minutes people would start swinging at each other."
This inability to get along, as well as the many controversies the band became mired in are the probable reasons for it's demise, after such a brief and influential life.
Saints in Hell did have one positive side-effect: Gram met bassist Eric Brittingham, on Halloween night, 1981, in the bathroom of a bar called Back of the Rack in Ocean City, Maryland. Gram asked Brittingham if he played the bass. Eric joined Saints in Hell a few days later. It was later erroneously reported by Circus Magazine, that it was Keifer who met Eric in the bathroom. When Eric tried to correct this error, he was told by the writer of the article, that he substituted Keifer for Gram, because no one knew who Gram was.Later Keifer and Brittingham would form the hard rock band Cinderella and go on to huge international success.
Regardless, of some of the original band member's ability to gel, Gram retained friendships with all but Ritchie. Keifer even guested on Gram's 1991 Indy cd release Ghostdance Tribe.
2008Keifer and Brittingham continue with Cinderella today. Keifer is also recording a solo album. Brittingham also is the bass player for another project called Naked Beggars, who have released several indy albums. Eric's wife Inga is the vocalist.
Gram is an actor, screenwriter, filmmaker and professional wrestling manager/commentator. He has appeared in the films Street Trash, Dead Riot, and The Meltdown Memoirs. He is the writer of One for the Fire: The Legacy of Night of the Living Dead, a film celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the cinema classic. He appears regularly in CZW(Combat Zone Wrestling) as a manager and color commentator

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