Happy birthday to Scott Kempner, aka Top Ten, who was born this day 60 years ago. To celebrate, we’re offering up his acoustic take on “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?” outside a Swedish record store in May 1994. Enjoy!
Category Archives: Top Ten
Del Lords from Serie Z
Here’s a great clip of the Del Lords paying tribute to Lou Reed. It’s the Velvets meet Crazy Horse. I never realized how much Scott owes to Lou Reed until I heard this. His vocal tone, his phrasings, his inflections — it’s like Lou Part 2!
— Salvi C.
Little Kings at Mama Kin
Today in 1996 found the Little Kings playing their only Boston gig ever. The Little Kings were a combination supergroup/superstar comeback. Living legend Dion DiMucci teamed up with Scott Kempner and Frank Funaro from the Del-Lords, and Mike Mesaros from the Smithereens.
Dion, was, is, and always will be one of the coolest and most important artists in rock. He was an originator and an emancipator. But instead of working the oldies circuit and resting on his laurels, a right he most certainly had earned, Dion’s vision with the Little Kings was to do it again, from square one, as a new band.
While the concept was noble, the downfall of being a new band is that you sometimes get the shoddy treatment a new band suffers. This show, sadly, found the band treated quite poorly by Mama Kin. The set time got moved twice, the sound guy was rude and dismissive, and they were told not to bother with the second night of the booking before they’d even played the first night! I remember Frank exclaiming, “Why did they invite us if they didn’t want us?”
Filed under Frank Funaro, Live, The Cincotta Archives, Top Ten
Happy Birthday to Top Ten!
Scott Kempner celebrates a birthday today. Here’s some extremely rare vid of him during his brief reign in 1980 as the guitar god in the Helen Wheels band. Thanks to the videographers at the Local East Village blog for hanging on to this stuff for 30 plus years!
— Salvi C.
Gigs by the Galore!
After a quiet couple of months in terms of opportunities to see our guys, we suddenly have an embarrassment of shows, starting this week.
The Del Lords have an all too rare NYC show tomorrow, 12/11, at the Rock Shop, a benefit for Mark Spencer, whose recording studio was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. Ticket info can be found here.
Scott’s in the middle of an East Coast solo tour with Elliott Murphy, the highlight of which in our POV is a gig this Friday, 12/14, at the Record Collector in Bordentown, NJ, where he shares the bill with Andy Shernoff. That’s two Dictators for the price of one, a sure-fire value in these difficult times. Tix for the Record Collector gig are available here.
Daniel Rey has 3 gigs backing Ronnie Spector’s “Best Christmas Party Ever!,” starting this Friday at BB King’s, and ending Saturday, 12/22, at the Wolf Den at Mohegan Sun. Your humble reporter will be in attendance for that one.
Finally, what better way can there be to ring in the New Year than to share the mishegas with Manitoba at the Bowery Electric? Tickets are going faster than free hotcakes, but are still available here.
— Salvi C.
Happy Birthday to Top Ten!!
Happy birthday (Feb. 6) to Dictator and Del-Lord extraordinaire, the great Top Ten himself — Scott Kempner!
It Ain’t Nothing But a House Party!
If you had your druthers, and could choose the parameters for the perfect party, what would those parameters be? If your criteria includes a wonderful venue, gracious hosts, amazing food in quantities that could feed a small army, guests who are fellow music fanatics, and last but not least, a kicka** band playing three feet from your face, then Chumley, you really should have been at the Del-Lords house concert this past w/e.
Saturday’s show at the Root Hoot concert house in Peace Dale, RI, was the third leg of the band’s World Domination Tour, after lesser stops at the Lakeside and in Spain. Some 75 lucky souls spent 2.5 hours being regaled by Scott, Roscoe, Frankie and Lucky. The band played two sets. The first set was very tight, and loaded with DLs classics. Then, after a 45-minute break, in which everyone attempted to put a dent in the mountain of food, they played a much more adventurous second set, in the classic “Do we even KNOW this one?? Ah Hell, let’s do it anyway” style. Three or four from the upcoming album were previewed and well received. It also seems that both Scott and Eric are frustrated comedians, as they told very funny stories about Stu-boy King, Screaming Jay Hawkins and “Sergio F**king Franchi.”
Filed under Live Review, Top Ten
‘Tators Tracker: Herding Cats Edition
Where are the Dictators members these days? Where AREN’T they?
Personally, I’m having great difficulty keeping track of them and their many different projects. Here’s a quick snapshot of where to find who doing what when … if I missed something (and I probably did), please e-mail me or comment below!
In random order, because I love ALL my Dictators (separate but equal, yo!):
Filed under 'Tators Tracker, Adny, HDM, Ross the Boss, Thunderbolt, Top Ten
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