paraphrased from the Ricki C. interview, 1/10/2017
Q. Nowadays, you’re almost better known as a roadie than as a performer, how did that happen?
A. Truthfully, I’m probably a better roadie than I am a rocker. I’m too OCD to be a rock & roll star. I want everything to run on time and the wires never to be crossed. Also, I’m really, really lazy. I never seek out gigs anymore. They just fall in my lap. Somebody asks me to open, and I open. Otherwise I just stay home, feel sorry for myself and write Pencilstorm columns about The Dictators and The Neighborhoods.
I thought I’d stay true to myself for my first crack at TV Party Tonight! (read part three here) and stick with bands I know like the back of my hand. The Dictators and The Neighborhoods are two examples of my “The Five Best Bands That You Never Saw” theme. (i.e. Bands SO FAR outside mainstream rock & roll the casual rock fan might not have ever even seen them on YouTube, let alone on Saturday Night Live or the late night Jimmy-shows. EVERYBODY has seen The Who and Bruce Springsteen, NOT everybody has seen The Dictators or The ‘Hoods.) (The other three bands in that category – for those of you scoring at home – are Romantic Noise/The Buttons, Willie Phoenix’s 1978/1979 bands; Brownsville Station, who I wrote somewhat at length about a coupla weeks ago, but could write WAY more at length about if someone gave me the slightest provocation; and Mott The Hoople.)
But I digress, let’s rock………
This clip comprises The Dictators entire set at Little Steven’s International Underground Garage Festival August 14th, 2004, on Randall’s Island in New York City. I was at that show. (In fact at the 5:17 mark, the guy with brown hair & a black t-shirt next to the white-haired guy wearing a red & white baseball cap, that’s ME.)
for much more about The Dictators, click The Dictators on Growing Old With Rock & Roll
The Neighborhoods in their 1979 rock & roll infancy on some Boston cable-access TV show. (And MAN, what I wouldn’t give if Columbus had been a big enough city in 1979 to have a program like this that would have videotaped Romantic Noise in their prime.)
Next decade, ‘Hoods in 1983 at The Channel in Boston (the second or third greatest rock club I have ever been to in my entire rock & roll existence).
And finally, David Minehan & the boys from 2010, rockin’ the 21st century………
for much more about The Neighborhoods, click The Neighborhoods at Growing Old With Rock & Roll
Bonus Dictators, for the truly hard-core, with time on their hands and rock & roll on the brain.
This was the edition of the band I witnessed opening for AC/DC at the Columbus Agora, 1977.