Happy 2022 to all of our friends and Red Devils/Lester Butler fans around the world!
Before we launch into a busy new year, here are a couple of quick items you might have missed toward the end of 2021:
Podcast reflects on Devils at Pinkpop
The Red Devils’ history-making morning set at the Pinkpop Festival on May 31, 1993, is explored in a recent podcast.
“Don’t Call It Nothing” is a podcast to supplement a book project, also called “Don’t Call It Nothing: The Lost History of ’90s Roots, Rap & Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Writer Lance Davis describes the book as “part-memoir, part social history, and part reference manual.”
The story of two seminal Pinkpop ’93 performances — The Red Devils and Thelonious Monster — are recounted in Podcast Episode 16 – See That My Grave is Kept Clean (Pinkpop 1). For the Devils section, Davis leans heavily on Paul Rees’ Classic Rock story, “Blues, drugs, fights, cops, jail, death: the incredible story of The Red Devils”, along with his on perspective on the Pinkpop performance we all are so familiar with now.
As a music journalist, DJ, musician and part-time promoter in the Naughty ’90s myself, Davis’ work rings true. There was something special about that time, pre-Internet, when ‘zines and indie record stores were your connection to the world. His notes on acts like Neko Case, Freakwater, Superchunk, Sleater-Kinney and Bettie Serveert may take you (well, some of you) back to that time.
The final photos of Lester Butler
OOR magazine in October published “These must be Lester Butler’s last photos,” with photos and a story from Butler’s Moulin Blues Festival performance in 1998, now known as his “legendary last gig.”
“OOR photographer Herman Nijhof captured Lester Butler’s performance at Moulin Blues in Ospel in 1998. A week later, the blues hero died, left behind in a porch by friends,” the story begins. While we did our best to read the article, a language-barrier kept us from 100% comprehension. However, the story did not appear to tread any new ground. (OOR readers: Let us know if we’ve missed something.)
But, again, the photos of Lester onstage and backstage are worth a visit. Incredible how that show continues to resonate, nearly 24 years later.
Coming up …
Stay tuned in ’22 … we have a some special things planned for the year, the 30th anniversary of “King King.”
No Fightin' 