Who were 1989’s ‘King King Rhythm Aces’?

In 1989, in the early months of the future “Red Devils” Monday night residency at Hollywood’s King King Club, the band’s identity changed as often as its rotation of guest stars.

While The Blue Shadows was the longest-running pre-Red Devils name, the band was called everything from The Stumblebums to (probably not) the “October Polkateers.”

Our new favorite, however, is “The King King Rhythm Aces.”

That’s how some of the band’s February 1989 gigs were listed in the LA Weekly calendar section.

It’s unlikely this band name was a deliberate choice by the players (here listed as Bill Bateman, Jonny Ray Bartel, Greg “Smokey” Hormel, Lester Butler and piano player Steve F’dor), but likely whoever had to call in the King King schedule to the local papers. (“Yeah, Monday night, we have a bunch of Blasters and friends playing blues … I don’t know if they have a name … just call ’em The King King Rhythm Aces.”)

It appears the whole thing starts in the Feb. 3, 1989, LA Weekly:

The conflict gets wilder in the Feb. 10, 1989, LA Weekly: The group is called The King King Rhythm Aces in the calendar on page 111. But in a write-up by friend-of-the-band Jonny Whiteside on page 101, it’s The King King Rhythm Aces Monday at the King King, and The Blue Shadows further down the page, Wednesday at Raji’s (below).

Things started getting straightened out the next couple of weeks, in the Feb. 17 and Feb. 24 editions LA Weekly calendar: “Blues from Blue Shadows, a.k.a. the King King Rhythm Aces …” (below).

Funnily enough, the name was correct before any of this confusion — and with a lot more color — in the Feb. 3, 1989, listing for an upcoming Wednesday at Raji’s:

“BOR (Blasters Oriented Rock) from The Blue Shadows, featuring Smokey Hormel and Buster Bateman from the Blasters, the Slutmaster General, Jonny Ray of the D.I.’s, and maybe a great big surprise guest.”

But, if you were going to have to think of a name for the Butler-Bartel-Bateman Monday night band, “King King Rhythm Aces” sounds like hardcore blues, and hits just right — another “what if?” in The Red Devils’ story.

Top image: No Fightin’s “what if?” logo for “The King King Rhythm Aces.”

---

More early Red Devils/Blue Shadows

Kid Ramos tears it up in 1989 Blue Shadows videos

Eyewitness: Blue Shadows “deadly serious” at the King King

Blue Shadows 1991 on YouTube

Spare bands and one-and-dones

Photos: Red Devils’ last King King gig, 1993