It’s Black Friday in the United States today, but No Fightin’ brings you some rare, unheard Red Devils for free. “Ridin’ in the Moonlight,” “Ride With Your Daddy Tonight,” “Pretty Baby” … whatever you call it, it’s The Red Devils Live at the King King club in Hollywood, California, 28 years ago, Nov. 30, 1992. (Video courtesy Mike Flanigin)
WATCH THIS: “Dangerous” at the King King 1992 AND THAT: Video: Red Devils live at King King Nov. 30, 1992
Nofightin.com is following The Red Devils on tour through Europe, whether they like it or not. Come here for our dispatches from every show as we go. Words and others by J.J. Perry; tour photography by Tina Hanagan
I wrote about The Red Devils show earlier. But here is what didn’t happen onstage.
Hundreds and hundreds of fans (an organizer told us capacity is 5,000) crammed into the old marketplace square, an intersection of several streets where the stage was set. Stimmen is a several-week festival, with an eclectic lineup (the day after ZZ was a performance by Grace Jones).
After the Devils’ set, we muscled through an elbow-to-ass crowd to a hotel bar for beers. We met Paul Size when he came down for a refill and he invited us up to his room where, from two large open windows, we could watch ZZ Top’s set.
[words: J.J. Perry; all photographs by Tina Hanagan]
An evening rain Friday cooled and soaked the thousands waiting in line for the Stimmen Festival in Lorrach, Germany. The crowd was patient under ponchos and umbrellas and canopies on Lorrach’s historic streets, waiting in line to get into the marketplace stage area.
But we couldn’t help but wonder, as heavy raindrops rolled down our heads and into our eyes: Did we fly to Germany only to have our first Red Devils concert in 25 years be rained out?
Pushing forward through the crowd in the Lorrach square, we took our spots. As if on cue, the rain trickled to a stop moments before The Red Devils took the stage at 8 p.m. Big Pete stomped his feet and the band launched into a pounding “Mr. Highway Man.” I jumped in my spot yelling, taken back to 1992, when I saw this band for the first time.
This was exactly where I wanted to be.
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Moments ago, Mike Flanigin on Instagram posted a pic of “Return of The Red Devils,” the band’s first album since their debut “King King” 25 years ago. (Skipping the 1994 “Blackwater Roll” EP.)
The post confirms what nofightin.com has heard over the past several weeks: That the band would have a new disc for sale at its July shows based on its first gigs in The Netherlands in June.
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Paul Size, Bill Bateman and Jonny Ray Bartel, the three “original” members of the legendary Red Devils.
This photo was taken by “The Drifter” Mike Flanigin June 2 in Holland, the first night of The Red Devils reunion tour.
Welcome back, boys. Glad you could make it.
Tapes don’t often circulate of The Red Devils during their 1992 U.S. club tour, but guitarist Mike Flanigin passed one from his collection to nofightin.com.
Not only is it a representation of 4/5 of the band that will be on tour this summer, but it is the closest I’ll ever get to The Red Devils just as I heard them almost 25 years ago.
Flanigin’s tape was not labeled, so no clear info on date or location. But he recollects it was from that fall 1992 club tour. From there, two other clues: an emcee, just before the encore, beckons the crowd, “I don’t know Detroit, do you want to hear one more?” And Butler thanks the crowd for coming out on a rainy night.
Sully’s Blues Bar in Dearborn, Mich., is essentially adjacent to Detroit. And, on Oct. 14, 1992, according to Weather Underground, Dearborn saw just more than half an inch of rain.
The relatively short show — 11 songs in the set, plus three in the encore, about an hour and 35 minutes time — lines up with a listing in the Oct. 13, 1992, Detroit Free Press:
RED DEVILS, blues from LA, 8:30 and 10 p.m. Wed., 4758 Greenfield [Sully’s], Dearborn. 846-1920
Two shows.
So, this gig took place the night after I saw them at Jake’s in Bloomington, Ind., about five-and-a-half hours away.
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The rumors are true …
In 2017, on the silver anniversary of “King King,” The Red Devils return to Europe, to the crowds that have kept their memory, spirit and music alive.
Bill Bateman, Paul Size and Jonny Ray Bartel return with one-time Red Devils guitarist Mike Flanigin (Jimmie Vaughan, Billy Gibbons and the BFGs).
And picking up the bullet mic and fronting the band is Dutch bluesman Big Pete, Pieter van der Pluijm, filling in for the late Lester Butler. As a solo artist, Big Pete has carried on the Devils’ tradition, bringing Billy Boy Arnold, Little Walter and Chicago blues harp into the 21st century.
The first date has been announced: Sunday, June 4, at Ribs & Blues, a free roots and blues festival in The Netherlands.
Early-June club dates are expected to be announced soon, as well as a full summer tour lineup.
WATCH NOFIGHTIN.COM FOR UPDATES.
START HERE: The very best posts on nofightin.com … music, videos, lyrics, myths, more.
One of the treats hanging out with Mike Flanigin last year was watching vintage Red Devils video live from the King King more than two decades earlier.
We watched half of the Nov. 30, 1992, video in his Austin living room. Essentially, we got the DVD commentary from one of the members of The Red Devils himself.
Flanigin held the guitar he played in the Devils as he watched a younger version of himself, sparking many more memories and stories.
Two things stuck out: That Flanigin wasn’t entirely impressed with the King King mystique, which even in 1992 was thick around the band. Watching the video, the band in living color under stage lights, is surreal. How many of us have listened to the “King King” record and imagined the whole night in grainy black and white, dimly lit and gritty?
Photo by Tina Hanagan
This is video of the Devils in their prime, road-tested and ready. Sure there are festival videos out there, scattered TV appearances. But this is three sets of classic Red Devils with their prototype setlist of the time (“Who Do You Love,” “She’s Dangerous,” “Blues in the Morning,” “Blackwater Roll,” “Checkin’ Up On My Baby,” plus Hook Herrera sits in, too).
The other thing was his sense of belonging in the band. As he mentioned, his kids never knew him as a guitar player, and certainly not as a member of one of the hottest blues acts of the second half on ’92. Many Red Devils fans don’t even know his role in the band; this video proves it.
Mike: But I do have this videotape from the King King. You probably never saw it?
Interviewer: No.
Mike: Well, this was the King King and I don’t know if anyone has any video of us playing like that whole American tour. In the video the quality is not that great. But this is when we got back and they were like, “Man, we’re going to play the King King!” Well this was the night. Like this was our first night back from being on the road and Billy Gibbons was there and Rick Rubin was there and that’s the night. And so the guy had taped it , they had the camera, so they run that tape. And then when we got down with the gig, he had the VHS tape and Lester was just like, “Hey Mikey, you take this,” and gave it to me and I hung on to it … I would feel like everybody else had just went by the wayside at some point …
I held on to like little scrapbook or little things that it might got lost. And so this videotape is — I had to dig it out man. I knew I had it. …
And that’s a whole night, like it’s not just 30 minutes. I mean it’s like all night, all the whole thing. …
And so, it gives you an idea of like where we were and what the band sounded like that you remembered from like when you saw us. Because it’s the only thing that really exists. There’s no live recordings and all that or like anything professionally done or see the band. I never have seen anything with me in it. Even though I was in the group a long time really. I mean of the working life with that band.
Tina: It’s got to be out there though, right?
Mike: Well, what’s funny is that he took this tape out of the machine and gave it to Lester and Lester gave it to me. I think it’s the only existing copy.
And I’ve never given it to anybody, like I never show it really and I hadn’t seen it years. I just pulled this out because I knew you were coming.
Interviewer: Yes, yes. That’s very kind of you.
Mike: We’ll see what’s up with it. I mean it might be a complete mess.
Mike Flanigin shared his 1992 Red Devils tour itinerary at an afternoon in his Austin home last year. His wife at the time and he kept several pages of photos, press clippings and band correspondence, which he has to this day.
