The Metro St.
Louis Live Music
Historical
Society
The Benders
featuring
The Dogtown Horns
|
 |
Dave Caputo /Trombone
Kevin
Raucher /Trumpet
Bob
Walther /Bass
Dick Zempel
/Sax
Tom Wilson
/Vocals
Steve
McCabe /Guitar
Billy Greene
/Drums
Gerry Mandel
/Keys
Ted Dickey
/Guitar
Ray MacCanallen
/Trombone
|
Here's the Dogtown Horns performing with
Asleep at the Wheel:
Casa Loma
Ballroom 1988
Here's a bit of history on the band I
got from Richard Zempel on 2/24/12:
My name is Richard Zempel and I
started the Benders with my pal from Jr. High, Tom Wilson.
I play tenor and bari sax and he
is still one of the best blues singers I have ever heard. The Benders played
all the best clubs in the region for almost 20 years, from 1982-2001. We
held many attendance records and were a popular choice as an opening act for
touring national acts.
We were one of the few bands in our time to have a
small horn section, making us one of the larger bands playing regular bar
gigs. After Oliver Sain asked our 3 man horn section to join his first St.
Louis R&B All Stars Reunion (with Fontella Bass, Bobby McClure, Stacy
Johnson and The Ikettes at Mississippi Nights in the late eighties) and he
called us the "Benders Horn Section" - we decided we should have a cooler
name if we're going to appear with other bands.
Our trumpet player, Kevin Rauscher, came up with "The
Dogtown Horns," hoping that someday we could have the honor to join many
cool acts, kind of like Tower of Power. We were able to get gigs for The
Benders as opening act for groups like Asleep at the Wheel several times,
Buddy Guy, and Mamas Pride. Mamas Pride asked The Dogtown Horns to join them
and we became part of Mamas Pride from 1990 - 1992 when the band broke up.
We were in Mamas Pride when it was chosen as the opening act for Ringo Starr
and His All Star Band when they performed at Riverport. After the show,
Ringo's management said that if we could play the next show in Kansas City
that Ringo would fire the opening act in KC and have us instead and we did
it, playing two nights later at Sandstone, another huge outdoor
amphitheatre. I was told we played for 52,000 people that weekend.
We befriended Tony Bongiovi, multiple
Grammy award winning recording engineer (Jimi Hendrix, Talking Heads, Aerosmith,
Ozzie Osborn, Goo Goo Dolls) and owner of The Power Station recording studio in
NYC where I recorded several groups for Budweiser. He offered to record The
Benders while visiting St. Louis and we booked a couple nights at the old
Premier Studios in Mid-Town, where I had helped record Tommy Bankhead and the
Blues Eldorados a few years prior. We recorded "Piece of Me" covering the Johnny
Copeland song. It got airplay locally on WMRY and KSHE.
Here's the link:
http://www.myspace.com/thebenders2009
Here's the last Benders reunion, June
2011:
The Letter
If you have any info about, or
photos or recordings of this band, PLEASE email me at:
greg@dejawho.com
Return to Bands page
Home