The Authorized History of Central California’s Greatest Rock and Roll Party Band
Hello?
What's that you say? You say you've never heard of Black Velvet? The
Mighty BV? The band that rocked central and northern California, from Steinbeck
Country in Salinas and Monterey, to San Jose and Santa Cruz, from King City to
Soledad and Watsonville, to infinity and beyond? Really!
Well, pull up a chair and listen up, young'uns (and any of you old'uns who may be out of the loop) but from 1979 to 1990, Black Velvet had been the band in local rock circles. These guys played anywhere and everywhere and they had the chops to do it, too. A songlist of current rock, pop, country and metal tunes, a stage show that knocked you on your a— and melted your eyeballs, dozens of dynamite original songs, great vocals, great guitars, I mean, these guys had everything! They even had their own bus they rebuilt from scratch! (Sounds like the Partridge Family, doesn’t it? Where’s Mr. Kincaid when you really need him?) From high school dances to music clubs, from bars and barbecues and kegger bashes, to concert halls and open air venues, Black Velvet had played it all, seen it all and done it all.
Conceived in a small Prunedale trailer home, Black
Velvet’s original lineup was also one of its best: Marty Carpenter on drums,
Dave Guillen and Scott King on guitars, Dwain Preston on bass guitar, and Andy
Barnachea on keyboards. Marty, Scott and Andy had come from another highly
regarded Salinas area rock band called Eros, that group featuring legendary
guitar wunderkind Jim Hawthorne and bass guitarist Charlie “H.J.” Jones.
When Eros finally went their separate 
ways,
Marty, Scott and Andy hooked up with Eros’s roadies, Dwain and Dave,
still students at North Salinas High School. Sounds like a soap opera, but
then, that’s rock and roll. With Scott, Marty and Andy fresh out of high
school, and Dwain and Dave still in high school, Black Velvet had all
the brash exuberance of youth and energy to propel them to the top of the mount
in California’s high school dance circuit.
(Here’s some trivia: Black Velvet’s original name was Stalled Vehicle. Trying to figure out a name for the new band before their first performance at North Salinas High School’s Little Theater, guitarist Scott King brought a road sign he’d found lying in a field. Stalled Vehicle was written on the sign and Stalled Vehicle was the name the band went under for their very first performace in its history).
Like
every rock band in its day, Black Velvet had a revolving lineup of musicians as
people came and went to start their own gigs, but through most incarnations,
the core remained the same: Marty, Dave and Dwain became the backbone, heart
and soul of BV. Marty’s drive, Dwain’s energy, and Dave’s rock solid
sensibilities helped keep the band together when most other bands went the way
of Kansas’s Dust in the Wind. Later, hot über-guitarslinger John
Noble came in for two versions of the band, and the four made music the likes
of which haven’t been seen in ten years.
***
You say you want to hear about Black Velvet’s rock and roll credentials? First, any discussion of BV has to focus on the great musicians who’ve been part of the legend that made BV as strong as it was… Scott King, Pam DeCarli, Andy Barnachea, Brett “The Jet” Tomasini, Scott Collier, Derek Brown, and Kim “K.C. Red” Saunders all made their mark and added their trademark sound that shaped Black Velvet into the powerhouse force it was in the eighties.
During her long
tenure as the band’s lead vocalist, Pam DeCarli became known as La Voice of
Black Velvet, with a soaring ultra-stratospheric range that whipped audiences
into a singalong frenzy during Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker”.
Guitarist Scott
King, one of the founding members of Black Velvet, was also one of its most popular,
as well as one of its most dynamic songwriters. His showmanship skills were
dissected, imitated, but never equalled in local music circles.
Keyboardist Andy
Barnachea was a mainstay during four versions of Black Velvet and his rack of
synthesizers gave BV an added dimension that was unique in local circles. His
songwriting abilities blossomed in the later period of the band and gave a
progressive pop feel to many tunes.
Brett “The Jet”
Tomasini played a wicked guitar solo on Sammy Hagar’s “Heavy Metal”, and
with fingers that picked out notes faster than an outhouse mouse on steroids,
the Jet gave BV a distinctly metallic flavor during his stint.
The twin
acquisitions of Scott Collier on guitar and Derek Brown on bass ushered in a vibrant
new phase in Black Velvet’s history and helped cement BV’s original pop metal
sound. Mr. Collier’s original tunes were guaranteed crowd pleasers and Derek’s
wild man vocals on Quiet Riot’s “Metal Health” added a grace note to the
Black Velvet canon.
“K.C.
Red” Saunders was the last new guitarist to grace the BV fold and he was also
one of the best as he brought an extremely versatile and thoughtful range of
guitar licks that provided a jazz/rock influence to BV’s sound. “And When the
Smoke Clears”, an original tune by K.C. Red, became one of its most requested
songs during his stay.
***
Second, any discussion of BV has to mention the
humungous stage show these guys brought to town. We’re not just talking about
fancy moves and choreographed two-steps between the lead singer and the
guitarist. We’re talking about lights, fog and flash pots! That’s right,
every high school, every bar or beer bash these guys played at, they carted
around an actual special effects light show, complete with a drum platform,
racks of colored gels, a homemade lighting 
control
board, and jury rigged switches to set off jury rigged flash pots made out of
coffee cans, duct tape and spit and bubble gum. A BV show’s finale, whether it
was a Kiss song, a Journey song, or one of their hard rocking originals, had
the band slammin’ home power chords to a fusillade of stacatto blinking colored
lights and flash powder explosions lighting up the sky with rock and roll! Man,
what a show and what an experience. These humble words can’t even begin
to describe what it meant to be a central coast rocker banging his head to the
glory of a Black Velvet dance/concert!
You say you want
even more certified A-1 rock and roll credentials? Okay, take a look at the
list of top name acts that BV opened for: The Greg Kihn Band, Y&T, Pablo
Cruise, Eddie & the Tide, The Byrds, Steel Breeze, L.A. girl rockers
The Pandoras and The Eric Martin Band. While some of the
aforementioned acts hold their own hallowed place in the “Eighties One-Hit
Wonder” Hall of Fame (anyone remember Steel Breeze’s “I Don’t Want You
Anymore”? I almost do) Greg Kihn, Pablo Cruise, Y&T and The Byrds
were at the top of their headlining careers… and Black Velvet was there!
Hey, try this little factoid on for size: a schedule from the band’s 1982 season shows they played 2-4 shows every single week. That’s from January of ’82 to October of ’82! Ten months and 54 shows of driving around in a bus singing “Hello World/there’s a song that we’re singing/C’mon, Get Happy” would drive anyone mad, but not Black Velvet. These guys positively lived for music.
You say that’s a lot of shows? A typical month for BV had them driving to far off Los Banos High School and LeMoore Naval Air Base, and then over to the Foxhole Club at the former Fort Ord Army Base, then to Salinas High School and North Salinas High School, then over to King City High School, before stopping off at (now long gone) Salinas music venue The Studio. You’re darn right that’s a lot of shows and you’re darn tootin’ 54 shows in ten months would kill a lesser band in the rock and roll food chain. But not Black Velvet. As the saying went, what didn’t kill them only made them stronger.
***
So, what did kill the band in the end then?
Two words: real life. After eleven years, BV members got married, had kids, separated, divorced, got remarried, had more kids, paid bills, took out mortgages on new homes, moved back into old homes, got new jobs to pay those bills and pay those mortgages. Man, that’s a lot of paying out, and rock and roll just don’t pay enough when the bank manager comes knockin’ on your door about that loan you took out to buy that new house of yours. Sure, it’s an old story, told in every state in the union and beyond, where any group of kids can pick up their first guitar or pair of drumsticks and discover the power and the genuine adrenaline rush that creating live music for an appreciative audience can bring.
When the final bell sounded for BV in 1990, most members agreed, with some bit of relief, It was time for a break.
***
But then a funny thing happened.
Okay, the guys may have moved into their day jobs full time, but that didn’t keep them from playing rock and roll in their spare time. Marty kept busy, playing a string of country gigs with local luminaries like Lory Lynn and Larry Hosford. Dwain put together his own hard rock efforts, The Prey, and later, Redrum. John had his own bands, like Free Radicals and The Trip Foundation, and he never stopped writing songs, churning out classic monster hits and recording them in his home studio. Dave gigged with his own groups, like G.A. Rage, playing battle of the bands and other local shows.
But the important thing is, they kept playing. It was Marty who had the dream, who still kept in contact with the varied members of the extended BV family far and wide, and after seeing how super groups like Journey, Kiss, Black Sabbath, and his own fave Y&T, had reformed with original members to mount big time reunion tours, he finally approached the core members of Black Velvet about the possibility of their own reunion tour.
The rest, as they say, is history. If there was any doubt about the viability of a BV reunion tour, the full house at Buster’s Bar and Grill in Prunedale, CA on November 3rd, 2001 dispelled it all. Man, what a rush. The place was packed and the crowd was singing and dancing just like old times. John wailed on his solo for Hendrix’s Fire, Dwain screamed out Kiss’ I Wanna Rock and Roll All Nite and Party Every Day, Dave pulled out one of his crowd pleasing original tunes, Feel Better, and Marty sang lead on AC/DC, Bad Company and Deep Purple. It was a high and a half, just like old times, with all the genuine love pouring out of BV fans, new and old.
Black Velvet, with its core finally reunited, are set to rock the new millenium just like they did the old millenium: with the best rockin’ songs ever created. That’s a promise you can take to the rock and roll bank.