When I was 14, in '64 we were living in the projects on Clinton and Fresno streets and I saw the Beatles on tv. It had a huge effect on me. Whatever it was they were doing I wanted to be a part of it! It started a sunday night ritual of watching the Ed Sullivan Show just to see the rock bands appear. My friend, Richard Murillo lent me a beat up acoustic guitar and after many months of guitar practice I ended up playing in a couple of teenage cover bands in the 60's. My first real gig was at the Fresno Veterans Memorial Auditorium in 1966. It was a Battle of the Bands and the name of our band was Copasetic Copulation, a name I thought up that we quickly dropped by the time we played our second gig because it was a little too edgy. That second gig was to be our last and we were billed as Muscle, a name chosen by our lead singer at the time, David Urrutia, because none of us had muscles. It was at the Sunnyside Swim and Raquet Club and was our first-ever paying gig, $35. I remember every well-paying gig and every gig I got stiffed at. After that I played only occasionally into the 70's. But I always had an acoustic guitar handy and enjoyed playing it from time to time. In the 70s I would jam with Tom Moore on 3-chord blues progressions from every angle: as one guy played rhythm, the other played lead. Then, next bar, trade off. That honed our basic guitar chops. In 1978 Mike Joy hired me at Tower Records in Fresno and that introduced me to record collecting. I built up my general knowledge of music through countless hours of listening and reading. I eventually joined a new band in 1979 that was starting up called the Subtractions. They were playing this new kind of rock called punk. Almost no rules except to be punk, whatever that was. Defining it ended up becoming it's main feature. Sometimes it seemed like it was as many different things as there were people in it. After brief stints in a couple of punk and new wave bands I finally settled in on a band with my soulmate, Joceylin in 1981. Our first lead singer, Eric Tsuda thought up the name Capitol Punishment. We continued to do this band as it drifted away from punk and into metally hardcore. Time went by. A lot of time went by. From '81 to '95 we went through several different lead singers and drummers. We ended up going on a couple of US and European tours (got to play at CBGB in NYC in '89) and played a lot of recording sessions. We put out a variety of records on several different independent labels. In 1983 I released our first record on my newly-formed, Stagedive Records label and continued to release records over the years to this day. From '85-'92 I operated a brick and mortar record store in Fresno under the same name. In 2001 I finally joined the digital age and continued to distribute various content online. All in all it has been good fun. Still playing occasional solo performances and always working on new material and new projects. Dale Stewart 1DEC2020. |
I'm really into music, politics, history and art. I have found some of my most inspiring motivations in life from Democratic policy and politicians, journalists, civic leaders, musicians and artists. You could say I'm a fishing and hunting Democrat, minus the hunting part or a Labor Union Democrat only I'm not in a union. I used to think I was a Progressive, then during the 8 years of the Obama administration and constant criticism from the far-left I thought I must be a Centrist. Nowadays I know I am a Progressive, I just disagree with helping Republicans get elected by recklessly attacking Democrats who may have a few moderate policy views. |
Here are some of my recordings at http://www.reverbnation.com/dalestewart: |
Funston Terrace Projects Fresno&Clinton streets Fresno Bee photo |
From the Projects to CBGBs |
1964-2020 |