The Chesterfield Kings

Emerging from the garage rock revival that branched off the punk rock surge of the late 1970s, The Chesterfield Kings count among the scene’s most pivotal groups. At first the revival’s most meticulous practitioners, they launched by interpreting little-known 1960s singles in a manner that fused raw American suburban teen energy with the edgier edges of British Invasion bands. Their first LP, 1982’s Here Are the Chesterfield Kings on Mirror Records, became a cornerstone release within the garage community. Original material entered the picture with 1985’s Stop!, after which the group folded in wider echoes of rock & roll history, among them Stooges-style punk and glammy heavy metal. 1994’s Let’s Go Get Stoned paid explicit homage to the Rolling Stones, while 2024’s We’re Still All the Same introduced a refreshed roster during the band’s fourth decade.

Rochester, New York, saw the Chesterfield Kings coalesce in 1979 under lead singer Greg Prevost, already seasoned from several noteworthy local outfits whose recordings later appeared on his 2022 compilation Vintage Violence: Barbaric, Crude & Primitive 1975-1979. A part-time music journalist and devoted collector, Prevost possessed an encyclopedic grasp of non-mainstream rock & roll and used the Chesterfield Kings to honor mid-1960s American bands that produced rough-hewn, D.I.Y. music. The original lineup began performing in 1979; four years later Mirror Records, the Rochester imprint started by maverick rocker Armand Schaubroeck, released Here Are the Chesterfield Kings, featuring Prevost alongside guitarist Rick Cona, bassist Andy Babiuk, keyboardist and rhythm guitarist Orest Guran, and drummer Doug Meech. The thirteen-track collection of vintage garage covers earned critical praise and helped accelerate the growing revival; following extensive roadwork the band resurfaced in 1985 with Stop!, which mixed covers and band-penned originals.

Further touring preceded the third album, 1987’s Don’t Open ’til Doomsday, which again blended covers and originals and introduced “Baby Doll,” a song Dee Dee King—better known as Dee Dee Ramone—wrote for the group. Walt O’Brien joined on keyboards and rhythm guitar, supplanting Orest Guran. That configuration proved short-lived; Cona, Meech, and O’Brien departed, leaving Prevost and Babiuk to unveil a four-piece lineup with guitarist Paul Rocco and drummer Brett Reynolds on 1990’s The Berlin Wall of Sound, which incorporated hard-rock textures. The same year the band issued the limited-edition Drunk on Muddy Water, a set of classic blues numbers captured live to stereo in an after-hours club setting. 1994’s Let’s Go Get Stoned found the Chesterfield Kings fully embracing their affection for the Rolling Stones, crafting an album modeled on the band’s mid-1960s sound and style while adding several Stones covers plus their own reading of Merle Haggard’s “Sing Me Back Home.”

A stylistic detour arrived with 1997’s Surfin’ Rampage, the group’s first double album, containing thirty-two tracks steeped in classic 1960s surf sounds and dedicated to Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson and producer Gary Usher. Prevost and Babiuk were now joined by Jeff Okolowicz on rhythm guitar and keys, Ted Okolowicz on lead guitar and sax, and Mike Boise on drums and percussion. Having explored surf music, the Chesterfield Kings returned to fuzztone-driven garage rock on 1999’s Where the Action Is, which featured Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere & the Raiders guesting on “Where Do We Go from Here.” The track appeared as a single backed by a new version of the Raiders’ “Louie Go Home.” Lindsay later appeared in the 2001 long-form video Where Is the Chesterfield King?!?!

After parting with Mirror Records, the band teamed with Sundazed for 2003’s The Mindbending Sounds of the Chesterfield Kings. Little Steven, aka Steven Van Zandt, who frequently championed the group on his Underground Garage radio program, contributed to the opening cut, “I Don’t Understand.” This edition welcomed guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Paul Morabito alongside Prevost, Babiuk, and Boise. Little Steven subsequently launched Wicked Cool Records, which reissued The Mindbending Sounds of the Chesterfield Kings in 2006. The next year brought Psychedelic Sunrise, adding psychedelic hues and a comparatively polished production assisted by Ed Stasium. Three decades after forming, the Chesterfield Kings issued their first live album, Live Onstage … If You Want It, available in an edition that paired the LP with a professionally filmed DVD of the performance.

Greg Prevost exited the band he founded at the close of 2009, and the Chesterfield Kings disbanded in 2011. Prevost made his solo debut that year with the vintage-blues single “Mr. Charlie” b/w “Rolling Stone” under the name Greg “Stackhouse” Prevost, followed later in 2012 by the full-length Mississippi Murderer. In 2022 he published the autobiography On the Street I Met a Dog, which also chronicles the Chesterfield Kings in detail. Meanwhile Andy Babiuk co-founded the Empty Hearts with Elliot Easton of the Cars, Wally Palmar of the Romantics, and Clem Burke of Blondie; the group released a self-titled debut album in 2014. In 2023 Babiuk reassembled the Chesterfield Kings without Prevost, recruiting former members Jeff Okolowicz, Ted Okolowicz, and Mike Boise plus new guitarist John Cammarosano. The lineup joined Little Steven’s package tour in March 2024, and in October 2024 they issued their first studio album since 2007, We’re Still All the Same, on Wicked Cool.