12-03-2019, 19:42
Kipp Lennon was born Christopher on this day in 1960, in Venice, California, USA. He was renamed Kippy by one of his siblings on his first day home from hospital and that just stuck! He is the last born of 11 children - six girls and five boys. Four of his sisters are (or were - I’m sure they’ll have retired by now) The Lennon Sisters, and he and one brother as well as two Lennon cousins are in the band Venice (along with other non-family members) which was originally formed by Kipp and his cousin Michael. Kipp’s role is songwriter, singer and percussionist.
The family suffered a tragedy at the hands of a stalker who was obsessed with one of the daughters, Peggy, and who lay in wait for and shot their father dead – he had perceived William Lennon (who was 53 at the time) to be standing in the way of his completely imagined relationship with Peggy. Said stalker took his own life a couple of months later, presumably before being brought to justice since he purportedly used the same weapon for the act.
Venice has been hugely successful as a live act and they have released around 13 albums. David Crosby is a longstanding champion of the band – they sing harmonies (Kipp and cousin Michael sharing lead vocals) which are quite reminiscent of CSN, and they also seem to do a lot of covers.
Kipp Lennon has appeared on one of Crosby’s albums, he toured with Roger Waters’ in The Wall singing backing vocals, and has also contributed to various other film and TV productions, including The Simpsons. From what I can gather Venice has a new album due out shortly – Jacaranda Street.
Random picks as I’m not familiar with their material …
“Trying To Find America” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVq3Muj9dpA
This is from the new album, Jacaranda Street – “My Love Waits For Me” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUJ-KWcnFFE (I’m getting a teeny tiny Gerry Rafferty sound here in places, not overall)
A foot stomping, full orchestra version of “Ohio” with the Croz himself – not terribly mournful - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kInBqFUNnow
And “Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This” …
The family suffered a tragedy at the hands of a stalker who was obsessed with one of the daughters, Peggy, and who lay in wait for and shot their father dead – he had perceived William Lennon (who was 53 at the time) to be standing in the way of his completely imagined relationship with Peggy. Said stalker took his own life a couple of months later, presumably before being brought to justice since he purportedly used the same weapon for the act.
Venice has been hugely successful as a live act and they have released around 13 albums. David Crosby is a longstanding champion of the band – they sing harmonies (Kipp and cousin Michael sharing lead vocals) which are quite reminiscent of CSN, and they also seem to do a lot of covers.
Kipp Lennon has appeared on one of Crosby’s albums, he toured with Roger Waters’ in The Wall singing backing vocals, and has also contributed to various other film and TV productions, including The Simpsons. From what I can gather Venice has a new album due out shortly – Jacaranda Street.
Random picks as I’m not familiar with their material …
“Trying To Find America” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVq3Muj9dpA
This is from the new album, Jacaranda Street – “My Love Waits For Me” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUJ-KWcnFFE (I’m getting a teeny tiny Gerry Rafferty sound here in places, not overall)
A foot stomping, full orchestra version of “Ohio” with the Croz himself – not terribly mournful - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kInBqFUNnow
And “Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This” …
"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." ~ Bill Watterson