'The Roar of L'Amour'

DREAMER - the pre–White Lion band that Vito was in  

Before White Lion there was a band Dreamer that had a guitarist from Staten Island named Vito Bratta.

Vito was only a year older than me, and I would see him around and was standing behind him one infamous night at The Rock Palace in SI.

Vito was in a local band Storm that had a buzz. The drummer was Nicky Cappozzi , who along with AJ Pero had a rep for being a huge influence on younger drummers like Rob Steele (later of MCA recording artist Law and Order).

I never saw Storm live, but their reputation of being a "musicians" band was legendary on the island and our rock clubs.

SI had a great rock scene in the early 80's. L'Amour was still a dance club, but SI had The Factory, The Rock Palace (both had all the top rock bands like Twisted Sister regularly). 

For whatever reason, Storm breaks up and Vito winds up in a cover band called Dreamer.

Dreamer in 81-ish were building a rep as one of the top hard rock/metal cover bands alongside TT Quick and at the time I was working daytime at The Factory and Dreamer was our weekly Thursday night band.

I got to know the band and their crew well and one day Vito asked me if I knew any drummers that might be interested in auditioning and I recommended a good friend (at the time) Mike Arbeeney.

Mike would later go on to work with local bands (The Boys and Playmate) and later form Tyketto. Mike if you are reading this, I owe you a 36-year-old apology.

Mike joins the band and now Dreamer consists of Lenny (vocals), Bruce (bass) and the guitar team of Vito and John.

At one point both guitarists were looked at by KISS after Ace left and you can read about my KISS involvement in a KISS guitarist audition HERE.

Dreamer was an excellent cover band. They weren't a tribute act in that they mimicked or tried to play everything exactly, but they added their spin while being faithful to the artist/song.

I always enjoyed seeing them, I would see them at various clubs in the area, and they even had a birthday party for me at The Fountain Casino in NJ with banners/balloons/etc.

Great guys/great band and their road crew of Richie and Warren were the best.

They did AC/DC, Priest, Maiden, Sabbath and (of course) Van Halen and that is where Vito stood out from others in the area.

He wasn't just playing Eddie perfectly but added his own spin to it. So much so that one night a Danish band called "Lion" opened up and the lead singer saw Vito play and immediately knew he needed to stay in the states and form a band with him and that singer was Mike Tramp and that band became multi-platinum recording artist White Lion and you know their well-documented history.

The original band included Dreamer's rhythm section and later Capozzi and Felix Robinson (Angel) and finalized with the Lomenzo/D'Angelo team that had two top ten singles and worldwide arena-level success.

It can all be traced back to a chance booking/meeting in a L'Amour dressing room when a bunch of Danish musicians opened up for a cover band called Dreamer.

Chuck Kaye

Ah Yes Indeed

BACK