Doctor Feelgood: heroes of pre-punk, or the Canvey Quo?

I voted for down by the jetty in the 70s poll.

http://www.godfathershq.com/images/svdm2010.jpg

another year, another chance to see them again dissipates (boring grown up shit).
the various times i saw them in 86-94 they never once disappointed, and in fact on a couple of occasions, scared the living shit out of me (was violence and audience antagonism part of all their shows ?)

i never saw them live but this is still one of my fave albums from the 80's:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_t6Gs_TbZqnY/RenQjmFWo0I/AAAAAAAAAGM/jtwFudsOVhU/s320/hit+by+hit+cover.jpg

All their chorusses were the title repeated 4 times.

Except for "Birth School Work Death" which was only twice.

scott, that was actually reissued by the band recently with an extra disc of session versions which are excellent, and live tracks, including a live rendition of that sid Presley experience track above that i didn't realise until 47 minutes ago.

and yes, mark g, i know of their limitations lyrically, but there was something about the venomous vocal attack and riffs that just hit this young impressionable 18 year old in 1986 hard.

I never saw them live, but they were on one of those late night live TV gig shows, and I had to really prove it to myself I wasn't actually there.

Or was I?

That's the Godfathers I mean.

I did see Dr Feelgood, way after the 'glory' days, Lee Brilleaux plus various lads half his age. Bit disappointing. Was with a mate who used to 'roadie' for them occasionally, which may have clouded things.

Saw the Godfathers a couple of times, and they were fun, but I never really got the point of them on record. At that time I was listening to a lot of 60s punk, so they seemd kind of superfluous. Saw SPE once, at Brixton Ritzy supporting Billy Bragg at a GLC Jobs for Change gig. I was 15 and they were great - the Godfathers were a definite disappointment after that. However, it's not like there's much to weigh them on - just two singles, I think, and a Peel session or two. The difference, in my memory, relates to what's exciting about Dr Feelgood in the live clips: the Godfathers looked like a rock band because of that guitarist with the shagpile hair, while SPE looked like a gang. Gangs look more exciting on a stage.

the Godfathers looked like a rock band because of that guitarist with the shagpile hair,

good point, and very true. he certainly did not look part of the gang.
still, each time i saw them the experience was very intense.

Now I want to go dig out my Godfathers cd

Couldn't resist knocking this up on Spotify:
Going Back Home: a UK pub rock sampler.

36 tracks, broadly chronological, mostly from 1975-77, with a little bit before and a little bit after. Strictly one track per artist - except for Dr. Feelgood, to whom the playlist is dedicated!

Track listing:
1. She Does It Right - Dr Feelgood
2. I Fought The Law - Ducks Deluxe (mis-labelled on Spotify, tsk)
3. Louisa On A Horse - John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett
4. How Long - Ace
5. Why Did You Do It - Stretch
6. Motor Bikin' - Chris Spedding
7. Home In My Hand (live at the Hope & Anchor) - Brinsley Schwarz
8. Going Back Home - Dr Feelgood
9. Teenage Letter - Count Bishops
10. Keys To Your Heart - The 101ers
11. She's My Gal - The Gorillas
12. So It Goes - Nick Lowe
13. Get Out Of Denver (live at the Marquee) - Eddie & the Hot Rods
14. Roxette (live) - Dr Feelgood
15. Between The Lines - Pink Fairies
16. Cincinatti Fatback - Roogalator
17. Hotel Chambermaid - Graham Parker & the Rumour
18. Styrofoam - Tyla Gang
19. Boogie On The Street - Lew Lewis
20. Hightime (live) - Little Bob Story
21. Showbiz - Downliners Sect
22. Police Car - Larry Wallis
23. Sneakin' Suspicion - Dr Feelgood
24. Mystery Dance - Elvis Costello
25. Razzle In My Pocket - Ian Dury (alas, no Kilburns on Spotify)
26. Whole Wide World - Wreckless Eric
27. Cat On A Wall - Squeeze
28. I Knew The Bride - Dave Edmunds
29. Mony Mony - Celia & the Mutations (aka Stranglers)
30. She's A Wind Up - Dr Feelgood
31. Dancing The Night Away - The Motors
32. Be Good To Yourself - Frankie Miller
33. The Walk - The Inmates
34. Driver's Seat - Sniff & the Tears
35. Sultans Of Swing - Dire Straits
36. Back In The Night - Dr Feelgood

i used to have this on tape:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b8/Hope_%26_Anchor.jpg/584px-Hope_%26_Anchor.jpg

A1 Wilko Johnson Band - Dr. Feelgood
A2 The Stranglers - Straighten Out
A3 Tyla Gang - Styrofoam
A4 The Pirates - Don't Munchen It
A5 The Steve Gibbons Band - Speed Kills
A6 XTC - I'm Bugged
A7 Suburban Studs - I Hate School
B1 The Pleasers - Billy
B2 XTC - Science Friction
B3 Dire Straits - Eastbound Train
B4 Burlesque - Bizz Fizz
B5 X-Ray Spex - Let's Submerge
B6 999 - Crazy
C1 The Saints - Demolition Girl
C2 999 - Quite Disappointing
C3 The Only Ones - Creatures Of Doom
C4 The Pirates - Gibson Martin Fender
C5 Steel Pulse - Sound Check
C6 Roogalator - Zero Hero
D1 Philip Rambow - Underground Romance
D2 The Pleasers - Rock & Roll Radio
D3 Tyla Gang - On The Street
D4 The Steve Gibbons Band - Johnny Cool
D5 Wilko Johnson Band - Twenty Yards Behind
D6 The Stranglers - Hanging Around

when i was a kid. i appreciate the mix of styles much more now than i did then!

Probably irrelevant, but I must protest the maligning of Status Quo in the thread title.

Fair point. Incidentally, if you're in a pub rock mood, the Ian Dury movie currently doing the rounds is good value.

Roogalator.... another great live band, lost in year zero puritanism.

I remember that Godfathers late night live show, I taped it and watched it a lot, iirc it ended with a cover of Anarchy. Gloriously couldn't-give-a-fuck uncool. One thing that also sticks in my mind is a Sounds piece on them that described one of the band (Kris maybe) of dressing like a 'blind mod with cruel mates'

is there anybody else who finds the term pub rock totally inappropriate for what dr. feelgood weres doing? they made rhythm and blues, pub rock is an insult.

maybe paul weller made pub rock.

Nothing wrong with pubs.

i never said the contrary.

Pub- rock in that context meant rock music played in pubs- venues like the Hope and Anchor, the Nashville, the Half Moon and so on, as opposed to concert venues and universites which were the staple of Brit rock in the 70s. And pubs in Britain are -or were then - very different from clubs.

Imagine a time when pubs actually had live bands!

Ha, my dad actually went to see Dr Feelgood a couple of months ago, playing in the backroom at one of his locals! Fuck knows who is in the band now though.

Ddin't they pop up on the thread about bands with no original members?

Sounds about right!

As Brilleaux had insisted prior to his demise, Dr. Feelgood reunited initially with vocalist Pete Gage, and then Robert Kane, and recommenced touring in 1996. Every year since Brilleaux's death, a special concert, known as the Lee Brilleaux Birthday Memorial, is held on Canvey Island, where ex and current Feelgoods celebrate the music of Dr. Feelgood, and raise money for the Fairhaven hospice. Fans attend from all over the globe, and the sixteenth event was held on 8 May 2009.

they made rhythm and blues, pub rock is an insult.

It's all dialectical, innit? "Pub rock" was handy code for a smaller scale, back-to-basics, more egalitarian performance-based style, which stood in opposition to the increasingly large-scale, distanced, studio-based superstar pomp of the day - and as such, the term was readily embraced by its proponents. The network of London venues which evolved around it, or whose lifespan was sustained by it - Hope & Anchor, Nashville, Dingwalls, Marquee, 100 Club etc - then provided a ready-made test bed/launching pad for the early punk scene, and much as the punk bands might have openly scorned their surroundings, they would have struggled much harder to build a scene without them. But then the dialectic shifted, turning "pub rock" from a term of affection and modest pride into a term of abuse: by 1979 or so, it had begun to be used as code for lack of artistic ambition / insular complacency / conservative, reverential jam-band plodding etc...

i can't stop listening to "She Does it Right"

This was my Rough Guide to Pub-Rock on one of those Rough Guides threads:

Win Or Lose - Lew Lewis Reformer
Water - Roogalator
Another Useless Day - Black Claw
Back In The Night - Dr. Feelgood
What Have We Got To Lose - Bees Make Honey
Fireball - Tyla Gang
Coast To Coast - Ducks De Luxe
You Really Got Me - Hammersmith Gorillas
So It Goes - Nick Lowe
Between The Lines - The Pink Fairies
Girls Are Always Right - Any Trouble
Train Train - Count Bishops
Alright With Me - Jook
Romeo and The Lonely Girl - Ernie Graham
Reconnez Cherie - Wreckless Eric
Day Job - Meal Ticket

For me there were two strands to pub-rock.

1) The west-coast/country rock type of thing (Eggs Over Easy, Bees Make Honey, Brinsley etc). This was around from about 70-71.

2) Harder edged R&B based stuff that came through in 73-74 (Count Bishops, Hot Rods, Dr.Feelgood, Gorillas also maybe some of the street-rock bands like Pink Fairies could be lumped in here)

1975 was the pivotal year when the country rock thing started to sound old things really hardened up. Nick Lowe migrated from category 1 to 2, as did Brinsley and Bob Andrews with The Rumour. Early Graham Parker is still pretty Van Morrison/Springsteen-ish though - I was listening to a singles comp last night - I reckon the Jack Nitzsche productions are his best work. Discovering Japan and Local Girls are fantastic. Oh...and Protection's a great single too.

That's a good Spotify list. Downliner's Sect are an interesting bunch - first album was in 1964 then reappeared and fell in with the pub-rock circuit in the mid 70's. They're still going and quite often play in a pub/club near me (The Eel Pie Club).

Thanks, Dr.C. Good to see you're still around. Wish I could have put something from the first Ducks Deluxe album on the Spotify list; I'd probably have gone for Coast To Coast. That "I Fought The Law" cover doesn't represent them at their best, but it does show where Joe Strummer probably got his inspiration from for the Cost Of Living EP. That 1977 Downliners Sect single came out on the Raw label, which was run from my local record shop in Cambridge. It sat oddly amongst the rest of the label's punk-based roster. Count Bishops "Teenage Letter" still sounds completely fantastic; had forgotten just how good it was.

Yes, I'd forgotten that Raw single. There was a Gorillas single on Raw too IIRC.

what a great thread this has become, and ta mike t-d for clearing up the "pub rock = shit" dilemma, as i have to confess, i have fallen under this misapprehension myself, but clearly i need to fire up spotify and check that playlist out.

Raw Records put out quite a few non-punk releases IIRC, a few rockabilly reissues and the like.

xpost There was a 1977 re-release on Raw of the Gorillas 1974 cover of "You Really Got Me", then Raw put out an album and a couple more singles in 1978. The album's on Spotify, as is "You Really Got Me".

Don't remember any rockabilly reissues on Raw, but it would make sense as the shop it was run from was called Remember Those Oldies. It was a bit like the Rock On/Chiswick set-up, but on an even smaller scale. Raw also put out the debut Soft Boys EP, and Kevin Rowland's debut effort with The Killjoys.

RAW-12 Danny Wild & the Wildcats: Mean Evil Daddy / Old Billy Boogie / 200 Miles -78

I've got this one, found it in Oxfam for 15p.

Must dig out my Raw recds singles compilation. Killjoys are on it, as are Acme Sewage Company!
And Some Chicken + The Users of course.

I have been recently trying to persuade J.Hector to sing on a track, for a new project involving various guest vocalists. He maintains that he has now finally retired from the music biz!

Pub rock had that semi-revival in the early 80s, with bands from that novelty country scene, like Yip Yip Coyote, appearing on bills with Boothill Foottappers and the Blubbery Hellbellies. The latter were interviewed in one of the inkies and asked to defend themselves against the accusation of being pub rock. "What's the problem? Everyone goes to pubs. Everybody likes rock," was the reply.

xpost Yeah, just found a full Raw catalogue list and there's far more revivalist and non-punk stuff on there than I remember:

http://www.hiljaiset.sci.fi/punknet/labels/raw_e.htm

Weird, 'cos I used to visit that shop at least twice a week, for small label punk releases and its wide array of fanzines in the back room. Must have had my year-zero blinkers on!

I have a lot to thank that shop for. All the early Stiff releases, right from the start; Sniffin' Glue from the first issue (I started buying it from #3 onwards); the imported Pere Ubu Hearthan singles, etc etc.

Oh, way upthread there was a post about Mick Green surely being an influence on Wilko. Saw last night when reading inlay cards that Going Back Home (as posted upthread) was a Johnson-Green cowrite. So he was more than an influence ...

RAW-12 Danny Wild & the Wildcats: Mean Evil Daddy / Old Billy Boogie / 200 Miles -78

I've got this one, found it in Oxfam for 15p.

― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 12:05 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I have John Peel playing this on his show, on cassette.

x-post Oyeh from DBTJ was a Mick Green tune too.

mike t-diva and Dr. C, we could have used you on the Graham Parker thread the other day.

Which is here, in case you're interested: Graham Parker C/D

Butbutbut I posted to the Graham Parker thread in 2005 already!

Oh yeah, I saw that. I guess you're off the hook.

But you didn't comment on the hot button issue of The Up Escalator.

Ah, well, y'see, GP and I parted company after the Pink Parker EP. My interests were moving in different directions by then.

While we're on the wider subject of pub rock individuals ... is Bram Tchaikovsky worth checking out further? I really like Girl of my Dreams, which I've got on one of the Poptopia comps, and I was very impressed with the Motors on that Guitar Heroes thing on BBC4 the other day.

We have the Girl Of My Dreams EP and I was curious about the album and saw it used cheap somewhere while I was with the wife, who's a bit of a power pop afficionado, but she said not to bother buying it because it's crap.

At least a couple Bram T LPs are marginally worth $1 if you can find them for that price; Strange Man Changed Man (the one w/ "Girl Of My Dreams") a bit better than Funland from 1981. (Apparently there were at least two others, though that might just mean different titles in the US and UK.) A couple Motors LPs are better than either. (Think I discussed those somehwere on this board a year or three back.)

The famous Rolling Stone Record Guide -- the red version -- I seem to recall famously saying of the
album that it sounded like band setting the stage for a singer who never appears. Which was cruel but funny, even though it totally misses what Lee Brilleaux was doing. xhuxk still has a copy of the red book so he could check.

"Simple to an extreme, these Britons emulate but fail to match the early R&B-influenced exploits of groups like the Rolling Stones. Their LPs sound like sparse backing for a lead musician who never appears. -- C.W."

I need to catch up with the rest of this thread someday. I like both Feelgood albums I've got (Malpractice and Sneakin' Suspicion) but not necessarily more than my Bishops and Eddie & Hot Rods LPs. Don't understand the claim that the Feelgoods packed more punch.

(xp) Except not many actual punks in 1976-77 would have given Quo as an influence, which I thought was the point of the title. Dr. Feelgood seem a lot more 60s R&B than Quo, there are similarities but Dr. Feelgood rarely strayed about 4 minutes and guitar solos were kept short and sweet.

That's why mah book is different than the punks of 1976-77. They would have missed Is There a Better Way, and before that Just Take Me, and ignored Down Down's economical motorik totality.

Down Down is just unstoppable. I was extremely annoyed though when I bought the 7" single in Belgium a few years ago only to find out that it's the fuckin album version that I like.

Yeah I can't listen to the 7". As well as removing some of the middle it fades out right before one a whole succession of inventive parts, just when you think the music has disclosed everything. When the music unexpectedly goes 'up' and the bass drops out only to re-emerge as strange little wriggles, accompanied by arbitrary offbeat hats, before everyone locks furiously into step for the real, very splashy fadeout.

I LOVE that song.

I danced to Rockin All Over The World tonight, I have no shame.

looking a little into the life and times of MICK GREEN of the johnny kidd and the pirates, who wilko cites as precursor whose plectrum he is not fit to lick ect ect, i
(a) was reminded of the live at the hope and anchor LP, which attempted (tho i think failed) to establish 60s UK r&b, pub rock, power pop and punk as a unified broad new wave front (it sold fairly well but was beloved of no one much critically), and
(b) discovered that said mick green co-wrote some quo songs w/alan lancaster (quo bassist and co-founder), and
(c) noted w/pleasure that the post-kidd pirates put out an LP in 1978 called SKULL WARS and a ten-inch in 1981 called A FISTFUL OF DUBLOONS

as you can see my hints, quo are krautrock (this is canon)

(s/b as you can see me from westbury white horse hints etc)

Quo are basically Guru Guru with better songs, but maybe a discussion for a different thread.

Adrian's attempts to play like Wilko prove that you can learn all the technique you want, but if you're not an angry dysfunctional weirdo it'll never sound right.

Re: Mick Green, the guitar playing on this is absolutely brutal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS8uC7ea9oE

ditto the singer's hairstyle tbf

the angriest garfunkel

nevertheless, hfs at that clip.

HFS x 2!