Fair point. Incidentally, if you're in a pub rock mood, the Ian Dury movie currently doing the rounds is good value.
― Soukesian, Tuesday, 12 January 2010 20:09 (fourteen years ago) link
Roogalator.... another great live band, lost in year zero puritanism.
― sonofstan, Tuesday, 12 January 2010 21:19 (fourteen years ago) link
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'
― Joe Pass Filter (MaresNest), Tuesday, 12 January 2010 22:06 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― alex in mainhattan, Tuesday, 12 January 2010 22:11 (fourteen years ago) link
maybe paul weller made pub rock.
Nothing wrong with pubs.
― We should have called Suzie and Bobby (NickB), Tuesday, 12 January 2010 22:13 (fourteen years ago) link
i never said the contrary.
― alex in mainhattan, Tuesday, 12 January 2010 22:19 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― sonofstan, Tuesday, 12 January 2010 22:39 (fourteen years ago) link
Imagine a time when pubs actually had live bands!
― Pfunkboy : The Dronelord vs The Girly Metal Daleks (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 12 January 2010 22:40 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― We should have called Suzie and Bobby (NickB), Tuesday, 12 January 2010 22:42 (fourteen years ago) link
Ddin't they pop up on the thread about bands with no original members?
― sonofstan, Tuesday, 12 January 2010 22:46 (fourteen years ago) link
Sounds about right!
― We should have called Suzie and Bobby (NickB), Tuesday, 12 January 2010 22:49 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Pfunkboy : The Dronelord vs The Girly Metal Daleks (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 12 January 2010 22:51 (fourteen years ago) link
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...
― mike t-diva, Tuesday, 12 January 2010 23:36 (fourteen years ago) link
i can't stop listening to "She Does it Right"
― voices from the manstep (brownie), Tuesday, 12 January 2010 23:56 (fourteen years ago) link
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).
― Dr.C, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 11:16 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― mike t-diva, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 11:38 (fourteen years ago) link
Yes, I'd forgotten that Raw single. There was a Gorillas single on Raw too IIRC.
― Dr.C, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 11:48 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― mark e, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 11:54 (fourteen years ago) link
Raw Records put out quite a few non-punk releases IIRC, a few rockabilly reissues and the like.
― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 11:56 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― mike t-diva, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 12:01 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
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!
― Dr.C, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 12:10 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― ithappens, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 12:13 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― mike t-diva, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 12:13 (fourteen years ago) link
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 ...
― ithappens, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 12:15 (fourteen years ago) link
RAW-12 Danny Wild & the Wildcats: Mean Evil Daddy / Old Billy Boogie / 200 Miles -78I'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
― 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.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 12:17 (fourteen years ago) link
x-post Oyeh from DBTJ was a Mick Green tune too.
― Dr.C, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 12:27 (fourteen years ago) link
mike t-diva and Dr. C, we could have used you on the Graham Parker thread the other day.
― lex submerge (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 14 January 2010 15:53 (fourteen years ago) link
Which is here, in case you're interested: Graham Parker C/D
― lex submerge (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 14 January 2010 15:55 (fourteen years ago) link
Butbutbut I posted to the Graham Parker thread in 2005 already!
― mike t-diva, Thursday, 14 January 2010 15:59 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― lex submerge (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 14 January 2010 16:22 (fourteen years ago) link
Ah, well, y'see, GP and I parted company after the Pink Parker EP. My interests were moving in different directions by then.
― mike t-diva, Thursday, 14 January 2010 16:36 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― ithappens, Thursday, 14 January 2010 19:15 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Colonel Poo, Thursday, 14 January 2010 19:36 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― xhuxk, Saturday, 16 January 2010 16:15 (fourteen years ago) link
btw, this is a really good two-disc / 49=song pub-rock compilation CD from a few years back:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Goodbye-Nashville-Hello-Camden-Town/dp/B000MTOSD4
And two related threads (which get fairly informative, I recall):
Origins of Pub Rock
Pub Rock
― xhuxk, Saturday, 16 January 2010 16:53 (fourteen years ago) link
these Britons emulate but fail to match the early R&B-influenced exploits of groups like the Rolling Stones
Yeah, see, this is total bullshit. I'd rather listen to the first two Feelgood albums and the live album than anything the Stones did pre-1969.
― neither good nor bad, just a kid like you (unperson), Saturday, 16 January 2010 16:56 (fourteen years ago) link
I find that a whole album of Feelgood - even a greatest hits - is too much. Though that may be the result of all the Feelgood I have being 80 minute comps, rather than a taut 35-minute album, with a break halfway through to change sides. A band who were made for vinyl above all formats ...
― ithappens, Saturday, 16 January 2010 21:09 (fourteen years ago) link
Wow, those youtube clips and the trailer for the doc have made me completely rethink a band I guess I had completely written off unfairly. Thanks!
― Brio, Saturday, 16 January 2010 22:56 (fourteen years ago) link
Those youtube clips are quite cool. I checked out the clips and am giving the UA Years Singles compilation a shot.
I also went out and checked out some Eddie & The Hot Rods and ordered their first two albums.
Thanks ILM!
― earlnash, Monday, 18 January 2010 03:56 (fourteen years ago) link
I can't stop listening to "she does it right" and "roxette" - but hearing the whole first record it's pretty hard to escape the bar-band/blueshammer baggage of all the blues and r&b covers and rewrites. Maybe it's unfair to them, but even a great take on Route 66 is still Route 66 is still Route 66. Nothing wrong with that really but at this point in my life anyway, pretty hard to get all that jazzed about. The doc does look great though - the tag line "the best local band in the world" seems very apt - and again, those youtube clips are mesmerizing.
― Brio, Wednesday, 20 January 2010 14:27 (fourteen years ago) link
Another great clip from that Kursaal show, married to a good song ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvCRKJc8xF4
― ithappens, Wednesday, 20 January 2010 19:10 (fourteen years ago) link
very nice, indeed. the guitar play and the singing match perfectly. they are both really raw in a primitive, tribal kind of way. one of the great half forgotten english bands of the seventies. they beat about any punk band in terms of power and rawness. except early joy division maybe. the difference to punk was that punk usually was a lot faster and less rooted in african rhythm music.
― alex in mainhattan, Thursday, 21 January 2010 22:00 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jan/21/pub-rock-dr-feelgood
― Disco Stfu (Raw Patrick), Friday, 22 January 2010 00:44 (fourteen years ago) link
Blimey, you're quick!
― mike t-diva, Friday, 22 January 2010 00:52 (fourteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiLlKq8uUWM
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 1 February 2010 08:52 (fourteen years ago) link
there was a lovely interview on radio 2, sounds of the seventies yesterday with wilko.
― mark e, Monday, 1 February 2010 09:20 (fourteen years ago) link
http://thequietus.com/articles/03658-oil-city-confidential-dr-feelgood-wilko-johnson-and-a-spot-of-word-association-review-and-interview
― alex in mainhattan, Saturday, 6 February 2010 22:08 (fourteen years ago) link
Dr. Feelgood has become synonymous with pub-rock. The band became the movement’s most visible and successful act, and its slashing, choppy, pick-less guitarist Wilko Johnson has been cited as an inspiration by everyone from Joe Strummer to Paul Weller, whose first album with The Jam, In The City, bears a strong pub-rock influence. The only problem: Dr. Feelgood’s music is actually pretty damn bad. Bland, brittle, and mechanical, it sounds like blues-rock pumped out by technicians rather than musicians. The energy and chops are evident on hit albums like 1975’s Malpractice and 1977’s Sneakin’ Suspicion, but even the group’s live record, Stupidity—which hit No. 1 on the UK charts in 1976—lacks anything resembling wit, personality, or memorable songs. After a dose of Dr. Feelgood’s tuneless, monochrome R&B, it’s a surprise most listeners didn’t go running for the nearest Yes album. It’s a sad irony that the most prominent pub-rock band is the last one newcomers should check out—not that they really need to bother at all.
― DISASTÜR ZÜN RHINE (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Friday, 19 March 2010 14:15 (fourteen years ago) link