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Roy Carr: Pub Rock was the '70's first
megastar backlash. Some regarded it as a welcome return to tap roots for
an audience confused by '70s androgynous overkill For most, it was no
more than a cheap night out with friends. Mainstream, rock had from the
start of the decade escalated into a spectator sport, with Glam Rock,
Heavy Metal Panzers,
Techno-flash and dry ice machines dominating the international arena to
the exclusion of almost everything else. Image, theatrics and box office
grosses were of prime importance.
The local club scene that had once flourished (often on licensed
premises) throughout Britain during the mid-'60s had almost become
non-existent, partly because bands had priced themselves into the
theatres. Aspiring bands without the record company backing that had
become customary, had little chance to build up from grass-roots venues.
The saloon bar proved to be a temporary salvation.
Pub Rock was primarily a traditionalist movement restricted to Greater
London with some overspill into the Home Counties, and, at its genesis,
a means of sporadic 'employment' for musicians beached by loser '60s
bands. Later it became evident that pub rock was a geographical reality
rather than an artistic one and, with few exceptions, proved to be the downfall of most bands working the circuit. |
The Hope & Anchor -
Islington |
The Nashville. Photo - Denis
O'Regan
|
American Country-rock band
Eggs Over Easy were the precursors of the movement when sometime in late
'71/early'72 they broke the jazz-only policy of The
Tally Ho pub in Kentish Town, North London. They were quickly joined by
another country-rock outfit Bees Make Honey, Aussie expatriates Max
Merritt & The Meteors, and the nomadic Brinsley Schwarz, who had
suffered from precisely the big venue hype-a-star style against which
Pub Rock was a reaction.
At the peak of popularity (1973-1975), it seemed that nearly every large
pub in London, especially north of Regents Park where the supply of
unspoiled Victorian pubs
was plentiful, was supplying live music along with hot snacks and the -
occasional stripper. Following the Tally Ho came The Cock, The Brecknock,
The Lord Nelson, The Hope and Anchor, The Greyhound, The Red Lion,
The Rochester Castle, and more. (Later the Albion Agency took over
the booking for The Hope, The Red Lion; and The Nashville.
The whole premise of Pub Rock was to inject an atmosphere of "good-time"
into a music scene that had begun to take itself far too seriously for
its own health. Except for a few mavericks, most pub bands chose to mine
three motherlodes. Hard-nosed R&B revivalism (Dr. Feelgood, Kilburn &
The Highroads, Ace, Ducks Deluxe, The Winkies, Roogalator, Michigan Flyers); Fatback Funk (Kokomo, Clancy, FBI, Moon,
Cado Belle, G.T. Moore & His Reggae Guitars, Palm Beach Express);
Country Rock (The
Brinsleys, Kursaal Flyers, Byzantium, Chilli Willi & the Red Hot
Peppers).
Fundamentally, the pub circuit was (and is) a training ground where only
the very strong survived. Bands proliferated by the score, many
disbanding and reforming under different names between gigs. It was
music for bellying-up-to-the-bar, but aggressive enough to make itself
heard over chit-chat, pulling birds, rumbles and throwing up. In
reality, after a few pints even the most mediocre and derivative bands
sounded much better than they really were (Depends whether you can take
your drink, squire -Ed) while with few exceptions, most pub bands were
visually dull. That didn't prevent the
copy-hungry media latching onto Pub Rock and promoting it as The Next
Big Thing. -
Few pub bands transcended the gap between performing for 300 half-pissed
punters sweating profusely in the public bar and 3,000 seated
non-drinkers in the.
Hammersmith Odeon. Even fewer came remotely close to recapturing the
ethos in a recording studio. Nevertheless, record companies chose to
believe, what they read
instead of what they heard and promptly started signing up anything that
reeked of best bitter, shoving them in the nearest studio before the
band was ready. |
To aggravate matters, there seemed to be a lack of producers who knew
how to transfer the music from pub to tape; a malady currently
afflicting new wave groups. As a result, most pub rock releases died the
death. Ace were a prime example. That one good song, "How Long", may
have been a transatlantic chart-topper but they had little with which to
follow it. Kokomo's recording career was as short-lived as the band
itself,
and the same applied to Ciancy, The Kilburns, The Winkies and Chilli
Willi. The Brinsleys and Ducks Deluxe were just unlucky, and their
records deserved a better response than they received.
The only band that seemed to be able to operate on all levels was Dr
Feelgood, yet it wasn't until they released their third album, their
concert souvenir "Stupidity", that
they fulfilled their potential. As quickly as bands like the Brinsleys
and Ducks DeLuxe folded, they were replaced by much younger aggregations
such as The Count Bishops, Eddie & The Hot Rods and The 101'ers - the
latter spawning Clash-man Joe Strummer.
|
101ers with Joe Strummer |
 |
Despite the demise of many pub bands, many of their musicians went on to
achieve
greater success elsewhere. A prime example was when ex-Ducks DeLuxer
Martin Belmont, ex-Bontemps Roulets' Andrew Bodnar and Steve Goulding,
and
Brinsley Schwarz himself, assisted by former employee Bob Andrews,
amalgamated behind Graham Parker to form The Rumour.
Ducks DeLuxe bar-room bully Sean Tyla re-appeared with the' Tyla Gang,
while his former cohorts Nick Garvey and Andy McMaster went on to
mastermind The Motors. Recently ex-Kilburn Ian Dury staged a spectacular comeback, while The
Winkies' Phil Rambow looks like being a favourite in the current list of
runners.
One person who certainly made good was Brinsley stalwart Nick Lowe, who,
apart from establishing a reputation as Stiff Records' house producer,
has also become a solo
artist to be reckoned with. Flip City may have been one of the more
obscure pub attractions, but their singer Elvis Costello has also done
quite well for himself.
What was originally typecast as being pub rock may have, in many
instances, promised much more than it delivered, but as an assault
course for young groups the circuit has by no means outlived its initial
purpose. And though the music may have undergone a change, the venues
have remained. Pubs like The Nashville and The Hope & Anchor have been
instrumental in helping the careers of acts like The Damned, The Sex
Pistols, The Stranglers, Boomtown Rats, 999, The Jam and Elvis Costello.
To paraphrase a brewery commercial: There's more going on at your local
than you think! |
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The superb
article above was written by Roy Carr and appeared in the NME in 29.10.1977 |