Cherry Red takes another dive into London’s Pub Rock scene of the mid-late 1970s. A potent reminder that we had us a real good time…
Release Date: 28th March 2025
Label: Strawberry Records (A division of Cherry Red Records)
Formats: 3 x CD boxset
AN ARTEFACT TO BEHOLD!
This isn’t the first time that our friends at Cherry Red Records have seen fit to surrender themselves to the infectious rhythms of that thing we call Pub Rock. Cast your mind back to that COVID-infested summer of 2020 and you may recall our gushing praise of Surrender to the Rhythm, the label’s first 3-disc boxset to collect the sounds and attitudes that pervaded certain London boozers during the heady days of the mid-1970s. And, now, they’re back with another tray of foaming pints from that same source and era. And Time! Gentlemen! is an artifact to behold!
72 tracks, spread over three generously-laden CDs, the collection contains plenty of songs you’ll know – and many that will cause you wonder how you missed them. And every track has been expertly remastered by studio-wizz Tim Turan.
THE USUAL HIGH-QUALITY PACKAGE
It’s the usual high-quality package that we’ve come to expect from Cherry Red. The three discs are housed in an attractive clamshell box and are accompanied by an informative booklet that contains an illustrated track-by-track commentary and overview notes by Simon Matthews, author of Before It Went Rotten: The Music That Rocked London’s Pubs, perhaps the definitive story of the London Pub Rock scene. The ‘hits’ are here in their droves – from the usual suspects such as Dr Feelgood, Brinsley Schwarz, Kokomo and Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers as well as from stars-to-be like Elvis Costello, Squeeze, Joe Jackson and The Stranglers and wise old heads like Steve Gibbons, Frankie Miller and The Blues Band.
THE GENESIS OF PUB ROCK
The circumstances that spawned the Pub Rock movement happened almost by chance. American band, Eggs Over easy, were in London to record an album in May 1971 and, whilst there, they managed to secure a gig at Tally Ho pub in Kentish Town. Legend has it that they were so well received that the doors of this previously “jazz only” venue were flung open to other local and, increasingly, nationally-known, bands.
Other large, mainly Victorian, pubs around North London quickly followed suit and a movement was born. At the peak of the Pub Rock scene, quality live music was on show at venues such as The Hope and Anchor in Islington, The Kensington in Russell Gardens, The Nashville in West Kensington, The Dublin Castle in Camden Town and, further south, The Half Moons in Putney and Herne Hill.
This thriving scene offered opportunities for regular work with low expenses to many London-based bands, amongst them Ducks Deluxe and Bees Make Honey as well to veteran or established performers such as Brinsley Schwarz, Brewers Droop, Jo-Ann Kelly and Stray and to college circuit staples like Ace, Dr Feelgood and Fumble. By 1975, a London pub was the place to go for night of guaranteed entertainment.
THE WIDEST POSSIBLE SELECTION OF MUSICAL STYLES
Personally, I’ve always had my doubts as to whether Pub Rock was a musical genre in its own right. The mythology surrounding the movement has always suggested that the staple diet of the Pub Rock scene was “back to basics” rock and roll – simple music for bopping along to which was a reaction to the growing flash and indulgent dexterity of prog, and which paved the way for the subsequent revolution that was Punk.
That’s a contention that was effectively dissolved by Cherry Red’s Surrender to the Rhythm collection and is now further debunked by the tracks selected for Time! Gentlemen! Pub Rock encapsulated the widest possible selection of musical styles; the 12-bar rockers were present in abundance but on any night at any of the above venues it was possible to take in Beach Boys pop sounds, Reggae, Blue-Eyed Soul, Funk, Gospel, Country Rock and much more. Pub Rock was any music with the capability to fill the venues that had suddenly become available.
My own recollection of the period was that the audiences of the time were open to an eclectic choice of musical styles; Monday’s cross-legged Watcher Of The Skies, Wednesday’s soul-searcher and Friday’s Rock and Roller were often the same person. What the audiences wanted was readily available live music and the Pub Rock scene fulfilled this need in a way that had never previously been imagined. And that’s the scene that was effectively summarized and packaged for Surrender to the Rhythm and which is, once again, nicely curated in Time! Gentlemen!
A THRIVING SCENE
And the scene thrived – as Colin Bass, bassist/vocalist in Clancy, one of the many acts featured in this collection describes:
“The difference between then and now is that in those days you could not only pay your dues by being in a band, you could pay your rent too… There isn’t really a circuit like that anymore. Record companies had more money, too [and] they’d be prepared to invest a little. They threw some money at us – it didn’t work – but we still got to do a couple of albums. I also think that playing together, rather than remotely and mixing everything digitally online, as seems to be the norm for most these days, makes a huge difference. It’s what makes it special. After all, Pub Rock was a return to a kind of grass roots and provided the breeding ground for the pub scene.”
TIME! GENTLEMEN! – THE MUSIC
And, so – to the key question – what is it that we’ve got here, exactly? Perhaps, a good place to start is with the songs that will be familiar to most At The Barrier readers…
It’s The Stranglers that get this 3-disc set up and running with Go Buddy Go, the lesser-played side of their 1977 Peaches single. I’ve always maintained that The Stranglers were mis-classified as a ‘Punk’ band and their inclusion here helps to confirm that view. Go Buddy Go is a great song, though – I particularly love Dave Greenfield’s boozy piano solo – and Hugh Cornwell’s bellowed “Boooogie-wooogie!” clarion call was a magnificent way of announcing his band’s presence to the world.
SLEAZY HARP AND STATEMENTS OF INTENT
It’s the 1979 version of Dr Feelgood that is featured here, with Gypie Mayo having replaced Wilko Johnson on guitar. This version of Down at the (Other) Doctor’s is a remake of the track that featured on the band’s 1977 Private Practice album and it’s a wonderfully sleazy example of signature Dr Feelgood rhythm and blues, with some stunning bluesy harmonica from Lee Brilleaux.
Written by ex-Free bassist, Andy Fraser (and it sounds like it, too), Frankie Miller’s Be Good to Yourself – a minor chart hit in 1977 – is a funky stomper and it’s great to hear Graham Parker and the Rumour’s Soul Shoes again after all these years. A solid chunk of blues-boogie, it features some brilliant slide guitar from Ed Deane and the band are tight and rocking. Rory Gallagher sounds surprisingly poppy and accessible – yet still undeniably Rory – on Juke Box Annie, a song he recorded for, but didn’t include on, his 1978 Photo Finish album, whilst Elvis Costello is represented by Mystery Dance, a standout track and an assured statement of intent from his 1977 debut album, My Aim Is True.
INNOVATIONS AND INTERPRETATIONS
Brummie legend Steve Gibbons is here, with his 1977 hit single, a faithful take on Chuck Berry’s Tulane, that features some sparkling guitar soloing from Dave Carroll and we’re reminded once again of how innovative Liverpool art-rockers (and Melody Maker competition winners) Deaf School seemed when they emerged in 1976 by Knock Knock Knocking, a track from their excellent debut album, 2nd Honeymoon. We’re reminded that Paul jones was – and remains – one of Britain’s top interpreters of Rhythm & Blues by The Blues Band’s tight, stompy, Death Letter and the influence that Southend Rock Godfather Mickey Jupp brought to bear upon near-townsfolk Dr Feelgood is there for all to hear on Switchboard Susan, the title track of a 1981 EP.
Other musicians to have a far-reaching influence upon the direction that music took in the late 1970s and early 1980s were Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe and they’re both here with, respectively, Crawling From the Wreckage, a fast-moving rock & roller that gave Edmunds a US hit in 1979 and So It Goes, the 1979 Nick Lowe single that preceded his 1979 Jesus of Cool album. Allegedly costing only £45 to record, Lowe’s single is a joyful commentary of life on the road as a gigging musician and the song’s lyrics are as relevant today as they were when Nick wrote them.
PUNK? OR NOT?
Famously claimed as the first ’Punk’ single, The Damned’s New Rose is still as fresh-sounding today as it was on the day of its October 1976 release. It’s fast, it’s furious and it’s still fantastic. Wilko Johnson recorded All Right for his 1981 Ice on the Motorway album and it’s a chugging rocker of the type he does best and, by way of contrast, Q-Tips’ Please Don’t Stay At Home is a slice of sophistication with a big soul sound.
Squeeze, like The Stranglers, were mistakenly assigned to the ‘Punk’ pot back in the day and, With Take Me I’m Yours, they demonstrate that they were nothing of the kind. The same can, perhaps be said of 999, whose Crazy is sharp and punchy but too well-played and produced to meet the punk ethic. How Brinsley Schwarz missed out on chart action with their smooth, melodic Cruel to Be Kind, I’ll never know and I just love Joe Jackson’s Sunday Papers, a song with reggae-flavoured overtones and lyrics that lash out at the kind of drivel that you’d have found in The News Of The World – and still find in that rag’s successor publications.
A RICH VEIN OF QUALITY MUSIC
But Time! Gentlemen! isn’t merely a collection of songs of songs that we cherish from a fondly-remembered movement. As we’ve already alluded, the Pub Rock scene was a welcoming performance space for accomplished bands whose names have passed us by and there’s plenty music – of all genres – here from bands we may have forgotten or even missed, first time around.
Red Beans and Rice had a big soul sound, very much in the mould of Geno Washington and That Driving Beat is definitely a song to get any party up and running, awash as it is with horns and swirling harmonicas. Dublin band, the Bogey Boys, have drawn comparisons to Thin Lizzy and Friday Night, the title track of their 1979 album is sufficiently hard-rocking to merit that praise. Clancy’s Steal Away is sweet, smooth and soulful and typical of a musical style that, lest we forget, was surprisingly popular in 1975 and The Leyton Buzzards contribute three minutes of fresh-sounding power pop with Still Hanging Around.
Mod Revivalists The Merton Parkas’ version of Wilson Pickett’s In The Midnight Hour is performed at breakneck speed, whilst Sore Throat – a band that were frequent performers in such Pub Rock venues as The Stapleton in Stroud Green and The Pindar of Wakefield in Kings Cross but who never achieved the commercial success they perhaps deserved, sound sophisticated and classy on their brass-drenched 1979 single, 7th Heaven.
THE QUIRKY ONES
Finally, it’s important to remember that there was also a quirky element to the Pub Rock scene and that element isn‘t forgotten here. Orpington-based Splodgenessabounds’ 1980 single, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps Please was pretty much ubiquitous when it enjoyed its day in the sun back in 1980 and it’s fun to hear it again – particularly my favourite line: “I’ve been here for half an hour and I’m getting very thirsty.” And THAT’S a situation that we’ve all endured…
And, sticking with the subject of quirkiness, Mick Farren is perhaps best remembered for his role as a counterculture agitator and as frontman with agit-rock band The Deviants, but here he reinvents himself as a cockney boozehound for the hilarious, punky, I Want a Drink. Wilko Johnson guests on guitar, and he’s as sharp, fast and choppy as ever.
AND TO FINISH…
It’s Rory MacLeod that has the pleasure of completing this excellent, entertaining and exhilarating collection, with Farewell Welfare, a song from his 1980 Angry Love album. The song is an imaginative blend of funk and skiffle, with scat harmonica sitting comfortably within the song’s lush production and alongside Rory’s straight-to-the-point political observations. He wrote the lyrics in 1977 and, like much of the music on Time! Gentlemen!, they still carry their relevance today.
Time! Gentlemen! is an inspired collection and a welcome reminder of a golden period in London’s musical history.
Relive that 1970s Pub Rock experience – watch the official video of Nick Lowe performing So It Goes, a track from the Time! Gentlemen! boxset, below:
Keep up with At The Barrier: Facebook / X (formerly Twitter) / Instagram / Spotify / YouTube
Categories: Uncategorised
