Rock On: London's Vintage Record Shops, 1976

This is an addendum to the post on Bizzarre and Rock On [HERE].

To help me pull together material and ideas for a forthcoming Ugly Things article on Eddie and the Hot Rods, I took a trawl through copies of Time Out, 1976. Hidden in the listings and reviews were a few gems and a three-page piece by Giovanni Dadomo (February) on London’s vintage record shops that adds a bit of gristle to the bones of my post.

Ted Carroll charts the beginnings of his Rock On shop and market stalls and the move into book publishing and record production. Dadamo describes Chiswick’s label’s first stars, the Count Bishops, as ‘punk R&B’ a term the magazine’s music editor, John Collis, was happy to echo in his description of Eddie and the Hot Rods when he reviewed their debut single, ‘Writing on the Wall’.

Dadomo doubles down on punk when he explains how the vintage shops have expanded their offering from golden oldies, rockabilly and Elvis discs to cover the beat boom era as well as catering to the ‘dole-financed punk fanatic’ – the great lost figure in received punk rock histories

One of Malcolm Harrison’s superlative illustrations for Time Out while working for NTA (Nicolas Thirkell Associates). I lead with it here as it better sets the tone for what follows than the dull cover used to plug Dadamo’s story.

The Rock On advert puts ‘punk’ into the mix between 60’s beat and surf . . .

The Rock n Roll Revival still had considerable traction throughout 76

I earlier ran Eve Dadomo’s photograph of Johnny Rotten that Time Out published in its listings (August 1976) and here’s a couple of the evergreen Crazy Cavan, while below are some of the punk pacesetters

Formed out of the ashes of Ducks Deluxe, the Snakes were led by Nick Garvey. Robert Gotobed was their vocalist, who later sat behind the kit in Wire. The Snakes had a top single on Dynamite/Dynamo out of Holland. The Flamin’ Groovies ‘Teenage Head’ and Jerry Byrne’s much covered ‘Light’s Out’ formed the disc’s top deck and its flip.

Ted Carroll is billed as the support act for a ‘Party with the Sex Pistols’. ‘Eddy [sic.] and the Hot Rods play three days later

God Bless Little Bob and all who sailed with him, the Marquee was no doubt set ablaze that night with the Bishops and the Rockets adding to a ‘punk R&B’ frenzy

The Stranglers described as ‘genuine acid-punk rockers’, I wish that label had stuck

101’ers . . . RIP

A gig where my world took a new turn

Chas de Whalley’s world stays on track . . .

Budget Line Revivalists

Three revivalist albums all on the budget Contour label. All examples of the rushed low-cost recording aesthetic that plagued purveyors of the greasy rockin’ beat. You gotta love the hand coloured photograph of the Houseshakers. Only singer Graham Fenton has bothered to turn up in his drape. The others look like they are on loan from some heavy psych-band. Demolition Rock’s track list of covers, which includes Vince Taylor’s ‘Brand New Cadillac’, is the more interesting of the three. Two years after its release, in 1974, Fenton and guitarist Terry Clemson recorded with the Hellraisers and didn’t even get their picture on the sleeve. Remember When?’s track list is miserable, ‘Peggy Sue’, ‘Shakin’ All Over’, ‘Let’s Twist Again’ and so on..

Shakin’ Stevens manager, Paul ‘Legs’ Barrett is scathing about Donny Marchand’s ‘production’ on Rockin’ and Shakin’ . . . He is not wrong.

Pop Pulp: Paul Barrett on Shakin' Stevens

Paul Barrett with Hilary Hayward, Shakin’ Stevens (Star, 1983).

On cover and format alone this looks to be just another exploitation title, a George Tremlett style cut n’ paste job to capitalise on Shaky’s chart success, but it is so much more than that. The first 3/4 are a first hand account of the Sunsets’ story written by their card-carrying Communist manager, Paul ‘Legs’ Barrett. It is a terrific account of the early 1970s rockin’ scene, the gigs and the band’s high expectations and low returns as they endless tour the UK and Europe taking their message to the people. And if you wanna know why so many of the revivalist discs suck, you’ll get the real dope here - no advance, no royalties, minimal recording time in cheap shit studios, and producers who were good at harvesting a fast buck and hopeless at the task they were paid to carry out.

When the band confront Lionel Burge, head of Contour Records (who released some Sunsets sides and LPs by The Houseshakers and Hellraisers), about getting paid directly rather than their funds being channelled through producer Donny Marchand, he tells them to agree to his way or he’ll get the Hellraisers in to make the album. What could you do? asks Barrett. In the end, the records helped them get gigs and that was where the money was and, eventually, good money too.

After 7 years of playing the circuit the band come to an end, killed not by Shaky jumping ship for the Elvis Musical in 1977 but by a new generation of rockers. Barrett tries to sell the band to Island Records’ A&R man, Richard Williams, but tells him, ‘Sorry I think you’re too old. I’m gonna sign Eddie and the Hot Rods instead.’ He then tries Danny Seconda at Track records, who are excited about having The Heartbreakers (if you don’t stare too long you can kinda see a potential synergy between the two bands), and tells the Sunsets to get some new clothes at the expense of the company. off they go to a King’s Road emporium, reserving themselves suede jackets, cowboy boots and fancy shirts’ and then they wait on the company to stump up. . . it never does. Tapes are made with Charlie Gillett, Vic Maile, and Mike Hurst, none are ever released. By the time Track does do something with Shaky he’s gone solo – the Sunsets are long gone . . . and that synergy with Johnny Thunders no longer looks so good.

Barrett stories are worth the price of admission alone, but it’s his depiction of Shaky that is the real draw. He paints him as naive, vain, semi-literate, overly sensitive and just plain dumb. Payback is a motherfucker, as they say, and Legs gets in a bank vault full. Is he bitter? The book’s final sentence:

To quote Paul Barrett, who has been watching Shaky’s career with the caring, concerned interest of a colleague who has been a friend, ‘he’s got what he always wanted, but he’s almost certainly lost what he had.’

A chance find . . . Letters page of Disc Weekly (April 3, 1965) . . . Paul was certainly a man of conviction

Record Mirror (December 9, 1967)

Record Mirror had run a Bob Dylan poetry competition, Paul Barrett came second, he was cheated . . .

Sadly, Paul ‘Legs’ Barrett died on 20 January 2019, 78 years old. His presence and voice is all over The Sunsets 1969 debut album A Legend (Parlophone, PCS 7112), including a dedication to Karl Marx. It is easily their best sounding disc, Dave Edmunds production gives it a depth and a dynamic that was never matched on their subsequent, rushed, recordings. ‘This album contains what was the most progressive music in the history of recorded sound’ writes Edmunds in his sleeve notes, while fans of Colosseum may dispute this fact, and his use of the past tense qualifies the idea somewhat, 50 years later it still sounds good n’ rockin’ to me.

Not sure of the date of this flyer . . . I bought it in 2022 from the eBay seller who is off-loading Ted Carroll’s garage contents. Lots of Sex Pistols flyers that go for £££££££££££££ but this was less than a tenner inc. shipping. What’s not to love about a band that can play three types of music