It seems that, after the passing of last original member Bazza Masters a while back, a version of Eddie & the HRs is still doing anything it wants to do. Now fronted by a man called Dipster Dean, here they are in Spain recently. Do we feel it’s time for a reappraisal?
Eddie & the Hot Rods – time for a reappraisal?
Do anything you wanna do, C
no
More pub rock than “punk”, but perfectly entertaining after a few ales.
nah!
They’re akin to Dr Feelgood now – a ‘Trigger’s broom’ band, where bits have been replaced and nothing original remains (even though presumably various original bits still remain – in this case everyone in the 70s Hot Rods apart from Bazza). Bit like the broom it does the same function – in this case, pub rock. And Dipster does a sort of running on the spot in homage to that walking up and down thing Bazza did.
I like the idea of a Trigger’s Broom band that basically be any group of old blokes. they could play as Eddie and the Hot Rods one night and then play as The Only Ones the next night and the Tygers of Pan Tang the night after that. Who would know?
A nice idea indeed … although they might struggle to play as the Slits or the Raincoats.
Filling the niche sector “bands from Southend bridging the gap between pub rock and punk rock”
They played a joint residency with The 101ers at The Nashville, and played The Marquee with Sex Pistols supporting.
First couple of albums and the Live At The Marquee EP are fine fine things.
But without Barrie, the Rods – like Dr Feelgood – are Triggers Broom.
Line up also includes Richard Holgarth (John Otway Big Band) and Michael Stoner (ex Chris Pope and Chords UK )
But if they were appearing at your local boozer, would you go and swill beer and sing Bazza’s choruses back to them? Or stay in and play their first couple of albums?
They have a new album ‘Guardians of the Legacy’ (yes, really) on the way in April. As daft as it might be thinking that old pub rockers have any kind of legacy to guard, there is something noble about the title track – three blokes celebrating someone (Baz) they toured with for many years (albeit none of them ‘the glory days’). Good luck to them.
https://www.eddieandthehotrods.com/
I’ve seen the Feelgoods and did just that – it’s a celebration of the band and the songs. Also seen From The Jam several times.
So,yes I would happily queue up for them
…though you maybe wouldn’t necessarily be shouting ‘Play some new’…?
From The Jam have stuck some “new” in to their set. Much of the crowd looked bemused, but it was great to hear them playing new stuff live.
They have? Genuinely interested to hear some of that. What was it like?
3 albums so far – first 2 credited to Bruce Foxton, latest (last year) credited to Foxton & Hastings)
Number Six
Now The Time Has Come
She Said She Said
Ta.
Those first two are very late period Jam I reck. Not bad!
I’ll stick with my album of Life on the Line, ta, Colin.
I have fond memories of having been in the house crew (get-in and get-out for whichever band was playing that night) at a rock venue in Plymouth when Eddie & Co. called by to play – they not only helped with the kit like troopers, they were a blast when they played. I’m afraid my crew wages didn’t stretch to buying their album at the time – Teenage Depression – but eventually I made do with a cheapo Castle comp many years later which has Do Anything… on board. Not sure I’d want to see the current instantiation, mind – I’d be mentally comparing them with rose-tinted memories from 1976.
Didn’t they have a song called ‘Get Outta Plymouth’?
You must be thinking of ‘Straight Outta Crownhill’.
Straight outta Crownhill, crazy motherf*cker named Dock Yard
From the gang called Janners With Attitude,
When I’m called off, I got a sawed off
Squeeze the trigger, and the bodies are hauled off.
Damn that shit was dope!
You are about to witness the strength of Union Street knowledge
Diamond Lil’s!
Yes! They were booked to play at my tech for peanuts then had their first hit and could have added a few zeros but they stuck to the original deal, shlepped up to Manchester and blew the roof off. Diamond geezers
Last weekend I saw a 10 piece, put together for the project, band play Ry Cooder stuff 72-78 period. It was excellent.
There are heaps of these things going on and then there are full time tributes that appeared to start with the Floyd and Abba tributes.
This doesn’t seem much different. A tribute band except they use the original name.
A bit in the tradition that Simon Nicol has visualised for his band; the name stays the same as the years roll by, becoming a brand, like the CBSO, the Glenn Miller Big Band or the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band.
@Retropath2
The B&RBB were never the same after R’s acrimonious departure over musical differences
Yeah, the Rastricks wanted to go down the Eric Dolphy/Ornette Coleman route…
“The Shape of Brass to Come”
“Out For Pies”
Heart of Brass
Things We Used to do on Brass
The Green Green Brass of Home
Blondie, XTC and Tom Jones are Free Jazz now? Clearly I’m out of touch
Free jazz was, like, so five minutes ago, pops!
Get your ass out of squaresville, buy yourself a
Pair of flares and a first class ticket to hipstertown!
I’m still swinging free, daddio.
No-one asked about your undies or lack of, dude..
Brass (How Low Can You Go)
Free Your Mind And Your Brass Will Follow
Where there’s muck there’s free jazz.
‘Appen this is our music, thy knows
After we’ve had our tea, Col
Gor blimey, guv’nah!
As everyone on this board probably knows, the hit single “Do Anything You Wanna Do” wasn’t actually by Eddie and the Hot Rods. The band were persuaded to change their name to “The Rods” just prior to the release of that song, and that’s the name that appears on the label of the single. Afterwards – despite the success of the single – they changed back to being Eddie and the Hot Rods.
Thanks @duco01
That’s a great fact I will bore/impress people with whenever I can.
I learnt a splendid new fact watching Russell T Davies’s three-part drama Nolly this week: Noele Gordon was the first woman ever to appear on colour television (having been chosen as a teenager for the world’s first colour transmission in 1938).
(I quite liked the programme, but I thought Helena Bonham Carter, despite her excellent performance, was wrong for the role. She didn’t remind me of Noele Gordon in the slightest.)
Yes, having grown up watching Crossroads and enjoying the cheapness and ridiculousness of it well into my college years, I watched that, too.
One of the things I really loved about Nolly was the way RTD made Benny the smartest guy in the room. Only wish he gave us more of the character who played David (“Mmmmmmmmmmegg”) Hunter (the real life Ronald Allen who played him having been in a few Comic Strips).
Blah blah, secret plans
Blah blah, atom bomb
Hmmm, sort of, if you allow the exactly same version was on the album, Life On The Line, attributed to Eddie and the. (I have just checked on my own copy.)
But as they suggested, they could do anything they wanted to do – even changing their name for 10 minutes!
Rods, innit?
https://i.discogs.com/JcmKab9NmSceM4qAjk8itM7jMELQfqM2WaIqYxc_EnI/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:598/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTYwNzYx/NjUtMTQxMDQ0MTgw/OC01MjA5LmpwZWc.jpeg
https://i.discogs.com/e6s9uiOWyw7fKtGW1cr-k9uZFo1Kv4ra-jN0gBDPjTQ/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:477/w:459/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTEyMjkw/MjgtMTIwMjIyNDUx/NC5qcGVn.jpeg