Pub rock (UK)
Encyclopedia
Pub rock was a rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
genre that developed in the mid 1970s in the United Kingdom. A back-to-basics movement, pub rock was a reaction against progressive
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
and glam rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
. Although short-lived, pub rock was notable for rejecting stadium venues and for returning live rock to the small pubs and clubs of its early years. It was the catalyst for the British punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
scene.
Characteristics
The Sweeney
The Sweeney is a 1970s British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London...
".
Pub rock groups disdained any form of flash. Scene leaders like Dr. Feelgood, Kilburn & The High Roads
Ian Dury
Ian Robins Dury was an English rock and roll singer, lyricist, bandleader and actor who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music...
and Ducks Deluxe
Ducks Deluxe
Ducks Deluxe were an English pub rock band of the 1970s, who have recently reformed. Usually called "The Ducks" by their fans, they were known for up-tempo, energetic performances, and the successful careers of their members, after they disbanded.-History:...
played simple, “back to mono” rhythm and blues in the tradition of white British groups like the Stones and the Yardbirds, with fuzzy guitars and whiny vocals. Lesser acts played funky soul (Kokomo
Kokomo (band)
-Career:Formed in May 1973 by ex-members of the pop group Arrival , Kokomo's ten-piece line-up became: Dyan Birch , Frank Collins , Paddy McHugh , Tony O'Malley , Alan Spenner , Neil Hubbard , Mel Collins , Jody Linscott , Terry Stannard and Jim Mullen...
, Clancy
Clancy (band)
Clancy were a British rock group, prominent in the pub rock scene of the early 1970s. They issued two albums on Warner Bros. Records, but did not achieve chart success.-History:...
, Cado Belle
Cado Belle
Cado Belle were a British rock group prominent in the pub rock scene of the mid 1970s, and are notable for making the first recordings featuring singer Maggie Reilly who went on to have success with Mike Oldfield and as a solo artist.-Origins:...
) or country rock (Kursaal Flyers, Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers
Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers
Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers were one of the main British pub rock groups of the early 1970s. Later managed by Jake Riviera, who first worked for the band as a roadie, they reached their peak as part of the "Naughty Rhythms Tour" of 1975, along with other stalwarts of the same scene, Dr...
).
The scene was primarily a live phenomenon. During the peak years of 1972 to 1975, there was just one solitary Top 20 single (Ace
Ace (band)
Ace were a British rock music band, who enjoyed moderate success in the 1970s. They are notable for their part in the early career of Paul Carrack, who later became famous as a solo artist, and as a member of several other groups...
’s "How Long?"), and all the bands combined sold less than an estimated 150,000 albums. Many acts suffered in the transition from pub to studio and were unable to recapture their sound. The genre’s primary characteristic is as the name suggests, the pub. By championing smaller venues, the bands reinvigorated a local club scene that had dwindled since the 1960s as bands priced themselves into big theatres and stadia. New aspiring bands could now find venues to play without needing to have a record company behind them.
Pub Rock was primarily restricted to Greater London with some overspill into provincial Essex.
History
American country-rock band Eggs over EasyEggs over Easy
Eggs over Easy were an American country-rock band, of the early 1970s, who visited London to record an album, and then became a resident band in a London public house, launching what subsequently became known as pub rock.-Formation:...
were the precursors of the movement when they broke the jazz-only policy of the "Tally Ho" pub in Kentish Town
Kentish Town
Kentish Town is an area of north west London, England in the London Borough of Camden.-History:The most widely accepted explanation of the name of Kentish Town is that it derived from 'Ken-ditch' meaning the 'bed of a waterway'...
, in May 1971. They were impressive enough to inspire local musicians such as Nick Lowe
Nick Lowe
Nicholas Drain "Nick" Lowe , is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer.A pivotal figure in UK pub rock, punk rock and new wave, Lowe has recorded a string of well-reviewed solo albums. Along with vocals, Lowe plays guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica...
. They were soon joined by a handful of London acts such as Bees Make Honey
Bees Make Honey
Bees Make Honey were an influential band in the early pub rock movement in the UK.The band were formed in 1971 in north London by Barry Richardson, who had a residency in a jazz band at the "Tally Ho" public house, when Eggs over Easy started playing pub rock there...
, Max Merritt and the Meteors
Max Merritt
Max Merritt is a New Zealand-born singer-songwriter and guitarist who is renowned as an interpreter of soul music and R&B...
, Ducks Deluxe
Ducks Deluxe
Ducks Deluxe were an English pub rock band of the 1970s, who have recently reformed. Usually called "The Ducks" by their fans, they were known for up-tempo, energetic performances, and the successful careers of their members, after they disbanded.-History:...
, The Amber Squad and Brinsley Schwarz
Brinsley Schwarz
Brinsley Schwarz were a 1970s English pub rock band, named after their guitarist Brinsley Schwarz. With Nick Lowe on bass and vocals, keyboardist Bob Andrews and drummer Billy Rankin, the band evolved from the 1960s pop band Kippington Lodge.-Formation:...
who had been victims of the prevailing big-venue system.
Most of the venues were in large Victorian pubs "north of Regents Park" where there were plenty of suitable pubs. One of the most notable venues was the Hope and Anchor
Hope and Anchor, Islington
The Hope and Anchor is a public house on Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. During the mid-1970s it was one of the first pubs to embrace the emergent, but brief, phenomenon of pub rock...
pub on Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
's Upper Street, still a venue.
Following the Tally Ho and the Hope and Anchor came the Cock, the Brecknock, the Lord Nelson, the Greyhound in Fulham
Fulham
Fulham is an area of southwest London in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, SW6 located south west of Charing Cross. It lies on the left bank of the Thames, between Putney and Chelsea. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London...
, the Red Lion, the Rochester Castle, the Nashville in West Kensington
West Kensington
- Commercial/education :Local business consists of small shops, offices and restaurants, with the Olympia Exhibition Centre nearby. Indeed, it is the mix of local shops that give the area its character....
, Dingwalls, the Pegasus Music Hall on Green Lanes
Green Lanes
Green Lanes, London, is a main road in North London and forms part of the A105. At approximately 7.5 miles from end to end, it is one of the longest streets in the capital....
, the Dublin Castle in Camden Town
Camden Town
-Economy:In recent years, entertainment-related businesses and a Holiday Inn have moved into the area. A number of retail and food chain outlets have replaced independent shops driven out by high rents and redevelopment. Restaurants have thrived, with the variety of culinary traditions found in...
, the Pied Bull at The Angel
The Angel, Islington
Angel is a district of London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...
, Bull and Gate in Kentish Town
Kentish Town
Kentish Town is an area of north west London, England in the London Borough of Camden.-History:The most widely accepted explanation of the name of Kentish Town is that it derived from 'Ken-ditch' meaning the 'bed of a waterway'...
, the Kensington near Olympia
Olympia, London
Olympia is an exhibition centre and conference centre in West Kensington, on the boundary between The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham, London, W14 8UX, England. It opened in the 19th century and was originally known as the National Agricultural Hall.Opened in 1886,...
and the George Robey in Finsbury Park
Finsbury Park, London
Finsbury Park is an area in north London, England which grew up around an important railway interchange at the junction of the London Boroughs of Islington, Haringey and Hackney...
. Out of London, venues included the Dagenham Roundhouse
Dagenham Roundhouse
Dagenham Roundhouse is a pub and music venue in Dagenham, East London, England.It was established in 1969 as the "Village Blues Club", and from then until 1975 was considered to be East London's premier rock music venue....
, the Grand in Leigh on Sea and the Admiral Jellicoe on Canvey Island
Canvey Island
Canvey Island is a civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames estuary in England. It is separated from the mainland of south Essex by a network of creeks...
. This network of venues later formed a ready-made launch pad for the punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
scene.
In 1974, pub rock was the hottest scene in London. At that point it seemed that nearly every large pub in London was supplying live music, along with hot snacks and the occasional stripper. The figureheads were Essex-based r&b outfit Dr Feelgood. By Autumn 1975, they were joined by acts such as The Stranglers
The Stranglers
The Stranglers are an English punk/rock music group.Scoring some 23 UK top 40 singles and 17 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are the longest-surviving and most "continuously successful" band to have originated in the UK punk scene of the mid to late 1970s...
, Roogalator, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Kilburn and the High Roads
Kilburn and the High Roads
Kilburn and the High Roads were a British rock and roll band formed by Ian Dury in 1970, and was the first band formed by Dury. The band released two studio albums and had one compilation, and separated in 1977 when Dury left to form the more prominent band The Blockheads.- History :Dury formed...
, and Joe Strummer
Joe Strummer
John Graham Mellor , best remembered by his stage name Joe Strummer, was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist of the British punk rock band The Clash. His musical experience included his membership in The 101ers, Latino Rockabilly War, The Mescaleros and The Pogues, in...
's 101ers.
Pub rock was rapidly overtaken by the UK punk explosion. Some artists were able to make the transition by jumping ship to new outfits, notably Joe Strummer, Ian Dury
Ian Dury
Ian Robins Dury was an English rock and roll singer, lyricist, bandleader and actor who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music...
and Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
. A few stalwarts were later able to realise Top 40 chart success, but the moment was gone. Many of the actual pubs themselves survived as punk venues (especially the Nashville and The Hope & Anchor), but a range of notable pubs such as the George Robey and the Pied Bull have since been closed or demolished.
Legacy
The boundaries were originally blurred: at one point, the Hot Rods and the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
were both considered rival kings of "street rock". The Pistols played support slots for the Blockheads and the 101ers at the Nashville. Their big break was supporting Eddie and the Hot Rods at the Marquee in Feb 1976. Dr Feelgood played with the Ramones
Ramones
The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first punk rock group...
in New York. The word "punk" debuted on Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
on a t-shirt worn by a Hot Rod. Punk fanzine Sniffin' Glue
Sniffin' Glue
Sniffin' Glue is the name of a monthly punk zine started by Mark Perry in July 1976 and released for about a year. The name is derived from a Ramones song "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue." Others that wrote for the magazine that later became well known journalists include Danny Baker.Although initial...
reviewed Feelgood album Stupidity
Stupidity
Stupidity is a lack of intelligence, understanding, reason, wit, or sense. It may be innate, assumed, or reactive - 'being "stupid with grief" as a defence against trauma', a state marked with 'grief and despair...making even simple daily tasks a hardship'....
as “the way rock should be".
Apart from the ready-made live circuit, punk also inherited the energy of pub rock guitar heroes like Dr Feelgood’s Wilko Johnson
Wilko Johnson
Wilko Johnson is an English guitarist and songwriter, particularly associated with the UK rhythm and blues band Dr. Feelgood in the 1970s.-Career:...
, his violence and mean attitude. Feelgood have since been described as John the Baptist to punk’s messiahs. In the gap between the music-press hype and vinyl releases of early punk, the rowdier Pub Rock bands even led the charge for those impatient for actual recorded music, but it was not to last. Punks such as John Lydon
John Lydon
John Joseph Lydon , also known by the former stage name Johnny Rotten, is a singer-songwriter and television presenter, best known as the lead singer of punk rock band the Sex Pistols from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s...
eventually rejected the pub rock bands as "everything that was wrong with live music" because they had failed to fight the stadium scene and, as he saw it, preferred to narrow themselves into an exclusive pub clique. The back-to-basics approach of pub rock apparently involved chord structures that were still too complicated for punk guitarists like the Sex Pistol Steve Jones
Steve Jones (musician)
Stephen Philip "Steve" Jones is an English rock guitarist, singer and actor, best known as guitarist and founding member of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols.-Childhood:...
, who complained "if we had played those complicated chords we would have sounded like Dr Feelgood or one of those pub rock bands". By the time the Year Zero of punk (1976) was up, punks wanted nothing to do with pub rockers. Bands like The Stranglers
The Stranglers
The Stranglers are an English punk/rock music group.Scoring some 23 UK top 40 singles and 17 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are the longest-surviving and most "continuously successful" band to have originated in the UK punk scene of the mid to late 1970s...
were shunned but they didn’t care.
Ironically, it was Stiff Records
Stiff Records
Stiff Records is a record label created in London in 1976, by entrepreneurs Dave Robinson and Andrew Jakeman , and active until 1985. It was reactivated in 2007....
, formed from a £400 loan from Feelgood’s Lee Brilleaux, who went on to release the first British punk single—The Damned’s "New Rose
New Rose
"New Rose" was the first single by British punk rock group The Damned, released on October 22, 1976. It was the first single by a British punk group, and was released in the Netherlands, Germany, and France in 1977....
". Stiff Records' early clientele consisted of a mix of pub rockers and punk rock acts for which they became known.
See also
- British popular musicBritish popular musicBritish popular music and popular music in general, can be defined in a number of ways, but is used here to describe music which is not part of the art/classical music or Church music traditions, including folk music, jazz, pop and rock music...
- Garage rockGarage rockGarage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...
- Mod revivalMod RevivalThe mod revival was a music genre and subculture that started in England in 1978 and later spread to other countries . The mod revival's mainstream popularity was relatively short, although its influence has lasted for decades...
- New Wave musicNew Wave musicNew Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
- Power popPower popPower pop is a popular musical genre that draws its inspiration from 1960s British and American pop and rock music. It typically incorporates a combination of musical devices such as strong melodies, crisp vocal harmonies, economical arrangements, and prominent guitar riffs. Instrumental solos are...
- Oi!Oi!Oi! is a working class subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The music and its associated subculture had the goal of bringing together punks, skinheads and other working-class youths ....
Sources
- Savage, JonJon SavageJon Savage , real name Jonathon Sage, is a Cambridge-educated writer, broadcaster and music journalist, best known for his award winning history of the Sex Pistols and punk music, England's Dreaming, published in 1991.-Career:...
(1991). England's Dreaming: The Sex Pistols and Punk Rock (London: Faber and Faber). ISBN 0-312-28822-0 - Lydon, JohnJohn LydonJohn Joseph Lydon , also known by the former stage name Johnny Rotten, is a singer-songwriter and television presenter, best known as the lead singer of punk rock band the Sex Pistols from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s...
(1995). Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs (New York: Picador). ISBN 0-312-11883-X - Birch, WillWill BirchWill Birch is an English music journalist, songwriter, record producer and drummer.-Career:Birch played drums in various bands in the Southend area before helping to form The Kursaal Flyers in 1973...
(2003). No Sleep Till Canvey Island: The Great Pub Rock Revolution (1st ed. London: Virgin Books) ISBN 0-7535-0740-4.
External links
- Southend Music Venues by Southend Sites