Mick Farren ‎– "Vampires Stole My Lunch Money" (Logo ‎– LOGO 1010) 1978

Proto-Punker ,Political Activist, and Journalist, the late Mick Farren, also late of sixties hippie punks, The Deviants; assembled the glitterati of Pub Rock to help him make a solo album.....and this is it.

Employing the considerable talents of former band mate Larry Wallis, and a guest appearance from the godlike Wilko Johnson, he managed to create a half decent post-pub rock style punk album.

There seems to be an underlying theme of Drunkenness and beer, and why not, i've heard it can be fun, if kept under control, but also a slow train to self-destruction.....a subject mentioned in at least one of these tunes.

As the king of late sixties couterculture, Michael isn't one to shy away from politically charged social comment, and there is inevitably some of that concealed in the lyrics here. There are moments when he becomes a white Gil Scott Heron, and that's a good thing....I think?

Tracklist:

Trouble Coming Every Day
Half Price Drinks
I Don't Want To Go This Way
I Want To Drink
Son Of A Millionaire
Zombie Line
Bela Lugosi
People Call You Crazy
Fast Eddie
Let Me In, Damn You
(I Know From) Self Destruction
Drunk In The Morning

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Wreckless Eric - "Wreckless Eric" (Stiff Records - SEEZ 6) 1978

I always wanted a Brown 10 incher in my hand, and the chance came in 1978 when my school mate said he was sick of 'Punk' and wanted to sell all his 'Punk' records. I managed to cobble together a fiver, and bought XTC's "White Music", The Heartbreakers "L.A.M.F" and this magnificent debut mini-album by the great Wreckless Eric.
My school chum is now dead! Threw himself under an arriving train at Leicester station in the nineties.....not because he regretted selling me this record though I may add.
A muddy rainbow of Pub Rock legends adorn this magnificent 10 inches of fecal brown vinyl,including Davey Payne and Larry Wallis, to cast their magic over some fine and witty songwriting by everyone's favourite new wave drunk.

Tracklist:

Reconnez Cherie
Rags + Tatters
Waxworks
Grown Ups
Rough Kids
Personal Hygiene
Brain Thieves
There Isn't Anything Else

(I have included the extra tracks from the 12" version"Telephoning Home","Be Stiff",plus "The Whole Wide World" , "Semaphore Signals" single.....one of thee most covered songs from the Stiff repertoire.....didn't Cliff Richard cover this?)

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Pink Fairies ‎– "Never Neverland" (Polydor ‎– 2383 045) 1971

Bands that played Rock'n'Roll were a rarity in the early seventies, and here's one of them, The Pink Fairies.
They contributed the proto-punk anthem "Do It" to world culture, a virtual punk manifesto expressed as a three minute symphony.
The rest of their canon never really matches the heights of "Do it",except maybe "City Kids" from the "Kings Of Oblivion" album gets closer than the rest; but they contributed a nascent punk attitude, and the roots of some of the more rock orientated Pub Rock.

Tracklist:

Original Album:

1 Do It 4:15
2 Heavenly Man 3:41
3 Say You Love Me 3:48
4 War Girl 4:34
5 Never Never Land 6:55
6 Track One, Side Two 4:41
7 Thor 0:58
8 Teenage Rebel 5:20
9 Uncle Harry's Last Freakout 10:51
10 The Dream Is Just Beginning 1:18

Bonus Tracks:

11 The Snake 3:58
12 Do It (Single Edit) 3:04
13 War Girl (Alternate Extended Mix - Previously Unreleased) 4:34
14 Uncle Harry's Last Freakout (First Version - Previously Unreleased) 12:24

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Motörhead ‎– "On Parole" (United Artists-unreleased) 1976

A lot of people with long hair point to Motorhead as the precursors of that terrible affliction called NWOBHM. You know,that movement populated by spotty, lank greasy haired, denim and leather clad, exclusively male, geeks.

This is mostly true, but was not the intention of Lemmy to inspire an army of groups who played sped up Black Sabbath and Judas Priest numbers. He always described his groups music as Rock'n'Roll, not Heavy Metal; which of course is correct.

Always dumped in the Metal category, they had more in common with Punk than Black Sabbath. It just so happened that they dressed like bikers, which is the look that tragically got adopted by those acne scarred New Wave Of British Heavy Metalheads. Motorhead started basically as an associate member of the Pub Rock scene, and they sounded like Pub Rock too.

Their first album was the unreleased "On Parole" with pub stalwart drummer Lucas Fox, and ex-Pink Fairy/ Deviants Proto-Punker Larry Wallis;recorded in 1975, but not released until Motorhead were popular.

With new recruits Phil Taylor and Fast Eddie Clark, this album was re-recorded almost entirely as the "Motorhead" album on Chiswick in 1977.

Personally I prefer "On Parole" to the Chiswick version,even though the following three or four albums are absolute Rocking classics. I do like the less cranked up, basic, version of Motorhead. Especially as the NWOBHM kids hated it.

Tracklist:

Motorhead

On Parole
Vibrator
Born To Lose
City Kids

Fools
The Watcher
Leaving Here
Lost Johnny
On Parole (Alternate Take)
City Kids (Alternative Take)
Motorhead (Alternative Take)
Leaving Here (Alternative Take)

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Larry Wallis ‎– "Police Car" (Stiff Records 7" -BUY22) 1977

The Arch Duke of UK proto-punk ,Larry Wallis's classic single for Stiff, is a medium paced pub punk dirge; where the former Fairies,Motorhead guitarist casts himself in the role of a .....er.....Police Car!?...and why not? 
The b-side's a Pub-rocking version of 'On Parole', and just leaves one wondering what happened to the Larry Wallis solo album on Stiff?

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Various Artists - "Live Stiffs" (Stiff Records - GET 1) 1978

So, consequently, we have the infamous "Live Stiffs" package tour of 1977, and the album of....; containing at least five pub rock legends. Luckily Nick Lowe improved vastly after the demise of the awful Brinsley Schwartz. Ian Dury became the poet laureate of the new wave. Wreckless Eric was a loveable drunk who made a fine debut album. Larry Wallis was in The Deviants, Pink Fairies, and Motorhead,among others, so he can't do wrong. In fact Stiff records did very little wrong in the first three or four years of existence; except sacking the Damned after the second album?...well I thought the second album was rather good. I may have thought different if I knew who Nick Mason was, but luckily i didn't.....I do now, and finally (recently) listened to some post-syd Pink Floyd.....it was all surprisingly enjoyable, except 'The Wall' which was effing terrible!.....very nearly the opposite of Stiff.

Tracklist:

A1 –Nick Lowe's Last Chicken In The Shop-I Knew The Bride
A2 –Nick Lowe's Last Chicken In The Shop-Let's Eat
A3 –Wreckless Eric & The New Rockets-Semaphore Signals
A4 –Wreckless Eric & The New Rockets-Reconnez Cherie
A5 –Larry Wallis' Psychedelic Rowdies-Police Car
B1 –Elvis Costello & The Attractions-I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself
B2 –Elvis Costello & The Attractions-Miracle Man
B3 –Ian Dury And The Blockheads-Wake Up And Make Love With Me
B4 –Ian Dury And The Blockheads-Billericay Dickie
B5 –Live Stiffs-Sex, Drugs, Rock 'N' Roll & Chaos

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