The 'Live at the Marquee EP' by Eddie and the Hot Rods marked a fundamental turning point in my listening habits back in 1976. You could quite legitimately call it my gateway record to Punk and beyond. "...yes, your Patrick Moraz LPs started gathering dust about then..." noted a friend this week, with an uncanny level of accuracy. To dismiss Eddie and the Hot Rods as mere Pub Rockers is to do the band a massive disservice. While each of their three Island albums and attendant singles do indeed contain their fair share of splendidly flat out, four to the floor r&b bangers, dig a little deeper and you'll unearth a handful of off-kilter, envelope-pushing oddities, the like of which you'd struggle to find on any Dr Feelgood LP (and that isn't a criticism). Check out 'Distortion May Be Expected', 'We Sing...The Cross', 'On the Run' or 'Horror Through Straightness' if you don't believe me.
Last week we bade farewell to Barrie Masters, singer and sole ever-present member of Eddie and the Hot Rods, at the criminally young age of 63. I had an intense relationship with the band for a three or four year period at the end of the 1970s, yet only saw them in concert once. This was the stand-out tune that night.
Eddie and the Hot Rods - Beginning of the End
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7 comments:
Ditto that. Jeans got straighter, hair got spikier, songs got shorter. This album changed everything; the Damned realised that too and put them on the back of early pressings of Damned Damned Damned. I saw them twice - once on the Life on the Line tour with Radio Stars and Squeeze, and later at the Marquee (no, not *that* night unfortunately). Great singer, great band.
I was hoping someone in our little community would mark this passing. I know, here we go again, but the That Summer soundtrack was the most important album from my childhood, and that's where I discovered Eddie and the Hot Rods. I have been a fan ever since. Your deep song drops illustrate your fandom as well. Thanks for remembering Barrie.
This band were the link from pub rock to punk/new wave. I always was a fan of their music and I was sad when I heard that Barrie died. Thanks for taking back a few decades when I was very much younger Swede.
Not a band I know that much about. I have Do Anything You Wanna Do on 7” but that’s about it. That track is very good tho.
'Do Anything You Wanna Do' was one of the first singles I ever bought and I cherished it - it certainly spoke to this 14-year old schoolgirl. So perfectly anthemic. From then on, as already said, the jeans got straighter, the hair got shorter, the t-shirts got capped sleeves! A friend of ours went to the very last gig earlier this year and reported back that it was excellent - in retrospect it now seems he certainly intended to keep it going until the end. RIP Barrie.
Yes, like John (and I think yourself?) I saw them in '78 along with Radio Stars and Squeeze. A great night. I'm not sure if it happens quite so seismically nowadays, but that conversion to straight-legged jeans from the exceedingly wide flares seemed to happen almost overnight and woe betide anyone left still sporting them!
Remember seeing them on TV playing Get Out of Denver and rushed out to buy the Marquee EP the next day. My first 'punk' single, although just about anything was still being called punk back then, even ACDC!
Great live act and I'm another one who saw them with Squeeze and the Radio Stars. Brilliant night.
Jamie
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