If there’s one band I really regret not seeing live, it’s Rockpile - Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Billy Bremner, Terry Williams. They were a unique amalgam of pop and rockabilly, yet were “new wave” before it even had a definition. Officially they only put out one album, “Seconds Of Pleasure”, but Lowe’s & Edmunds preceding solo albums are solo in name only, due to contractual obligations.
So many great songs, extremely talented/kick ass musicians - how is this band not more well known?
I liked them a lot when they were putting out music. But like a lot of UK groups, they never broke through into the US singles markets. Also, there evidently were management issues that caused th group to break up after their first album.
Don’t forget Heart! Billy Bremner wails on the most propulsive pop in decades. This is the song I want for my ring tone for when my husband calls me. If I could figure out how to do it . . .
And the EP that came with it, Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds Sing the Everly Brothers.
Seconds of Pleasure: Five stars.
Of, if sugar was as sweet as you. Thanks, Mixolydian! Excellent taste!
Here it it. He sings like he’s running down a hill and has to catch himself before he falls and rolls all the way to the bottom. The poppiest, happiest love song since Buddy Holly.
“Trouble Boys” is my favorite. This man is bigger than the BOTH of us! That and “Crawling from the Wreckage.”
Never saw them perform as Rockpile, but I’ve seen Nick and Dave individually, and have pretty much all their albums. But I wouldn’t call them any sort of New Wave. They are pure Rockabilly. If Elvis were alive today, he’d be doing stuff like this…TRM
PS - My sister insisted the DJ play “I Knew The Bride” at her wedding!
Never saw them live but the concert tape I recorded off a radio station 30 years ago was smoking. More raucous and lively than the record, which didn’t show off how great they were. I doubt see an official live release in Amazon, although the Wolfgang’s Vault shows two shows from 1978. Maybe if they had stuck together longer…it took U2 several records to move off the college radio network. Plus a lot of groups, unfairly or not, got put in the “safety pin through the cheeks” category and not given a closer look.
Great band. I’ve got a tape of their Winterland show from 1978 when they played with Mink DeVille and Elvis Costello. Oh how I wish Dave Edmunds would come and play in the US again! He’s been on the Jools Holland New Year’s Show the last couple of years, and he still sounds great!
I saw them twice in the late 70s/early 80s - first time as Dave Edmunds Rockpile and once as Rockpile. Great gigs both times, although the bouncers kept everybody in their seats the first time until right at the end. (The Edinburgh Odeon in May 79 - £3.00 well spent!)
Always liked Edmunds since he (well, Love Sculpture) had a hit in the late 60s with a version of Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance! Here’s a clip of him playing it live almost 40 years later!
I was working in a record store when Rockpile came out, and it was so good, we actually gave out a money-back guarantee on it! We used to do that on exceptionally great releases.
Just chiming in to say I am a big fan, too. Seconds of Pleasure got a ton of play in my dorm room and stands up today.
[guitar geek moment]
In the Girls Talk vid linked to in the OP, Edmunds is playing his famous blonde 50’s ES-335 - Gibson maybe made 50 - 75 blonde 335’s during that first 3 year run when they had dot neck inlays. VERY collectible and valuable now…he got it decades ago.
Nick an d Dave - and of course Rockpile - have been at the top of my personal charts since I first encountered them as a colleg kid in the late 70s. Add in healthy helpings of Elvis, Mink, Graham Parker, The Motors, David Lindley, and Tom Robinson Band, with side helpings of punk and twang, and you gots yourself an auditory feast!
(The Edinburgh Odeon in May 79 - £3.00 well spent!)