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Calling New Wave Experts

Tony L said:
I still struggle with the ‘pub rock = new wave’ thing as so much pub rock was just traditional blues and pop structures compressed to basics and given a spiky aesthetic. That’s not saying it wasn’t great, but I view it as an intermediate stage before the past was rejected. As stated above for me ‘new-wave’ (as I understand it) threw those structures away and was largely the thing that emerged from the generation (mine) who had read the ‘here are three chords, now go form a band’ rallying call of punk but had time to experiment despite still having little/no musical training. Much of what I remember about being in bands at the time and later into the ‘80s was very consciously rejecting the structures and cliches of the past. Krautrock was the same mindset, it very consciously and deliberately rejected the formulaic blues/rock/pop structures. I see zero overlap between say Gang Of Four or Wire and Cream or Led Zep.
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I don't think you can really say that about My Aim Is True or New Boots & Panties, both of which grew out of pub rock but were clearly new wave. I'd argue that Costello morphed further with This Year's Model once he was playing with the Attractions. I agree though it's not possible just to say 'pub rock = new wave' as some of it clearly wasn't.
 
It is ages since I’ve played My Aim Is True (I’ll dig it out), though IIRC Costello was backed by Clover, a well established US rock band who’d been around since the late-60s/early-70s. New Boots & Panties is amazing, but again a remarkably experienced and skilled band, most of those guys were ‘jazz grade’ musos IMO, the groove is incredible. Both great albums, but I’m not really seeing the ‘new’ here beyond the frontman attitude. Contrast and compare with say the first Cure album which is totally ‘new wave’, young people with new instruments etc.
 
Tony L said:
It is ages since I’ve played My Aim Is True (I’ll dig it out), though IIRC Costello was backed by Clover, a well established US rock band who’d been around since the late-60s/early-70s. New Boots & Panties is amazing, but again a remarkably experienced and skilled band, most of those guys were ‘jazz grade’ musos IMO, the groove is incredible. Both great albums, but I’m not really seeing the ‘new’ here beyond the frontman attitude. Contrast and compare with say the first Cure album which is totally ‘new wave’, young people with new instruments etc.
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Apparently they recorded second versions of many of the songs from My Aim is True in 77 with the Attractions - Clover were a bit uncool. I love John McFee's guitar on Alison - he played with McFee later on Almost Blue. What was new? I doubt either record would have existed without Stiff Records...
 
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Again, referring to the pub rock Prog on sky arts last night, it was said that the likes of Nick Lowe & Costello were signed to the Stiff label via a loan of £400 from the Feelgoods to get the label up & running.
So yes, assuming that to be true, you could say that without the Feelgoods & the Pub Rock era, Stiff records may not have flourished & so Costello, Drury & even maybe later on, Madness Kirsty MacCall etc may not have broken through.
 
manicatel said:
Again, referring to the pub rock Prog on sky arts last night, it was said that the likes of Nick Lowe & Costello were signed to the Stiff label via a loan of £400 from the Feelgoods to get the label up & running.
So yes, assuming that to be true, you could say that without the Feelgoods & the Pub Rock era, Stiff records may not have flourished & so Costello, Drury & even maybe later on, Madness Kirsty MacCall etc may not have broken through.
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Certainly Costello said "an overnight success after seven years".
 
I certainly consider it to be a really enjoyable era of music, whatever label was attached to it.
If the band I was in at the time wasn’t playing on a Saturday night, chances are we’d be watching some band or other. Maybe the Feelgoods, maybe Bruce Woolley & the camera club, or the Fixx, maybe Tom Robinson, or Costello or any number of bands who never quite made it big. Great days.
 
manicatel said:
I certainly consider it to be a really enjoyable era of music, whatever label was attached to it.
If the band I was in at the time wasn’t playing on a Saturday night, chances are we’d be watching some band or other. Maybe the Feelgoods, maybe Bruce Woolley & the camera club, or the Fixx, maybe Tom Robinson, or Costello or any number of bands who never quite made it big. Great days.
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I was a kid at secondary school, they used to call me Elvis because of the brown national heath glasses. That was fine by me ;)
 
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