Bite-sized posts about 7″ singles I own – shameless nostalgia from the days of vinyl.
Eddie & The Hot Rods – Live At The Marquee (Island Records, 1976)
Barrie Masters was born to be on stage. You could see it in his eyes. He revelled in the adulation. He could work an audience so they were eating out of his hands. Ok, so he got all his moves, and singing style, from the young Mick Jagger but who cared? In 1976 , the Stones were already has-beens, dinosaurs on the way to becoming the heavily sponsored relics they are today.
Eddie & The Hot Rods were the new kids on the block, giving their own take on the R’n’B classics and making them relevant to a new generation tired on pomp rock and concept albums. In refusing to adopt the stance of aloof pop stars, they showed that there was life beyond the pretentiousness of ‘Prog’ and the faded sequins of Glam or Disco.
This live EP catches ‘The Rods’ at their peak playing the classics 96 Tears, Get Out of Denver, Gloria and Satisfaction like they were tailor-made for young wannabes from Southend-on-Sea. The band for this record was Dave Higgs – guitar, Paul Gray – bass and Steve Nicol – drums. The cover shots show the band loitering outside the London venue, Masters strutting in white loon pants, T-shirt and braces with this get up , and the flared jeans of the rest of the band, being a reminder of just how horrific 1970s fashions were.
The EP was recorded at the Marquee Club on 9th July 1976 and “dedicated to all Hot Rod fans everywhere”. I counted myself as one of these after being bowled over by the band’s energy at Barbarella’s in Birmingham. Later I saw them at Birmingham Town Hall where the seated venue worked against the crowd involvement they thrived on. On this EP, before they launch into their encore of Gloria (which segues into Satisfaction), you hear Masters giving instructions to “move all those chairs, get ’em out of here”; this was music to dance and sweat to.
Having built up their following on the pub rock circuit, they were never a band who were going to make an easy transition to more traditional rock venues and they were destined to be swept aside by the punk rock explosion. Despite this, amazingly, the Rods are still playing, albeit with only Masters remaining from the original line-up. Like I said, he was born to be on stage.
