Eddie and the Hot Rods

Pub Rock.

Graham Parker, Dr. Feelgood, Brinsley Schwartz, Dux Deluxe, Eddie and the Hot Rods was a deliberate reaction against the stadium pomp and the extended soloing that had become Rock's default mode.

Parker was a dynamo.

I saw him open for Thin Lizzy at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on his first American tour.

However, early that year, Algie Ward left after being fired by Rat Scabies due to a personality clash and his growing interest in a heavier British heavy metal sound, which led him to form the heavy metal band Tank later that year.

And in came Paul Gray, formerly of Eddie and the Hot Rods, to take over on bass.

1980 would see the release of The Black Album, a post-punk and proto-goth work that blended punk aggression with haunting neo-psychedelia and keyboards, and this would shape the next few years from the band.

But before we get into that Black Album, let's go back a bit to 1976.

The initial single, New Rose, was included on the album, and the second single from the band would be Neat, Neat, Neat, and this was able to chart something New Rose did not do.

In 2005, in a Stylist magazine ranking, they took and ranked this song's bass line from Neat, Neat, Neat at number 33 on their list of top 50 bass lines of all time.

The first pressing of the album used a back cover picture showing Eddie and the Hot Rods instead of The Damned.

It was supposed to be a picture of The Damned playing in a club.

I couldn't quite put my finger on why I liked it at the time, uh, but I think it's that punky energy I described, and, and that...

So it's kind of ignited something in me that I didn't really fully find until I probably, when I saw the Feelgood's and Eddie and the Hot Rods in about '76, and then when The Clash and the Pistols came on the scene, um, I kind of...

It, it joined the dots a little bit for me.

Um, so that's the answer to that first question.

That's a tour I would have loved to have seen.

He also currently is working on a new project called The Sound of 79, which is a punk supergroup featuring members of The Vapors, The Selecter, and Eddie and the Hot rods, so make sure to check that out if you haven't already done so.

This week's guest is the iconic Phil Thompson, and I think, like, without further ado, all that is left to say is, Phil Thompson, welcome to the Mixtape Me.

[upbeat music] Our first question: What is the best opening song, in your opinion?

It's three chords and, and a pile of dust, you know? Almost anybody could bang that thing out, and it got a bunch of cover as well.

We're gonna listen to Eddie and The Hot Rods perform Gloria, a song based on the Bo Diddley song, Bring It to Jerome, uh, and that piece of intelligence is from then organist, Eric Rickson, who also worked with Bo Diddley.

When I was a kid in 1981, uh, I was living in Newcastle upon Tyne, and our hall ball had a, uh, ball, right? And so that's the dormitories where the students live, and I had a chance to book the band, and who did we book? Eddie and The Hot Rods.

Well.

Bring it to Jerome.

Number 15.

The Rods and Do Anything You Want To Do.

The Boomtown Rats drop three at...

Number 14.

At 17, it's Yvonne Elliman and I Can't Get You Out of My Mind.

Yes and Wondrous Stories at 16.

At 15, it's The Rods and Do Anything You Want to Do.

The Boomtown Rats and Looking After Number One at 14.

She was an international opera superstar, as a matter of fact.

And in 2019, Barry Masters, the lead singer of Eddie and the Hot Rods, passed away in his bedroom at the age of 63.

His death was announced by his bandmates on October 2, 2019, but he died on this particular day.

Al Jackson Jr. passed away in 1975 at the age of 39.