TIME! GENTLEMEN! - Pub Rock Rhythm ‘N Grooves – Classic Cuts & Rarities 1974-1982

While pub rock's heyday was very short-lived, and punk rock is often considered the cause, many people also feel that if it wasn’t for the back to basic, no-frills attitude, punk would have never happened. Between its popularity being largely based in the London area and the fact that I was so young at that time, the pub rock scene pretty much escaped me when it was happening.  Having said that, many artists who came out of that scene, like Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds and even Eddie and the Hot Rods, were already very familiar to me.  Then, several years ago, I started going down the rabbit hole, listening to bands like Dr Feelgood, Brinsley Schwarz, Kursaal Flyers, Tyla Gang and Eggs Over Easy, the last of which was considered by many to be the band that kickstarted the genre.  Grapefruit Records' outstanding 2019 pub rock box set Surrender To The Rhythm helped further my knowledge of the genre and gave me plenty more bands to discover and now it has been followed up with TIME! GENTLEMEN! - Pub Rock Rhythm ‘N Grooves – Classic Cuts & Rarities 1974-1982.  In addition to tracks from many of the bands that were on the previous collection, this new box largely highlights the latter days of the genre’s biggest era and contains some of the bands that came along towards the end of the scene and expanded on the sound through things like punk and new wave.  Many of the seventy-two songs are available on CD for the first time and all of them were remastered by Tim Turan who has mastered and remastered releases from a who’s who of artists.  The enclosed booklet includes details on each band and their included song from Simon Matthews, who wrote Before It Went Rotten, The Music That Rocked London’s Pubs.  As with any compilation like this, there are a few cuts here that some people might consider questionable inclusions and of course there are other artists that aren’t here that really should be, but overall, this is a fantastic compilation that has led to me searching out more music from many bands that I previously knew very little or nothing about.

(Grapefruit)