Philadelphia Inquirer, July 13, 1979

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With Nick Lowe, Rockpile draws a lot more respect


Jack Lloyd

It's just a little confusing. The group is called Rockpile but the albums are by Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds. Lowe records for Columbia and Edmunds records for Swan Song. But when they tour — with an appearance tonight at the Tower with Blondie — Lowe and Edmunds are part of this group called Rockpile.

And when Lowe and Edmunds tour, Rockpile generates a lot more respect than it did during its first tour, which brought the band to America a few years ago. They were brought along to open for Bad Company, and Lowe ended up getting "kicked off the tour."

"I wasn't reverent enough to them (Bad Company)," Lowe noted. "I thought they were a bunch of dinosaurs, dull old men, and I voiced my opinions rather loudly. They figured I was just a hired bass player, which I was, and who was I to talk to them that way. I said, 'Go ahead, throw me off the tour, send me back to England. I don't care. Sweep me under the carpet, but I'll be out again and taking your place one day.'

"So they kicked me off the tour. The rest of Rockpile knew I was right and they said … 'let's all go home.'"

Lowe and the rest of Rockpile certainly haven't replaced Bad Company since then, but their status has gained ground considerably — particularly in new wave circles. Columbia recently released Lowe's second solo album, Labour of Lust, and a new Edmunds album is due from Swan Song any day.

Lowe's first LP, Pure Pop for Now People, is considered a classic in many quarters. "The new album is more cohesive," Lowe said. "The first one was recorded over a long period of time with a lot of different musicians on the various tracks."

But the emphasis on both LPs is fundamental, hard-nosed rock 'n' roll.

Actually, Lowe's reputation goes far beyond his solo albums and his activities with Rockpile. As a result of his involvement with Stiff Records, Lowe has established himself as a leading producer who guided, among other projects, all of the Elvis Costello albums.

And going back to the late 1960s, Lowe was part of a band called Brinsley Schwarz, which gained an enthusiastic cult-following before disbanding in the 1970s.

"To tell the truth, though, I think the band was rather overrated," Lowe said. "It wasn't so much the music we played but the way we did things. I think that's why the band was popular with so many people. The glitter-rock thing was happening around then and we just weren't into that.

"We made tough records and I guess we shocked a lot of people with some of the things we did. A lot of it was different. We were one of the first white bands to play reggae. Back then, reggae was popular with the Skinheads, that English group that went around beating up hippies. But we liked reggae. What we were doing wasn't done that well, but it was different."

Brinsley Schwarz finally broke up in 1975. Part of the band went with Ducks Deluxe and other members drifted into a group that would become The Rumour. Lowe became associated with Jake Riviera, who was about to form Stiff Records in partnership with former Brinsley Schwarz manager Dave Robinson, paving the way for Lowe's producing baptism.

"I really had no interest in it," Lowe said.

"But of the three of us, Jake, Dave and myself, I was pretty much the only one who knew anything at all about a recording studio. The early Stiff records certainly weren't very good."

However, Lowe's ignorance concerning the matter ultimately resulted in some imaginative studio touches.

"I would have a certain sound in mind and go to the engineers and tell them what I wanted." he said. "'They would say it can't be done and I would say, Well, why can't it be done?' It was that way with the Beatles during their most experimental period. They would say let's do this and they did it. It didn't matter that it had never been done before.

"That's the big problem with so much pop music today. No one is willing to take risks, to be different. Instead everyone just complains about disco. And that's a lot of snobbery, too.

As a performer, Lowe likes the anonymity of working with Rockpile. "I would love to be a rock star," he said, "but I really don't have the patience for that. I don't have the drive. And I see Rockpile as a force to be reckoned with."

He said the band was up for its latest U.S tour. "Right now we're really scrappy (loose)," he said. "That's the way we like the music. And we always enjoy coming to this country. We have fun — just a bunch of tourists. And it helps when you can make a few bob in addition.


Tags: RockpileNick LoweDave EdmundsBlondiePure Pop For Now PeopleLabour Of LustStiff RecordsBrinsley SchwarzJake RivieraThe RumourDave RobinsonThe Beatles

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Philadelphia Inquirer, July 13, 1979


Jack Lloyd interviews Nick Lowe.

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