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Late last year Stiff Records went on the road in England with a tour aimed at presenting itself and its new talent to the hinterland. The album perhaps captures the tour's success and its failure, in that rather than a recanting of a concert it has the appearance of an in-performance sampler.
Each artist gets a couple of tracks in which to parade his wares; naturally, some show more promise than others.
Nick Lowe kicks off with his classic "I Knew the Bride" (assisted by Dave Edmunds), but his second tune is a bit of a blank. Wreckless Eric has a couple of goodies, "Semaphore Signals" and Reconnez Cherie" and Larry Wallis closes side one with a delightfully dumb chant, "Police Car."
Elvis Costello, so far the most touted of the crew, opens Side Two with Burt Bacharach's "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself," a good choice rather undermined by ineptitude in the rhythm section. "Miracle Man" is so-so.
But the best for last. Ian Dury and the Blockheads wind up with "Wake Up and Make Love With Me" and "Billericay Dickie." Dury's manic vocalising and his superb band make these two ribald songs the stand out performances of the collection.
To cap his own two brilliant songs, Dury leads the entire cast in his anthemic "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll" (that's the song, by the way). A heartfelt finale, well worth the price of the album.
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