Brinsley Schwarz- anyone remember them?

Subject: Brinsley Schwarz- anyone remember them?
From: Acorn4
Date: 21 Jun 08 - 05:38 PM

One of my favourite bands from the seventies - found this great Youtube clip with a very young looking Nick Lowe -anyone else who remembers the band?

Brinsley Schwarz- Surrender to the Rhythm.

I can only find two Youtube videos of them but this is a very good one.

Subject: RE: Brinsley Schwarz- anyone remember them?
From: Brakn
Date: 21 Jun 08 - 09:18 PM

Like a lot of people I was put off by the hype.

I did like the single "Shy Boy" that they did when they were called Kippington Lodge. One of the few pop records with a diminished chord in it.

Subject: RE: Brinsley Schwarz- anyone remember them?
From: glueman
Date: 22 Jun 08 - 03:39 AM

BS were a kind of proto-Squeeze. Remember the 'back to mono' thing? I still have a badge. There was some decent songwriting around then but as Brakn said, most of it was NME hype for any track that lasted less than one side of an album or had musicians with shorter than waist length hair.

Nick Lowe. Only a mother could love that face.

Subject: RE: Brinsley Schwarz- anyone remember them?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 22 Jun 08 - 04:37 AM

They mutated into Grham Parker and the Rumour in the mid 70s and there were some pretty good songs and music.

Subject: RE: Brinsley Schwarz- anyone remember them?
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 22 Jun 08 - 04:57 AM

saw them at Lanchester Polytechnic in Coventry about 1897 I think-heady days!

Subject: RE: Brinsley Schwarz- anyone remember them?
From: alanabit
Date: 22 Jun 08 - 06:28 AM

GP and the Rumour were an excellent band indeed. They were among the openers at Blackbushe and I also saw them topping the bill at Reading. Graham Parker was probably the most talented R&B songwriter to come from our island. Had he slept with a few actresses/supermodels, got into punch ups at air ports, had spectacular drug problems etc, he could have got into the papers more and his talent would have been recognised. Funny how the business works, isn't it?

Subject: RE: Brinsley Schwarz- anyone remember them?
From: Acorn4
Date: 22 Jun 08 - 09:55 AM

Glueman,

Nick's face didn't stop him pulling Carlene Carter.

Subject: RE: Brinsley Schwarz- anyone remember them?
From: Acorn4
Date: 22 Jun 08 - 09:58 AM

On the question of the "Famepushers" hype -the Brinsleys called their next album "Despite it All" which really set their direction -they tended to avoid the limelight after this but produced great tracks like "Starship", "Ebury Down" and "Nightingale - the American experience did them good in the end.

Subject: RE: Brinsley Schwarz- anyone remember them?
From: glueman
Date: 22 Jun 08 - 12:02 PM

"Glueman,

Nick's face didn't stop him pulling Carlene Carter."

Indeed. BS were one of the few bands to bridge album rock/prog rock and Top of the Pops glitz. Today intelligent songwriting is everywhere but it's hard to imagine how thin on the ground it was then, leading to journalists who could remember the sixties seeing great white hope everywhere. That isn't to say Brinsley Schwarz and Graham Parker weren't rather good but many of us were waiting for punk to wash the pop polemic beach completely.

Subject: RE: Brinsley Schwarz- anyone remember them?
From: alanabit
Date: 22 Jun 08 - 12:48 PM

I'd agree with the above comments. I remember that at the time pop lyrics fell (broadly speaking) into three categories:
There were the "boy meets girl", teenage love, run of the mill TOTP sugary slop lyrics.
Then there were the fantasy, wishy washy cosmic other world stuff of those 'orrible concept rock bands.
Perhaps the worst were the "white boy gets the blues" songs of those blues influenced rock bands, which became those witless "I'm a hot guy and I think with my todger" lyrics, so beloved of Led Zeppelin and the Stones imitators. It was refreshing when the post punk era ushured in a new generation of real songwriters.
I missed BS at the time, although I heard of them. Going by the clip, I would probably have enjoyed them.

Subject: RE: Brinsley Schwarz- anyone remember them?
From: GUEST,woodsie
Date: 22 Jun 08 - 01:00 PM

Loved them!

Subject: RE: Brinsley Schwarz- anyone remember them?
From: Acorn4
Date: 22 Jun 08 - 01:36 PM

Another reasom that I followed the band was that Brinsley was in my class during the sixth form - I didn't know him particularly well as I wasn't into that sort of music at that time and only really got into while at Uni.

As I remember, he sat next to the late England test cricketer Bob Woolmer.

Just digging through some old vinyl reminded me of the band..

Subject: RE: Brinsley Schwarz- anyone remember them?
From: glueman
Date: 22 Jun 08 - 01:36 PM

Perhaps folk needs its own Reformation?