Music Review: Rockpile - "Live At Montreux 1980" CD

Rockpile!

Part rock-a-billy, part new wave. 100% rock and roll!

That British quartet made up of Nick Lowe (Vocals, Bass), Dave Edmunds (Vocals, Guitar), Billy Bremner (Vocals, Guitar) & Terry Williams (Drums) rocked out from the late 70's to the early 80's. If you're looking for a bunch of their recorded material, however, sadly you will only find their sole release: 1980's "Seconds Of Pleasure."

As a unit they did record together as the backing band for a handful of Nick Lowe and Dave Edmund's solo recordings including Lowe's "Labour Of Lust" which included his top-20 hit "Cruel To Be Kind," as well as Edmunds "Repeat When Necessary" which contained a rousing version of the Elvis Costello gem "Girls Talk."

So why did the guys only record one album under the Rockpile moniker? It's simple... Lowe and Edmunds were both signed to different labels for their solo releases and neither record company would allow an official Rockpile release (although, as stated before, it eventually happened).

Okay, enough with the history lesson. We're here to talk about the archive release of Rockpile's "LIVE At Montreux 1980." 31 years on and this album finds the semi-supergroup ripping through a 16 song set list live at the Montreux Jazz Festival on July 12, 1980. Surprisingly, "Teacher Teacher" is the only song from the bands "Seconds Of Pleasure" that made the the set. The rest of the songs played are from Lowe and Edmunds's solo albums with a few covers thrown in.

The band sounds tight even if the production is lackluster. At times "LIVE At Montreux 1980" sounds like a bootleg recording. This is most evident on the song "So It Goes" when Nick Lowes's vocals are almost non-existant during the first verse, then miraculously appear for the rest of the song. Maybe there was a microphone problem during the show, maybe this should have been fixed in post production or maybe the band wanted that raw live aspect to be kept intact.

Regardless, "LIVE At Montreux 1980" is a fun concert. It's not what I would call a "definitive" live album; for the uninitiated I would still recommend picking up the band's studio album, "Seconds Of Pleasure." If you're a diehard fan, though, this CD serves as a time capsule release of this influential band.

Drumroll please... 6 out of 10 drumsticks!!