Kilburn And The High Roads

Where the CBGBs scene in the US has always been feted for being the main inspiration for Punk, the young John Lydon was possibly more influenced in his outlook by a source much closer to home. By a band – Kilburn And The High Roads – that looked “like a bus queue” and made up initially of an arts lecturer and his students. A band that bemused the Pub Rock circuit with occasional Alma Cogan covers. Its not the most promising start when compared to Iggy and the Stooges, but I believe that Punk in the UK benefited mightily from the example, approach and presence of Ian Dury and his first band., which began in 1971 just as his hero Gene Vincent was nearing the end.
The band came together with Ian assuming the role of leader and vocalist and a revolving line up the most regular participants being Keith Lucas (in 1976 to become Nick Cash who still fronts 999 to this day), volatile Davey Payne on sax, crippled drummer David Rohoman, eccentric pianist Rod Melvin and pint sized Charlie Sinclair on bass (renowned artist Humphrey Ocean also had a couple of spell as their bassist). They presented a bizarre spectacle for gig goers expecting a line up of long haired glam boys or road hardened rockers, being presented with the dapper Dury with a razor blade earring (in 1974!) and the contrasting band, sometimes resembling something between gangsters and dossers.

Kilburn and the High Roads were, well, different. Even in the Pub Rock circles in which they moved they stood out from the crowd. One of the reasons for this is whereas most Pub Rock acts looked back to the 60s to recall the simpler times of R’n’B mixed with the Country Rock sound, it seemed that the Kilburns had no truck at all with the 60s at all. Even a band like Ducks Deluxe who were considerably more in tune with what was to come in the future cribbed some of their stuff from the Velvets and MC5, archetypal 60s acts even if not in the mainstream.
The Kilburns though harked back to the primal rock and roll surge of the 50s (very important as that was also a source of inspiration for Punk a few years down the line) and mixed that up with Jazz, Reggae and everything else they could lay their hands on, but always with Ian‘s lyrics put a large stamp of their London environment like no-one had done since Ray Davies. Dury took it a step further into the step though. The one rule the band had was that no song would be followed by another that sounded in any way similar and this chaotic methodology coupled with the fact they couldn‘t play very well at the beginning meant that their live act became the talk of the London Pub circuit to the extent that the Who had the band support them on the “Quadraphenia“ tour in 1973.
Dury took a theatrical approach to his tales of London low life and during a song that never made it to vinyl, the psychotic “I Made Mary Cry” would produce a gleaming bread knife from his coat. He would prop himself have up with the mike stand, an act necessary to the childhood polio that had wasted him on one side, but though essential it was a neat pose and the intense figure he cut would have an effect on a regular front row punter at Kilburn And The High Roads gigs, a skinny kid from Finsbury Park by the name of John Lydon.
Also another link to the Sex Pistols in particular should be noted. Rotten compares the band to “Music Hall” in “The Filth And The Fury” and there can be not much doubt that this aspect of the band was in the shadow of Ian Dury’s early work.
Indeed it has been said that Cook and Jones were pleased that Chris Thomas was to produce them not because of his work with Roxy Music, but his production of the “Rough Kids” single. Also it should be noted that Kilburn and the High Roads are one of very few contemporary groups that featured on the “likes” side of the famous Sex t-shirt “One Day You’re Going To Wake Up”. Also Tommy Roberts, who ran the Mr Freedom store and was friends with Malcolm McLaren, became the band’s manager and kitted them out from “Let It Rock”.
“Rough Kids” was a terrific record though and truly precursor of many a Punk single years later. The atmosphere that cuts in with Dury walloping a dustbin lid, the build up to the final screaming ending, just a touch less backing vocals and a bit more guitar and it would have been absolutely perfect for 1977, let alone 1974.
That single apart (which in my opinion is the best example available of the band, the flip “Billy Bentley“ foreshadows “New Boots And Panties“), the one thing that truly defined the Kilburns is that they just couldn’t get what they had live down on vinyl. The recording session for Raft was released as a cash in to Dury’s fame in 1978 and the “Handsome” LP has most of the rough edges that were their trademark ironed out. Lucas’ departure was speeded up allegedly by the way his guitar was far down in the mix.


Left – a bunch of tasty geezers. Nice Tache!
Above errr… dial 999 its Nick Cash!
Though “Handsome” has its moments (“Father“ is excellent and “Upminster Kid“ hit’s the spot), it also has a couple of songs where Ian doesn’t even sing and the Kilburns who made a positive advantage of their anarchic approach, seemed tamed by the studio. They split soon after the record was released.
The revamped band were forced off the road soon after an attempted comeback in 1975 as Ian Dury and the Kilburns, because of Ian’s health problems. But this would not be that negative in the long run as Chas Jankel joined this late version of the band and was to become Dury’s writing partner for the hugely successful “New Boots And Panties” and “Do It Yourself” LPs, which were two of the most popular records in the UK in the late 70s and helped to keep Stiff records afloat too.
Above feature courtesy of Ian Part Time 2008
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