Eddie and the Hot Rods were one of the English “pub rock” bands that led directly to punk rock — in fact, the term was first used in a review of the band’s energetic live act. This 1977 track was the band’s high point. Though it received no airplay in the U.S., it reached No. 9 on the British charts. It doesn’t sound like punk today — the Rods, as they briefly shortened their name, were soon eclipsed by fashion-forward outfits like the Sex Pistols, whose first London show was opening for them — and they were too hyper to fit into the New Wave aesthetic, though you can hear the influence of this song in one of the songs in the power-pop pantheon, “Starry Eyes.” This Top of the Pops clip shows the band in rather subdued (for them) lip-synching action.
There was nobody in the band named Eddie — it was what they dubbed a mannequin that graced the stage during their earliest gigs. The founder and lead singer, Barrie Masters, died last month at 63, just a few months after the band’s one-off farewell concert, “Done Everything We Want to Do.”
Here’s another Eddie and the Hot Rods number, “Ignore Them,” that demonstrates their punkier aspects of their sound.
