Power Pop lives!

@slaw, as you probably know, Prophet lives in the Bay Area. All us locals (I grew up in San Jose, a short 45 minute drive south) consider The Groovies local heroes, fighting on in the face of the unstoppable hippie horde that was dominant when Cyril Jordan and his band emerged in ’68.

I bought their first independently-produced 10" record at the time of it’s initial release, but didn’t see them live until ’82, when the band I was in shared the stage with them at a small club in S. San Francisco. Cyril and I (and singer Chris Wilson) got on great, sharing our thoughts on various subjects (Dave Edmunds---who produced their fantastic Shake Some Action album, in my all-time Top 10, Jake Riviera---Nick Lowe’s manager, whom I don’t care for. Cyril hates him ;-).

At the end of the night, I saw Cyril whisper into Chris’ ear, who then came over to where I was standing with the other guys in my group, steered me off into a corner (with all my guys staring at us ;-), and asked for my L.A. phone number. As luck would have it, the phone had just been shut off (I was moving out of a rented house into an apartment with a female admirer ;-). I later read that was drummer David Wright’s last night with The Groovies. Damn! Ah well, if I had gotten that gig, I wouldn't have gotten the ones with Emitt Rhodes, John Wicks (The Records), Evan Johns, Pearl Harbor, Don & Dewey, etc. Ya can't win 'em all!

Your anecdote made me chuckle. The 3 records I pulled out for my afternoon listen;

Nick Lowe - Labor of Lust

Dave Edmunds - Repeat When Necessary 

Rockpile - Seconds Of Pleasure

Been awhile since I listened to any of these. 

Billy Bremner and Terry Williams are also a large part of the Rockpile sound. They played three nights at The Country Club in Reseda, CA on the Seconds Of Pleasure tour, and I went all three nights. I was surprised by how many of the cool guitar parts were played by Billy rather than Dave. Edmunds was still taking his two 1958 Gibson dot-neck 335's (one blonde, one black) on the road, not aware of how much they were worth!

Terry was in Dire Straits for a while after Rockpile, but Nick says he's not playing any more. Age is harsher on drummers than players of other instruments, being so physical. I had to have some physical therapy recently, for a "frozen" shoulder. Pounding out the 2/4 backbeat for 55 years will do that to ya!