A good friend “turned me on” to a British band from the 70s called Showaddywaddy — a sort of UK version of Sha Na Na — saying bands like Showaddywaddy were the main reason the Sex Pistols came into existence. I cued up the video she sent along, and was suitably horrified. I then commenced an InterWeb search to find out more about this godawful band of musical merrymen, and found this, from the frequently “huh?” AllMusicGuide:
“One of the finest rock & roll revival bands of the 1970s, Showaddywaddy also proved to be one of the most successful and enduring. … The group’s run of greatest hits sounds devastatingly pure, even authentic…”
To which I say: WTF?! I mean, I’m used to a bit of ass-lickery on the part of AMG, but surely this is beyond the pale… right?
HVB
I stumbled across these guys a couple of months ago, and they were TERRIBLE by any standard I can dream up. The only thing I can think of that might explain AMG’s designation is that there weren’t many rock ‘n roll revival bands in the 1970s, so maybe they were “one of the finest.”
Do the Blasters count?
They probably date back to the ’70s in some formation, but wasn’t the band, as we know it, born in the ’80s?
I’ve never heard of Showaddydaddy – shows how big of a ripple these disco-looking jokers made across the big pond. Rolling Stone magazine never so much as mentioned them. Of course the music is horribly lame and wimpy – it sounds more like blanded-out 10cc than anything authentically old. What was in the British water that made for Fifties/glam mashups like this bunch of dweebs, Gary Glitter, and Wizzard? At least Roy Wood of Wizzard had the smarts to take it completely over the top into pure cartoonish spectacle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ddz-rRI16k
I’d have a hard time calling any of the real ’70s Fifties-revival bands genuinely good, though Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids came close. They were featured in American Graffiti.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=219AydgdgHM
A timely reminder that no one makes videos to watch with the sound off better than Roy Wood.
You are correct (according to wikipedia). I thought that first album came out in the late 70s but apparently it’s from 1980.
The Blasters formed in ’79…But I wouldn’t count them among the “rock & roll revival” brigade, all of whom were uniformly terrible, cartoonish & more like some kind of Broadway musical version of 50’s rock & roll. Awful, every last one of ’em.
I disagree in the strongest terms. I like Roy Wood and at least some of Wizzard. I’ve said it before – he was one of the unsung geniuses of rock. Few others have come so close to the famed Phil Spector wall of sound.
I’m not saying his music is bad — not all of it, anyway. I’m saying that his weird visual sense is just as rewarding sans sound.
… and I guess the AMG review doesn’t actually specify what form of music they’re discussing when they describe Showaddywaddy’s as “devastatingly pure” and “authentic.” My dog’s farts are pretty devastatingly pure and authentic!
Something in the current RTH poll needs to be clarified. Eddy & The Falcons is not the name of a band. In fact, it’s the title of the second Wizzard album.
True, Tonyola, but it’s Wizzard in character, so I left it under the name of their “fake” band. Because YOU know what I’m talking about and I know what I’m talking about I’m expecting fellow Townspeople to know what I’m talking about. And if they didn’t know what we were just talking about, then I hope they do now. I like that album better than any other Wizzard album, by the way. (You know I love Roy Wood’s Boulders and The Move, so don’t give me the Roy Wood, Genius of Rock retort:) I just don’t dig the Wizzard albums proper.
For the record: I LOVE “This Is the Story Of My Love” from the Eddy & the Falcons LP. The rest of the album is pretty ho-hum, but that song is beautiful.
I agree – the first Wizzard album (Wizzard Brew) is a noisy, gimmicky, over-compressed mess. Even I, a hard-core Roy Wood fan, find it really hard to listen to, so I don’t argue with those who dislike it. Eddy & The Falcons was the last true Wizzard album released in the ’70s, and Wood began to lose his way after his 1975 Mustard solo album.
Showaddywaddy. Before today, merely a name to me. Wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then, as a Great Man once said.
Meh. Fuck AMG anyway.
Can I just say, It’s a damn shame that Sha Na Na has taken the lead in our poll!
I agree. Sha Na Na was pure cartoon gimmickry. I guess people remember them because of their TV show. I’d vote Flash Cadillac for authenticity or Eddy & the Falcons for Roy Wood.