ROCK ’N’ ROLL’S ALRIGHT!

Another small seam from the 1970s was glam rock, spearheaded by Space Waltz and glamprog-rockers Ragnarok

– both given vinyl reissue recently. Now joining them is Christchurch’s Odyssey on a retrospective compiled by Grant Gillanders and fellow archivist John Baker.

In Ziggy Stardust/Kiss make-up, lurex, silk and flares, Odyssey made an instant splash in their day. On television’s Grunt Machine in 1975, they camped up the Velvet Underground’s White Light White Heat and Lou Reed’s Vicious, and opened for Reed in Christchurch that year.

The compilation shows they were influenced by the boogie of Slade ( Ball and Chain) and The Sweet’s enjoyable glampop (the title track, Trevor) as much as by Reed, Bowie and Bolan.

They met some opposition along the way. As drummer Jeff Stribling told local glam-academic Ian Chapman, “Glam came out and all those [muso band] guys just attacked you and said, ‘You’re not musicians, you’re just dressing up.’

“It was all really exciting. But the worst part of it was the shit we took from the other bands.”

If the Sonic collection is time-locked, the often witty Rock’n’Roll’s Alright!, has enough power-pop (Buddy Holly’s It’s So Easy) and attitude ( Prostitute) to pull it closer to the Stones’ strut and early Strokes, although they also default to MOR pop ( Baby). At the time, Odyssey’s recording career was brief – just one official single, a cover of the Easybeats’ Sorry, included on the album. But later, as a three-piece, they tapped into nascent punk – Pogo here is part-Ramones, part-parody.

So, two albums taking us from grunt rock to punk rock and the changing of the guard. More rock excavated. Can you dig it? ▮

These albums are on limited-edition vinyl and Sonic is also on CD.