GLAM NUGGETS

SPARKS NEW YORK DOLLS MICK RONSON DANA GILLESPIE SUZI QUATRO HOLLYWOOD BRATS 15 WHAM BAM RARITIES FROM THE BOOGIE CHILDREN!

1 GUMBO WE DON’T CARE

Obscurity surrounds this 1974 B-side released only in France and Belgium – and why’s there a female voice when there are only geezers on the sleeve? Yet its howling guitars, chugging boogie and we-don’tneed-no-education nihilism equals prime glam proto-punk. As well as recording as U.K. Jones, producer/ writer Mike Berry worked with Ning, Boneshaker and Biggles.

Written by Berry. Published by Sparta Florida Music Group Ltd. &©1974 Cherry Red Records Ltd ISRC Code – GBBLY2200103 Licensed courtesy of Cherry Red Records.

9 JOHN HOWARD SMALL TOWN, BIG ADVENTURES

At the shopping-at-Biba/piano bar end of the glam eruption, this 1973 demo by Lancashire singersongwriter Howard bagged him his deal for 1975’s Kid In A Big World LP, another record to go unreleased until the noughties. His latest album, this year’s Look, is inspired by transgender pioneer April Ashley.

Written by John Howard. (GBDJN7400450). Published by Transistor Music/Administered by Kassner Associated Publishers Ltd. &©1974 John Howard, licensed courtesy of Another Planet Music ltd. www.anotherplanetmusic.net

2 SPARKS THIS TOWN AIN’T BIG ENOUGH FOR BOTH OF US

This re-recorded version of the Maels’ biggest UK hit remains a classic of their oeuvre. An unnerving yet exhilarating combination of the operatic, old Hollywood and hard rocking, with tongue-twisting lyrics of romantic angst, stampeding rhinos and Western gun fights, it sounds like an Art Deco precursor to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. Written by Ron Mael. Published by BMG Rights Management. &©Sparks 2008. 2008 recording. www.allsparks.com

10 SUZI QUATRO ROCK HARD

Detroit trailblazer Suzi’s hot streak of hits ended six years before. Yet for 1980’s Rock Hard, there was a last re-statement of her bond with writing/production team Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn. Sadly, this late-glam stomper was the end of her initial working relationship with Chinn, but Chapman – aided by the Sweet’s Andy Scott – returned for 2006’s Back To The Drive.

Written by Chapman, Chinn. Published by Universal Music Publishing MGB Ltd. &©1980 Cherry Red Records Ltd ISRC Code – GBBLY1200472 Licensed courtesy of Cherry Red Records.

3 NEW YORK DOLLS PERSONALITY CRISIS

Recording with Todd Rundgren, lead Doll David Johansen asked if his vocals were “ludicrous enough.” Suitably, here was glam collapsing into total decadence, with the era’s psych-fracturing reinventions played out with pre-punk fury. Features Jerry Nolan, after original drummer Billy Murcia died of an overdose in 1972.

Written by Thunders/Johansen. Published by Warner Chappell/EMI Songs Ltd. &©1992 Skydog International Licensed courtesy of Jungle Records GBCST9227501. From Manhattan Mayhem. FREUDCD075

11 SHAKANE GANG MAN

A Bristol band active since 1964, formerly known as Force West, Oscar Bicycle and Memphis Belle, Shakane’s 1976 Junk Shop Glam selection Gang Man is a crunching, Slade-like piece of glam boogie to get the youth club jumping. However, while they enjoyed success in Germany and Sweden, a UK breakthrough was not to be, and the group finally called it a day in 2014.

Written by Trusler. Published by Copyright Control. &©1974 Cherry Red Records Ltd ISRC Code – GB23E1100615 Licensed courtesy of Cherry Red Records.

4 HOLLYWOOD BRATS SICK ON YOU

Lamenting the decline in fast, lewd rock’n’roll, these London rockers mounted a counter insurgency. Admirers of the New York Dolls both musically and sartorially, in his memoir Sick On You singer Andrew Matheson describes their signature effluviant as “a perfect, snarling, four-minute chainsaw symphony.”

Written by Matheson/Steel. Published by Panache Music. &©1980 Cherry Red Records Ltd ISRC Code – GB-BLY-79-00012 Licensed courtesy of Cherry Red Records.

12 ROCK REBELLION LET’S GO

Now to the terraces for a pie, a cup of steaming Bovril and some light football hooliganism, as this saxed-up cover of The Routers’ 1962 number is given the full Mike Leander treatment with maximum crowd participation. It’s played by alumni of Screaming Lord Sutch’s band, and produced by Roger Easterby and Des Champ, who also worked with Chicory Tip.

Written by Duncan, Duncan. Published by Universal/MCA Music Ltd. &©1973 Cherry Red Records Ltd ISRC Code – GBBLY2003905 Licensed courtesy of Cherry Red Records.

ZIGGY PLAYED GUITAARRRR – AND HE WASN’T THE only one. Since Bolan appeared bedecked in glitter in ’71, glam had been out of the bag, percolating and mutating in Britain and America. A big and flashy amalgam encompassing rock’n’roll guitars, decadence, spectacle, flamboyance, bubblegum, glamour, escape and, often, a thumping trucker’s beat, the church was a broad one. As well as such big hitters as Roxy Music, Sparks, Lou Reed, Slade, Sweet and Suzi Quatro, there was an underworld of influential prophets unacknowledged in their lifetime – hello, New York Dolls – and for obscuria-hungry bin-trawlers, the legions of spirited never-weres with goofy names, the hod carriers in lipstick whose output has been formalised as Junk Shop Glam. So here are MOJO’s Glam Nuggets: a roll call of the great and good, and the triers who took the promise of glam and ran with it, often as it transmogrified into punk. And also the unknown soldiers, whose marginal breaks for the big time often understood the invitation to the glam gallery just as well as the ones who actually made it.

5 HAMMERSMITH GORILLAS I LIVE IN STYLE IN MAIDA VALE

When he formed the Hammersmith Gorillas in 1973, rock’n’roll lifer Jesse Hector memorably declared his haircut was, “Mod on top, skinhead at the back, with rockabilly sideburns.” Thuggish elsewhere in their bruising catalogue, this arch, lovelorn song shows their more reflective side, like Slade in ballad mode.

Written by Jesse Hector. Published by Rockin’ Music.

&©1999 original recording owned by Another Planet Music ltd. www.anotherplanetmusic.net

13 THE RAH BAND THE CRUNCH

Inspired to go electronic by Hot Butter’s 1972 hit Popcorn, Beatles and Nick Drake arranger Richard A Hewson partly produced this meaty, beaty space-glam behemoth – and UK Number 6 hit – at home in Putney. With sax by Brit-jazz mainstay Peter King, it was a success across Europe and Number 1 in Australia. The RAH Band also went Top 10 with 1985’s Clouds Across The Moon.

Written by Richard Hewson. Published by Warner Chappell Music International Ltd ISRC Code – GBBLY0602867. &©1978 Rah Productions. Licensed courtesy of Cherry Red Records.

6 DANA GILLESPIE ANDY WARHOL

Produced by Bowie and Mick Ronson, this Hunky Dory song of surfaces and their deeper truths appeared on Gillespie’s Weren’t Born A Man LP in 1974. A fuller, more dramatic take than Bowie’s, with serrated guitars from Ronson, it was reputedly hated by its subject. “He took it very badly,” said Bowie in 1997. “But he liked my shoes.”

Written by David Bowie. Published by Bewley Brothers/EMI Music Pub Ltd/Chrysalis Music ISRC Code – GBBLY1000587. &©1973 Mainman Licensed courtesy of Cherry Red Records.

14 THE DAMNED MORNING BIRD

A hand-clapping, tub-thumping melange of cod-Macca-isms, T.Rex and S.O.S by ABBA, Morning Bird was released on Miki Dallon’s Young Blood International label, home of Cockerel Chorus’s Nice One Cyril. It’s nothing to do with the punk band, though Rat Scabies was on the Dutch 45 cover of Let’s Go To The Disco by glamsters The Tartan Horde in ’77, alongside its producer Nick Lowe.

Written by Davies, Nyers, Fisherman. Published by Olofsong Music. &©1974 Cherry Red Records Ltd ISRC Code – GB23E1101447 Licensed courtesy of Cherry Red Records.

7 MICK RONSON GROWING UP AND I’M FINE

Another Bowie song, this time from Ronno’s 1974 solo debut Slaughter

On 10th Avenue. A song of male bonding and when it’s time to leave the gang, its rueful Spiders moves were sadly apt: their partnership’s triumphant four years had now drawn to a close with Bowie’s decision to kill off Ziggy Stardust.

Written by David Bowie. Published by RZO Music Ltd/EMI Music Publishing Ltd/Chrysalis Music Ltd ISRC Code – GBBLY0903344. &©1974 Mainman Licensed courtesy of Cherry Red Records.

15 GREG ROBBINS VIRGINIA CREEPER

If anyone knows anything about Greg Robbins, who recorded just this one 45 in 1973 and then seemingly vanished, please let us know. Until then, this merrily bungs Sparks, Roxy, Cockney Rebel, Bolan and more into the mix, as Moogs squeal, a pub piano steps on it and the helium-voiced singer tells of a woman of prodigious size, superpowers and good times.

Written by Greg Robbins. Published by Edward Kassner Music Co. Ltd. &©1977 Original recording owned by President Records ltd. Licensed from President Records with thanks to Another Planet Music ltd.

8 BRETT SMILEY SPACE ACE

There were high hopes for young American Brett Smiley: this 1974 B-side, not unadjacent to Bowie’s Starman in its cosmic reverie, but with hints of violence and insecurity, was performed live on Russell Harty’s UK chat show. Yet fame eluded Smiley, and his LP Breathlessly Brett went unreleased until 2003.

Written by Brett Smiley. Published by Tro Essex Music Ltd. Produced by Andrew Loog Oldham. &©1974 Cavalcade Records Ltd., a BMG company Licensed courtesy of BMG Rights Management (UK) Ltd. ISRC: GBAZJ1000112