the thread in which British ilxors introduce glam rock to ignorant Americans

We don't get it. School us. (Presume knowledge of Bowie.) Where do we start?

Roxy Music, mate. First five albums.

uh

i would personally like to hear more about the old york dolls, of which we colonies had a fantastic cover band

old york dolls makes me think of the upper crust!

ugh this question, come on dude

A friend of mine was under the impression that glam rock meant hair metal bands from the 80's like Poison...um...no...see dude, there's this thing called T-Rex...ah never mind...

Slade. Watch Slade in Flame

Glam rock can only truly be understood by watching footage of third-rate chancers like Kenny :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1NK85Z_uiU

that was hilarious, Matt #2. Thank you, I feel edified.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2sMuVPMkkk

Best song ever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgiDINcZ-q4

I've thought about this for quite a while, and the best introduction I could think of is 'Velvet Goldmine', by the not-British Todd Haynes, although I have a feeling there are quotes from British writers incorporated into the script. There are definitely lines from "Revolt into Style". You might also want to look at the wikipedia entry on 'Pantomime', with particular reference to the heading "performance conventions":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantomime

The problem is that I don't think there is a purely British form of Glam. It was always a very transatlantic thing, with bands like the Dolls and Sparks getting into the charts here.

OK, the Dolls didn't get into the charts, but they were all over the music press.

Ahem, yous Americansees - whither yous own Jobriath?!

*covers u'neath one's Sweet 'n Roxy 'n T.Rex n' Slade LPs*

Incidentally, if you still don't understand panto, this is it, distilled into a few minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nFXCwPlCg0

Not glam rock, but put together by people who grew up with glam, and were deeply influenced by it.

Glam rock can only truly be understood by watching footage of third-rate chancers like Kenny

Priceless. The Arrows numerous vids need consideration, too.

Alvin Stardust doing My Coo Ca Choo. The lipsynch is amusingly off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Y93Qucbt0

^^^ this is the guy my mother mistakes for David Bowie

Ahem, yous Americansees - whither yous own Jobriath?!

Also the original version of Alice Cooper?
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_p-cNr3WE7Sk/RvGyx5WiaYI/AAAAAAAAAA4/jm--1i8LhsY/s400/alice_cooper_band.jpg

More chancers.

The Arrows' I Love Rock 'n' Roll, which is pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AT_Pbtyid0&feature=related

And 'Gotta Be Near You' which is at the opposite end of the stick and dreadful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAPvvs8GhvE&feature=related

And because the US had no shortage of humiliating moments in glam, the Runaways in Japan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBDMthZ0c80&feature=related

You cant beat this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dQQrgyMpF8

The third tier Brit material is often better than its US counterpart because of a comedic vaudeville element that creeps into much of it. Watch Slade in Flame and you see a lot of it. Slade weren't third tier but definitely knew how to have a laugh at the expense of their own upbringing.

The problem is that I don't think there is a purely British form of Glam. It was always a very transatlantic thing, with bands like the Dolls and Sparks getting into the charts here.

Suzi Quatro too!

oh happy days

Silverhead. Michael des Barres than proceeded to carve a decades long film and TV acting career out of
playing bit characters who were always singers in third tier glam bands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quuCN320ba8

Heavy Metal Kids, She's No Angel, amusingly bad Gary Holton, who later hit big in TV. Then died after a mercilessly brief run.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4_YoeCpF74&feature=related

Heavy Metal Kids, Delirious, which is better, but still with Holton's patented mugging and smirking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UmRVwfqtuA&feature=related

^^^ someone's had a little drinkie...
Truly 3rd rate glam there - not even a German TV audience is impressed.

i really dig that first heavy metal kids album.

i still dig the doctors too. maybe my favorite punk/pub/prog/glam band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yehbfgVZTKo

wobbling along the line between 2nd and 3rd tier...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geM9_qFNNhI

I mean, if you're going to dress like a complete tool, a) put some effort into it, and b) look deadly serious.

Dead End Kids, Have I the Right, ripping off a variety of Suzi Quatro things which were hits the first time around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PF-LYjF2fI&feature=related

Dead End Kids, Glad All Over, missing some of the energy of the original.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8ipC-JECNI&feature=related

Slik, The Boogiest Band In Town. Actually, there's a lot worse from Slik on YouTube, mostly aimed at soaking the panties of teenage girls. Which didn't really work out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0PfOFsKnK8&feature=related

I don't get this stuff at all. But it's been injected into the popstream like a virus; the Gary Glitter handclap beat (also heard on that Glitter Band track) is sampled on Paulina Rubio's new single "Causa y Efecto."

You get down past the third tier and you start getting the 'glam' rock for the showbizzy Lawrence Welk Orchestra-loving segment (or whatever passed for it in England). That spawned an astonishing number of charting things from bands like Showaddywaddy, Chicory Tip, Racey, the Rubettes, etc. Stuff which had utterly no chance in the States, presumably because we'd already gone through Pat Boone. And they're all on
YouTube.

American boy taken to England to be made big star. Embarrassingly bad flop ensues, now almost completely buried.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9xIvGSj88g

Best Songs On Showaddywaddy's Greatest Hits!

Did Sha Na Na sell in England? "Under the Moon of Love" is another of the priceless vids. The suits
and shoes!

I dont think so.

Wait..Sha Na Na is being mentioned now???

Oh my god, where do I begin? This thread freaking RULEZ. If the cops had any idea how much fun I'm having with the clips on this thread, they'd arrest me! God, leave it to ILM to blow my mind. Even when this stuff is bad, it's usually still pretty entertaining. It's hard to lose.

Glad you know the Sweet's Blockbuster, Colonel Poo! I feel like we must have talked about that one before, but I'm really not sure we have.

Don't like that Alvin Stardust one at all. Barely even heard of the dude.

I'm so happy someone posted the Runaways I could almost cry. Someone should probably post some Suzi Quatro too, but I'm really not the one to do it.

Pfunk's track rules. Have no idea what that is.

Gotta catch up with more Gorge videos and the rest of what's here. This is great stuff, man. I just love this shit.

What's with the singer of Heavy Metal Kids? Is that proto-Jaz Coleman?

You know what, this thread makes me want to say to all those people who are so nuts about "Power Pop" that they are absolutely out of their minds. No way is "power pop" as good as this kind of stuff.

I used to live in the same street as Alvin Stardust! Except by that time he'd found God and moved on to presenting the execrable Rock Gospel Show. Showaddywaddy were less glam, more part of the teddy boy / 1950s revival that was big in the UK at the time. I guess Mud were part of that too, plus Darts who were more of a cruise ship version, the missing link between Elvis and the Manhattan Transfer if you will. Shakin' Stevens was spawned from that scene too, a name which will probably mean nothing to Americans.

Here's The Sweet when they went power pop anyway, still with a bit of the ChinniChap sound though :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MDCbIhTa_w

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned "Velvet Tinmine - 20 junkshop glam ravers", which was the start of a series of "Pebbles" style comps of the stuff. Highly entertaining it is too, though I haven't dug further.

Not sure if it's the same series but it's the same idea - Glitterbest is a really great comp of obscure glam stuff.

xpost: "Brit material is often better than its US counterpart because of a comedic vaudeville element that creeps into much of it."

You say Vaudeville, we say pantomime, variety, end-of-the-pier shows. But I think there is a lot of this in NY glitter and protopunk, notably the Dolls and (especially) Jayne/Wayne County. The Theatre of the Ridiculous may have been an influence here: Campy, outrageous costumes, tongue-in-cheek delivery, banter with the audience, lots of glitter. It's all stuff that British audiences would have recognised and taken to very easily.

The rock'n'roll element is interesting too. The British experience of rock'n'roll had a very strong showbiz element from the beginning: Alvin Stardust is like Jack Good's staging of Gene Vincent as Richard III in leather, heightened beyond parody.

Glad you know the Sweet's Blockbuster, Colonel Poo! I feel like we must have talked about that one before, but I'm really not sure we have.

I'm sure we must have. I must've told you I saw (what's left of) the Sweet at a punk festival last year (it was great, and the band seemed genuinely surprised at the positive reaction they got from a bunch of pissed up punks)

Would have liked to see that! The Sweet doing Blockbuster on TOTP has to be my first memory of any kind of rock music. They seemed characters out of the Marvel comics I was obsessed with at the time.

Srsly when the sirens started up it was the defining moment of my entire life's gig-going

Shakin' Stevens was spawned from that scene too, a name which will probably mean nothing to Americans.

Oh CONTRAIRE! Buckets of RONG! Unfortunately, yes, Shakin' Stevens was known to Americans. I'm sorry it had to be that way, but...

Darts? Mud? Showaddy what? Americans know nothing of these things.

definately "shakin'" here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hpoc2vQ9TaM
with Joe Brown for added LOLs

Slik - Boogiest Band In Town upthread -

That is some crazy shit. How can you take these people seriously? The singer is halfheartedly trying to dress goth and not getting there AT ALL.

American boy taken to England to be made big star. Embarrassingly bad flop ensues, now almost completely buried.

I think this is sortof proto-1986 indie pop. Really you laugh, but all it needs is jangly guitars and it's set to go.

I'm sure we must have. I must've told you I saw (what's left of) the Sweet at a punk festival last year (it was great, and the band seemed genuinely surprised at the positive reaction they got from a bunch of pissed up punks)

― Colonel Poo, Friday, July 3, 2009 2:47 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

Haha no you did not bloody tell me that!

think this is sortof proto-1986 indie pop

Brett Smiley's album really sounds pathetic, even for the early Seventies. More than half of it is
whispy overwrought over-orchestrated cooing. Most of it doesn't rock at all. The one exception, which made it to Velvet Tinmine -- the comp, was "Va-va-va Voom."

If you hang onto the end of the clip, Russ Harty says everything with his tone and eyes needed to be
said. Smiley was just too mincing, even by a standard of Ziggy's feyest.

One clip of the style is fun to look back at, though. Very entertaining.

But I think there is a lot of this in NY glitter and protopunk, notably the Dolls and (especially) Jayne/Wayne County.

Yeah, that's right. But that had no hope outside NYC, SF and LA. The same qualities were much more widespread and enjoyed in the UK. Part of this, I think, has to do with the heartland American propensity to take
all Britishes for fags when they see it. If you didn't have cable in the US in the Seventies, and many many didn't, you would have had little hope of seeing any Brit TV. As it was, we got Benny Hill regularly.

Harty in harsh-but-fair mode there. Miss him, miss him, miss him. Certainly wouldn't get an interviewer cross examining a singer like that today, especially not in front of their manager!

There is actually a book about Brett Smiley: "Prettiest Star", by Nina Antonia, better known for writing about Johnny Thunders.

But where would I be without ILM? Without ILXors? NOWHERE, that's where.

Here's some Quatro stuff, the two best -- Can the Can and Devil Gate Drive. Plus her return to the
style with Back to the Drive from a couple years ago. Between her, Gary Glitter, Sweet and Slade, you had most of the beats defined by glam. And the chancers pretty much all ran with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SXWgC0SLCA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHTvv1J5aTE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vFTksaposs

Do you know why there are synthesizers in the 1975 clip of the Sweet above called "Fox On The Run"? Huh? Because it is cool as shit, bitch, that's why.

whoops xpost!

Can I just give a little tiny shoutout to Cheap Trick right now. I mean, not much, just a tiny little megaphone. Because that Sweet track "Fox On The Run" is a lot like some Cheap Trick. And after all we Americans have to try to make up for the fact that you Brits are better at this stuff a large proportion of the time.

Okay gonna be quiet and figure out Suzie Quatro now.

Bimble the singer in slik (the clark gable one) tried many things and didn't get there.

I was thinking about posting a clip of the glammier end of new wave / pub rock - Dead End Kids and Doctors of Madness already done and mainly I was wondering when I could drag Edinburgh's Finest the Scars into this, but mention of slik put this in my head

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIfFUDt4Grw

You can see the glam there I think, on that clip Steve New looks like he actually thinks he's in Sweet.

I also thought of this clip which I remember seeing on the telly at the time (77? 78?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgNDEjFQ7w8

and I was going to point out how it had more to do with glam than anything, but my memory played tricks as it doesn't - it hasn't aged well either.

So lets stop being too smart arse (a first for me) and heres a genuine, mid 70s glam period glamtastic track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQtr-eY8zqY

its from 1974, though this clip is a bit later and the band look more normal, apart from that blouse....Gets going after a minute.

and one more, its a shame this isn't a proper video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txWfLFkHMPA

I know, we fail. But just let us Americans have a little tiny moment in the spotlight. We didn't give birth to the Beatles, and that is our undying shame. Thanking U.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnYwV0ccbqU

oh shit xxxxposts! what? Did someone say Steve Harley???

Rich Kids - is that the band with Midge Ure from Ultravox in it?

Yes. He was nearly in the Sex Pistols as well, by some accounts.

Bimble - Midge Ure is the clark gable lookalike in the SLik video

hahahahah I saw that!! I remember that!

In the meantime...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-UzarFCmPM

The band dancing in the lipsynch vids is another part of this. It's a hoot to see the pugs in Quatro's backing band dancing on "Devil Gate Drive." And the singer's happy 'Tiger' feet in the Mud clip from TV. You can tell it was a lot of fun to do that stuff.

"Darts? Mud? Showaddy what? Americans know nothing of these things."

i do. the darts album i had was HORRIBLE. like, really bad. would actually prefer to listen to sha na na or manhattan transfer or bo donaldson & the heywoods or whatever other happy days-inspired crap was out there.

mud, though, i liked. or at least their first album.

showaddy had some good singles. but i do prefer the chris spedding style of greaser rock. or those cozy powell surf stomp glam singles.

the glam rock dynamite comp that repetoire put out is still my fave thing to listen to when i'm in a glam mood. and it sounds great too. they did a good job with the sound/mastering/etc. 43 tracks for a decent price. you really can't go wrong. 10 bucks on amazon!

track-list:

1. Dance with the Devil - Cozy Powell
2. Ballroom Blitz - Sweet
3. Tears I Cried - Glitter Band
4. Good Time Fanny - Angel, Angel
5. 48 Crash - Suzi Quatro
6. Mama Weer All Crazee Now - Slade
7. I Love to Boogie - T. Rex
8. Good Old USA - Hello
9. Goodbye Love - Geordie
10. Dyna-Mite - Mud
11. I Am the Leader of the GA - Gary Glitter
12. Girl from Germany - Sparks
13. Make Me Smile - Cockney Rebel
14. I'm Standing in the Road - Blackfoot Sue
15. Do You Wanna Dance - Barry Blue
16. Kid's a Punk - Slik
17. Fancy Pants - Kenny
18. Yesterday's Hero - Bay City Rollers
19. What's Your Name - Chicory Tip
20. Rock 'N Roll Lady - Showaddywaddy
21. One and One Is One - Medicine Head
22. Man Who Sold the World - Lulu
23. Get Down and Get with It - Slade
24. Wild One - Suzi Quatro
25. Sing Don't Speak - Blackfoot Sue
26. Na Na Na - Cozy Powell
27. Motorbikin' - Chris Spedding
28. Don't Do That - Geordie
29. Cat Crept In - Mud
30. Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh - Gary Glitter
31. He's Gonna Step On You Again- John Kongos
32. Men in Black - Cozy Powell
33. Forever and Ever - Slik
34. Hey Rock 'N Roll - Showaddywaddy
35. Angel Face - Glitter Band
36. Little Boy Blue - Angel, Angel
37. She's No Angel - Heavy Metal Kids
38. Clap Your Hands
39. Tell Him - Hello
40. Tokoloshe Man - John Kongos
41. You Could've Been a Lady - Hot Chocolate
42. Hot Lips - Kenny
43. See My Baby Jive

Wow that Brett Smiley number is shockingly bad.

Okay, wait a minute. Just wait a minute - "Back To The Drive" is Suzi Quatro? Oh shit.

I just can't quite get behind her the same way as Joan Jett, though. Even though I'm not a gigantic fan of Joan Jett, either.

oops xxpost

That compilation looks like a whole heap of fun, Scott.

OOOOOH STEVE HARLEY CLIP UPTHREAD! HE TALKS AT THE BEGINNNIG! WOW!

As glam faded, 75, 76 ish several one hit wonders turned up - Slik were one, heres a couple more. There isn't really a name for this sort of stuff, "post glam" makes it sound like its beyond glam, rather then neutered made-safe glam and "bubblegum pop" too much fun and sixties. Its probably not been given a name because most of it is shocking though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3KAU-ijZrs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BPRGQHwb5U

I think they are both from the arrows tv show, but I could find more is somebody sticks up all of lift off with aysha on you tube...

ps is it just me or do stephenson's rocket remind anyone of the kaiser cheifs?

10. Dyna-Mite - Mud <- i walked around town listening to some random 70s compilation once, and this song came on, and was a bit louder than others so the chorus was suddenly spilling from the earphones, and these two teenage girls stopped talking to each other and stared at me and laughed

12. Girl from Germany - Sparks

not quite so relevant but there's a one panel viz cartoon i remember having explained to me about sparks when i was very small titled "HORRIBLE PUN ABOUT A POPULAR 70s ROCK DUO WAITING AT AN AIRPORT" where the brothers mael are struggling to manouvre their suitcases out of a taxi and an observer is noting to another "when this lot gets out, sparks are gonna fly"

BILBO BAGGINS, BITCH! They can't help it that they were influenced by Free's "Alright Now" that is totally fine with me, I love this shit.

Also that Stevenson's Rocket thing was ACE

(xpost) I was actually making mental notes during the BB track - lose the school uniforms, lose the neat haircuts, get the singer to stop smirking and grow some gnarly facial hair, less handclaps more boot stomping. But it's all 30+ years too late...

Also both tracks had a shocking lack of decent lyrics: "standing with my head in the sand" (can I just point out the physical impossibility there?) "well I'm back (expecting the next line to rhyme with "back") I've changed my ways" (I guess they didn't have rhyming dictionaries back in the mid 70's "I'm a rocking gambler, a fortune gambler" (now that's just nonsense)

were bay city rollers considered glam? i see they're in that comp scott postred. i had an argument w/someone at work the other day that i thought they were and he thought they weren't.

the rollers definitely had their glam moments. they were one of the last great bubblegum groups, at any rate. i mean, what's more glam than s-a-t-u-r-d-a-y NITE!

They certainly were considered glam in the UK (all of the typical middle of the road glam elements are there: handclaps, stomping, all-the-lads-together choruses, rock'n'roll influence, etc.). So to some extent were the Osmonds and David Cassidy.

No string of Suzi Quatro youtube clips is complete without 48 Crash IMO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk6kvVGPURA

I'm sure we must have. I must've told you I saw (what's left of) the Sweet at a punk festival last year (it was great, and the band seemed genuinely surprised at the positive reaction they got from a bunch of pissed up punks)

― Colonel Poo, Friday, July 3, 2009 2:47 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

Haha no you did not bloody tell me that!

Damn well I should've ;)

Srsly it was a great time in an all-round great weekend. The only downside was an 8+ minute version of Love Is Like Oxygen which was a bit synth-cheese-tastic for my tastes.

my fave rollers band that wasn't the rollers is rosetta stone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqNw3gLLsVs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTO1V8RG2Ss

jaxon, I guess that the Bay City rollers fit in with the term I'm searching in the late period one hit wonders post.

Calling the bay city rollers "post-glam bubblegum pop" just sounds wrong though.

After a bit of diffing I found a listing of things that were on TOTP in 1975

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/e.watkins/musictv/totp_full_shows.htm

I have no idea why anyone made such a list (Marcello, is that you? ) but I am glad they did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKG2bAoGguI

Actually I like that listing of 1975 totps so much I'm gonna start a thread about it.

(xpost) it's a shame to say it, but at this rate the majority of references to Noosha Fox on the internet will be on ILM

Julian Cope on Glam:
http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/albumofthemonth/1990

That Brett Smiley clip upthread has more than a touch of Jarvis Cocker about it.

Nederglam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9-qhv-zu3Q

The problem is that I don't think there is a purely British form of Glam. It was always a very transatlantic thing, with bands like the Dolls and Sparks getting into the charts here.

Suzi Quatro too!

The Arrows were American too

Bimble says in chatz on Aim that "this thread is the absolute deal and misses everyone who posted on it"

The Brett Smiley album turned up on Spotify, and Spotify's robots figured out that it'd be worth suggesting to me. Anyway, it's much better than the clip above would suggest. I can't say who'd like it and who wouldn't, but it's worth hearing if you think you might be in the former group.

Glenn Kenny with a reminiscence of his recent friendship with the late Brett Smiley

I will not go into the shambolic gigs I and his good roommates would escort him to and from. Suffice it to say that if you think the bottom of the barrel in New York rock-and-roll is sitting in the Continental at 2 a.m. enduring some seventh-billed band while trying to shake off the cocaine and Jagermeister sweats, you ought to consider yourself lucky. The poor guy. A couple of years ago I acquired a snazzy new Gibson guitar of storied model number and I showed it off to him one day. "It's heavy," he said as he lifted it. He played a verse and a chorus of "I Ain't So Cool Anymore." Without swagger. It was pretty heartbreaking. His body was dealing with a huge variety of ailments—various outlets have named hepatitis and HIV. I don't want to be indiscreet but honestly that was the tip of the iceberg. He was pretty funny about it sometimes. There was this outpatient facility he went to that he called "HIV Romper Room." Addicts in recovery like to say that drinking and drugs had made their lives unmanageable, but the thing about Brett that I often got was that he'd never had any schooling on managing his own life in the first place. And by the time I met him, he was in such crummy shape physically that I don't think there was a single day that he wasn't in some kind of pain. I took him to the hospital at least once for every year I knew him. After which I'd buy him a Vonnegut book (that was his favorite author) and encourage him to stay in the hospital for as long as he could. He needed full time care, I always thought, but the intersection of America's highly frayed social safety net and the aforementioned Iron Will meant this was not possible.

What stories he told me in these down times weren't of past rock and roll glories, but of lost loves and fuckups. He was gratified that I knew of Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith, with whom he costarred in a '70s softcore pastiche of Cinderella (which I have on DVD but have never had the heart, or lack of it, to watch), and who died of a heroin overdose in 2002. A tale of a particularly harrowing arrest in Broward County—he still had a warrant outstanding in Florida in recent years, and we were both rather flummoxed about what he could do about it—was how I learned that he had actually had a bit part in American Gigolo, because he associated his part in the picture with his time in jail.

http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2016/01/my-friend-brett-smiley.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGRYIkeqxkg