On June 7th Yep Rock Records is releasing an LP reissue of Super Group (Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Billy Bremner, and Terry Williams) Rockpile’s lone album, pressed from a new lacquer cut by Kevin Gray. The announcement makes no mention of the bonus 7" 45 RPM single (entitled Nick Lowe & Dave Edmunds Sing The Everly Brothers) that was included with early pressings of the original 1980 Columbia Records release.
If you haven’t heard the album, and have a love of 1950’s Rock ’n’ Roll, 1960’s/70’s Power Pop, Hard Country, or Roots Rock in general, you need this album. Though Rockpile released just the one album (entitled Seconds Of Pleasure) under the band name, they appear on both Dave’s and Nick’s late-70’s/early-80’s solo albums. And on Carlene Carter’s (June Carter’s daughter, of course) fantastic Musical Shapes album. In 1980 Carlene was Nick Lowe’s woman (and he her man 😉 ), though she later was with Howie Epstein, Petty’s bassist. Both Carlene and Howie loved hard partying, in Howie’s case a little too much.
I don’t use the term Super Group lightly. I saw Rockpile live only once, but they are in the handful of best bands I’ve seen and heard live. For context, I saw The Beatles (in 1965, at The Cow Palace in S. San Francisco), and they aren’t included in that handful. Sorry Mazzy 😆 .
Copies of the original Rockpile LP aren’t too hard to find, or expensive. But the Yep Rock release has that new lacquer (Kevin Gray is a mastering expert, with an outstanding electronic mastering chain), and a new pressing (done at a new LP manufacturing plant in North Carolina). The Yep Rock release is limited to 1,000 copies worldwide, on yellow PVC (who cares about colored vinyl?), but as I already own Mint copies of both the USA and UK pressings (plus a spare sealed USA copy), I won’t be buying a copy.
But if you don’t already own a copy of Seconds of Pleasure, and don’t want to wait for a Mint copy of an original to come your way, do yourself a big favour and grab a copy of the Yep Rock LP. Warning: Hearing Seconds Of Pleasure may make many of the other bands you’ve heard now sound less good.
