Kilburn & The High Roads
Kilburn and The High Roads formed at Canterbury College of Art in
1970 when lecturer Ian Dury let his inner
Gene Vincent fan take
control, with co-writer and keyboard player Russell Hardy.
Playing
an eclectic, English mix taking in Rock & Roll, reggae and a
splash of Music Hall, they were also menacing and defiantly
unfashionable - one writer called them a band of "demobbed
cripples".
Over the years the Teddy Boy/suedehead/vagrant-looking band
would contain a drummer on crutches, a four foot bassist, a seven
foot bassist, and a demented sax player who would fight with the
singer. One-time bass guitarist was renowned portrait artist
Humphrey Ocean.
Driving things forward was Dury's confrontational stage
persona, facing down the audience in the way Johnny Rotten would a
few years later. Pete Townshend was impressed enough to invite
them to support The Who on their 'Quadrophenia' tour in
1973.
Bad luck with the labels meant their recorded output was
slight. They turned down the chance to record for Virgin because
Dury wanted "to be on the same label as Max Bygraves".
They recorded the Handsome LP for the Dawn label but split
up the week it was released in June 1975.
A partial resurrection was enacted with Ian Dury & The
Kilburns the following year with Chas Jankel, en route to The
Blockheads. After six years of sporadic activity, the Kilburns
finally called it a day in 1976.
The band's influence was substantial. The Sex Pistols and
The
Specials were all fans in inspirational debt, while Dury's talent
as a lyricist has impressed anyone who has ever sung about London
- from Madness to The Libertines.
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