Handsome (1975) - Kilburn And The High Roads

Personnel:

Ian Dury: vocals

Keith Lucas: guitar, production

Rod Melvin: piano, vocals on 'Broken Skin' and 'Thank You Mum'

Russel Hardy: keyboards on the 1974 Capital Radio broadcast

Charles Sinclair: bass

David Newton-Rohoman: drums

Louis Larose or George Butler: drums on the 1974 Capital Radio broadcast

Davey Payne: saxophone, flute

Clare Torry, Tina Charles: backing vocals

Recorded at Pye Studios, London, in November 1974

Produced by Hugh Murphy and Chris Thomas (on single 'Rough Kids' and 'Billy Bentley (Promenades Himself In London)')

Engineered by Larry Bartlett and Phil Chapman

Photography: Poundcake

Cover painting: Elizabeth Rathmell ('The Kilburns Near Tower Bridge')

Graphics: Gordon House

Label: Dawn

Running time: 40.10

Chart position: failed to chart

Although this was technically their first album, it was really their second. At least we could say that Handsome and Wotabunch were different versions of the same album. Ian commented in the booklet for the Reasons To Be Cheerful compilation:

The Kilburns made two albums, but they were both the same. The second one was to try and stop the first one coming out! In fact, it didn't prevent them because Warner Bros. Records waited until I had some success, and then they put out that album called Wotta Bunch (sic).

The Raft label recordings were made in January 1974. When the Raft label folded, and Warner Brothers, who had taken Raft over, did not want the band, the tapes remained unreleased.

The Kilburns then signed to the Dawn label and went into the Pye studios in November to record the same set of songs again. The songs that made up this album. Including the recording of the demos, this was the third time the songs had been recorded. They hoped they would get them right this time. But once again, they failed. The blame was laid at the producer Hugh Murphy's feet. Ian's view was that he had taken the Kilburns' raw pub rock and polished it until it lost its vitality.

The album was going to be called No Hand Signals, but for some reason, the label vetoed that. They considered it too obscure and uncommercial. Playing on the eccentricity of the band's appearance and in keeping with the cockney theme, they settled on Handsome for the title.

The Kilburns had been greatly successful on the live pub scene, but that failed to ignite into commercial success, and, despite all their hopes and expectations, surprisingly, the album sold poorly. Despite its undeniable quality, showing off Ian's highly original writing talents, it lacked the punch and cutting edge of the live performances and failed to attract wider attention. Their promising career faltered.

'The Roadette Song' (Ian Dury, Russell Hardy)

A few echoey piano notes launch us into the joys of Dury. A fluid keyboard and chunky guitar riff have Ian, in a more restrained vocal than in later years, spitting out his rhyming couplets that were inspired by the Canterbury Arts students Germaine and Genevieve Dolan, who, in their home-made costumes, had danced furiously on stage at the Kilburns' first and subsequent gigs. It became a term used to describe the dancing fans who used to follow the band around from gig to gig. They didn't like to talk much - just dance provocatively.

Diction very bad, friction double rich

Brazen little hussy, rock 'n' rolling bitch

Ian had christened them roadettes. When Denise Roudette heard the song at the first Kilburn's gig she went to, she thought there was some weird paranormal happening and that Ian was singing about her.

The track motors along and then settles into a smoother chorus as Ian cajoles an interested young man not to hustle and bustle but rather join in with the physicality of the dance.

Slow down your hustle bustle

You can take your time, young man

Some of this is muscle

We're off to a good start.

'Pam's Moods' (Ian Dury, Russell Hardy)

The music changes to a 1930s jazz mood with an ethereal wafting chorus, strings and delicious sax. There is even a Django-esque bit of guitar. Not exactly pub rock but very entertaining with oodles of humour and risky lyrics. He's on dodgy ground to start with when addressing female hormones and disposition. Not many dare.

The piano intro, with background strings, starts the piece as Ian recites the opening scene. When Pam and Ian are good, they are brilliant, but when they argue, it's the pits. The whole piece is incarcerated in an envelope of humour as Ian firmly lays the blame for the bitter quarrels on Pam and her emotional fluctuations.

She gives me the business, I lose all self-control

The curse of fifty witches making wormwood of my soul

A life of broken china and sneering yellow hate

Ooh, derision and contusion and things that nauseate

It slips into a divine mellow chorus as Ian croons about 'Pam's moods'. One is left with the feeling that Pam probably had good grounds for her turbulent eruptions. The song ends with an angelic female chorus.

'Crippled With Nerves' (Ian Dury, Russell Hardy)

Released as a single (with B-side 'Huffety Puff') in February 1975

The versatility of the band shines through as the Kilburns transform into the Kilburn Hillbillies for a country & western-tinged exposition, complete with Elvis Presley impersonations and a very raspy saxophone courtesy of Davey. Ian relates the sad story of his unrequited love. He desperately wanted to have and to hold the subject of his bottomless desire, but couldn't because he was crippled by nerves.

'Broken Skin' (Ian Dury, Rod Melvin)

We're back to a mellow ballad as Ian relates the depths of his pain. Throughout his life, he has suffered many afflictions from the ravages of polio and subsequent isolation from home, to the experience in Chailey School, and then the breakup of his family and estrangement from his father. We all have broken skin, but with Ian, the wounds run deep and never heal. It's a delicate, heartfelt song; Ian's vocal is full of subdued melancholy as the female chorus milk the emotions with their plaintive vocals over softly swelling strings.

'Upminster Kid' (Ian Dury, Russell Hardy)

Ian's offering us a slab of Gene Vincent's rock 'n' roll as the Kilburns launch into the song with an upbeat groove. The bass throbs as they capture the 1950s feel of the Blue Caps, complete with a rockabilly guitar solo. Ian half recites, half sings the lyrics - the first of his homages to his hero Gene Vincent.

The female chorus wail in the background as Ian romanticises the spectacle of his larger-than-life version of his existence as a hard, rebellious 15-year-old teddy boy. The attention to detail is immaculate. Ian is dressed to the nines in his black crepe jacket with sideboards down to his chin, 12" bottomed stardust flares with dazzling green socks, driving around in a two-tone zephyr. His older friend Friar is also suitably fitted out in his powder blue suit with criss-cross lurex thread. The people step aside when the Upminster kid walks through. All great, except that he actually wasn't from Upminster, and I can't see too many people stepping out of the way as the 15-year-old wannabe hobbles past. But Ian's fantasy lives.

While the track is well-produced, it somehow lacks the energy of their live performances and falls short of its potential. He'd revisit it later in his career.

'Patience (So What?)' (Ian Dury, Russell Hardy)

The drums set up a speedy pace, complete with chirping guitar and chirruping bass for this 1950s-style rocker. The female backing vocals interject in the chorus with 'So What' in the correct places. It's a bouncy, fun song that rides a jaunty pace with sprightly piano and some rasping brass.

This cheeky number has Ian infatuated with a girl called Patience Eames, but seemingly, she's not interested. In a stream of rhymes, he paints the scenes of how he dreams, dresses up and plays in the band and tries to impress, but she's impervious. Still, he dreams of them snuggling up and getting it on. Another number with humorous couplets and cheeky lines:

He's got the sex technique to make your eyeballs squeak - so what?

'Father' (Ian Dury, Charles Sinclair)

The bass burbles along as the band set up a rapid pace for this comical soap opera music hall rendition. The song paints a scene reminiscent of domestic bliss in an East End council tenement. Father, a quasi-Alf Garnet, entrenched in his armchair, pronounces on...