Handsome Club/Intelligensia Merger
Out of context: Reply #2
- Started
- Last post
- 13 Responses
- lvl_130
Kilburn and the High-Roads had been playing since 1972 and during that time had developed a strong live following from their pub residencies and not long before recording sessions for the album begun the band had been the support act for The Who on the British part of their Quadrophenia tour but by the time of Handsome's recording the band had changed dramatically. Dury had sacked drummer David Newton-Rohoman, crippled and forced to walk on crutches Newton-Rohoman had contributed nearly as much to the band's 'six men waiting at a bus stop' look as Dury and an even bigger change with the leaving of pianist Russell Hardy, Hardy had been in the band since its' inception and had co-wrote most of the band's original material with Dury. Hardy was replaced by Rod Melvin who would sing two songs on the album (Broken Skin and Thank You Mum) and co-write Ian Dury & The Blockhead's first commercial success What A Waste. Also the band had switched managers from Charlie Gillett & Gordon Nelki to Tommy Roberts who had begun repackaging the Kilburns to make them more acceptable to the masses.
Handsome was recorded in Pye Studios, Marble Arch, this was in fact the second attempt made by Kilburn and the High-Roads to record an album, the original had been completed for Raft Records only for the company to fold and the band to be dropped from WEA (which Raft was a part of) after being seen live by their top man Joe Smith. The Handsome sessions were apparently somewhat disastrous according to bass player Charlie Sinclair in Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll: The Life of Ian Dury there were fights on the studio floor, tension was high and arguments were commonplace and producer Hugh Murphy was keen to make the songs more melodic, something that did not suit Dury's singing style.
The album was preceded by two singles, the first Rough Kids / Billy Bentley (Promenades Himself in London) was originally produced by Chris Thomas (later to produce Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols) before, so he claims, being taken over and softened by Hugh Murphy before its release. The reaction to the single was a good indication of what was to come with poor sales and complaints about the softening of the Kilburn's sound Crippled With Nerves / Huffety Puff fared no better.
The Album was eventually released in June 1975 to unfavorable reviews and sold around 3,000 copies. The band split the week of its release. The album omitted Billy Bentley and crowd-pleasers You're More Than Fair and I'll Have You but the main criticism was the over-producing and softening of the tracks. The subsequent releases of the Raft recordings on Wottabunch! and more so the first mixes for Handsome on Repertoire Records Ian Dury & The Blockheads: Reasons to be Cheerful 2-CD retrospective allow for a good comparison and show just how some tracks had been altered from their original arrangements with The Call-Up, Upminster Kid and particularly The Roadette Song and The Mumble Rumble and The Cocktail Rock sounding totally different due to tempo changes and the addition of backing singers; however it should be noted that not all songs suffered this fate Patience (So What?) and The Badger And The Rabbit are particularly good examples. These changes are almost exclusively attributed to producer Murphy including by Rod Melvin in Ian Dury & The Blockheads: Song by Song and Chris Thomas in Handsome's 1999 CD re-issue.
Though the album continues to draw criticism it did have some influence, Chris Thomas claims that the reason he was approached by the Sex Pistols to produce their album was because of the Rough Kids single and Handsome itself has been cited as an influence by Wreckless Eric and Madness.