EXCLUSIVE SHINDIG! QOBUZ PLAYLIST #29: FROM FIELDS TO THE PUB

We’re very excited to be media partners with the truly unique online streaming platform and download store Qobuz. This month, the 29th of our monthly bespoke playlists, which take in all manner of genres and sub-genres, scenes and beyond, then and now, looks at the move from hippy country-rock bands who inhabited the early ’70s UK festival scene to the nascent pub-rock explosion

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The music in this playlist could be classified in a number of ways, but the purpose here is to show the pathway taken by predominantly London-based bands in the early to late ’70s. Take The Action, who progressed from an urban mod band into denizens of the hippy festival circuit before splitting and members going on to Ace and Chilli Willi & The Red Hot Peppers, who ditched the acid for brown ale, roll-ups and down-home music. The trajectory from beat band hopefuls to Dead and CSN loving wide-eyed hippys to pub-rockers was certainly the route many took, avoiding progressive, heavy-rock and glam, although inevitably some journeymen tried their hands at everything. What was common with most of these bands was their love of denim shirts and rootsy music.

The Band were a huge inspiration on pub-rock pioneers Brinsley Schwarz, who drastically changed their outlook and sensibility after witnessing American ex-pats Eggs Over Easy in the back room of a North London pub. In this stripped back environment, which was totally at odds with the stadium rock of the period, bands could play soul and R&B, folk and country-rock, rock ’n’ roll, whatever they wanted. Energy was high, but so was emoting soulfully without fuss.

Granted, this collection works more around the classic Americana sound that inspired so many bands, but there are diversions into soul, rock, R&B and even proto-punk. There would have been no London punk scene without the path forged by such trailblazers as The 101ers (featuring Joe Strummer), Eddie & The Hot Rods, and, of course, Dr Feelgood.