10/29/2015

Chris Spedding And The Vibrators - Pogo Dancing - RAK - 2C.006-98449 - 1977

Chris Spedding was a jazz guitarist turned session musician, and appeared on several interesting (and way more not-so-interesting) recordings throughout the 70s. I've only listed a handful, mostly those related to library, novelty, junkshop glam or 'punk.'

1972: Played guitar and wrote a song for Standard Music Library - Small Group Pop. The Spedding-penned song appears in the movie Serpico.

1973: Played bass on first LP by comedy trio the Goodies.

1973: Chris becomes the guitarist for Mike Batt's novelty creation, The Wombles. Apparently, when playing "live," the Wombles suits contained actual musicians. Chris Spedding as Wellington brought his trademark white Flying V guitar to the character.

1974: Teamed up with songwriter Mike Batt again to play guitar for a recording credited to Top Of The Pops dance troupe 'Pan's People' called 'You Can Really Rock And Roll Me.'

1975: Played guitar on theme song to music TV show 'Supersonic'.

1975: Played guitar on loads of Kenny songs. It makes sense that session musicians would have been used, since the band, formerly 'Chuff,' was hired to become 'Kenny' in order to milk some more from Tony Kenny's earlier success.

1976: In October Chris Spedding teamed up with the Vibrators to record 'Pogo Dancing' and 'The Pose' and while they were at it, he played guitar on their first A-side 'We Vibrate.'

Pogo Dancing on Supersonic:



Chris Spedding also has numerous production credits, but I'm only listing the few that interest me at the moment.

1976: Chris produced some demos for the Sex Pistols in which he wanted to highlight the ability of the rhythm section, especially Matlock's bass. He felt that muddy recordings were used by poor musicians to cover their flaws, and that his goal for these demos was to prove that this band could actually play their instruments. The Sex Pistols and McLaren decided it was better to sound like they couldn't play their instruments, so the demos were rejected and only released on bootlegs.

1979: Chris produced some demos for 'The Cramps' but Lux and Ivy thought they sounded too polished, so they've only been released on bootlegs.

Another TV appearance:



Live version recorded Friday, March 13, 1981 at Trax in NYC and released on 'Friday The 13th' LP:


From a 1977 interview:
""I'd appreciate it if you played down the punk rock thing," he says mildly, looking at me out of the corners of his soft brown eyes. "I don't want people to think that I'm leaping onto a bandwagon, when I can stand on my own two feet."
SURPRISING words for someone whose latest claim to fame-or notoriety is his involvement with the Vibrators, one of the new wave bands. "Pogo Dancing," their single, is threatening the charts right now. So dammit all, Spedding, explain yourself.
"Well first of all the Vibrators aren't really a punk band anyway. They're too old for one thing - one of them is thirty-two.""



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