Various Artists - The Big Stiff Box Set

File under... everything

The pressures and parameters of marketing concepts would make any single- or two-disc compilation of one of the UK’s most affectionately remembered indies a lopsided and unrepresentative affair, inevitably dominated by the big hitters. But such was the scope, ambition, folly and sheer bloody-mindedness of Stiff’s A&R policy that anything less than a box set just won’t do. Madness, Costello, Dury, The Damned, Devo and, erm, The Belle Stars all make their presence felt among these 98 tracks, as do Alvin Stardust and Tracey Ullman. But Stiff was also a halfway house for wayward souls of many a hue, be it jazz drummer Tommy Chase, art disco oddities Yello or pensionable vaudevillian Max Wall. Sequenced chronologically, this pretty much charts Stiff’s rise and fall. The first dozen or so releases (all hugely collectable) included The Pink Fairies, Motörhead and The Adverts, who in turn gave way to the esoteric delights of Lene Lovich and Joe “King” Carrasco, before a wave of outlandish Englishness that included Tenpole Tudor. Later, the pot would be seasoned by sharp-tuned pub-rock (Any Trouble) old hands such as Desmond Dekker, media faves Furniture and Kirsty MacColl, and genuine phenomenons like The Pogues. Maybe six discs would have been a good idea…

Salvo | SALVOBX 402

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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