Various Artists - Submarine Tracks & Fool’s Gold (Chiswick Chartbusters Volume One)

Pre-punk? Pub rock? Pub-punk? Post-pub?

At the time this was first released on vinyl, it was a repackaging of various Chiswick 45s anyway, and was no doubt given a more eloquent review than this one at the time. Still, in good ol’ 2007 the reissue of the reissue is perhaps, in a sense, a much more satisfyingly itchy-panted proposition than it was back then. Stripped away from its punk-era context, the tracks fit more neatly into the timeline of ‘pure’ rock’n’roll than anything else. The 101ers’ run-through of Keys To Your Heart now seems to make sense with The Clash’s career as a whole, and the three Gorillas tracks are nothing short of excellent, with hints of glam rock amid the hi-octane rock’n’roll. Count Bishops’ take on Route 66 is as cool as you could hope, but Radio Stars’ Dirty Pictures is just daft. Given some of the more overtly political stuff going on elsewhere, there’s an endearing quality to some of these singles that’s often overlooked in punk-era retrospectives.

Chiswick | CFHP 028

Reviewed by Joe Shooman
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