{"id":2629,"date":"2010-03-22T18:35:42","date_gmt":"2010-03-22T22:35:42","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-10-19T23:18:42","modified_gmt":"2010-10-20T03:18:42","slug":"pub-rock-also-rans-pt-4-ducks-deluxe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/pub-rock-also-rans-pt-4-ducks-deluxe\/","title":{"rendered":"Pub Rock Also-Rans Pt. 4: Ducks Deluxe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In honor of the recent RTH <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/the-rock-town-hall-interview-martin-belmont\" target=\"_blank\">interview<\/a> with <strong>Martin Belmont<\/strong> I want to have a look at his first band, <strong>Ducks Deluxe<\/strong>, and the later careers of its members to see what it tells us about the evolution of British rock in the &#8217;70s and afterwards.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/Ducks3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Ducks\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/Ducks3.jpg\" alt=\"The Ducks\" width=\"400\" height=\"355\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">The Ducks<\/div>\n<p>As Martin says in the interview the Ducks specialized in rough and ready rock and worked best when focused on frontman <strong>Sean Tyla<\/strong>. Mr. Mod already posted the one good clip of the band playing one of its signature songs live, but here\u2019s the studio version of \u201cCoast to Coast.\u201d<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hUfrES0DEz0?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>It was the opening track of their eponymously titled first album, and I love the way Tyla welcomes the audience with \u201cAll right, kids, are you readuh?\u201d We\u2019re going to talk more about him later, but Tyla was a real character, and he specialized in this kind of straight ahead, almost Springsteenian rock. Here&#8217;s &#8220;Fireball.&#8221;<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MvHcKHJPqFQ?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>Tyla also liked to write about imaginary Americana, so there are songs with titles like like \u201cRio Grande\u201d and \u201cWest Texas Trucking Board.\u201d The problem with Ducks Deluxe as a recording band is that you can\u2019t really have a whole album of uptempo rockers like that, and they faltered a bit when it came to ballads. Also, there were two other songwriters in the band, our buddy Martin Belmont and <strong>Nick Garvey<\/strong>, and the vocals on those songs are much less distinctive than Tyla\u2019s. Here\u2019s Belmont\u2019s \u201cSomething Goin\u2019 On,&#8221; with later Ducks bassist <strong>Micky Groome<\/strong> on vocals:<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iYge4wE-e38?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>The different styles of the songwriters just seem to make it a little hard to get a fix on the identity of the band. Live this probably would not have been so much of a problem, and the excellent covers on their albums (<strong>Eddie Cochran<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cNervous Breakdown,\u201d <strong>Bobby Fuller<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cI Fought the Law,\u201d and <strong>Bobby Womack<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cIt\u2019s All Over Now\u201d) give some other hints of why they were popular on the pub rock circuit. But as usual in this genre their records didn\u2019t sell, and they disbanded in 1975.<\/p>\n<p>They had a decently selected best-of LP named after another of their signature rockers, \u201cDon\u2019t Mind Rockin\u2019 Tonight.\u201d<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HOau_vm9ohA?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>It was issued in 1978, I assume because the members had achieved some fame in subsequent bands. I don\u2019t think it ever made it out of the vinyl era, but you can probably find a copy. Despite their lack of sales at the time, they are now pretty well-represented on CD. Their two regular albums (the second one is called <em>Taxi to the Terminal Zone<\/em>) are available as a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Ducks-Deluxe-Taxi-Terminal-Zone\/dp\/B00005TO0I\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=music&amp;qid=1269089588&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\">twofer<\/a>. And there\u2019s a second <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/All-Too-Much-Blow-You\/dp\/B000HWXR3I\/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&amp;s=music&amp;qid=1269089588&amp;sr=1-4\" target=\"_blank\">twofer<\/a> with their third record, which was an EP, some stray tracks, and then the first album by the <strong>Tyla Gang<\/strong>, Sean\u2019s next band, again about which more in a minute. The Ducks have actually reformed recently for some European dates, and they\u2019ve issued a very nice, newly-recorded EP called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Box-Shorts-Ducks-Deluxe\/dp\/B00274OC4W\/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_lnk\" target=\"_blank\">Box of Shorts<\/a>, which, except for being much better recorded, sounds pretty much like the original band. Here&#8217;s a clip of them performing a song from the EP, &#8220;Diesel Heart,&#8221; in Stockholm last year:<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uikYC4pwTg4?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/Ducks4.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Deluxe\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/Ducks4.jpg\" alt=\"Deluxe\" width=\"400\" height=\"594\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">Deluxe<\/div>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p>The Ducks\u2019 other songwriter, bassist Nick Garvey, occasionally showed an affinity for a much poppier style. Here&#8217;s &#8220;Please Please Please.&#8221;<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GbII7KJ6xZI?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>And the later version of the band added keyboardist <strong>Andy McMasters<\/strong>, who followed the same path with a song that was later recorded by <strong>The Searchers<\/strong> during their late &#8217;70s comeback, &#8220;Love&#8217;s Melody.&#8221;<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YOS6LdLuRwE?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>Here we can see one branch of pub rock evolving towards power pop, but you can also see that this style really doesn\u2019t fit with the rest of the band\u2019s material. After the Ducks broke up, Garvey and McMasters formed the <strong>The Motors<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>[Actually here\u2019s a music nerd footnote cribbed from Wikipedia. There was a brief detour before the Motors started up. \u201cHaving left Ducks Deluxe in early 1975, Garvey formed a band called <strong>The Snakes<\/strong> with Slaughter and vocalist <strong>Robert Gotobed<\/strong>, who would later form the punk band, <strong>Wire<\/strong>.\u201d]<\/p>\n<p>I remember The Motors as having a very polished, altogether more mainstream sound:<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ylHUDBs1gF8?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p><strong>Bram Tchaikovsky<\/strong>, whose later hit \u201cGirl of My Dreams\u201d was very much in this mold, was also in The Motors for a bit, but I didn\u2019t know that then. I just knew that in 1977 this was not really what I wanted to hear, even though hearing this song now I can see that it\u2019s not all that different from other stuff I did like. \u201cDancing the Night Away\u201d was covered by <strong>Cheap Trick<\/strong> on their 1983 album <em>Next Position Please<\/em>, so at least some people in America got it. It was a minor hit in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>Because I kind of wrote them off, I missed The Motors\u2019 evolution into a more modern, and much more successful, new wave band. McMasters started adding synths to their sound, and they scored a major British it with \u201cAirport.\u201d<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/liH-uW2iymk?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>I still think The Motors suffered from the lack of a distinctive vocalist, but this combination of hard rock with pop and electronics really worked for them for a bit. The nearest American analogue would be (surprise) <strong>The Cars<\/strong>. Individual albums are available on CD, but they also have a good compilation called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Airport-Motors-Greatest-Hits\/dp\/B000000HY7\/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&amp;s=music&amp;qid=1269092181&amp;sr=1-5\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Airport: The Motors&#8217; Greatest Hits<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/motors.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Motors\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/motors.jpg\" alt=\"The Motors\" width=\"320\" height=\"318\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">The Motors<\/div>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p>Martin Belmont, of course, went on to form <strong>The Rumour<\/strong> with a bunch of other pub rock veterans. As he indicates in his interview, their band predated the association with <strong>Graham Parker<\/strong>, but by deciding to focus on his songs and his persona they avoided the some of the identity problems that plagued Ducks Deluxe. I won\u2019t retell the story of their artistic success and relative commercial failure. I will point out that their sound wasn\u2019t all that different from pub rock, but it was played with a fierce intensity, and let\u2019s face it a lot more skill and professionalism, than early &#8217;70s pub rock, which tended to be a bit more laid back. This can be heard on the three fine albums The Rumour made without GP. From the first one, <em>Max<\/em>, here\u2019s their version of Martin\u2019s song that I YouTubed earlier in this post:<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/93_jFRpyh9c?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>Very nice (produced, like GP\u2019s <em>Heat Treatment<\/em> and the first Motors album, by <strong>Mutt Lange<\/strong>, btw). Using the reggae rhythm like that in 1977 was very prophetic, and it would become much more common later (see the early &#8217;80s <strong>Langer\/Winstanley<\/strong> productions with <strong>Madness<\/strong>, for example), but the Rumour rhythm section was really good at it. Here they are from that same album doing <strong>Nick Lowe<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cMess with Love\u201d in pretty much a straight pub rock arrangement:<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aAVnYmPr-A4?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>I think this sounds great, and thought so at the time, but it went nowhere with the broader public. Once again, several singers and songwriters, good material, but not a clear identity the masses could latch onto. The Rumour took a sharp left turn on their second album <em>Frogs, Sprouts, Clogs, and Krauts<\/em>:<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cObvO93LgFw?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>More synthesizers and an almost <strong>Bowie<\/strong>-in-Berlin kind of sensibility. I\u2019d speculate that going Euro was keyboardist <strong>Bob Andrews<\/strong>&#8216; idea, although there are songs in the same vein by other band members too. I *love* this album, but it went also nowhere. The public, those who heard it anyway, were probably just confused by it. It was maybe an attempt to forge a new identity, and it\u2019s successful on that level, but no one expected this from The Rumour, and it was perhaps too premature to be successfully opportunistic. Bob Andrews would leave the band soon afterwards (and eventually move to New Orleans, where for some years now he has been a piano-man-about-town, reverting to his R&amp;B roots), and The Rumour would make one more pubrockish album, the paisley-covered one discussed in our Belmont interview, before disbanding.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/paisley.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Paisley Overground\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/paisley.jpg\" alt=\"Paisley Overground\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">Paisley Overground (it&#8217;s not blurry, you must be high)<\/div>\n<p>[You probably know that Rumour drummer <strong>Steve Goulding<\/strong> played on <strong>Elvis Costello<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cWatching the Detectives,\u201d and you possibly also know that he has been a member of <strong>The Mekons<\/strong> since the mid-&#8217;80s, but here\u2019s another music nerd note cribbed from Wikipedia. \u201dWith the <strong>Associates<\/strong> he had a UK #9 hit single with &#8220;Party Fears Two&#8221;. He also played the drums on the hit single &#8220;Let&#8217;s Go to Bed&#8221; by <strong>The Cure<\/strong>.]<\/p>\n<p><em>Next, my favorite part of the story&#8230;after the jump!<\/em><br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p>This is my favorite part of the story. I first heard the <strong>Tyla Gang<\/strong> on <em>Hits Greatest Stiffs<\/em>, the compilation of the first 11 singles on <strong>Stiff Records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/Hits_Greatest_Stiffs.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" title=\"If It Ain't Stiff...\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/Hits_Greatest_Stiffs.jpg\" alt=\"If It Ain't Stiff...\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">If It Ain&#8217;t Stiff&#8230;<\/div>\n<p>It came out in September of 1977, but I must have gotten it sometime in 1978. At the time I guess I thought of this stuff as punk rock (and it does have <strong>The Damned<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cHelp\u201d on it), but I now know it was mostly pub rock. Here are Tyla\u2019s two tracks:<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AXGb-plnpu4?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rVW29r5lVSU?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>These are quite different from Ducks Deluxe stuff, kind of <strong>ZZ Top<\/strong> by way of <em>Safe As Milk<\/em>. Stiff specialized in the oddball, but this was out there, and I was smitten. This collection, and its successor <em>A Bunch of Stiffs<\/em>, ruled my world in those days.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/A_Bunch_of_Stiff_Records.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" title=\"...It Ain't Worth a Fuck\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/A_Bunch_of_Stiff_Records.jpg\" alt=\"...It Ain't Worth a Fuck\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">&#8230;It Ain&#8217;t Worth a Fuck<\/div>\n<p>His song \u201cThe Young Lords\u201d was on that second comp, and here\u2019s the Tyla Gang playing it on German tv in 1978:<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/msRxk7IKaDI?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>And this brings us to one of my favorite albums&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/Tyla-Gang-Yachtless-445145.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tyla Gang at their best\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/Tyla-Gang-Yachtless-445145.jpg\" alt=\"Tyla Gang at their best\" width=\"400\" height=\"359\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">Tyla Gang at their best<\/div>\n<p>This album originally came out on the <strong>Berserkeley<\/strong> label, for some reason, in 1977. I remember being very happy to find it as an import maybe a year or two later. Remember how the sleeves on import LPs were floppier than the heavier cardboard on American LPs and how that just added to their allure? I love everything about this record. It has the classic lineup of the band, with guitarist <strong>Bruce Irvine<\/strong>, who is a fine lead player, and he drops some tasty slide on quite a few of the songs. And here\u2019s a nerdnote I don\u2019t need Wikipedia for \u2013 the rhythm section was <strong>Brian Turrington<\/strong> (bass) and <strong>Mike Desmarais<\/strong> (drums) of <strong>The Winkies<\/strong>, the band that backed <strong>Eno<\/strong> on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/rock-n-roll-holy-grail-eno-in-live-circa\" target=\"_blank\">those strange tracks he recorded between <strong>Roxy Music<\/strong> and <em>Here Come the Warm Jets<\/em><\/a>. They also played on the Island-era <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/rock-video-holy-grails-john-cale\" target=\"_blank\">John Cale<\/a><\/strong> albums, and Turrington played here and there on Eno\u2019s other early albums as well as <strong>Manzanera<\/strong>\u2019s <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/mystery-date-revealed-phil-manzanera-wit\" target=\"_blank\">Diamond Head<\/a><\/em>. It\u2019s a weird example of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/don_t_call_it_rockabilly_rth_interviews_\" target=\"_blank\">the pub rock world intersecting with the art rock world<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The band had been touring steadily when they recorded the album, and they\u2019re very tight.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Tyla Gang, \u201cDon\u2019t Shift a Gear\u201d\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/Gear.mp3\">Tyla Gang, \u201cDon\u2019t Shift a Gear\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is mainstream rock music, but dripping with personality and panache, though it was only successful in Europe.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Tyla Gang, \u201cLost Angels\u201d\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/Angels.mp3\">Tyla Gang, \u201cLost Angels\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Tyla kept his sense of humor, but he also expanded his emotional range, and he finally mastered the ballad, including this very affecting song which ends the album.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Tyla Gang, \u201cDon\u2019t Turn Your Radio On\u201d\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/Radio.mp3\">Tyla Gang, \u201cDon\u2019t Turn Your Radio On\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll resist the temptation to post all the tracks here, but the album is very consistent. Unfortunately I can\u2019t point you to YouTube to listen to it (isn\u2019t it weird how YouTube has become a copyright-free jukebox?), though it looks like you can listen to all of it on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lala.com\/#search\/yachtless\" target=\"_blank\">lala.com<\/a>. <em>Yachtless<\/em> finally came out on CD a couple of years ago, and the great thing is that the reissue includes a batch of those oddball Stiff singles as bonus tracks. It\u2019s kind of expensive as an import CD, but Amazon has it as a very reasonably priced mp3 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Yachtless\/dp\/B000YTRQMC\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=dmusic&amp;qid=1269102161&amp;sr=8-1\" target=\"_blank\">download<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As I said, Tyla was a real character. I love this photo of him, which I think may have been the (back?) cover of one of his singles.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/tyla.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tyla Gang is No. 1!\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/tyla.jpg\" alt=\"Tyla Gang is No. 1!\" width=\"400\" height=\"562\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">Tyla Gang is No. 1!<\/div>\n<p>He wasn\u2019t a punk, but I think he benefited from the punk\u2019s attempt to expand rock\u2019s possibilities. He made a bunch of other records, more American, even Californian, sounding, intermittently fine, but things never came together for him again like they did on <em>Yachtless<\/em>. In addition to touring Europe recently with the reconstituted Ducks Deluxe, Tyla has announced a similar tour with the classic lineup of the Tyla Gang for this summer.<br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p>As a coda to all of this, let me say that I think that Martin Belmont\u2019s career over the long haul is interesting. Ducks Deluxe was certainly on the rock end of the pub rock spectrum, and The Rumour didn\u2019t really have much country flavouring. But after The Rumour he played with <strong>Carlene Carter<\/strong> and <strong>Nick Lowe\u2019s Cowboy Outfit<\/strong>. As he says in the interview his current work as a sideman is with artists who are country\/western swing\/rockabilly, and his recent album <em>The Guest List<\/em> is definitely much more <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/pub-rock-also-rans-part-1\" target=\"_blank\">Bees Make Honey\/Eggs Over Easy<\/a><\/strong> than <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/pub-rock-also-rans-pt-3-pub-rock\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. Feelgood<\/a><\/strong>. Some musicians evolve over time as taste &#8211; their own and others\u2019 &#8211; evolves. Some become more themselves over time. Sometimes they just keep doing what they&#8217;re doing. Some say what they have to say and get out. Sometimes they change music, and sometimes the music changes them.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/martin-belmont-cowboy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Country &amp; Western (England &amp; London, respectively)\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/martin-belmont-cowboy.jpg\" alt=\"Country &amp; Western (England &amp; London, respectively)\" width=\"400\" height=\"600\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">Country &amp; Western (England &amp; London, respectively)<\/div>\n<nav class=\"page-links\"><strong>Pages:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/pub-rock-also-rans-pt-4-ducks-deluxe\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">1<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/pub-rock-also-rans-pt-4-ducks-deluxe\/2\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">2<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/pub-rock-also-rans-pt-4-ducks-deluxe\/3\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">3<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/pub-rock-also-rans-pt-4-ducks-deluxe\/4\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">4<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/pub-rock-also-rans-pt-4-ducks-deluxe\/5\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">5<\/span><\/a><\/nav>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In honor of the recent RTH interview with Martin Belmont I want to have a look at his first band, Ducks Deluxe, and the later careers of its members to see what it tells us about the evolution of British rock in the &#8217;70s and afterwards. The Ducks As Martin says in the interview the <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/pub-rock-also-rans-pt-4-ducks-deluxe\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[238,18,237,4,3,67,239],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2629"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}