Chris Spedding - Chris Spedding (1975-77 uk, splendid guitar pub rock, audiophile 2013 issue)

Though this eponymous masterpiece was not Chris Spedding's first solo album, it was the first to impact on the record buying public at large. Spiralling out of his so-memorable hit "Motorbiking," it established the leather-clad, quiff-topped Spedding as the first guitar-hero pin-up of the punk era, a full year before even punk's progenitors had heard of the term. Certainly great swathes of what eventually emerged amid the British new wave was bodily borrowed from Spedding, both visually and, with a few fashionable refinements, visually. 

Chris Spedding sounds like its maker looked: tight, mean, and taking no trash from no-one. The future anthem "Guitar Jamboree" could easily have been replayed with switchblades, while his take on Chuck Berry's "School Days" has a lot more in mind than class work and gym. Electrifying, too, are "Jump in My Car" and "Bedsit Girl." Economically riff-driven guitar pop was nothing new, of course, but rarely had it been executed with such a glowering swagger. Short, sharp and never less than brittle, Chris Spedding has few of the frills that Spedding so adeptly draped over other people's records, few of the twists and turns that distinguished his work with Sharks or later, alone. But, if ever anyone figures out how to fit a CD player into a motorcycle helmet, this should be the first album anybody buys to play on it. 

by Dave Thompson

Tracks
1. New Girl In The Neighbourhood - 2:31
2. School Days (Chuck Berry) - 2:27
3. Sweet Disposition - 2:17
4. Bedsit Girl - 2:04
5. Guitar Jamboree - 4:20
6. Jump In My Car (Ted Mulry) - 3:24
7. Hungry Man - 3:18
8. Motorbikin' - 2:40
9. Catch That Train - 2:41
10.Nervous - 2:14
11.Boogie City - 2:38
12.Working For The Union - 2:53
13.Running Round - 2:38
14.Truck Drivin' Man - 3:13
All songs by Chris Spedding except where indicated

Personnel
*Chris Spedding - Guitar, Vocals
*Brian Bennett - Drums
*Tony Burrows - Vocals
*Tony Carr - Drums
*Dave Cochran - Bass
*Sue Glover - Vocals
*Les Hurdle - Bass
*Neil Lancaster - Vocals
*Sunny Leslie - Vocals
*Charles Mills - Vocals
*Barry Morgan - Drums

1972  Chris Spedding - The Only Lick I Know
1977  Chris Spedding - Hurt

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