While streetlevel acclaim (and Top 20 action) had been granted to Ace and Dr Feelgood, it was the likes of The Searchers, The Downliners Sect and even the lowly Rockin’ Vickers making hay that convinced three of Johnny Kidd’s former Pirates that there might be a place for them too in�the nicotine-clouded pub-rock sun. Indeed there was, and it climaxed with a brief album chart entry for 1977’s Out Of Their Skulls, and BBC radio sessions from the same period, collected on this double-disc set.
With Mick Green’s dazzling lead-rhythm guitar the X-factor (and acknowledged influence of Dr Feelgood’s Wilko Johnson), the old lads make an agreeably retrogressive noise, mixing items from the Kidd portfolio, salaams to other areas of classic rock, and some workmanlike originals. The only conspicuous faults are loss of backing vocals during a 1977 In Concert (with, incidentally, Clayson & The Argonauts in support), and a duplication that sees four versions each of Shakin’ All Over and Drinkin’ Wine Spo- Dee-O-Dee. At least these are delivered with more thought for the listening public than that of any late-70s millionaire superstar forever in America.
