We’d have to acknowledge Dave Kusworth’s veteran status even while considering him one of those overlooked musicians whose discography includes bands of lore, but not of lasting recognition. Part of the late 70s Solihull scene, Kusworth was a member of TV Eye (recalled by Duran Duran’s John Taylor as “a Birmingham band of some legend”), recorded as The Hawks alongside Stephen Duffy and cut some terrific records with Nikki Sudden as The Jacobites.
Originally released on the Birmingham-based Swordfish label – Kusworth knew its boss Mike Caddick through Caddick’s Rockers Records shop – this first album under his own name has never previously been available on CD and, indeed, the tapes only recently resurfaced; the first disc here contains the original LP, the second a collection of demo tracks and covers.
Though much of Kusworth’s work remains available, it does seem shameful that this LP hasn’t resurfaced previously. It’s a very decent and proper rock album demonstrating the influences that Nikki Sudden noted, in his autobiography, would later bind the two of them together: “the Stones, The Faces, Mick Ronson, Mott The Hoople”. The Bounty Hunters builds on those starting points, but Kusworth captured his own identity too.
