While we brace ourselves for a plethora of 1977 ’30 Years On’ compilations and reissues, there’s a quiet re-evaluation of punk’s pub rock forefathers happening. In RC 333 we reviewed Jungle Records’ Sean Tyla twofer and now Hux have a collection of his Ducks Deluxe band’s Peel sessions.
Spanning three appearances from ’73-75 it includes the previously unavailable Pensecola Blues and Dancing Beat and a couple of cuts of Fireball, which is perhaps their definitive number. That doubling-up is actually a fortuitous way of demonstrating how Ducks Deluxe developed during their brief lifespan. The ’73 version is tight and gruff, the following year’s more accomplished but less urgent.
Still, the first Peel session, capturing the band before they’d committed anything to vinyl, is a real firebrand mission statement. No longer resident in the BBC archives, it seems, Fireball and the equally vibrant Coast To Coast are represented by recordings that, while inferior to the later transcription disc-sourced material here, are energetic R&B rockers. The ’74/’75 songs show them softening their sound, but still producing dynamic pop. Tyla’s recently recorded a new solo album – these sessions are a reminder of why it’ll be great to welcome him back.
