No Sleep Till Canvey Island: The Great Pub Rock Revolution

No Sleep Till Canvey Island: The Great Pub Rock Revolution

Rating

8.5

The Pequod Review:

No Sleep Till Canvey Island is an excellent book on 1970s English pub rock, an underappreciated music scene that produced Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Dr. Feelgood, Joe Strummer, and many other influential musicians. Will Birch knows his subject quite well and has done an extraordinary amount of research into the bands, venues, promoters and record labels that were at the center of it all. This is a genre that directly influenced punk rock — not just musically, but in its DIY ethos and its focus on smaller concert venues — and it deserves to be much better known than it is. Here is a good pub rock playlist (Spotify).