Roots-rockers are seldom as purist as Dave Edmunds. Throughout his career, he stayed true to '50s and '60s rock & roll -- for Edmunds, rock & roll history stopped somewhere in 1963, after the Beach Boys' first singles but before the Beatles' hits. After establishing himself as a hotshot lead guitarist in the blues-rockers Love Sculpture, he... [+] Read More

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Dee Walker, the recording artist, was the creation of Dance Network label head Paul Bultitute -- his idea was to compliment the early-80s wave of mod-revivalists by adding a sixties-styled "girl" singer in the image of Cilla Black or Sandy Shaw. In 1984, Baultitude signed the 22 year-old and enlisted Paul Bevoir of the Jet Set to write the... [+] Read More

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Kirsty MacColl, daughter of folk singer/songwriter Ewan MacColl, began her own musical career while still in her teens, singing in a band called the Addix, and eventually signed to the legendary Stiff Records. Her first single, the modern girl group gem, "They Don't Know," was released in 1979. Though it failed in the charts, it was later a... [+] Read More

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As the leader of the seminal pub rockers Brinsley Schwarz, a producer, and a solo artist, Nick Lowe held considerable influence over the development of punk rock. With the Brinsleys, Lowe began a back-to-basics movement that flowered into punk rock in the late '70s. As the house producer for Stiff, he recorded many seminal records by the likes... [+] Read More

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During the late '70s, Rockpile was the touring band for both Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe. Like Edmunds, the band was passionate about traditional rock & roll. Like Lowe, the band played with a reckless, trashy abandon. Driven by the powerful rhythm section of drummer Terry Williams and Lowe's bass, guitarists Billy Bremner and Edmunds were free... [+] Read More

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The Maisonettes were an odd one-hit band of the early '80s, the oddness lying not so much in their hit as their combination of maverick indie label beginnings with a semi-manufactured image that some indie purists might find crass. Their hit, "Heartache Avenue," entered the U.K. charts in late 1982 and rose all the way up to number seven. Like... [+] Read More

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