ROLL-UPS - LOW DIVES FOR HIGHBALLS

ROLL-UPS  Low Dives For Highballs  LP 1979 CD 2005

Blackmail / Last Night / Where's The Money / It's Up To You / Slaughtered / Cover Girl / Sammy / Strange Love / Somebody Stole The Girl That Stole My Heart / Roll-Ups Gave Me A Bad Name / Hold On / Everybody's Got To Have A Hero.

Produced by Lea Hart & Jeff Peters.

Roll-Ups: Lea Hart: vocals & guitar / Jeff Peters: bass / Paul Simmons: drums /  Rob Green: guitar & vocals / Kirk Duncan: keyboards.

Although history ultimately consigned the Roll-Ups to the dustbin of obscurity, there are few records that could possibly be described as brighter, cheerier, or more exciting or uplifting than Low Dives for Highballs, the band's first and only LP. Frontman and songwriter Lea Hart was kicking out pop classics as though they were going out of favor -- the opening "Blackmail" in particular matches Nick Lowe with Radio Stars, while successive rockers "Last Night," "Where's the Money," and "It's Up to You" (and on to the end of the disc) fizz and bounce around so many compulsive hooks that it's hard to believe they all remain unsung. Hart himself did not give up on them, and swaths of the album would be preserved across his next band's repertoire. But former Bay City Roller Ian Mitchell's La Rox fared even poorer than the Roll-Ups, and so the most astonishing pop package of the early '80s sank without trace. But Low Dives lives on, both as a souvenir of a seething songbook and a reminder of the sheer power that the Roll-Ups kicked out in concert. The final song on the vinyl issue, "Roll-Ups Gave Me a Bad Name," was recorded live at their traditional stomping ground at the Bridgehouse pub, and if you don't agree that the ghosts of the Small Faces are draped across the record, then you were clearly born with no soul. Source

UK import of obscure London band who released one spectacular power pop album that no one heard back in 1979 that sounded like it was recorded in 1975. Perfect post-glam power pop sounds that sound like classic, long-lost Pilot tracks, Badfinger circa their "Airwaves" period, some (good, not sappy) Bay City Rollers, 10cc, Klaatu and Radio Stars/Jet. It`s a major find for fans of this style of pop music! "These popsters from South London anonymously emerged in the midst of the mod revival, on a mod label no less. They go in a lot of different directions but are saved by spunky individuality that lets them build a niche of their own. Lea Hart (almost all the songwriting) sings like a cocky cockney crossed with a dollop of it`s true! Donald Fagen, and melds his guitar to Jeff Peters` in dual-axe moves Brian May didn`t have in mind when he wrote the book. Add an assortment of non-electronic keyboards, and you`ve got a swell pop recipe for songs ranging from a 10cc-ish look at adulterous "Blackmail" to shock-horror destruction as epic as any punk`s."-Trouser Press. Extremely Highly Recommended!!! Source

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