In 1980 'Rockpile' were musical guests on the December 19 edition of ABC's variety show 'Fridays'. While "Knife And Fork" (2:02) and "Teacher, Teacher" (5:48) were included on the "Seconds Of Pleasure" album and subsequently featured regularly in the band's setlist for some time, the real gem here is "Big Blon' Baby" (0:00). Originally recorded by Ronnie Self in 1958 and more prominently by Jerry Lee Lewis a year later, both those recordings suffer from a rather unattractive oompah-oompah kind of rhythm. But not only did 'Rockpile' cook it up here accordingly in their trademark style - to the best of my knowledge, this is their only recording of the track.
Admittedly, this footage is of rather poor quality (video as well as audio) - but as - in its entirety - it's disappeared from YT, I think it's got to be back. And I haven't seen a better version yet, anyway. So, here it is - enjoy!
p.s. Three things to take note of here:
- In the first part of "Big Blon' Baby" Billy Bremner obviously didn't have any sound come out of his amp, which was then rectified.
- Another faux-pas of Billy's happens in "Knife And Fork" when he messes up the (otherwise neat) solo part at the end.
- And, lastly, I was taken by surprise by the band's somewhat clumsy conduct when not playing . . . as if they somehow didn't know what to do - funny.