Having overcome the resistance of his fellow band members to release the timeless “What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love and Understanding”, 27 year-old Nick Lowe was just about to find himself (reluctantly) cast as one of the standard bearers of punk on this day back in 1976.
1976:
Pub rocker par excellence Nick Lowe released his self-produced debut solo single, “So It Goes” – which had the honour of being the first-ever record released on the fldgling Stiff label (with suitable catalogue number BUY1 and another Lowe original, “Heart of The City” on the B side).
Having left the band Brinsley Schwarz the previous year, Lowe was also featuring in Rockpile with Dave Edmunds at the same time and would go on to produce various other artists for the label founded by Dave Robinson and Andrew Jakeman (aka Jake Riviera).
Reflecting on those times three decades later, Lowe said that:
“I could feel that there was going to be a major change in the air. I didn’t know what it was going to be. But I could feel it. I and a few of my friends took a look at the way that the music business was, and realized that the first thing we had to do was tear it down and start again.
“We were just gathered around the corpse stealing the stuff out of the pockets. We thought we’d all be back in regular jobs by the end the year. I really thought the music would be completely forgotten by the end of the year. And all that would remain would be the attitude — it was quite rude and cheeky … And this record would just be forgotten.
“I didn’t know it was still going to be talked about in 30 years. I didn’t even think there would be a pop business in 30 years.”
The track would later appear on Lowe’s maiden album release, “Jesus of Cool” in 1978 (re-titled as “Pure Pop for Now People” when first released in the USA).
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And here’s some footage of Nick in action:
