RIP Barrie Masters, frontman and founding member of Canvey Island pub rockers Eddie & the Hot Rods.
The band were lauded as one of the pioneers of the nascent punk scene, with no less a figure than The Clash's Joe Strummer citing them as the first punk band he ever saw and John Peel pointing to them as the first example of there being a 'change in the air'. But being grouped with DIY bands like The Sex Pistols didn't go down too well originally with Masters who believed the band was more to do with hard graft and accomplishments than fashion. Indeed, The Sex Pistols played their debut gig as support for Eddie & the Hot Rods in London in 1976 and incurred Masters' wrath by smashing up the band's equipment; "I gave John Lydon a little slap and told him, you don't do that to another band's gear" Masters later recalled. They were perhaps best known for the 1977 hit, Do Anything You Wanna Do, an anthem for disillusioned teenagers whose message did little to separate them from the punk milieu they found themselves unintentionally part of. But I'm with Masters; Many's the time down the years that I have bored friends and acquaintances with how much I love this song and how, to me at least, it represents the closest in spirit a British outfit ever got the similar dissatisfied blue collar desire for wanderlust that Bruce Springsteen employed across the pond. It's a beautiful track that immediately energises you, and I cannot think of a better tribute to Masters than playing it, so here goes...
Masters eventually came to terms with the tag 'punk' after playing in the US where he found Blondie were also being heralded as a punk group. The band folded in 1981 but reformed three years later and last performed a live retirement gig together in April this year at the suitably titled 'Done Everything We Wanna Do' night in London.
RIP
End Transmission
