YouTube Friday: Pub Rock Edition

I’d bet dollars to donuts YouTube sees its highest traffic on Fridays. What better way to kick off the weekend than watching some serious jams? Idolator got a jump on this earlier in the week by compiling The Five Greatest Public Access Music Clips Of All Time.

We have our obsessions here at Shore Fire too, and I thought I’d indulge mine by posting My Four Favorite Pub Rock Clips Of All Time. Why only four? That’s all I could find worth sharing, but it’s seems befitting this perpetually also-ran genre.

Ever since discovering Ducks Deluxe a couple years ago on a compilation called Glitterbest I’ve been hopelessly devoted to pub rock. If you’re into high-energy, no-nonsense, good-time rock & roll, check this stuff out.


If pub rock has a patron saint, it’s Nick Lowe. There’s a lot of Nick on YouTube, but this is the earliest clip I’ve come across, featuring an incredible performance by his early band Brinsley Schwarz. Also features the coolest haircut you’ll see today.



The Groovies were a lot of things to a lot of people, but their influence was perhaps most pronounced on the pub rock scene. Already veterans by the time of this 1972 clip, they perfected a back-to-basics approach that would become one pub rock's hallmarks.



One of the few pub rock bands to break out of the scene, Dr. Feelgood had a #1 record in the UK once upon a time (and it was a live record, no less!). They never made much of an impression in the States, even though music biz legend (and current Blue Note Prez) Bruce Lundvall was a major booster and tried to break them over here. This clip ca. 1975 from Old Grey Whistle Test features the first - and best - Feelgoods lineup. If you’re down w/ The Hives, check out their blueprint!



The greatest punk band that no one considers to be punk. Everyone’s all The Clash! The Damned! The Ramones! But for my money, Eddie and The Hot Rods truly bridged the gap between the old and new waves of rock and roll in the 70s. Their debut LP ‘Teenage Depression’ is a stone classic. Check ‘em out performing the title track here.