about sometime in the
1980s, when I realised
that my career as a pop
star was over, or certainly
coming to an end. I’d
enjoyed it, it was fun,
but I could tell that
the public was tired of my shtick – as was I.”
So he took stock for almost two years, and
concluded he hadn’t done too badly. “I’d
produced some good records, I’d written
one or two good songs that are going to stick
around for a while. But I really didn’t think
that I’d done anything really good.” And at
that time, the music business had little time
for older acts; it was “inconceivable” that
you’d be a pop singer when you were 40.
OFF THE
PRODUCTION
LINE
HE’S NOT JUST A SINGER...
‘Accidental producer’ Nick Lowe apparently gained the
nickname ‘Basher’ for knocking out records quickly and
saying they could tidy them up later. When he was taken on as Stiff Records’ in-house
producer by Jake Riviera and Dave Robinson, he recorded his own single first. So It Goes/
Heart Of The City was knocked out for just £65 in the hot summer of 1976, a pre-punk mini
classic. Then it was straight into producing The Damned’s pioneering punk single New Rose,
and their thrice self-titled album, Damned Damned Damned.
The Pretenders and Chrissie Hynde made their breakthrough with the fabulous single Stop
Your Sobbing, produced by Lowe, who then bowed out and left the rest of their songs in the
capable hands of Chris Thomas (“a much better pop record producer. It was a stroke of luck
that he came along, so it worked out fine”).
Elvis Costello, also with Stiff Records, had the strongest working relationship with Lowe,
and they made some of their best music together, including the classic album Get Happy!!
(1980) which squeezed 20 tracks onto one vinyl record (thanks to the skill of their cutting
engineer). And every single track was a peach, such as I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down and
High Fidelity (“a really good record”).Gary^ M
iller/Fil
mM
agi
c/G
ettyNow, says Lowe, you can’t move for people
in their seventies and eighties, but back then
it was impossible unless you were a crooner
like Sinatra or Engelbert Humperdinck. “If
you wanted to do something that had a little
groove to it, it was impossible.”
So he made a conscious decision. “I
thought, I’m going to reinvent myself and
get an act together which
will take advantage of the
fact I’m getting older; it
won’t be something I’ll
get embarrassed by or
have to hide. It was a
grown-up thing, I’d do
it my way, I’d make up
my own rules and do it
instinctively. I thought
to myself, if I get this
right, young people
will like it too.”
After all, Lowe had
always thought older artists were hip.
No one wanted to know in the UK, he says,
but in the US they did. He had a following
there from when Rockpile used to go over
and tour incessantly. So he played there non-
stop, “and this schtick that I came up with
caught on. I worked hard to bring younger
people into my audience without ‘getting
down with the kids’ or anything like that.”
Live music is where Lowe is at now,
especially touring with the brilliant LosStraitjackets, and they’re having tons of
fun. There are two EPs (Tokyo Bay / Crying
Inside and Love Starvation / Trombone)
out, but he’s not sure about making another
album. “It makes sense to have something
that shows you’re still in business; something
for the merch table. But I’d be deluded if
I thought there was any chance of anyone
buying this sort of thing on any kind of large
scale. It’s more a souvenir for people who've
come to the show.”
Nick Lowe now puts his faith with the
younger generation, including his own
teenage son, Roy, who is a decent drummer.
Father and son even played together for
Nick’s older sister’s birthday party, and
he has no qualms about performing with
him: “for a 14-year-old kid, he’s very good.”
Lowe is especially heartened by Roy and
his generation, because they don’t have any
of the snobbery that his peers used to have.
“We could be forgiven, because rock’n’roll
had only just been invented. And it seemed
like it was Ground Zero. It was our stuff
and it belonged to us and it was brand new
and everything else was shit. We only liked
that stuff. And I only really started getting
over that when I was a fully-fledged adult.
But Roy and his lot don’t have any of that
snobbery. And God bless ’em for that!”
Nick Lowe + Los Straitjackets EP: Love
Starvation / Trombone is out now on Yep
Roc Records.Nick Lowe