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Billy Childish,
Vocals
Will Power, Guitar
Big Russ, Bass
Little Russ on Drums
 The
Pop Rivets (AKA TV 21) played their first show in 1977 at
Detling Village Hall, Kent. Famous for their renditions
of "Stingray" and "Hippy Hippy Shake",
The Pop Rivets recorded the first truly independent punk
LP in 1978/9, pipping Swell Maps to the post (who's LP was
actually funded by Rough Trade). The Pop Rivets, on the
other hand, borrowed £300 from AKA, a friend, who
had just received a year's Social Security back pay. AKA
was a type of fan who hated Childish and dismissed the Pop
Rivets as a bunch of art school wafters. The mystified Pop
Rivets took the money anyway and set about recording the
"Greatest Hits" LP in the front room of a bungalow
in Herne Bay. (They had to stop recording for the engineers
mother to watch the 6 o'clock news). The resulting LP was
described in the NME as "The youngsters as the future
of rock 'n' roll" and then nothing happened.
In 1979 The Pop Rivets embarked on two self-promoted tours
of Switzerland and Germany and recorded their 2nd LP - Empty
Sounds From Anarchy Ranch. Two further EP's appeared in
1980 before The Pop Rivets recorded a lost John Peel session
and split up. For The Pop Rivets, punk rock had gone horribly
wrong. Thatcher - Milk Snatcher was in and New Romanticism
was rearing its
poesy old head. Far from being dead and buried it seamed
that Bowie and co we're on the ascendant. But there where
still many questions the boys need answers for: Why did
modern studios insist on making drum kits sound like the
recording of a wet cardboard box with a dead fish in it?
Why could no group keep its integrity beyond one LP, or
even a single 45? Why were Link
Wrays 2 track recordings more vital and exciting than anything
a modern 8 track studio, or 16 track studio could knock
out? Did spiders really see out of all eight eyes at once?
Could it be that sophistication far from enhancing creativity,
destroyed it?
It was time for the Pop Rivets to stifle their intellects
and devolve. There were plans to record a final double LP
consisting entirely of rock n roll covers recorded live
on half track to be titled - The Pop Rivets Meet the Whirling
Dervish and survive! They didn't.
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