Nick Lowe - Toronto 1978
When Jesus of a cool was released Charles Shaar Murray and I went to the US to do two cover stories for the NME, one on Nick and the other on Elvis.
The American record company was nervous about the LP's title and chose instead to call the album Pure Pop For Now People, a catchy little phrase that worked quite well as an alternate title.
Nick had brought Mighty Martin Belmont from the Rumour with him and was due to do a couple of special gigs to promote the LP.
Rather than a full set Nick chose to join Elvis for the encores in Buffalo University and at the El Mocambo in Toronto. He also did a special radio show for CHUM FM.
The people at the El Mocambo put up a special sign for this event, Springtime for Basher it proclaimed, using a line from the Producers along with the nickname many if us knew him by. It came from his simple instructions to bands he was producing in the studio, "bash it out—we'll tart it up later".
It was too good an opportunity to miss and so I asked Nick to stand outside the club and throw a few shapes, Nick did this with ease, the expression was one Nick used to describe the art of guitar playing in front of an audience.
"It's easy being in a band, all you do is go onstage and throw a few shapes"