Once upon a time, in 70's North London, there were three schoolboys called Boz, Tim and Phil. They formed a band called The Polecats and, in 1980, put together some demos, which were cover versions of various rock'n'roll tunes. If anything, you'll recognise "Baby Let's Play House", which Elvis recorded on Sun Records in 1955. And these demos are what you can hear on this album.
Not Nervous was originally released in the early 90's, on Boz's NV label, and has been unavailable ever since. Re-released and remastered with the help of Steve Hooker, who now co-runs NV with Boz, you can get your grubby mitts on these rare tracks. The album presumably got its name from it being tracks the band put together before appearing on Nervous Records.
Tim and Boz started playing together at school in the mid-70's, and by 1978 the first Polecats line-up had a gig in a church hall in Mill Hill: from lemon barley and malted milk biscuits, Top of the Pops was just around the corner.
What is so bewildering about this album is just how young the boys were when it was recorded. "Up A Lazy River" was, in fact, recorded in a school music room at lunchtime. And yet - it's so good! The only time you might notice that their voices had only recently broken is when you can hear Boz trying to play faster than his teenage fingers can manage. And he soon had that ironed out. Their cover of "Spin The Bottle" seems apt, as it's a favourite 6th former hobby, when they're not playing strip poker or cluttering up the Common Room with empty crisp packets. I hate saying things like 'youthful vibrancy', but it's true - the boys attacked these songs with all the verve and channelled aggression that other youths expend carving their names in bus shelters. It's also fairly remarkable that this ragbag gaggle of teenagers knew these songs and could play them so well.
And they brought along their friends. Ricochet Ray Heath, who went on to be in Frantix and The Deltas, sings "Baby Blue", while Johnny 'Hotrod' Willoughby, who worked with Poorboys, Jet Black Machine, The Rockats and Robert Gordon (busy bloke!) sings "Crawdad Hole".
As to the tracks the band covered for these demos, you might recognise "Slippin' In" as well, if you've heard Boz & The Bozmen's Dress in Deadmen's Suits. The tracks are drawn from the 50's canon, "Let's Bop", "Stranger Than Fiction", "Right String Baby", and on listening to them it's clear that the Polecat's take on the rockabilly sound was right there from the start. Even Mark Lamarr, lover of osbscure rockabilly and R&B, is still a fan. Talking on his radio show about the band's forthcoming gigs, he sounded like he was going to lose control of his bladder. Then again, he sacreligiously docked his quiff, the traitor.
While you might think that an album of demos is something only for the completists, the truly fantastic performance of the band on Not Nervous should be heard by anyone who likes rockabilly - and in fact by anyone who rates Boz Boorer as an inspiring guitarist, just to see how he started out.
You'll be bopping round your front room, tripping over the cat, from the opening bar and, like me, you might even end up with "Up A Lazy River" stuck in your head for three days.
Buy your copy direct from Steve Hooker here. And get some quiff-primping hair product while you're there.
