WILD BILLY CHILDISH Vinilo y CD

Review: "If the Pop Rivets (the first group I was in in 1977) had been "successful" in the formal sense, then it would have been a disaster - no learning about sound, growth, and independence. Luckily, we considered ourselves successful from the outset by doing what we wanted the way we wanted. We believed the hype of punk rock - do-it-yourself and lived it, unlike the "successful" leaders of the movement."

So says Wild Billy Childish to Damaged Goods, the label carrying this iconic renegade's appropriately-titled Failure Not Success album. Across 12 tracks, we get some typically stand out covers (one of which is Jimi Hendrix's 'Fire', no less), a new version of the landmark 'Bob Dylan's Got A Lot To Answer For', alongside a host of fresh evidence that the artist in question is a rough diamond among the remnants of true rock music - raw, rhythmic, and destined to make you move.

Review: Where do you start with 'Wild' Billy Childish? A true enigma, and a figurehead of the eccentric, anti-establishment British arts scene known for advocating amateurism, non-conformity and free emotional expression through creativity since the 1970s, co-founder of the Stuckism figurative painting movement, concerned with supposed Remodernist ideals which push back against the post-modern, it's almost easy to forget about his recording career in and among the book publishing, exhibitions, poems and Super 8 movies.

Thankfully, then, we have The Fighting Tameraire in our new releases pile to remind us that he's fundamentally a deft hand at writing, arranging, singing and performing lo-fi semi-traditional garage folk stuff that has one foot in the English pubs of bygone ages and another in contemporary alternative rock. This collection is rousing, emotive, witty, and thoroughly human in a way that feels increasingly rare today.