Rock history is littered with great lost bands, but few were greater or got more lost than New York’s Eggs Over Easy. Whisked to London to record with Slade manager-producer Chas Chandler in 1970, singing multi-instrumentalists Jack O’Hara, Austin de Lone and Brien Hopkins recorded at Olympic until backers stiffed and the sessions scrambled.
Using bar-band smarts, the Eggs (joined by ex-Animals drummer John Steel) procured a groundbreaking residency at Kentish Town’s Tally Ho, which launched pub rock, the progenitor of punk.
The band’s contagious country, blues and rock’n’roll won fans in Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe and future pub-rock royalty, but after failing to hatch a deal, the Eggs returned home, where Link Wray produced 1972’s richly evocative Good ‘N’ Cheap (try Pistol On The Shelf for the best track The Band never wrote).
After 1976’s gloriously titled 45 I’m Gonna Put A Bar In The Back Of My Car (And Drive Myself To Drink), the Eggs split soon after recording Fear Of Frying for Lee Michaels’ Squish label in 1980.
For the first time, their entire studio legacy (plus unreleased Olympic album) is corralled over two CDs or three LPs, along with a booklet. An early candidate for reissue of the year.
