If there is one nostalgic entry on this list, this is it. But to leave it at that wouldn’t be fair. I’m not going to make the case that Dig That Groove Baby is high art but I’m not willing to stand by and have it be dismissed as just bar brawl, pub crawl, punk, either. Make no mistake, this record is that, one we’d all be lucky to drink and sing-a-long to over the course of a night in a Sunderland pub. That being said, there’s something else about this record. It’s a perfect example of every intangible piece of the puzzle coming together and creating something familiar yet singularly original, rooted in a time but timeless, tongue-in-cheek but still important. And for what this record is, there is no better, or more enjoyable example.
Released in 1983, you’d be forgiven for thinking this band and their style of raucous ‘n’ roll as latecomers to the English punk scene. But it’s a record four years in the making, by a band with almost as many line-up changes as Spinal Tap. If you could quantify and compare irreverence, they’d have just as much of that as well. Sandwiched between the intro and outro of “Theme Tune”, are twelve densely packed tracks plumbing the depths of arachnophobia, the plight of circus animals, and the optimistic promise of test-tube babies. Seriously though, it’s in the way they do it.
The charm of Dig That Groove Baby, is the almost instant inclusion you feel listening the superbly crafted songs and perfectly frenetic performances. The tongue and cheek is perfectly, and genuinely, accented by the take no punches vocals of Michael Algar and the backing of Phillip Dugdale and Robert Kent. This trio of minstrels weave a path of story driven revelry and adventure forced forward with tight playing, originality, power, and pop. All delivered with a genuine, shit-eating grin.