Diamond Lil eh? Sounds like a right character, perhaps from around the old East End, a lady not to be messed with as she may cut you with a blade just like a diamond. She is a fearsome character a bit of a yobbo and a bit of a tart! Well in a way as I have just cited their biggest hit, not that it is likely to be remembered by many unless you are a survivor from the times when this band played the pub circuits around Essex where they hailed from (Braintree to be exact) spreading further afield across Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and London. If you don’t remember you can be excused as this was way back between 1975 and 1978, three short years, before the band split.
This album consists of eleven tracks from that period and it really does contain some real gems that I instantly felt completely charmed by. This is not a label that you will normally catch me being involved on reviewing duties but it was what I saw from the past and what I saw from the emerging future in front of this band that really drew me to it. Let me explain, Diamond Lil existed right on a cusp. Citing influences from the NWOBHM movement and hard rock bands of the time they emerged in an era that was developing into new wave and punk and although hard to exactly pigeonhole they straddled the line between the two. It is due to this that they played shows with the former bands through to the likes of Ian Dury and The Blockheads and The Vibrators.
‘Black Rat’ takes us in with some bluesy carefree rocking riffs and gets motors running but it is the presence of vocalist Lorna Oakley that really made me sit up and take notice as she could easily have been a singer for many a band that were yet to appear in a darker future as punk spat out its message. It may be without malice and perfectly in tune with this happy go lucky sound but is only a short step from gobbing out the likes of ‘Oi Bondage up Yours!’ The simplicity of the songs really wins through, there is the vibe of Hendrix to the fret work on songs like Patron Of Hell and the simple uncluttered production gives it a certain edge and rawness unsullied by modern interference. Listening to the songs as it progresses it is hard not to think of bands that were yet to form, some of the Anarcho group’s with female singers such as Rubella Ballet, Lost Cherrees, Honey Bane etc. Some of the songs are absolutely brilliant like the psychedelic lysergic feel of ‘Red Man’ really winning me over with discordant progressive riffs and a gorgeous hippy fragrance to the chorus.
There is a certain nihilism about some of this despite the fact that it’s all really upbeat and infectious. I can imagine a load of people pogoing at a £1.00 gig supping their 35p beer (sobs) to the wonderful ‘I Don’t Care.’ Songs like this are so damn memorable. I wonder if this album found its way into the hands of someone on a retro trip who had not heard the band for over 40 years if they would instantly recognise numbers like this? I reckon so. Perhaps though I am seeing this from the wrong angle and should be focussing more on the jagged riffs from numbers like ‘Discontinued Line’ and how much they owe to the past glories of bands like Wishbone Ash and Thin Lizzy who the band evidently took their influence from. By the time we hit last number ‘Yobbos And Tarts’ it’s easy to see why it became an anthem with fans who I can imagine travelling around from pup to pub to catch them and sing along. It makes me want to step back in a time machine and join them (as do those beer prices).
This was a completely unexpected album from a band who I had never heard of and is a snapshot of a completely different era. It contains a collection of songs that today have the word ‘classics’ written all over them and I am really chuffed it found its way to me. If this review turns others on to their music too, then all the better for it. Congratulations to High Roller Records for uncovering these gems.
(8.5/10 Pete Woods)
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