Stray Cats are a rockabilly band formed in 1979 by guitarist/vocalist Brian Setzer (Bloodless Pharaohs/Brian Setzer Orchestra) with school
friends Lee Rocker (bass) and Slim Jim Phantom (drums) in the Long Island
town of Massapequa, New York
. The group had several hit singles in the
UK
, Australia and the
U.S.
during the
early 1980s.
History
Formation and move to UK
The group, whose style was based upon the sounds of Sun Records
artists from the 1950s and heavily influenced by
Bill Haley & His Comets, had
little initial success in the New York music scene. When Setzer
heard that there was a revival of the 1950s
Teddy Boy youth subculture in England, the band
moved to the UK. The band found themselves in the midst of a
nascent rockabilly revival, with youth wearing drape jackets,
brothel creepers and updating the 1950s look by using hairspray
instead of grease to style their hair and by wearing bright, "loud"
colours.
After a gig in London, Stray Cats met producer
Dave Edmunds, well known as a
roots rock enthusiast for his work with
Rockpile and as a solo artist. Edmunds offered to
work with the group, and they entered the studio to record their
self-titled debut album,
Stray
Cats, released in England in 1981 on
Arista Records. They had three hits that year
with "Runaway Boys", "
Rock This
Town," and "
Stray Cat Strut."
The UK follow-up to
Stray Cats,
Gonna Ball, was not as well-received,
providing no hits. But the combined sales of their first two albums
was enough to convince EMI America to compile the best tracks from
the two UK albums and issue an album (
Built for Speed) in the U.S. in
1982.
Breakup and reunions
Steve Huey, in an
Allmusic biography of the
band, describes later developments as follows:
- Personality conflicts began to emerge in the ways that the
individual members handled their new-found success; Phantom married
actress Britt Ekland, while Setzer made
guest appearances with stars like Bob
Dylan and Stevie Nicks and became
the concert guitarist for Robert
Plant's Honeydrippers side
project. In late 1984, Setzer broke up the band.
Rocker and Phantom formed a trio called Phantom Rocker &
Slick (the "Slick" being former David
Bowie guitarist Earl Slick), while
Setzer went on to a solo career, exchanging his rockabilly focus
for a more wide-ranging roots
rock/Americana sound on albums
such as 1986's The
Knife Feels Like Justice. In 1986, the Stray Cats
reunited in Los Angeles, and recorded the covers-heavy Rock Therapy, which sold
poorly. In 1989, they reunited once again for the
album Blast Off!, which was accompanied by a tour with US
blues guitarist Stevie Ray
Vaughan. No longer with EMI
America, they entered the studio with Nile Rodgers for the lackluster Let's Go
Faster, issued by Liberation
in 1990. 1992's Dave Edmunds-produced Choo Choo Hot
Fish also attracted little attention, and after another covers
album, Original Cool, the group called it quits
again.
In 2002, the album
Forever Gold was released on the
St. Clair Entertainment
label. It contained four direct-to-record acoustic studio takes,
plus eight live recordings (including a seven minute version of
"Rock This Town"), without locations or credits being provided.
According to one reviewer, "The sound is a bit thin, especially
since Slim Jim Phantom used a minimal drum kit of snare, cymbal,
and bass drum. Listening to the performances of Fishnet Stockings,
Rumble in Brighton, Double Talkin' Baby, and Rock This Town reminds
you why this band, rockabilly or otherwise, was one of the most
exciting of the early '80s."
In 2004, the Stray Cats reunited for a month-long tour of Europe. A
live album culled from those concerts,
Rumble In Brixton,
included one new studio track, "Mystery Train Kept A Rollin'." In
2007, they reunited once again for a successful and long awaited US
tour with
ZZ Top and
The Pretenders. This was their first North
American tour in over 15 years. In the 2000s, the band toured
Europe as part of their
Farewell
Tour.
In early
2009, for the first time in 18 years, the Stray Cats visited
japan
and New
Zealand
which included several consecutive sold out shows
on their Farewell (Australia) Tour.
Band members' follow-up careers
The Stray Cats have reunited periodically for live performances.
Setzer is still part of his 1990s
swing-revival band
The Brian Setzer Orchestra.
Rocker and Phantom went on to form Swing Cats as well as releasing
some solo material. Slim Jim Phantom also plays the drums in
another rockabilly band 13 Cats, as well as the
Rock and Roll band The Head Cat with
Lemmy (
Motörhead) and
Danny B. Harvey (13 Cats, RocKats). The band was inducted into the
Long Island Music Hall of
Fame on October 15, 2006.
Tours
- European Tour 2004
- North American Tour 2007
- Farewell Tour 2008-2009
Discography
Albums
- Stray Cats (1981)
(UK only) - UK #6
- Gonna Ball (1981) (UK only)
- UK #48
- Built for Speed (1982)
(American debut - 11 songs extracted from first two UK albums plus
the title track, which had not been available in the UK.) - US
#2
- Rant N' Rave
with the Stray Cats (1983) - US # 14/ UK #51
- Rock Therapy (1986)- US #122
- Blast Off! (1989) - US # 111/ UK #58
- Let's Go Faster! (1990)
- The Best of the Stray Cats: Rock This Town (1990)
- Choo Choo Hot Fish (1992)
- Original Cool (1993)
- Forever Gold (2002), St. Clair Entertainment;
re-released 2007, Rock-A-Billy.
- Rumble in Brixton (2004)
UK singles
7" vinyl singles with catalogue numbersIssued on
Arista Records:
- 1980 "Runaway Boys" / "My One Desire" - SCAT 1 - UK #9
- 1981 "Rock This Town" / "Can't
Hurry Love" - SCAT 2 - UK #9
- 1981 "Stray Cat Strut" / "Drink
That Bottle Down" (Recorded Live) SCAT 3 - UK #11
- 1981 "You Don't Believe Me" / "Cross That Bridge" - SCAT 4 - UK
#57
- 1981 "Little Miss Prissy" / "Sweet Love On My Mind" (Live)
& "Something Else" (Live) - SCAT 5
- 1983 "(She's) Sexy + 17" / "Lookin' Better Every Beer" - SCAT 6
- UK #29
- 1983 "Rebels Rule" / "Looking Out My Backdoor" - SCAT 7
Issued on
EMI Records:
- 1989 "Bring It Back Again" / "Runaway Boys" (Live) - MTS 62 -
UK #64
- 1989 "Gina" / "Two Of A Kind" - MTS 67
U.S. singles
Issued on
EMI America Records
- 1982 "Rock This Town" / "You
Can't Hurry Love" - B-8132 - #9 US
- 1982 "Stray Cat Strut" / "You
Don't Believe Me" - B-8122 - #3 US
- 1983 "(She's) Sexy + 17" / "Lookin' Better Every Beer" - B-8168
- #5 US
- 1983 "I Won't Stand In Your Way" / "I Won't Stand In Your Way"
(A Cappella Version) - B-8185 - #35 US
- 1984 "Look At That Cadillac" / "Lucky Charm" - B-8194- # 68
US
French singles
Issued on Arista Records
Arabella Eurodisc Distribution.
- 1981 "Little Miss Prissy" / "Cross That Bridge" - #103812 or AE
130
Band Members
Current Members
Former Members
References
- Steve Huey, Biography of The Stray Cats; www.allmusic.com,
with minor edits.
- Al Campbell,
Review of Forever Gold, Allmusic.
- http://www.briansetzer.com/2008/oz9.jpg
- limusichalloffame.org
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