I asked Wilko Johnson what he thought of pub rock. “I hate it,” he said. “I use the term contemptuously. It’s a term I never liked, partly ‘cause I don’t drink. Or I didn’t then. People say ‘pub rock’ as if it’s a kind of music. And it’s not. In 1974, or whenever, for a year or so there was a kind of scene where there were several pubs all around London that were attracting audiences because they were putting on good bands. But they were bands of all kinds: jazz and funk and rock. If you said ‘pub rock’ you’re talking about a kind of venue not a kind of music.”

Dave Tice had a similar opinion: “Garage, punk, pub rock, it’s all rock ‘n’ roll, man. Some of it you could almost call country if you stuck a cowboy hat on a bloke’s head.”

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