I was saddened to learn, yesterday, that Pat Collier passed away over the weekend. While not at all a household name (certainly not here in the States), Pat Collier first came roaring in *our* household via a crate of records my father had sent my sister and I from London in the summer of 1977. At that stage, Pat was the bass player for an endearingly rude punk band called The Vibrators, and when we pulled a copy of their debut LP, Pure Mania, out of that crate and dropped the needle on “Into the Future,” it was like someone had tossed a live grenade into our living room. I still have that LP today, and it still smokes.
In later years, Pat became a producer, and ended up working on what would become some of my favorite records of all time, including selections by The Wonder Stuff, The House of Love, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Katrina & the Waves, The Soft Boys, Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians, the UK Subs, 999, X-Ray Spex, The Screaming Blue Messiahs, Kingmaker, New Model Army, Zodiac Mindwarp & the Love Reaction, Primal Scream, The Soup Dragons, Crazyhead, Angelic Upstarts, Swervedriver, The Inmates and trust me when I say that this is only a small handful of the bands that he worked with.
Pat Collier put in the hours and did some amazing work, and my life as a geeked-out music fan was the richer for it. Respect is due.
Pour one out!
Recent Comments