Barrie Masters, frontman of British pub rock band Eddie and the Hot Rods, has died aged 63. A statement posted to the group’s social media suggested that Masters’s passing was unexpected, describing the “sudden news” as a “huge shock to the band and family”.
Masters was a founding member of the band, which formed on Canvey Island in 1975. A year later, the Sex Pistols would play their first London show in support of the pub rock group, smashing the latter’s equipment. “Afterwards, I gave [John Lydon] a little slap and told him, you don’t do that to another band’s gear,” Masters recounted in a fanzine interview. That summer, the group began their commercial rise, with a single and album both named Teenage Depression finding chart success.
The group’s musical legacy was disputed: while inspired by fellow Canvey Island residents and pub rock trailblazers Dr Feelgood, Eddie and the Hot Rods were also considered part of the nascent punk scene. “I was peeved about it because punk rock was a fashion and we weren’t into spitting,” Masters said last year, “but when we went to America and they classed bands like Blondie as punk rock, I didn’t mind so much.”
Joe Strummer said they were the first band he ever heard described as “punk”; he would ultimately leave his own pub rock group, the 101ers, to join the Clash. John Peel described them as the first group of the era “to give me an indication that there was change in the air”.
The Hot Rods disbanded in 1981 but reformed in 1984, a pattern that would repeat throughout their existence. The band’s ninth and last album, 35 Years of Teenage Depression, was released in 2011, primarily reworking songs from their debut. The group last performed together in April 2019 as part of the Done Everything We Wanna Do night in London, which Masters had said heralded the group’s live retirement.
Masters was the only constant member of the band, which has 20 former members. He is survived by Simon Bowley, Ian “Dipster” Dean, Richard Holgarth and Chris Taylor.
