New Boots and Panties!! (1977)

New Boots and Panties!! is the debut studio album by Ian Dury, released in the UK on Stiff Records on 30 September 1977. The record covers a diverse range of musical styles which reflect Dury's influences and background in pub rock, taking in funk, disco, British music hall and early rock and roll, courtesy of Dury's musical hero Gene Vincent. Consisting mostly of love songs and character stories based on the working-class people of the East End and Essex Estuary areas where he grew up, the songs are frequently ribald and profane, but also contain humour and affection for his characters.

Widely considered to be the best album of Dury's career, it is also his biggest selling, having been certified platinum status in the UK for 300,000 sales. Sales of the album during the first few months after its release were modest, and the album's only single, "Sweet Gene Vincent", failed to chart. Subsequently, three stand-alone singles, "What a Waste", "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick" and "Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3", all reached the top ten of the UK Singles Chart, and their success kept the album in the spotlight and ensured consistent sales over the next two years.

New Boots and Panties!! was among the UK's top 30 best selling albums of both 1978 and 1979, and eventually peaked at number five in the UK Albums Chart in February 1979, 17 months after its release, after "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick"'s chart-topping success.

The album's title derives from Dury's habit of buying clothes second hand and refers to the only items of clothing he insisted on buying new. According to Ian Dury & the Blockheads: Song By Song, the name was chosen by Dury from a list of twenty potential titles drawn up by compere Kosmo Vinyl.

New Boots and Panties!! has been reissued several times, including a three-disc edition for its 30th anniversary and a five-disc box set for its 40th anniversary.

Background

Much of the album was written by Dury, nearly a year before its release, at Oval Mansions (the top floor flat at 40, Oval Mansions, Kennington, London, which he shared with Denise Roudette, and which he nicknamed 'Catshit Mansions') and was written in partnership with Chas Jankel. Some of the tracks were co-written with Steve Nugent.

Dury and Jankel recorded demo tapes of many of the songs in April 1977, joined in the session by Nugent, at Alvic Studios, Wimbledon (run by two musicians, Al James and Vic Sweeney). Jankel played the bass, guitar and piano; Dury sang and played drums. These recordings have since been included as part of Edsel's re-issue of the album. The studio engineer at Alvic told Dury about a rhythm section who were acting as session musicians to earn extra money; bassist Norman Watt-Roy and drummer Hugh "Charley" Charles. As well as playing on New Boots and Panties!! the two became key members of The Blockheads.

According to Wreckless Eric (aka Eric Goulden), the song "Sweet Gene Vincent" was composed on 1 December 1976, the same day as the Sex Pistols' appearance on the Today show hosted by Bill Grundy.

Recording

A week after the demos were finished the final album was recorded in the Workhouse Studio on the Old Kent Road. Dury's management company Blackhill – who would also manage the Clash – owned a 50 per cent share in the studio (along with the group Manfred Mann), and put up the £4,000 to pay for the group to record the album in 'dead time' (that is, when the studio was empty – usually late at night).

The album was produced by Peter Jenner, Laurie Latham, and Rick Walton. Jenner was one of the two partners in Blackhill Management, and had been producing since the late 1960s, having worked with Kevin Ayers and David Bedford among others. Although Jenner was the experienced producer at The Workhouse, in practice he left most of the production for New Boots and Panties!! to his young protégée Latham, who had joined the studio four years previously and who also engineered the album, with Walton carrying out production duties on those occasions when Latham was unavailable. Latham later recalled that Jenner's technical input on the album had been minimal and that he had more of an overseeing role:

"Peter would sit there rolling joints all day and I'd do all the bloody work, but in fairness I also have to say that he taught me an awful lot. He wasn't particularly hands-on, but he would always say things like, 'Laurie, are you sure the bass drum's loud enough? Maybe you should nudge it a bit.' It was always the bass drum or the bass, and if you think about it, the rhythm section is what really defines that record ... I think [Peter] was really undervalued in the end. He recognised that the bass drum and bass were potent, very integral ingredients of the overall sound – the idiosyncratic, mad Cockney-type thing on top of this quite slick, funky sort of rhythm section. And he was also very good at making sure that Ian was on the ball in terms of his vocals."