JohnTem82387976

18 October 2015

Hackensack - Moving On/ River Boat



Label: Island
Year of Release: 1972

In the late sixties and early seventies, music began to be appraised by certain selective punters not just by how melodic or innovative it was, but how loud and heavy, especially in the live environment. Bands began to obtain huge amplifiers and stacks affordably, and thus acts such as Blue Cheer described themselves as being capable of turning the air to cheese with their sheer racket. Presumably nobody asked for a refund when the venue around them didn't transform miraculously into rich Brie.

Hackensack were renowned for being one of Britain's heaviest blues rock bands in the early seventies, and became quite a draw on the live circuit, chalking up 270 gigs - but naturally, their high voltage and volume attacks failed to cross over into record shop sales. 1974's Polydor released album "Up The Hard Way" was cultishly successful, but not enough to convince anyone that they had a reasonable commercial proposition on their hands, though it has since become a highly collectible item. Thus Hackensack were kicked back on to the small venue circuit before giving it all up, an unissued live album apparently languishing in the Pye vaults.

This is their solitary single, and consists of two quite different halves. The A-side "Moving On" chugs along and swings merrily, and actually has an almost glam rock chorus which sounds like it might have been borrowed from Iron Virgin or one of the many flop tinseltowners of the day. It's perfectly good, but it's the B-side that really shows what Hackensack were capable of. "River Boat" is an absolute dumb-ass assault, riddled with a primal, almost garage rock riff which needles away throughout. Vocals scream, cymbals crash, and the whole thing is a fine example of how the 60s punk tradition naturally morphed into Serious Rock in the early seventies. So downright distorted and compressed is the track that I had to have three goes of ripping it from vinyl before getting the right volume control - it sends all the needles flying into the red even at low recording volumes. I still can't decide if I over or under did it.

Lead singer Nicky Moore went on to be a key player in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with Samson, guitarist Ray Majors went on to join British Lions before eventually hooking up with Mott The Hoople, and drummer Simon Fox joined Be Bop Deluxe. The whereabouts of bassist Stu Mills is less clear.





6 comments:

Anonymous said...



Superb, that you back on track !!!

Many thanks for this rare single

All the best, Albert

Arthur Nibble said...

From "Moving On" to "Welcome Home"! Hope you've settled in nicely.

SC said...

They are back in the studio... They sound awesome.

Stew Mills is writing a book about the Hackensack years.

DeaconDeath said...

I believe Riverboat is a cover of a Potliquor song from 1970 - it's on youtube. bizarre!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the info, but one small correction. Ray Majors joined Mott as guitarist in 1975 after Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson's departure had laid the band to rest, and the other three regrouped as 'Mott' with no 'the Hoople' attached. A year later they were dropped by the record label (CBS), their vocalist Nigel Benjamin quit. They hooked up briefly with Steve Hyams as vocalist and recorded a few demos with him, which were issued many years later - in the face of fierce resistance from the other ex-Mott men - under the name of Mott the Hoople featuring Steve Hyams. They said such recordings should never have been inflicted on the public. They then formed British Lions a year later with John Fiddler (ex-Medicine Head) but split two years later after zero UK success led to their being dropped by Vertigo/Phonogram.

23 Daves said...

Thanks for those corrections and clarifications.