Old music: The Rods – Do Anything You Wanna Do

Looking back, 1977 was such a strange and wonderful year. Elvis was still alive – just – and yet the sound of punk was all around us: a new Elvis was watching the detectives , the Clash wanted a white riot . A time of permissiveness, if not of plenty. At school, we sixth formers were permitted to smoke in the classroom. That's right: smoke in the classroom (after lessons had finished). It was the Queen's silver jubilee year, and on the day she came sailing along the local bypass, we were given the afternoon off. Half the school stood at the side of the road waving little paper flags. The other half, it seemed, went shoplifting for the Sex Pistols' first single. It really did seem we were on the brink of an age of youthful anarchy in the UK. Occasionally, musicians from a slightly older era elbowed through and made themselves heard. They called what they played pub rock, and an inordinate number hailed from what sounded – to our northern ears – a truly exotic place: Canvey Island . Invariably their music was brash and angry and in perfect harmony with the spirit of the time. Among them were Eddie and the Hots Rods – part pub rock, part punk – whose only hit, Do Anything You Wanna Do, released under the name the Rods, made me sit bolt upright when I first heard it. Thirty-four years on and it sounds as fresh and exciting as ever.