| Handsome | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Kilburn and the High-Roads |
| Cover: | Handsome_nohandsingals.png |
| Released: | June 1975 |
| Recorded: | 1974 |
| Studio: | Pye Studios, London |
| Genre: | Rock |
| Length: | 40:10 |
| Label: | Dawn (Pye) |
| Producer: | Hugh Murphy |
| Next Title: | Wotabunch! |
| Next Year: | 1977 |
Handsome is the debut album of the Ian Dury rock group Kilburn and the High-Roads, released in June 1975 by Dawn Records.
The band had apparently originally wanted to call the album No Hand Signals, but the idea was rejected by Dawn.[1] The photo on the back cover displayed a Chuck Berry style duckwalk, which is said to be the inspiration for the Madness group's 'nutty train' on the front cover of their album (and single) One Step Beyond....[2] [3]
Pye-Dawn re-released the original LP in 1977 following the success of Ian Dury as a solo artist.
In 1999, as part of their 30th Anniversary series, Dawn re-issued the album onto CD in a very unconventional way; instead of adding bonus tracks to the end of the album or on a second disc, Dawn decided to reorganise the album's track order to accommodate the missing B-sides as well as adding four previously unreleased tracks.[4] These included a cover version of Alma Cogan's "Twenty Tiny Fingers", one of only two cover versions Ian Dury has ever officially released, the other being "Girls (Watching)" on his 1980 album Lord Upminster.
In 2016, Cherry Red Records released an expanded edition of Handsome with a bonus disc containing a previously unreleased 1974 Capital Radio broadcast. The first disc includes both the single and album version of "Rough Kids".[5] [6]
In 1996, Repertoire Records released a 2-CD Ian Dury retrospective Ian Dury & The Blockheads: Reasons to Be Cheerful which included tracks from all of his solo albums and many of his solo singles but instead of including tracks from either Handsome or Wotabunch! they chose to include 10 tracks recorded in 1974 which they claim are the first mixes for some of the tracks from Handsome. However, the version of "Rough Kids" is almost identical to the version on Wotabunch! (minus the ad-libs), and furthermore their time of recording suggests it is possible the tracks are in fact from the Raft recordings, regardless the ten tracks are "Rough Kids", "You're More Than Fair", "Billy Bentley", "Pam's Moods", "Upminster Kid", "The Roadette Song", "Pam's Moods 2", "The Call-Up" and the wrong titled "The Mumble Rumble" ("The Mumble Rumble and the Cocktail Rock"). "Pam's Moods 2" is another mix of "Pam's Moods".
These tracks show little signs of the smooth, softened, high-produced versions finally released on Handsome and are far similar to the band's live sound and are not mentioned at all in either Ian Dury autobiography and noticeably included "You're More Than Fair", which was not included on the final album.