After the breakup of
the Soft Boys,
Kimberley Rew was clearly eager to keep himself busy and show off the songwriting chops that had taken a back seat to
Robyn Hitchcock's estimable gifts during the band's run. The 1982 EP
The Bible of Bop offered a concise look into what
Rew was doing in the wake of
the Soft Boys' collapse; compiled from single sides, it featured three
Soft Boys tracks with
Rew singing lead and writing the tunes, while three other songs found him backed by
the dB's (not long after they went through their own personnel troubles --
Chris Stamey was out of the band,
Gene Holder opted to serve as producer, and their pal and sometime roadie
Mitch Easter took over as bassist) and two numbers were early efforts from the band that became
Rew's next full-time project,
the Waves. With
Rew taking the lead, the selections with
the Soft Boys have a noticeably different feel from what they wrought on Underwater Moonlight, but the band sounds every bit as bracing as it did on that album, and as always the guitar interplay between
Rew and
Hitchcock is splendid and "Stomping All Over The World," "Nothing's Going to Change," and "Fighting Someone's War" are clever and engaging pop tunes. The energetic Dixie-fried pop style of
the dB's is very much audible on "My Baby Does Her Hairdo Long," "Walking in the Dew," and "Fishing," but they make a good match for
Rew's talents in the studio and bring a welcome spark to the material. And "Nightmare" and "Hey, War Pig!" didn't offer much of a clue as to what
the Waves would be doing a few years down the line, but it's clear they were a solid and sympathetic backing band who worked well with
Rew and rocked with style and enthusiasm.
Rew unfortunately has often stood in the shadow of his lead singers, and
The Bible of Bop reveals that he's always had the talent and the charisma to be up front, shining bright while working with three teams of gifted musicians. [Kyboside Records reissued
The Bible of Bop in 2010 in a limited-edition CD edition with three bonus tracks, demos recorded with
the Waves in 1981 and 1982. The audio is not all that impressive on the remastered disc, though the flaws appear to be in the original recordings and not the mastering, and given that most of this was cut fast and loose, it's hard to say how much better it could sound; the copious liner notes certainly help make up for that. Some consumers will want to take note that even with bonus tracks,
The Bible of Bop clocks in at under 28 minutes.] ~ Mark Deming