Edward Tudor-Pole always was something of a clever Dick - naming Tenpole Tudor's debut album Eddie, Old Bob, Dick, & Gary after the expression 'any old Tom, Dick, & Harry'. Bob, of course, being guitarist Bob Kingston, Dick Crippen the band's bass player, Gary Long the drummer.
But the story of this album begins with another clever Dick: Malcolm McLaren. When filming his mockumentary The Great Rock & Roll Swindle about the Sex Pistols in early-mid 1978 the band he had nurtured into chaos & notoriety was dead in all but name. With Johnny Rotten gone AWOL McLaren needed a singer pronto. Auditions were planned with Edward Tudor-Pole impressing McLaren most. Even though rehearsals with Tudor-Pole, Paul Cook, Steve Jones, & stand-in bass player Andy Allen took place, the whole thing imploded when Vicious found himself in an American jail, accused of murdering his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. Vicious subsequently overdosed on heroin a& died. The End. With the Pistols no more, Tudor-Pole formed Tenpole Tudor with Kingston, Crippen, & Long who knew each other from The Visitors, a band in which Tudor-Pole had briefly guested as vocalist. The name Tenpole Tudor derived from a previous McLaren-brainwave rechristening Tudor-Pole to Ten Pole Tudor.
The album was released in 1980, sold moderately well, then disappeared off the musical radar. Then something interesting happened: Tenpole Tudor's 1981 single "Swords of a Thousand Men" peaked at #6. Keen to cash in, a clever Stiff Dick simply added "Swords of a Thousand Men" as opening track to the original Eddie, Old Bob, Dick, & Gary, remixed a couple of other tracks, put a new cover on it...lo & behold, a hit album peaking in May 1981 at #44 in the UK charts!
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Side A -
Go Wilder
I Wish
Header Now
There are Boys
Wunderbar
Side B -
3 Bells in a Row
Tell Me More
Judy Annual
I Can't Sleep
Anticipation
What Else Can I Do
Confessions
Weirder & weirder,
NØ
Eddie, Old Bob, Dick, & Gary
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