Real Sharp

When it came to recording their first LP Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers - Kings Of The Robot Rhythm in 1972, duo Martin Stone and Philip Lithman asked various members of Brinsley Schwarz (Nick Lowe, Billy Rankin and Bob Andrews) to join them just for the sessions. The result led the pair to recruit a bushel of full-time Red Hot Peppers in the form of Paul Diceman Bailey, Paul Bassman Riley and Pete Thomas to hit the road. Incredibly, not even the ensuing 400 gigs in two years and the release of a second album Bongos Over Balham by the expanded line-up, was enough to sustain the enterprise. Arguably, at their peak after the Naughty Rhythms Tour of 1975, (with other British "pub rock" groups, Kokomo and Dr. Feelgood), the band broke up. In 1974, Zig Zag editor Andy Childs wrote "The number of English bands who are currently performing and perfecting the many eclectic styles of American music can be counted on the thumb of one hand? they are Chilli Willi and the