Beginning Of The End

According to Steve Crancher's 2008 biography Eddie And The Hot Rods: Do Anything You Wanna Do, "Beginning Of The End" was the only track contributed to the Life On The Line album by guitarist Dave Higgs, ostensibly because he appeared to be suffering a case of writer's block when the band were working on their new material. The song also appears to have been prophetic, because the album was released to lukewarm reviews with comments like "nothing to get in a lather about" and "approach with care". Surprisingly it didn't even make the top fifty. Their manager Ed Hollis also appears to have mismanaged their affairs very badly at this time; there were rumors of a cocaine bill of $2000 a week for the band during their American tour, and money went missing "as rock 'n' roll money so often is." Ed died from a heroin overdose a few years later, and although the band continued into the 21st Century, albeit with the usual changing lineups, Eddie And The Hot Rods never quite made the A List of rock bands. Having said that, "Beginning Of The End," the longest and last track on the album, is a blistering uptempo anarchic number with fine axework. Beginning of the end? Not for this band.