Steve Gibbons

A critic once called Steve Gibbons "the English Bob Seger," which, as descriptions go, could have been much worse, but is really based on superficialities. Both guys are basically unpretentious, blue-collar rockers who achieved fame (Seger much more so than Gibbons) as veterans. But Gibbons' solo career -- which is the guise in which he is best known -- wasn't long enough to witness the kind of decline and formulaic emptiness that marked Seger's career after 1980. Still, for a career that lasted for five albums, Gibbons didn't do too badly; three of them are good, and one (Down in the Bunker) is great. Gibbons' career actually dates back to the very end of the '50s. A rock & roller with a special love of Elvis Presley's work, Gibbons was working as a plumber's apprentice in his native Birmingham, England, when he made the leap to a professional career, replacing Colin Smith as lead singer in the Dominettes, a local rock & roll band. He remained with the Dominettes -- who were renamed the Uglys three years later -- for the next eight years, as they went through numerous lineup changes and their sound evolved from rock & roll to R&B to psychedelia. Gibbons himself became heavily influenced by the music and songs of Bob Dylan during the mid-'60s, which manifested itself for years after (and, indeed, into the '90s), starting with the Uglys' single "Wake Up My Mind." The group experienced many false-starts and thwarted efforts at chart success, and by 1968 Gibbons was the only original member of the Uglys still in the lineup. And the band essentially dissolved in a disastrous series of behind-the-scenes machinations of manager Tony Secunda, and Gibbons was among those left to find a new gig. He initially joined former Move bassist Trevor Burton, ex-Moody Blues...