The cleverly named All The Young Droogs collection is a must hear anthology of the so-called “junk shop glam” subgenre of the glitter rock era, i.e. the obscure non-charting also-rans to your better-selling groups and performers like David Bowie, T.Rex, Suzi Quatro, Sweet, Slade and Roxy Music. These groups would fall to the diminishing side of the “even more obscure than Jobriath?” divide, which is to say pretty obscure indeed, with a few obvious exceptions.

To use its full title All the Young Droogs: 60 Juvenile Delinquent Wrecks, Rock’N’Glam (And a Flavour of Bubblegum) From the ’70s is similar to earlier volumes that defined junk shop glam like Velvet Tinmine, Boobs and Glitterbest, but I would argue that it’s even better than any of those prior stone cold classics. Velvet Tinmine introduced—or rather reintroduced—Brett Smiley’s amazing “Va Va Va Voom” to the world and you’re telling me this one is better still? As a matter of fact, yes I am, and there is even some never-before-heard Brett Smiley on this one, too. Not only that, with it being a three CD box set, it’s much longer and far more comprehensive than its thematic predecessors. Able to stretch out this time, the subgenre is put into further silos of niche classification. Each of the discs features a distinct (or at least a distinct-ish) further sub categorization of junk shop glam: the mascara-wearing pre-punk hard rockers; the simplistic shouted rock and roll tropes of the platform boot-wearing “tubthumpers & Hellraisers” (the “losers and the bruisers” according to co-producer Phil King); and on the third disc, the elegant and effete decadent dandies, New York City pretty bisexual boyfriend thieves and wannabe rock superstars.

I favor the gender-bending third disc with contributions from the likes of Doctors of Madness, the Spiders from Mars, and Woody Woodmansey’s U-Boat. John Howard‘s “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” will captivate anyone exposed to it here first and I was instantly sold on Rococo’s crazily catchy “Ultra Star.” I have to admit, one of the stronger attractions for me was hearing “Night Creatures” by Be-Bop Deluxe again. It might be the sole song by them that I’ve ever heard, or at least that I can remember, and I will admit to immediately purchasing a used copy of their Postcards from the Future CD to see what else I’ve been missing.

And that is the fun of a collection like this one, all of those new “leads” to follow. But don’t take my word for it—or take any notice of its 81% Metacritic score—you can sample parts ofAll The Young Droogs below, courtesy of Matt Ingham at Cherry Red Records.
 

A trailer for ‘All the Young Droogs.’