ROCK’N’ROLL CONFIDENTIAL
Nick Lowe
The ace of song talks swinging quietly, touring with Wings, and the nobility of haplessness.
Trash city rocker: Nick Lowe finds the funny side in 1977.
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SEEMINGLY JOINED at the hip for nigh on 50 years, Nick Lowe – backed by Los Straitjackets – is back on a North American tour with Elvis Costello. Calling him before a show in San Francisco, MOJO could quiz the man they called ‘Basher’ on solo chart hits in the late ’70s, ’80s supergroup Little Village or writing the totemic (What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding. Instead, the 74-year-old reformed pub rock party animal and master-pasticheur is looking back 25 years to the re-released Dig My Mood, perhaps the pick of his wryly sober second-act albums as an affable national treasure of beautifully carpentered old-school singer-songwriting.