Summer Holiday - Ian Gomm

It was one of those stream of consciousness days. I heard a song on the radio, "Sex and Drugs, and Rock and Roll" by Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Hearing this got me thinking about Ian Gomm and his '78 hit "Hold On."

In America we got this song on the album called Gomm with the Wind, but the copy I bought was from the UK, where it was released a year earlier with a different title, Summer Holiday'. While it would be easy to dismiss Gomm as a one-hit wonder, there's no question that if you bought wither one of these albums, you got your money's worth.

For my money, "Hold On" isn't even the best track on the record, but it was a great single. The video below is kind of cheesy, but if you can stand the video, you'll get to hear one of the great pop songs of the 70's.

Hold On - Ian Gomm

Side one of Summer Holiday is a great display of the state of British pop in 1978. With the punk movement in full swing, pop music was looked down upon in many circles. "Hooked on Love" kicked off this version of the LP. It would've made a great single. It's got a great piano riff to drive the song, with some horns thrown in for good measure.

"Sad Affair" and "Black and White" follow in the same vein. Looking back on the record now, if it had been released a couple years later, it may have made a bigger impact. You can hear future success stories like Graham Parker and Dave Edmunds in these songs.

The first of two covers on the record follows. Chuck Berry's "Come On"  sounds like an Elvis Costello song in the hands of Gomm. It's an interesting treatment to the Berry chestnut.

"Hold On" appears in the fifth slot of the album, which may be an indication of how the song was viewed. I'm pretty sure it was the lead track on Gomm With the Wind.. "Airplane" is a fun little number that closes out the side faster than a speeding bullet.


Side two opens with "24 Hour Service," a nice little piece of pop pleasure. Looking back at it now, this album may have been a bit too smooth for US record buyers looking for rock that was rougher around the edges. While not everyone may have embraced the punk movement of the time, Gomm's pop stylings were also a bit much.

Interestingly enough, a very low-keyed cover of the Beatles tune "You Can't Do That" is probably the biggest risk on the album.  Gomm takes this A Hard Day's Night B-Side and reinvents the tune with a slow groove and a very cool bass line that is miles away from the original.

I always liked this album, but like many of the albums I've bought over the years, it had gone unplayed for a few years. I've played it a few times over the past couple of weeks, and it's been cool to hear again. It's definitely of it's time, which doesn't make it a bad album by any means. It's a record I'll keep in my collection.