The Next Big Thing

Various - Glitterbest: UK Glam With Attitude 1971 - 1976 (RPM CD).
Yeah I know, this one's been around for a while, and it's definitively my loss not picking up a copy on it's release. The party line on the punk influx has always been the Nuggets/Velvets/Stooges continuum, and while this is certainly true for the US, the Brit counterpart was probably as much, if not more, inspired by the glam explosion of the first half of the 70s. You name 'em; Roxy, Bolan, Mott, Sweet, Bowie etc. RPM's digs thru this era had already turned up a bunch of obscuro stuff released on such discs like Velvet Tinmine that showed a definite link between the punk and glam age, but the theme was taken to it's surprising conclusion on this CD where you can hear members of (ao) the Boys, Vibrators, Gorillas, Only Ones, Radio Stars and Ultravox in their formative years. And no, this ain't just a 'historical artifact', 'cause this thing has a poundin' non-hit-after-non-hit track selection that hasn't left HQ's CD player for three days in a row. Even some of the stuff that was already familiar to me gets an extra lease on life bein' put into context here. From the fantastic Dolls-like wail of the Hollywood Brats to the perfect pop of the Jook and the Roxy-isms of Tiger Lily, this sounds like a perfect K-Tel comp from some lost dimension. Five brightly sparkling stars!
Related websites and further reading: The Biased History of English Glam Rock, All You Pretty Things and Punk '77.