Fans of veteran pop-rockabilly artist Dave Edmunds have something to look

forward to. King Biscuit Flower Hour Records just released King Biscuit

Flower Hour Presents Dave Edmunds, the latest in the series of

performance discs culled from radio shows that aired as "King Biscuit

Flower Hour" during the last 30 years.

The Edmunds King Biscuit CD was recorded live at New York's Roseland

Ballroom in June 1983 (shortly after the singer/songwriter's tenure in

the roots-rock band Rockpile) and in San Francisco in 1990.

Edmunds was born 55 years ago today in Cardiff, Wales. He was inspired

by the first wave of American rock that wafted over to the British Isles

via radio, and he began learning to play guitar. In the early '60s

Edmunds played in British blues-rock outfits.

In 1967 Edmunds formed Love Sculpture, a group including future Rockpile drummer

Terry Williams. The band proved to be far removed from the stripped-down roots rock

Edmunds later favored. Love Sculpture favored rock based on classical pieces and had

a top-five UK hit in 1968 with "Sabre Dance."

After the band split, Edmunds built a studio in Wales where he honed his songwriting,

which was based on the classic sides of Memphis' famed Sun Studios and Phil

Spector's Wall of Sound productions.

Edmunds enjoyed a minor early-'70s hit with a cover of Smiley Lewis'

HREF="http://media.addict.com/atn-bin/get-

music/Edmunds,_Dave/I_Hear_You_Knocking.ram">"I Hear You Knockin' "

(RealAudio excerpt) and released the 1972 LP Rockpile. He also produced

records for the Flamin' Groovies, Del Shannon and others. While producing pub-rockers

Brinsley Schwarz's 1974 swan song, Edmunds bonded with bassist Nick Lowe, with

whom he would helm Rockpile a few years later.

In the meantime, Edmunds scored and starred in the 1975 film "Stardust." Lowe wrote for

and played on Edmunds' Subtle as a Flying Mallet, which evolved later in the

decade into Rockpile.

Rockpile's only album, 1980's Seconds of Pleasure, spawned the hit "Teacher

Teacher," but the band split up a year later. However, Rockpile appeared on most of

Edmunds' late '70s solo LPs, including Repeat When Necessary, which contained

the first recording of Elvis Costello's "Girls Talk" and Graham Parker's "Crawling From

the Wreckage." The album also featured "Queen of Hearts," a British hit for Edmunds that

later became a #2 U.S. smash for Juice Newton.

Edmunds' 1981 Twangin' introduced the neo-rockabilly Stray Cats (for whom

Edmunds later produced albums) and contained a minor hit -- a cover of John Fogerty's

"Almost Saturday Night." The following year's D.E. 7th boasted the Bruce

Springsteen-penned "From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)." Edmunds then

had a top-40 hit with Jeff Lynne's pop-oriented "Slipping Away" from 1983's

Information.

Since then, Edmunds has worked with the likes of the Everly Brothers, Paul McCartney,

the Fabulous Thunderbirds, k.d. lang and Dion DiMucci. He also produced a TV tribute to

Carl Perkins.

In 1987 Edmunds issued the live I Hear You Rockin', which flopped. He followed it

three years later with Closer to the Flame, his first studio album in six years. That

same year he also produced Lowe's Party of One.

In 1993 Rhino Records issued an Edmunds anthology album, and the next year

Edmunds released Plugged In.

Other birthdays: Allan Clarke (Hollies), 57; Graeme Clark (Wet Wet Wet), 33; Ed O'Brien

(Radiohead), 31; and Bessie Smith, 1894-1937.