Peter Case

Greatly Appreciated

PETER CASE
 
 
Peter Case  (born April 5, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.  His career is wide-ranging, including new wave music to folk rock to solo acoustic performance.  In 1976, he teamed up with Jack Lee and Paul Collins in to form the early new wave band The Nerves in San Francisco.  The group’s 1976 single, “Hanging on the Telephone”, was later recorded by Blondie.  When the Nerves disbanded, Case moved to Los Angeles and formed the pop-rock band The Plimsouls in 1979.  Case struck out on his own with a self-titled album released in 1986 on Geffen Records.   (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
In 1975, a band called the Nerves was formed as a true power trio:  Jack LeePeter Case and Paul Collins were talented musicians as well as dynamite songwriters. 
 
The Nerves broke up due to the usual musical differences – not surprising considering that each member of the band was fighting to get their songs recorded – and the Breakaways immediately formed.  Basically it was just the duo of Peter Case and Paul Collins plus whatever guitar player or two that they could scrounge up to join the session.   
 
By the end of 1978, these two had also gone their separate ways, with Peter Case forming the Plimsouls and Paul Collins starting the Beat (later Paul Collins’ Beat).  
 
 (April 2010)
 
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It is really not surprising that there was no article on the Breakaways, since it was mostly just two guys from the Nerves – Peter Case and Paul Collins  who were jamming together for about a year.  No one even knew that much of anything by the duo had been recorded until a tape showed up in the late 2000’s
 
(April 2012)
 
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Basically dropping everything and pushing a band to the top of the heap on the UARA/UARB stack has happened only one other time among these posts, and it was quite awhile ago:  the UARB for April 2010, the Breakaways.  I had ordered a power-pop package from Bomp!:  a retrospective album of, a brand-new CD of a killer live show by the Plimsouls, and then a CD by the Breakaways After Jack Lee left the other two members of the band, Paul Collins and Peter Case started playing with a variety of other musicians.  They used the name the Breakaways, but it arguably never was really a band:  These guys just wanted to keep making music together.  They were only around for a little over a year, and they are actually the third of three bands by that name that are listed in Allmusic.  The Breakaways did make one bonafide studio recording of “Walking out on Love”, a wonderful song that had been part of the  live set for years, though they had never gotten around to making a studio recording of it.  Otherwise, just about everything they did was rehearsals and live shows, and no one ever thought that any of that material had survived.  Pretty soon, those two parted ways also, with Peter Case forming the Plimsouls and Paul Collins starting the Beat
 
Since that time, I have purchased several albums by Paul Collins and one by Peter Case, and they never disappoint.  I keep hoping to hear about a reunion of  though; that would be worth getting on a plane to see! 
 
(December 2012)
  
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This is a photograph of the two members of the BreakawaysPeter Case and Paul Collins back in the 1970’s:

 

 (April 2013)
 
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Many of the seminal bands in these rock movements released albums on the Bomp!VoxxAlive or Total Energy labels; most of them are not household names by any means, but they are recognized by those in the know as being important bands that shaped the history of rock and roll.  Some of these better-known bands and artists are the Romanticsthe Modern Lovers, the Dead Boys (and Stiv Bators individually), the Plimsouls (and Peter Case individually), the Beat (and Paul Collins individually), the Stooges (and Iggy Pop individually), DevoNikki Suddenthe Black Keysand Soledad Brothers. 

 
(May 2013)
  
Last edited: March 22, 2021