I was born in
Liverpool, Merseyside, in the year of "Beatlemania" and
first took an interest in music when my dad bought me my first two
albums, "The Beatles 66-70" and "Ziggy Stardust".
I spent many hours in the front room of my house playing "air
guitar" and could not decide whether I wanted to be George
Harrison or Mick Ronson, a tough choice for a 10 year old, I think you
will agree.
At the age of
eleven I borrowed a beaten-up guitar from a friends dad and my cousin,
Mark O’Toole later of F.G.T.H., taught me my first chords and I was
hooked. My parents got me a better guitar, a Suzuki classical, and I
fucked it up by putting steel strings on it as the nylon ones were not
loud enough to play "God Save The Queen" or "White
Riot". I still have the guitar in my loft and it has a neck like
a banana.
In 1977 punk
rock happened and my parents bought me a white Les Paul copy and
George Harrison / Mick Ronson now thought he was Steve Jones. I formed
a band called "Smuzz" with a schoolmate who insisted we had
to have a name with two z’s in it so we could write it like
"The Buzzcocks". We did our first gig at a local church hall
and "performed" ( read; "murdered") five or six
punk classics with me singing the lead vocal on the Stiff Little
Fingers tune "Wasted Life". I will never forget this day as
I enjoyed the adrenalin high’s of performing in front of an audience
for the first time and the low’s of the long walk home to tell your
parents you have been suspended from school for playing truant (
naughty boy ).
I left school
with very little qualifications, despite having had the benefit of an
excellent education, and became an electrician with Liverpool Council
but continued my interest in music trying my hands in various amateur
bands. I went for an audition with a "Joy Division" type
band and got the gig because I knew how to plug in a chorus pedal
which the singer had stolen from a music shop. My first serious band
was called "Sons and Egypt" which featured Peter Gill and
Holly Johnson, later of F.G.T.H., and we got our big break appearing
on a local t.v. show called "Exchange Flags" where we
performed two songs live. It was a great experience except I regret
the choice of clothing I wore for the show ( headband, chinese
slippers and a pair of trousers that looked like a pair of curtains )
and I am glad I don’t have a video of the show, even for nostalgia!
A lot of bands used to
rehearse in an old police station that had cells converted into
rehearsal rooms and we had our own room which was funded by Virgin
Records who kindly donated large sums of cash to the bass player when
he worked there ( well that’s what he told us). Holly and Peter left
the band to join Mark O’Toole in the newly formed Frankie Goes To
Hollywood. I used to hear them rehearsing down the hall and remember
hearing "Two Tribes" being played at 100mph with just bass
and drums.
When the
opportunity rose for me to join F.G.T.H. because Gerard O’Toole had
to leave I took it with both hands.
I will suspend
the tale here as the history of F.G.T.H. has been told by many people
( including Holly Johnson in his book " A Bone In My Flute"
) and I won’t bore you with the details until I write my own book at
some point in the future. If you think it would be a good idea for me
to write a book then mail me and let me know. If you don’t think
it’s a good idea mail me and let me know!!
Frankie ruled
Europe during 1984 and made a lot of people very happy, not least ZTT
who squeezed the Frankie money making machine for all it was worth. It
was great while it lasted and I have no regrets so let’s move on to
the demise of the band in 1987 and what happened after that.
Myself, Mark
and Ped teamed up with Dee Harris, formerly of Fashion and tried to
get a deal but failed. Dee Harris left and was replaced by Grant Boult
and then we tried to get a deal again and failed again so the
consensus was to shake hands and call it a day.
I started
writing some tunes of my own and not having the necessary confidence
and ability to sing them I decided to ask Grant Boult to get involved
and this was the beginning of the Low period. We formed Low in 1991
after being called Honey Ryder for a year and signed to Swanyard
Records who were a small independent label run by crooks ( allegedly
). I’m not saying they were useless but let’s just say Mickey
Mouse has got a Swanyard watch. The label was run by a bimbo blonde
from South Africa who had an arse like a police horse and her constant
interfering led to nothing ever being released by Low and eventually
the label went tits-up and we got to keep the record that, according
to them, cost £400,000.
The record was
called "Enter The Bigger Reality" and currently resides in a
dark cupboard in North London. Frankie fanatics should note this
contains a composition written by Boult/Gill/Nash/O’Toole called
"England In The Rain" which is truly spectacular. Anyone
interested in obtaining this album please mail me and if I get enough
requests I will release it on Babylon Pink.
Grant and I had
to start again and formed another band called "Dr Jolly’s
Salvation Circus" . We created this fictional character called Dr
Jolly and decided he was the person behind defining moments of musical
history. Dr Jolly gave Bob Marley his first spliff. He introduced The
Beatles to Bob Dylan. He gave Jimi Hendrix his first guitar etc.etc.
Dr Jolly died
in 1997 when I switched off the life support machine but not without
having an influence from the grave. I decided to record some of the
songs that were written during that period for "Ripe".
"King For A Day", "Happy-Go-Lucky", "Patron
Saint Of Crazy" and "The Dark" appeared during this
period and despite the fact that they are a couple of years old I
still like them.
This brings us
up to the present day and you may be thinking to yourself "Why
has someone with so much talent not got his record in Woolworths?".
Well I did try but, according to all the record companies I went to
see, I do not have the necessary blond hair and six pack so I have
decided to take it to the people direct and if you are reading this
then I am on my way to achieving my goal.
I hope you
enjoyed my journey down memory lane and that the read was worth the
download time and I hope you enjoy the new material. You can e-mail
any suggestions or questions you have via the guestbook and I will try
to answer every mail.