Boots & Braces / Voice Of Britain

Collection Contents

#		Title	Length
1		Back With A Bang	3:44	Play
2		I Don't Like You	1:46	Play
3		Built Up Knocked Down (1979)	4:24	Play
4		A Case Of Pride	2:13	Play
5		Breakout	2:39	Play
6		Tearing Down The Walls	2:13	Play
7		Boots And Braces	3:18	Play
8		Antisocial	1:56	Play
9		W.P.	1:54	Play
10		Smash The I.R.A.	2:15	Play
11		Shove The Dove	1:39	Play
12		Sick Society	2:32	Play
13		Voice Of Britain	2:34	Play
14		On The Streets	2:47	Play
15		Invasion	1:54	Play

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Description

The band existed as two very distinct entities, Skrewdriver Mk1 evolved out of the punk explosion that gripped Britain in 1976. The early period was all about the music, the fashion, and four lads from the north west of England having a good time. Two years later the impetus had gone, bad decisions had been made, key players had left and a lack of musical focus led to their decline into a very average rock (not punk) band. They limped on into early 1980 before finally expiring. Then two years later singer Ian Stuart revived the name with totally different personnel and the full National Front manifesto. Unfortunately the image of Skrewdriver will be forever tarnished by the extreme political affiliations of this later incarnation. People are entitled to their own opinions but this is not the place to debate the rights or wrongs of Ian Stuarts politics as expressed through Skrewdriver Mk2. This is the story of those exciting early days of 76-78.

I met up with original guitarist Phil for the first time in 26 years at the Thatched House, a pub in the centre of Poulton that wed frequented on many occasions in our youth. We talked for a long time and drank far too much beer while looking back over his 15 minutes of fame with Skrewdriver. At the end of the evening we agreed to meet up again, this time with my tape recorder running. On 16th November 2003 we were ready to roll....

A word of explanation. Ian Stuart was the chosen stage name of Ian Stuart Donaldson. As far as its owner was concerned the Donaldson surname wasnt really very rock n roll. However to those of us whod known him through school and on into Skrewdriver he was Don, which is how Phil refers to him in the words that follow.

The long hot British Summer of 1976 was a musical turning point for many. Something was stirring, initially in London but the word soon spread north. Members of Tumbling Dice, a rather uninspiring Poulton rock band, headed for Manchester.

Don and I, and I think the McKay twins, were at the Pistols second gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, Manchester in July 76. The experience that night was above all else the catalyst for what we did later. When I started at University in September 76 a couple of guys who I met early on were really into the up and coming punk scene. It was with them that I started going over to Erics Club in Liverpool. Wed be there at every opportunity and Don would come over at weekends and sleep on my floor. I was the only one who had a car at the time so I had to drive everywhere. During Freshers' week at Manchester University the Stranglers played at a dingy little club called the Squat. They caused quite a stir, they weren't a punk band as such but they had the attitude. During this period we set about transforming what was left of Tumbling Dice into a serious punk band, convinced we could compete with the best.

Some sort of demo tape was needed to spread the word and hopefully win over record company A&R men.

We made the demo at Don's Dad's factory in Blackpool, the acoustics were terrible, a great big draughty old warehouse, full of machinery. We didn't have any decent recording equipment, we used Don's music centre [combined turntable, tape deck, amp etc] which had a microphone input, it was pretty dreadful but that's all we had. We ran off a few copies and sent them out. This must have been about November 76. We liked the New York Dolls sound, we covered Pills which was a regular part of our set all through 1977. We did Gloria in a similar fashion to the Eddie and the Hotrods version, and we used to do Louie Louie, we'd also written about half a dozen songs ourselves. The originals were all written by Don and myself really, I didn't write lyrics, apart from Better off Crazy, I'm not too sure what inspired the lyrics to that! It was just a great guitar riff, it was the first thing I wrote in the punk vein, rather in the style of Gloria.

Chiswick Records, based in Londons Camden Town, liked the raw sound. Roger Armstrong recalls his initial impressions.

"They sent in a tape from Blackpool with an hilarious photo of them in torn blazers and flares standing in front of Blackpool Tower. The whole thing was so gormless and the tape such a noise I couldn't resist. They were part of that second generation of Punks inspired by the Pistols. I think that the motivation for signing them was a reaction against the studied arty side of the Pistols and the Clash as projected by their management."

Chiswick, keen to get in on the action, wrote back straight away.

We got a letter back from Chiswick which said that they were very keen and would like to come and see the band in action. We couldn't believe it. They were run by Ted Carroll and Roger Armstrong both Dubliners. Ted formerly managed Thin Lizzy and he owned the Rock On record shop in Camden Town which was a specialist record shop where you could buy obscure and collectable records. It was a popular place, everybody who was part of the music scene could be seen there at some time or other. Upstairs was the office they used for Chiswick Records.

Meanwhile the man from Chiswick was boarding a train at Euston Station and heading for north west England.Roger Armstrong caught the train up to Blackpool and we said we'd meet him at the station. We wondered how wed recognise him. We didn't have any problem after he told us that there wouldnt be many people alighting from a train at Blackpool wearing red winkle pickers and drainpipe jeans! He was right. He came to the factory and listened to us go through our stuff, and he was really impressed, I think we were all a bit taken aback. This guy knew the Pistols, he was part of the scene in London, things we'd only read about. It was fantastic really.

The band needed a name, so a list of possibilities was drawn up and Skrewdriver was chosen. A more polished recording was also required so that Chiswick could assess their potential new assets in advance of contract negotiations, and to help get them on the London gig circuit.

They wanted us down to record some demos at the Riverside studio in Hammersmith. We had to do all our recording after 10.00pm, they used to book studio time overnight because it was half the price. They put us up at a hotel in Kings Cross, Grinny managed to set the fire alarms off with a cigarette. We had the attic room with the very low ceiling and Grinny was lying on the bed smoking and the alarm went off. Everybody, including some rather dodgy looking characters, had to tumble out onto the street in the middle of the night.

When not recording they were soaking up the vibrant north London atmosphere and getting to know other Chiswick artists.

Rock On had a stall on Camden Market at weekends. Camden Market was where everybody used to hang out, it was where a lot of the first punk fanzines and independent records were sold, gigs were advertised, badges, T shirts etc. It was a really good scene, when we were in London we spent a lot of time there, especially at weekends. Wed also hang out at the record shop talking to Roger and Ted, making plans and all that sort of thing. The 101ers had been on Chiswick, although theyd split by then Joe Strummer was still a regular visitor to the shop. Chiswick were also trying to sign Elvis Costello but he went to Stiff. Motorhead were signed at the time, as were the Count Bishops with Johnny Guitar who later joined the Feelgoods, they also had a great band called the Gorillas. We used to go to each others gigs, if any Chiswick band were playing we'd be there. It was just ligging but it was great, a real eye opener at the time.

Their first gig as Skrewdriver was actually a long way from London at Manchester Polytechnic, Cavendish House in February 77, supporting Chiswick stablemates Little Bob Story.What a band they were, they did a great version of the Small Faces' All or Nothing. We were so nervous it was unbelievable, we'd never played in front of an audience properly, it was packed. I reckon the vast majority of the student audience had never actually seen a punk band but it went down really well. I can't remember what we played, we just gave it our all for about half an hour and that was it.On a high they headed down to London to record the first single Youre So Dumb/Better Off Crazy with Roger Armstrong.

We'd done the demos from which they chose You're So Dumb, we werent entirely convinced, we thought it was a bit too much of a thrash, but they were the guys in the know, and they paid the money. We recorded the single soon after

16th April 1977 was their London debut supporting Johnny Moped at the Roxy in Covent Garden. The gig was reviewed by the influential fanzine Sniffin Glue who were impressed.

Chiswick then offered us a deal, the terms were that we'd have to relocate, it was big decision time. Grinny, Kev and Don quit their jobs straight away, so it all hinged on me, basically we had to go in April or not at all. I was talked into it but in an attempt to keep my options open I made it a condition that I had to be able to take my first year exams. If things didnt work out I'd have something to fall back on. They agreed to that which was pretty good really, we had to go down in April and the exams were coming up in May/June. I didn't tell my parents, they didn't know until years later, I would ring them from London and pretend it was Manchester. I ended up missing the last month of lectures at University, then there was a few weeks for revision but I wasn't doing much of that!

It was time to move to the big city, the accommodation was not exactly luxurious.

Chiswick had this arrangement with a landlady in Tufnell Park. She owned a big Edwardian terraced house and we had one room for the four of us. No beds, a double mattress and two singles on the floor and barely space between them to tread, that was it! There was one bathroom between about eight people and one horrendous kitchen. We survived on a diet of potatoes and baked beans. The landlady was called Nora she seemed a bit unhinged at times, she had two dogs and they weren't house trained so you had to watch where you walked! The place was filthy. Chiswick paid the rent and they paid us a wage 15 a week, that's all we got whatever we did. We could be recording, gigging, or anything else but we still got our 15.

There were other interesting people at the same address.

We met Steve Harrington (soon to be Steve Strange) shortly after he arrived from Cardiff. He had a room in Nora's house and worked as personal manager for Generation X, whatever that entailed. He was unique and was soon heralded as a punk fashion guru, he wasn't going to stick around with us for long. He persuaded Don that he needed an image makeover if he was to stand out from the crowd, and offered to take him shopping down the Kings Road. Unfortunately Don was too 'cool' to try anything on! Much of the stuff they got didn't fit or he never wore because of adverse comment, with the exception of a pair of black leather pants. This was the start of the Gene Vincent phase complete with dyed black hair, sideys and biker jacket. I thought it suited his hard man image, but it didn't last for long.

The group needed somebody to take care of the non playing side of things.

Chiswick employed a manager, a girl called Effie, she was from Birmingham, I don't know what her real name was, she was full of enthusiasm and energy. I think she'd been around the punk scene since the beginning, she had an impressive list of acquaintances which included Chris Miller aka Rat Scabies. I guess she was paid a wage by Chiswick, it was up to her to make sure we got where we were supposed to be on time and PAs were hired and the gear was alright. We never knew how the gigs came about, how much we were 'paid' for gigs, or what agents they used, it was all sorted out by Chiswick and Effie. We just got our 15.

Skrewdrivers roadie/van driver was already part of the punk scene.

We didnt have a roadie at first, but when we started gigging quite a lot we hired a guy called Paul Hurding. When we met him he was playing drums with Shag Nasty, a punk band from World's End, a council estate down at the end of Kings Road. They were keen but pretty dire, they used to support X Ray Specs every Sunday night at a pub called the Man in the Moon. On Sunday nights that was the place to go. Loads of people used to go down there, the Pistols would occasionally be there, after the gig there'd always be a party at a flat somewhere on the estate. We met Paul down there, he'd been at a few of our gigs, we recognised him, he had a van, he was fed up with Shag Nasty so he came to work for us. I think he was on a wage from Chiswick, he was only with us for a few months then he was offered the drum seat in X Ray Specs. One week he was our roadie, next week he was off to the USA with X Ray Specs after they signed a major record deal.

BP Hurding was drummer with X Ray Specs until they split, he was later a founder member of Classix Nouveau who were fronted by the bald, charismatic vocalist Sal Solo and had a sizeable hit with Guilty.

So that was the team, the four of us, Paul and Effie. Effie was with us all the time. If the music press were there she was in her element, the Paul Morleys and Julie Burchills of this world. Burchill gave us a real slating in the NME on one occasion and Don hated her guts.

Experiences on the London gig scene were many and varied. Although technically no great singer, Don was beginning to build the aggressive swagger and confidence that made him a good frontman.

The Roxy became a regular, we played there quite a few times, that was the place to be. Dingwalls, we did on more than one occasion. I remember the gig with the Movies, that was pretty early, a bit of a difficult one. The Movies were a Sad Cafe type band, melodic rock, really good musicians, fantastic gear and the place was full of their fans. I vaguely remember doing the Oaks in Chorlton (Manchester), that was a long way to go as we were based in London by then. We did quite a lot of gigs at the Roxy on our own, some with Sham 69, I remember playing there with the Models, the Cortinas, Johnny Moped. The Marquee we did more than once, three times I think. I remember vividly doing the Marquee with Chelsea on the day England had played Scotland at Wembley, the place was full of football supporters and it was a really great night we just couldn't go wrong. I reckon we headlined there once and supported a couple of times, but it was the highlight of the whole thing for me. It was just such a nostalgic place, the dressing rooms hadn't changed they'd never painted it, it was just covered in graffiti. It was a real buzz to play there.

Note for football aficionados, Phil was correct, 4th June 1977, Wembley, England 1 (Channon) Scotland 2 (McQueen, Dalglish). Oh dear!

A live recording exists of a June 77 gig at the Marquee, the actual date is uncertain. Its a bit rough, probably courtesy of a mike in the audience rather than through the desk. If you can get beyond the recording quality a tight and energetic band emerges, no doubt the result of many evenings on the London punk circuit. Frequency of gigging was erratic, there would be gaps of a week or two, then some sort of mini tour, four or five gigs on the trot. Some of the support slots were with well known acts.

We did quite a few gigs with the Damned. They were on a much bigger tour and we were doing three dates with them in south London and then down to the coast. We did Hastings Pier Pavilion at the height of the summer and the place was full of deckchairs! The last time I'd been there was on holiday with my parents when I was about 14 and they let me go and see Status Quo. The next time I was there we were playing! It was a huge pavilion and there could only have been about 200 people there, you could see that beyond about 20 rows of people it was just deckchairs. I used to love playing with the Damned they were great, I think we got those gigs through Effie because of her friendship with Chris. I remember standing in the wings at one of their gigs and what Chris Miller used to do was he'd cover his drum skins with talcum powder and then the first beat at the start of the first number he'd just hit everything as quick as he could and he'd just disappear in a cloud of white dust, it was a great effect especially with a bright light behind.

As well as the London circuit there were a few provincial gigs.

We went out to High Wycombe there was a venue there, the Greyhound? Dunstable I seem to recall playing, and we went up to Birmingham to play at a big club called Rebecca's. That was a bad night because we had to come off. The crowd were all tabloid punks who thought it was cool to shower the artistes in saliva. Absolutely awful, it was like standing in a rain storm, a horizontal rainstorm, we went on and it was just coming at us, after the first number we just stopped. The DJ said it had to stop or we wouldnt be back, so we came back on and a bit later a fight broke out and they'd started spitting again, somebody threw a glass at the stage, so we had to go off again. The promoter called it off, we'd only done about four or five numbers, but that was it so we were back in the van to London. It was a pretty grim experience. We didn't really venture anywhere north of Birmingham until later versions of the group. We were really concentrating on London.

Things didnt always run smoothly and there were a few setbacks.

Sometime around July wed played the Roxy, all the gear had been taken out and loaded into the van. We'd locked up and gone back inside for a drink, and when we came out the van with all the gear was gone, never to be seen again. Chiswick had to buy us new gear, but there was a delay with the insurance money while the claim was verified. We had a series of gigs coming up so we had to go on the scrounge and Effie knew Paul Weller's Dad quite well. He was managing the Jam, and she arranged for me to borrow Paul's gear for a week because they weren't gigging at the time. I met Paul and his Dad in the Ship Inn on Wardour Street and he gave me his Rickenbacker and Vox AC30 and off I went. Then we met a week later and I handed it back, we had a few jars and that was that.

Another nasty moment occurred after a gig at which Skrewdriver were supported by a new band called the Police who were being groomed for stardom.

I think it was at the Railway in Putney, we didn't know who the support was going to be, never did really. There were a lot of Press there, more than there would be for us, so we got the feeling something was going on. They used all our back line, apart from the drums, Stewart Copeland would only use his own kit. I don't particularly remember listening to what they were doing. After the gig while we were loading up the van a nearby rock 'n roll club was just emptying out, all these Teds were coming down the road and spotted us. The van was surrounded and we got a right pasting. The police were soon on the scene and the Teds all ran off, but Grinny had been knocked to the floor with a mike stand, one of those with a really heavy metal base, it had come down on his face and before we knew it he was off in an ambulance. We later found he'd lost several teeth and had lots of stitches.

There was even a fleeting TV appearance, if only we could get our hands on the tape.

It was a show fronted by Janet Street-Porter, she was just an up and coming TV presenter at the time. I think it was for Thames TV, they were doing an item on the punk scene and she wanted to interview us at a caf in Notting Hill. We went along and all the lights and cameras were there, we just sat in the caf and JSP asked the questions, this lasted about 5 minutes of which about 20 seconds ended up in the programme. Unfortunately I was out of shot, Don, Grinny and Kev were all on but somehow they missed me. I didn't actually say anything, as I recall she talked about Grinny and how he lost his teeth. I never actually saw the programme. Apparently Marc Riley (Mark Radcliffes sidekick Lardy Boy) found a videotape of it and has threatened to send it to me!

Back in Phils parallel universe of academia the pressure was on.

I did my University exams, they put me on the overnight train from Euston to Manchester, I'd take the exam in the morning and get the train back to London in the afternoon. I think the exams lasted for about a week and a half, I don't think I slept, I think they gave me some chemicals to keep me awake. In the end I narrowly scraped the pass mark in the exams, so at the end of the summer if things didn't work out I had something to go back to.

Word of Skrewdrivers growing reputation in the capital had not gone unnoticed back home. There was talk of a showcase gig in Blackpool, but some of the natives were restless.

Yes, the Blackpool Council fiasco. Chiswick thought it was a great idea for us to play in Blackpool on the bandstand in Stanley Park, it was going to be a Sunday afternoon punk festival with us headlining. Everything was arranged, then objections were raised and after convening a special meeting it was blocked, they didn't want that kind of thing in Blackpool. Although the festival didnt happen there was high profile coverage in the local paper the Evening Gazette which Chiswick looked on as good publicity. We were a bit disappointed to be honest, I think we quite fancied coming back and playing in Blackpool. That was going to be the showcase gig. We actually didn't come back to the Fylde much that summer, just a couple of times I think.During the early part of the summer rehearsals were taking place in advance of recording sessions.

We had to get a few more songs together, we were using a rehearsal studio which was once quite famous. Studio 51, Great Newport Street was a really happening place in the 60s, the Stones had a residency there and all the R 'n B bands from that time used to play there. It wasn't a club any more I think it was mainly use for storage, that's where we got it together for the album.Sessions started in earnest during August.

We were back at Riverside and once again it was mainly at night, the engineer was a guy called Neil, good bloke, laid back long haired hippy type. He was very experienced which was just as well because we were complete novices in the studio. All the songs were written by Don and I, apart from the covers of course, but he wrote most of the lyrics. That's an acoustic guitar on Where's it gonna end actually I think Don wrote that riff. The recording sessions were great, it was all new and exciting, although Don would get bored because he didn't smoke and neither did Kev so they'd go off somewhere. It was quite a time consuming process, it would sometimes take several hours just to get the drum sound! We did a few guitar overdubs. Most of the vocals were double tracked to give it more power which meant that Don had to sing the same vocal exactly the same twice.

Were the band happy with the finished product?

As a package it was a bit of a novelty record, it spun at 45rpm and lasted 26 minutes. Some of the tracks were quite good, I'm quite happy with the part I played bearing in mind the limitations of the time but some of the lyrics are a bit trite. I don't think we got involved enough in the mixing, the bass sound isn't good, some of the tracks are just not charged, not angry enough. Actually the earlier session for the single produced a much more powerful sound.

Not having a huge advance to work with usually meant that the quality of the equipment was little more than average.

It was a bit frustrating at times, we didn't use valve amps, so there wasnt that really great Marshall sound. The Pistols sound was fantastic, but then if you look at the gear they had they were playing through Fender amps, Gibson Les Paul guitars, Fender Precision bass. We were using transistor amps with 4x12 Cabinets and it was a struggle, not many people used pedals then, so to try and get the sound you wanted you just had to overdrive your amp which was pretty unsatisfactory.

Back out on the road things were beginning to get a bit unpleasant as the summer progressed.

The violence was becoming a regular occurrence, Don had started knocking around with a few people who were that way inclined. We played a gig with 999 at the Music Machine which was also the Boomtown Rats' debut, we'd played a good set and so had 999, then Geldof came on with long hair and posing about like Jagger. Don was getting very angry and this guy took it upon himself to teach Geldof a lesson on Don's behalf, or that's how it was seen. He strode up onto the stage walked straight up to Geldof and hit him hard, knocking him over, there was blood everywhere. He then just walked off the other side of the stage and wasn't even thrown out. He came back and stood with us! Don was laughing and patting him on the back. I was very uncomfortable with this, I didn't want any part of it, I think that was perhaps the start of it. The word got round that these people were acquaintances of ours, although in reality they were acquaintances of Don's.

Time was almost up for Phil, disagreements over songwriting credits and the image change were bringing things to the boil.

I finally quit after things came to a head at Shepperton Studios. We were having a photo session, Roger Armstrong came in and said that the album was due out soon and we needed to sort out the publishing rights for royalties. Who wrote what? Don was adamant that I had not had a significant input to the song writing, we argued about it and he turned to take a swipe at me which I dodged. That was the final straw as far I as was concerned, he wanted to go down the skinhead route, I was not happy about that at all. From his point of view I was going to stand in his way so I think he was looking for some way to get me out. The others had agreed to shave their heads, I was under serious pressure, their view was we were getting nowhere and this was our new direction. Don needed to create some sort of rift to get me out and he got what he wanted.

The record company had to grin and bear it.

Chiswick seemed to understand, they weren't happy with the bad image that was developing because of our new following. They were putting money in and we needed to promote the product but we couldn't get the gigs, so there wasn't much point in making any more records. I think they would have been quite happy to write off the contract if they'd had the choice.

Roger Armstrong, The original band were a great punk band, they were about as raw as it gets. The skinhead image was a fashion thing, maybe in hindsight a bit misconceived.

Phil was replaced by Poulton hard man Ron Hartley who had played in various other local bands.

Ron was quickly on the scene, he looked the part, he had been a skinhead in the past and was quite happy to be one again. There was never any hard feelings between him and me, nor Grinny, but for a while of course to Don I was beneath contempt. I think Effie drifted off the scene around this time, she wasn't happy with the image change and the violence. I think she went back to Birmingham. It was all compressed into about 9 months, but I think I got the best out of it, I didn't have to put up with the painful demise. Shortly after I left I was offered an audition with Adam and the Ants but I wasnt really interested, I suppose it could all have been very different but I've never regretted it. I went back to university having missed the first four weeks of term.

All Skrewed Up was finally released in early November 1977. Although Ron Hartley is featured on the album sleeve the original liner notes acknowledged that Phil played all the guitar parts. Roy Carr in the New Musical Express, the UKs most influential rock publication, gave it the thumbs up. His closing comments were very positive.Skrewdriver don't need to warm up other people's leftovers because in singer Ian, these Blackpool boot-boys have (potentially) one of the best gravel throated vocalists to emerge this year, whilst Ron (guitar), Kev (bass) and Grinny (drums) give the listener the distinct impression that they would be better deployed on more adventurous chords and rhythms.

"Although Chiswick were a small label they had distribution and publishing deals with some of the big companies, I'm sure EMI were one of them, so their records were sold all over the world. I didn't get any royalties while I was with the band, the publishing hadn't been sorted out properly, it always takes time to come through. Then every three months or so royalty cheques and statements were sent to my Mum and Dad's address, this went on for a couple of years until they deleted the records from the catalogue. It wasn't a fortune of course but it was amazing to see the statistics. The statements would detail how many copies of which record had sold in which country and what the royalty was. We sold records all over the place, Australia, Canada, we sold a lot in Scandinavia. I think Anti Social sold about 14000 copies in the first two weeks in the UK."

Were there ever any indications of the future Skrewdriver political agenda?

Our music did not have any serious political content, I dont recall Don being politically active at the time, other than the normal sexual/racist prejudices that prevailed. There was however, always an aggressive undercurrent with Don, ever since school. He was a volatile character, always prone to explosions of violence at the least provocation, especially after a drink. He was great fun to be with most of the time, very generous, he would always buy you a pint if you were skint, always back you up if you got in a sticky corner. A great pal when your face fitted. Above all, he sought notoriety and attention, which he finally achieved.

At this point we jump forward a few months into early 1978, to a time well documented in Mark Radcliffe's book Showbusiness: Diary of a Rock n Roll Nobody. This is essential and frequently hilarious reading for anybody with an earthy sense of humour, particularly if they were in their late teens in the late 70s, and in possession of a love for the less sophisticated hybrids of rock n roll. Phil and Mark first met at University in 1976 and have remained close friends ever since.

Don and Kev came back to Manchester at some point around January 78, I think the band only limped on for a couple more months after I left. Don ended up at the flat Mark and I rented for quite a while, he was still a skinhead which made things a bit awkward at times. He was as nice as could be because he needed us now. We started going to gigs, he still had the Chiswick contract, he wanted to get something together so he found this guy from Oldham, a sort of entertainments agent, who persuaded us to reform but with Ron on guitar and me on bass. We needed a drummer so Mark was asked and he agreed. Very quickly the agent got us a headline gig at a festival at Groningen in Holland. The week before the Vibrators had headlined and the week after it was Lindisfarne!! We borrowed Grinnys drumkit out of his garage while he was away and began a week of rehearsal in a church hall in Poulton. We had a couple of guys with a big Mercedes van and a great PA to do the sound for us over in Holland. Apparently they used to be the singer and drummer out of Shabby Tiger, a 70s glam rock band. Anyway it poured down all weekend, it was badly organised, it ran late, and we were blown away by some band from Newcastle. By the time we went on the weather was awful the sound was dire and people were drifting away. On the way back our agent was stopped at customs and we never saw him again, the main problem was he had all the money. The two lads out of Shabby Tiger were not happy, they just took us to the M6 and dropped us off at the first service station. We had to hitch back.

This line up continued for a few months gigging at a variety of places in northern England and even up to Scotland on one occasion, Dumfries I believe.

We teamed up with Bitch who were led by ex Drones guitarist Gus Gangrene (aka Gary Callender), with Glenn Jones also on guitar, a guy called Gabby on bass, a strange peroxide girl singer called Charlie, and Martin Smith on drums. We did about a dozen gigs with them. At the Mayflower in Manchester I cut my left hand quite badly on a broken glass after fooling around with Gus/Gary backstage. There was blood everywhere, I should have been stitched really, but we were due on in 10 minutes, so I bandaged it with a towel and went on and played."

"We did a gig at Sutton in Ashfield which the so called promoter had failed to advertise and nobody turned up. He paid us in beer and we all got absolutely hammered. At the end of the night we all jammed together, Don with Glen and Gus both of Bitch on guitars, me on bass, along with the Bitch drummer. The police turned up because of the noise and asked who was driving the van, which was a good question as most of us were incapable of even standing up. They drove us and the van to the nearest lay-by outside their jurisdiction and told us to stay there until the morning. Mark and I had had enough by then and quit soon after.

Ron Hartley was dropped soon after.

Ron's style of playing was more rooted in the blues, he was really very good, but he didn't really have the right style for the chord thrashing that was required. His influence was Clapton and Page whereas mine was Townshend and Wilko Johnson, so perhaps my style was more suited to the punk thing.

Don was still keen to carry on though, his music was no longer punk as such, more like high energy rock.

Don ended up living at Sean McKay's student house in Salford. He decided it was time for a change again and that the music scene needed a good rock band! He rang me up and was so enthusiastic and persuasive that I went along with it. Grinny was back on drums, Kev McKay was on bass, I was on guitar and Chris Cummings also joined on guitar. I remember going round to Chris house in Blackpool with Don, we persuaded him to quit his job and join the band! I think we did about three gigs the most memorable one being the support slot with Motorhead at King Georges Hall in Blackburn. Not long into the gig Lemmy somehow broke his bass and borrowed Kev's. He practically wrecked that too, it was a sorry sight at the end, covered in deep scratches from the bullet belt he always wore. We were pretty dreadful really, the material was crap, mainly new stuff that Don had written, plus a few leftovers from earlier times, anything that could be done in a rock vein. It all fell apart very soon.