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You were on the second live Roxy album. How were you approached to do
this, and by who?
Kevin St John told us we were being recorded live at the Roxy, and
that’s all there was to it.
Were you offered a
single payment for the track or a percentage? Did the record sell well?
Did you ever get any money?
Money, what money? Percentage? the only percentage on offer was a
100% chance that no one playing on the record would ever get a penny.
What do you remember of
the recording night? Large crowd? No Crowd? Atmosphere?
As I recall, the only people in the crowd were the other bands who
were recording, and their mates. Hence the lack of atmosphere on the
record, as the
last thing that anyone in a punk band wanted to do was cheer/clap/pogo to
another band. In fact the album is a total disappointment, as all the
bands featured were loads better than served up on this particular
platter.
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Was there any rivalry
between the bands? Did you even know who was going to be on it?
There was always rivalry? I think it’s safe to say we all hated
everyone else (a common theme in punk at the time). Obviously there were
inter-band personal friendships, but on mass it was always a case of,
"we’re great and they’re crap".
Were you involved in any
of the mixing for the album. In fact were you involved in track selection
at all. If not who was doing it all?
The whole thing was done by Kevin St John and someone from Sparta
Florida, behind closed doors (with closed ears it seems going on the
results), hence the shocking aural state of the LP, we were all devastated
when we first heard it, an emotion that has only been compounded by the
years.
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The finished product -
Some difference from the first Roxy album. No pictures of the bands, fans
and to be honest a dark picture of the Roxy itself. What did you make of
it?
Again, there was no input by the bands (as far as I know). Although
the photo of the bog wall was very familiar. The truth is, the record was
seen as a money making venture by Kevin St John and Sparta Florida, but
boy did they get it wrong eh! |
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How come you never
made a record?
We did! Strange Boy c/w Sod You, produced by Peter Yellowstone (who spent
the session talking about his designer punk red shoes, that’d cost him a
fortune - we were starving at the time) It was recorded at Borough
Studios, which became Stock Aitken Waterman’s hit factory. Both tracks
recorded and mixed in one day, then back to the flat to spend another week
waiting in vain for stardom, eating bread and marmite, no butter. At the
time we were being wooed by CBS, Pye and Red Bus Records, and on the
advice of some idiot(?) we signed to Red Bus. I have a cassette of the
single, which never actually got released, and it still sounds kicking. It
would've been a classic! I did see the sleeve once, in the record company
office (situated in the same building as Hammer Horror in Wardour St) but
never managed to get a 7 inch copy (which really pisses me off as in life
I’m a completist and I know that thousands were pressed up, and then most
probably pulped). We’d previously demoed three songs live in Covent Garden
Studios for CBS, which are also very solid and nothing to be ashamed of. |
Part 1 - The
Beginning | Part 2 - The Roxy & other gigs |
Part 4 -Farewell Tour & The End
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