For me it was Anthony Newley, Ken Dodd, Charlie Drake, Simon Dupree And The Big Sound, The Rattles, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, T Rex, Beethoven, Brahms, Small Faces and on and on and on. These are the very first records I heard from being a kid but you must remember that this was centuries ago and punk was nowhere near invented yet.

Any bands b4 Neon ? What were they and what sort of music?

Before Neon we were all in bands at school with names like Hephalumps And Woozles and after we left school there was quite a few. I left school and home at sixteen to join a band in Middlesborough called Eyes To The Sky which was formed by Paddi, the drummer from Neon. We played furious rock music in weird time signatures. We were very hard on ourselves musically and we played as if our lives depended on it. Later on Paddi left and joined a Scottish rock band called Dragon who won a battle of the bands competition and me and Mark Dunn, Neon's bass player formed a band with the future Neon manager Paul Taylor on drums called Whippet. We played mainly in colleges and once in an old folks home which was enlightening to say the least. This was early seventies and punk still hadn't arrived.

How did you come to form Neon ?

Paddi came back from Scotland after Dragon folded and so we decided to form a band. This was early 1976. Mark and me used to go around to Paddi's house and paddi had his drums set up in his bedroom. His dad was a great bloke who was a music teacher and his mother was very understanding because we used to make a hell of a lot of noise as you can imagine. We're talking a 100 watt marshall combo for the guitar and 150 watt bass rig set up in a bedroom alongside a full drum kit. We would come up with loads of ideas and it all kind of naturally evolved into a punky sound with furious time signatures which we were always into before. We got our first gig alongside a load of heavy metal and blues bands but we couldn't decide what to wear, so we found a load of strange old clothes and put them in a big cardboard box and just took our pick as to what we would wear. This box stayed with us for two years and literally hundreds of gigs. Mark usually ended up wearing pajamas and a dressing gown onstage whilst Paddi would be found in a pair of red satin shorts and I would be stuck with a pair of curtains or whatever. Needless to say, we were eventually voted "Worst dressed band of the year" in the Sounds music paper which was popular at that time. After our first single release, our favourite guitarist Martin Holder returned to the North East after playing in bands in London and he was immediately drafted in as second guitarist.

A lot of questions are based on the fact that I assume you are Scottish for some reason. If you are not then ignore the q's that are irrelevant.

We were actually formed in County Durham in the North East of England. This is why our contemporaries were bands like Penetration, Punishment Of Luxury and The Carpettes.

Did you view yourselves as part of punk, or just influenced and running alongside it ?

We were immediately labelled punk from our first gig so that's what we thought we were although in retrospect there were so many other influences that eventually became known as New Wave.

What sort of music/punk scene was there where you were ? What places / clubs did you play ?

Where was the most vibrant live music scene you could imagine. Honestly, bands would give their front teeth for the kind of scene that was going on in the North East Of England at that time. There were loads of gigs to play and so many people were into the live music scene. It was wonderful. Punk kick started so much action for live music. If we weren't playing gigs, we were going to see bands. We had a lot of support from local radio, especially from BBC Radio Newcastle who had a great weekly programme on the local scene called Bedrock which was produced by a guy called Dick Godfrey alongside Phil Sutcliffe and Ian Penman, all now well known journalists in their own right. We also had loads of fanzines. We played all of the pub venues in the North East and up to Scotland in places like Edinburgh and Glasgow. Also as far south as leeds etc and eventually London.

On the local scene who were the other bands around that never made it ?

Too many to mention. There was a band called Last Exit that featured a black haired bass player called Sting

What was the attitude to punk and like bands ?? Spitting ? Violence ?

There was a lot of violence to be sure. A lot of violence aimed at us because we were labelled a punk band. It was unreal. We had the van turned over at Sunderland Polytechnic and ended up barricading ourselves in the dressing room. One gig we did for May Day at The Guild Hall in Newcastle was voted "bum gig of the year" by one magazine as it was an absolute Bloodbath. There was a clash between the Angelic Upstarts fans and ours & Punishment Of Luxury's. We don't know exactly what happened but all of a sudden I'm watching chairs and bottles bouncing off people's heads in the audience. Then the promoter runs up to us and says get off stage quick, then the PA does a tilt into the audience crushing a load of people and finally it's all over. Where I'd been standing was just a pool of blood and I'm watching Mark dragging some poor girl out of the audience who had been kicked to fuck. The police arrive and there's people standing screaming at them "Where the hell were you!". I've had full pints of beer thrown over me at gigs before I'd even played a note. Bottles flying through the air and trying to keep an eye on where they're going to land. Nutcases following us from gig to gig in order to get a chance to beat the shit out of those degenerate Neon Fuckers, kids being thrown down flights of stairs, thrown into drum kits, people cut up with knives, real evil stuff, like being in a nightmare etc etc. Yes, a lot of violence that I don't like to remember.

What bands did you rate and dislike ??

Punishment Of Luxury and Penetration were our favourites. We thought that Penetration were especially amazing after Fred Purser joined on guitar. We did quite a few gigs with them and Punilux. You listen to them now and they're both still amazing to hear. They haven't dated at all because they were real innovators. I used to work in a crap job for the council with Garry Chaplin, the original guitarist for Penetration and he invited me down to Saint Margaret's church hall in Durham to watch them rehearse. Pauline Murray was always an electrifying live performer. 

If you are from Scotland what did you make of Scottish punk bands ie The Rezillos, Valves and Skids ?

Although we weren't from Scotland, we were signed to a Scottish record label called Sensible Records alongside The Rezillos. They were a great bunch of people. Eugene and Fay Fife helped us carry the gear on and off stage at a couple of gigs in Edinburgh. They were very supportive and a great live band.

How would you describe your sound ?? Punk ? New Wave ? What did you hope to achieve ?

I would describe our sound now as progressive punk which is easy to do in hindsight. Fast and furious guitar riffs. We just wanted to get out and play, get drunk, meet interesting people and have a good time. If possible perform a miracle and earn a living from music.

Were you tempted to move down to London ??

All of the band did except me. I had too much going on up here at the time although at one point I did have an audition for The Vibrators but I didn't turn up. I was too knackered after the demise of Neon but I always wonder what it would have been like if I'd gone. They would have probably shouted "Next Please!"

How did John Peel radio session come about ?

John Peel heard our first single on Sensible Records and gave it a lot of airplay. A while later he asked us into the studio which was Maida Vale in London. There was one event at those sessions that was weird. One of the lines to one of the songs we were doing had "and she said" in the lyric but the BBC engineer with a bowler hat and a brolly thought that I sang "shithead". I hear a voice with a posh accent coming over my headphones saying " I'm terribly sorry but you can't say that!". I say "Can't say what?" The voice answers "shithead, I distincly heard you say shithead". "No I didn't" says I until the only way to please the guy was to say "and she said"  in a posh accent. Strange that.

Biggest moment in band ? Who did you support?

The best moment for me was supporting Penetration & Punishment Of Luxury at Newcastle City Hall. We'd been going to see bands there since we were kids and it was great to actually be onstage there and feel what it was like. It was a gig to remember. Also, supporting Siouxsie And The Banshees at Durham University and sharing a dressing room with them. We gave their roadie a Neon sticker and he stuck it on his arse for the whole gig whilst Siouxsie was kicking unwanted fans off the stage and kids were passing out in the heat and being dragged out of the audience. We also supported The Pretenders at The Nashville in London. They were brilliant at that time and it was very sad to see two of the band die a few years later through smack I think it was. We played with the excellent reggae band Steel Pulse in Edinbrough. They were very kind to us in the dressing room whilst they were all gambling around a table with a pack of cards. The bass sound was unbelievable and blew you through the wall. Another band at that time was The Roogalators who were also very kind to us. We played a great gig at The Greyhound in Fulham for The Damned appreciation society and they were wonderful people. We used to do benefits for The Greasy Lake bikers club and they all became good friends but they tended to bite you a lot which was a bit unexpected. We supported The Rich Kids at The Coatham Bowl in Redcar and I met Glenn Matlock, the original bass player from The Sex Pistols who was a very nice bloke. The only thing I can remember saying to him was "You wrote Pretty Vacant didn't you?" and him saying "yeah" in a dismissive kind of way as if it was nothing. It being one of my favourite guitar riffs of all time! There's loads of memorable gigs really. We did the pub circuit in London a few times and that was always interesting. Places like The Hope & Anchor, The Music Machine, The Nashville and places like that. In fact, now I come to think of it, one of my best memories around that time was after Neon, I played with Punishment Of Luxury for a while and got to play the old Marquee club. That was one of the most enjoyable gigs I've played.

How did Neon end ??

The dreaded worst/ best experience  question ??

The worst, the aforementioned Guildhall gig which was like the Wild West. The best, the aforementioned City Hall gig.

Looking back what do you make of punk and the industry it appears to have become ? Any Regrets ? Did '77 change anything ?

In my opinion, 77 changed everything. Thank God it happened. It really shook up a complacent music industry and in many ways paved the way for new music and new ideas. My only regret is that I didn't know then what I know now. We were very naive and were ripped off from start to finish really. We worked our arses off with no thanks at the end of it and certainly never made any money. All that we ended up with was the reality of enormous debts. The more successful you are, the more debts you incur or at least we did. All that the record companies will say to you in the end is "Don't give me your problems my son". The major record companies never gave a damn about the ethic behind the punk movement. A  big mistake made by a lot of young musicians is that they think that the record companies actually care about them as people, as individuals but it's all about money. They want to shift units. They want to sell you and your band as product for profit. It's a business, just like any other business and that's all it is. They may as well be selling Cornflakes. Many people from that time, prime movers and real believers in the movement are now dead or dead broke and well fucked up. Money is still being made out of them, as it always is. The punk movement was just eaten up and spat out like any other movement which threatens the established order of things.

Anything you would like to add ?

Having said the above, the movement still exists as a separate entity from the mainstream. Excellent labels that we are stlii in touch with and have a great deal of respect for like Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles are beyond the clutches of the mainstream manipulators. These people are the true heroes of the movement. Those who have never sold out for money. There's a great new Spacepunk band from the UK on Jello's label called Iowaska with an album called "Vine Of Souls".

What did you and the rest of the band do after Neon ?

We all carried on in music once we had come to our senses after the frantic period of playing hundreds of gigs and wondering what had happened to the movement we all believed in. Finally I met my extremely talented partner Terri~B who is a singer, artist and designer. She sorted my head out and eventually we found the underground music network and have been a part of it ever since. We now have our own record label called Stone Premonitions which is run as a musicians cooperative. It's a collective of about fifty musicians. We have 33 albums on the current catalogue but I've got to admit that we are now mainly involved in Psychedelic music but we still employ the punk ethic in what we do. We also have our own radio show called Alchemical Radio which goes out through a network in the USA called Aural Innovations . We hope that your readers can listen in and if there are any bands looking for airplay, we will be pleased to consider them. We don't discriminate about musical style. We'll feature anything as long as we think it's good. We now have decent distribution and get a lot of help from Hi-Note Music in the UK  and generally keep on trying. I'm too old now to give up. I've burnt too many bridges and music was always the only thing that I was any good at.

We sincerely appreciate the coverage you have given us Paul and we wish you every success in your activities. Thanks for helping to keep our music alive!

Thanks a lot for your time Tim and wish you all the best for the future and I look forward to getting Neon on the website.

Thanks

PaulM