Peter Griffiths and I had been friendly since about 1972, we were both from St. Helens and had met when I was about 15. Peter did not play an instrument but was a charismatic figure that had an extensive record collection, which included the Stooges , NY Dolls, Velvets etc. We had been two of the few people in Town with those tastes as far back as 1972.  I started to play guitar at this time but could not produce the skill to play the usual Stairway to Heaven, Black Magic Women type material that all the local bands were playing, hence I could not get into a band.

 Around summer of 1976 we became aware of the London Punk scene but did not really think of it as Punk but simply a list of bands that were taking influences from the Stooges and other American heavy rockers. I missed an opportunity to see the Sex Pistols in Chester around Sept/October 76 because my friends motor cycle was bust, but around Christmas of  76  Erics club in Liverpool opened and  started to put on  bands  such as The Runaways, The Damned, The Ramones, Talking Heads etc. Peter and I became regulars and saw many of the groups.

 It was early in 77, about March I think, that I saw the Heartbreakers at Erics and spoke to them after the gig, I told them I had a group called the Blackmailers  ( which I didn’t) and they offered us a support slot at Warrington Parr Hall with Slaughter and the Dogs and The Buzzcocks in May. This gave me about 5 or 6 weeks to put the band together. We had a friend called Mike Rigby who offered to sing and we loaned a drummer from a local rock band, I gave Peter Griffiths my brothers bass guitar and showed him the notes to play, and with me on guitar we rehearsed in Mike Rigby’s garage.  At some point around this time I met Wayne County and asked him a good name for a band as I wasn’t happy with the Blackmailers, it was his suggestion The Spitfire Boys and it stuck.

At the Parr Hall gig we played mainly Ramones covers with a couple of originals such as ‘Mary Whitehouse’. I remember leaving the stage towards the end of the set with my guitar feeding back against the amp, this was unplanned and I expected the others to follow me off the stage, they didn’t and I returned to the stage with rousing applause and finished the set.  Shortly after this, I rang Roger Eagle at Erics and asked if we could play, he agreed and we did our first Erics gig not long after. 

We did not have a drummer for the first Erics gig, but had a friend Peter Clarke (Budgie) an excellent drummer from St Helens who I had previously spoken to about getting some sort of NY Dolls band together. We used to frequent a club in St.Helens called the Geraldo, and it was there that I first met him in 76.He was at Art College in Liverpool in 77 and I remember arriving at his digs one Saturday morning armed with a live recording from the Parr Hall gig.I played the tape and although he was playing with a group called Albert Dock (later the Yachts) he agreed to join us.

We played the Erics gig and it was after this gig that it fell on me to tell Mike Rigby that his services were no longer required ( we felt he wasn’t up to it ). Budgie suggested Paul Rutherford as a replacement and I remember he turned up for an audition with Peter Burns, and Holly Johnson in tow.He joined straight away and we got down to rehearsing new material with him. Peter and I had written British Refugee and Spitfire Girl and I was keen to drop the covers.              

 At that time in Liverpool we were the only Punk band and had the fortune to support most of the American and London bands who played at Erics as well as occasionally headlining. We had free access to the club and it became our second home.

 I was disappointed  the group did not feature too strongly in Liverpool's  Punk history, taking second place to the Big in Japans , Nova Mob, Crucial Three etc. who all came much later. We were the first to have a record out and the first to play on a regular basis in the City but coming from St Helens (about 12 miles away from Liverpool) we were always the outsiders. Liverpool at that time was still engrossed in Art Rock with Deaf School being the only noted band. Albert Dock/Yachts were a Pop band with leanings to the B52s. I don’t recall any other band along the line of the Spitfire Boys. Radio Blank with David Balfe played at Erics once or twice but they were from the Wirral and could not be described as Punk. When Big in Japan formed they could not be classed as a Punk band either as they were more Art Punk i.e. Velvets circa 1967/8 covering ‘ I’m Sticking with You’ or some similar Mo Tucker thing. I remember they had a track called ‘Peggy Suicide’ which was their showcase.

 I suppose the reason that all the others got attention was because of their later successes but before they even had bands, Julian Cope and Holly Johnson used to travel in the van with us, Pete Wylie joined us in December 77 for a few rehearsals and Peter Burns was simply always there. I never new Ian McCullough at the time, but I was introduced to him at the Hacienda in Manchester around 1988. Ian Broudie was always around and was friendly with Deaf School and Bill Drummond.

 We didn’t play many other Liverpool venues as there weren’t any that catered for Punk. We played an outdoor festival in the City Centre and  a  private party once…… but most of the gigs were in the established Punk venues in the UK and the University circuit. We never got gobbed on except at some rural venues. Corby was a violent one and we had to be escorted out of the Town by the Police. Holly Johnson supported us at this gig for his first solo live appearance.

 Whilst the Spitfire Boys played in London and hung around with the Slits, we did not move there. Our only booking at the Roxy in Covent Garden was cancelled and so I have no info on that club first hand. The connection with the Slits came about because Paul Rutherford was a Seditionaries (spelling?) customer in the Kings Rd  and had met several London Punk People. He became friendly with them and the connection was through him. We always felt the London scene was vibrant, but without strong management, we did not get the opportunities the bigger bands got. I don’t recall any rivalry as such and the Slits were really pleased when ‘British Refugee’ came out.

 I was always a fan of the Ramones ( great first album) and the Stranglers (good tunes for the summer of 77)  but I was disappointed with most of the Punk Albums such as Never Mind the Bollocks. The Clash’s first album was slightly easier to listen to as an album because it was more than one dimensional with its reggae influences but on the whole, Punk was dying by this stage. I  believed in the Punk single and ‘Anarchy’ of course was a classic as was Magazines’ Shot by both Sides’, both  examples of  great singles. The Spiral Scratch EP was another great record but I thought the Buzzcocks later tracks wore thin very quickly. Don’t Dictate by Penetration was a favourite for a while. However, I was still listening to Low and later Heroes, Televisions Marquee Moon and all the other old stuff including Kraftwerk and Lou. 

 Vermillion was writing for Search and Destroy and lived with the Slits tour manager along with Steve Strange. I don’t remember the interview and its quite possible that the others did it.

 I moved to London in January 78 after the split of the Spitfire Boys in Dec 77 so I was not part of the new scene that developed in Liverpool with the Bunnymen, OMD , Teardrop Explodes, Wah Heat etc.

I was aware that Punk as a movement was no longer viable and had run its course. The new music emerging from these groups had its roots in traditional rock music such as the Doors, Can and other sixties prog rockers.I assume that these bands became disillusioned with Punk going into 78 and went back to their roots for inspiration. I was listening to the new bands such as Wire and Gang of Four.

 We played at the Wigan Casino on one of their  ‘Rock nights’ and Peter Griffiths was approached by the clubs manager. He wanted to manage us and arranged for us to do a demo in some small studio in Wigan. Shortly after we signed a Record Deal with RKO Records. We were impressed at the time because they had ‘You Really Got Me’ by the Kinks on their books. RKO comes from Robert Kingston Organisation. Robert Kingston was the chairman of the PRS at the time, which is odd as we never received a penny from the single. I don’t know how well it sold but I heard reports of it being sold all over Europe.

 The second single came about with a totally different line up. I wrote, sang and recorded ‘Funtime’ whilst in Wales in 1979 with a scratch band. I did not want to use the Spitfire Boys name on it but was persuaded by the guy who financed it to use the name because he thought it would sell better. It only had a short run of a thousand copies. The original band was well finished at that point and I sort of owned the name as it was all my own making. Budgie was with the Banshees by then and the other two doing their own things. This scratch band recorded about 8 songs with me, the last three in the RKO studios. Nothing came of them, although I did receive encouraging talk from CBS (now Sony) asking to see me live with a view to getting signed. I couldn’t play live at that point as the drummer and bass player were not available.

 I don’t have any records or masters of anything from either of those bands. The last song we recorded with the original line up was ‘Nice Words Pretty Story’ but Paul did not turn up for the session. It was simply he didn’t know about the session times but the Record company went mad and this was the main reason for the split as everyone was pissed off with it all. It was no longer the same after that day.

We recorded a song for the Erics label which may be knocking around someplace. The label did not release it because it had swearing on, or so they told us, it was probably because RKO wanted tons of cash as we were signed to them.

 In 1978 I joined The Photons and recruited Steve Strange on vocals. We only played live two or three times and recorded three tracks with Stewart Copeland producing. ‘Tar’, ‘Mind of a Toy’ and ‘Madame Carla’. Steve went on to record Tar and Mind of a Toy with Visage. I fell out with Steve for a while after this because I co-wrote all three with him and did not receive any cash or credit. Its true that the lyrics where essentially his and the arrangements different but in copyright, those songs belonged to Steve and myself and I should have been paid accordingly. I still have a cassette copy of ‘Mind of a Toy’, maybe I should re-master it and release it….

 I moved to Cardiff in October 78 and lived there for a year. One of the pleasant aspects of that time is that I became friends with Karl Hyde and Rick Smith from Underworld and we are still friends to this day. I moved back to London at the end of 79 and joined the White Brothers. These were a radical group based around Glenn Carmichael and Kevin Evans. They are performance poets and are still popular on that circuit with Glenn being a well known figure in the South West poetry scene. The group was managed by Nils Stevenson who also managed  the Banshees but it had nothing to do with Budgie whatsoever. Nils had seen us play and rang to meet us and it went from there.

 A moment that stands out in the Spitfire Boys history for me (actually there are many) was being delayed to go on stage at the Rock Garden in Covent Garden because two members of the band were having sex in the van outside. I was not one of them and Budgie is married to Siouxsie.

 Punk achieved the most change in the way it allowed music to belong to ordinary people i.e. non musicians. It has never been the same since and every record is produced to the hilt by professionals. I always hoped that electronic music would go punk but it hasn’t done so yet.

Or has it…check my Urban Electronica site but that’s another story.