Early Demos and Radio Plays
Before the advent of the bedroom recording scene if you wanted to get your music heard on the wireless, as it was known back in them days, you had to venture to a recording studio. After plundering the Yellow Pages, and there wasn't much to plunder then either, we decided to head to Novatech Studios in Mallusk to lay down some tracks, man. Gary Aitken was the man in charge of polishing this turd and boy did he do a great job! We had written some songs and had a bit of an idea what they would sound like, so this was going to be easy. Introductions over, Gary asked me to tune up my rickety old bass. The sheer panic and confusion this simple task created! I didn't have a tuner and when presented with one, I didn't know what to do with it! It also transpired that old rickety wasn't properly earthed so made the most disgusting hum when connected up to a board. I got away with this in the gigs but when there was a turd to polish, this was not going to help get the necessary shine. So Gary let me play one of the lovely guitars he had available.
We were booked in for 8 hours or so I think and it became apparent to Gary that these chancers really weren't terribly well prepared. I couldn't play my bass riffs twice the same way so he actually sampled one of the "good" ones so I sounded like Adam Clayton. Drums, guitars, bass and some slinky strings from Gary's fandabidozy synths and whoop, there it was! Gary pressed burn and handed us a lovely CD master to take away for the cassettes we were going to get made. We handed over our hard earned and thanked him gratefully. I'm sure Gary was relieved to see the back of us. Imagine his joy when he got another booking a year or so later.
Us boys were too prolific as song writers to keep up to recording in a proper studio and it was too costly so we invested in a wee Fostex four-track recording studio of our own. One track for drums, one track for bass, one track for guitar and the last for vocals. This was going to be easy. So we set about recording a C90's worth of material for our demo "Pink". No more getting cassettes burned off either, you could do this yourself, in real time, with a double tape deck! Aside from firing your demos to record companies to bin, you could also send them to local radio stations. Downtown Radio, based in Newtownards mostly played pish music but on Monday night, a maverick DJ called Johnny Hero had a show for showcasing local music. He also had a column in the Sunday Life, which featured a Top 10 which Johnny assured us was compiled from sales figures from record shops in Belfast.
A copy of "Pink" was despatched to Johnny and we waited with baited breath to see if we were going to get played. Sure enough, Johnny had received our tape and gave it a spin, our first ever play on the radio. But then something terrible happened. Johnny abruptly interrupted the play back and in his gruff voice roared "err, it's an alright song lads but it sounds like it was recorded in a biscuit tin!". I was simultaneously gutted and enraged. How could this savage bastard do that?! We were awesome, he didn't know what he was talking about! The fact is, it did sound shite and this was probably the best lesson we could get. You have to do better. Having said that, I met Steve Lamacq at a gig and handed him a copy of "Pink" which he subsequently wrote about in Record Mirror Magazine. He described us as sounding like Warsaw (Joy Division before they changed name) which I was absolutely over the moon about. As time went by, Johnny would receive further demos, better recorded I might add and he would have us down to his studio for an interview. He also included us in the Top10, It's at this point I would have to question the sales figures idea. But I have no proof, so let's leave it at that.
At this time Terri Hooley was operating out of his Good Vibrations shop which was situated in Howard Street. He had an entire section devoted to local bands. So little old me wanders in to ask if Terri will take on some copies to sell. I proudly boasted that were at number 9 in Johnny Hero's Top10, in order to enhance our prospects at being considered for sales. Terri glared over the counter before sneering "I wouldn't tell people that!". Again, I thought to myself "you cheeky bastard" but had to bite my tongue as a) this was a local legend and b)he wouldn't take my cassettes if I gave it back. So taking my slap like a man I handed over 6 copies, gave my details and wandered out of the shop, slightly pleased yet slightly pissed off. As the years would go by, time would not be pleasant to Terri. Yet my relationship with him got better and when I would call in to the shops, which decreased in size, he would chat with me about various things and I wouldn't take any money off him for the tiny sales he made for me.
The older I got, the more I realised that sending demos away was a great big waste of time. I would keep all the letters telling me that we weren't just what that label was looking for at this time. But the determination to keep going was as strong as ever. We needed to look into making CDs and making ourselves sound better. The competition from the local scene was improving all the time and the opportunities for radio play were getting better. Our next target was to make as much music as possible, get more radio play and get ourselves more gigs, especially the week long festival called BelFest ran by Portadown compatriot Gerard "Shep" Sheppard.
There was also a new publication ran by some up and coming journalists, Paul McNamee and a chap called Colin Murray. These folks were all in my sights...
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