A London based power pop / punk band who formed in 1977 with a small Nottingham connection.
Formed by Mickey Modern aka Michael Turner (vocals), Benny Leopard aka Barry Andrews (bass), Pete Robinson (guitar) & Percy Cute aka Peter Phips (drums).
Signed by Arista they released singles and an album and supported XTC in their short career.
Their first single appeared in October 77 on Arista Records with on the A side a supercharged cover of “The Young Ones” by Cliff Richard.
Originally a five piece group they had a fluid line up and were complemented by two musicians who had formerly been in Nottingham rock band Matarka, Paul Arnal and Simon Lester.
Paul takes up the story:
“regarding The Secret, it’s a bit murky but I think Simon applied to a drummer wanted ad in the NME,
times were changing musically and we were both into punk etc… when Simon joined the secret
Matarka called it a day.
Not long after, Simon rang and said the secret needed a guitar player to replace Frankie Deepe, the
original Frankie went off to join Iron Maiden apparently but I was never a permanent member, I
came back to Nottm after a few months as I couldn’t afford to stay in London anymore and nothing
was really happening.
Just those few months rehearsing with The Secret taught me so much, rehearsals were exhausting.
The 2 main guys Mickey and Benny were tin pan ally esque song writers and had been song writing
for years, basically they were trying to tap in on the punk explosion, song writing wise and they really
knew their stuff and along with the relentless rehearsals I brought that knowledge back with me
and applied it to ‘the Fatal Charm’, we dropped the’ the’ in ‘80.
I was asked to go back to The Secret as a session guitarist as they were going on tour with XTC (after
doing a bit of googling it was Feb ‘78), boy we played way too loud, my ears were ringing for 2 weeks,
I can thank The Secret for my tinnitus. After that I came back to Nottm to record some demo’s and then
had another phone call from The Secret to play on the album they were recording, maybe summer of ‘78
as ‘the fatal charm’ must have been formed shortly after, the name came from the b-side of a Mumps single.
I don’t remember much after I played on the album, no idea if they gigged the album but they probably split by the end of ‘79.
Simon Lester was diagnosed as having emphysema and told to avoid smoky environments so packed in playing drums and became a gamekeeper, Mickey Modern managed Nick Kershaw and Benny Leopard ended up working at a publishing company, Shrink (Christopher Banks) had a solo album out, I think most of it was co-written or written by The Secret, I know he had a single “Valid or Void” that was a Secret song”.
Shrink actually released an album and four singles.
After his adventure with The Secret, Paul Arnal formed his new group The Fatal Charm in late 1978.
Also mentioned here.
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I spotted this remark from Barry Andrews which eludes to his further career here.
“Allo a l’ovni was written by myself and Mickey Modern with French lyrics by Didier Barbelivien. It was originally entitled ANOTHER HEARTLINE and was recorded by THE SECRET( a new wave punk band)and released by A&M in the UK. Since then I have had a varied career from studio owner in London, producer for the BBC, music publisher, A&R director/manager developing different artists and repertoire. I moved to Australia 5 years ago and have worked as A&R Manager for Alberts/EMI, during that time I have started writing again and have just had a top20 hit with Australian artist Aleesha Rome, that’s about it really! many thanks for your interest.
With kind regards Barry Andrews”