Early 1980’s group from Kimberley, Nottingham. This group featured David Longdon who would go on to have a successful career in music, probably best known as the front man for Big Big Train in the 2000’s. Formed from the roots of a school band called The Zanti Misfits, David was the main song writer with numbers such as “People”, “Bridgetown Skyline”, “Grip the Bars” & “No Light at All”.

Line up:
David Longdon: Bass, Keyboards, Vocals
Simon Withers: Drums
Ian White: Guitar

Although Simon Withers is still a drummer his passion today is within the fields of painting, sculpture and various art projects. See his website here.

I talked to Simon Withers about his first forays into music, November 2023.

When and where were you born?

I was born in Nottingham on September 8th 1964. My home during my childhood (and into my late teens) was in the village of (old) Nuthall, which neighbours Kimberley and Watnall. I attended the larkfields Infant and Junior Schools before starting Kimberley Comprehensive. David Longdon and I were in the same form (Lawrence House)

Who were your parents and were they into music at all. Was there music in the household?

My parents were Joan and Tony Withers, my mother worked for a time as an auxiliary nurse at the children’s Hospital in Nottingham before taking up secretarial work. She worked for Blanchards Bakery (Watnall) and the NCB (Springhead offices near the Babbington Colliery). My father after leaving the RAF in 1946 worked in the finance offices of Lace Market manufacturer (Simon May & Co) in Nottingham before changing jobs and eventually becoming the chief wagers clerk at Blanchards Bakery Watnall.

Although both my parents liked music they were not of a generation (whilst I was growing up) that regularly attended live music. However in their respective informative years both would go into Nottingham and go to see Big Bands at The Palais de Danse, the Sherwood Rooms and later The Heart of the Midlands and The Commodore, this was before my brother and I were born. When music filled the air at the family home it would frequently be on a record deck contained within a piece of furniture (purchased from Griffin and Spalding). The majority of the 12” records included music from the shows (usually staked with 5+ albums on the central spindle) music seemed reserved for Sunday mornings… The King & I, My Fair lady, The Sound of Music, South Pacific, A Little Night Music, Oh What a Lovely War! Oliver! and Paint Your Waggon to name a few…my parents would sing along to their favourite show tunes!

Other LP’s would be the music of James Last, Easy Listening compilations, exotic sounds (memories of 1970’s package holidays) with music from Spain, Greece and Italy. By the 1970’s my parents enjoyed the music of ABBA, The Carpenters and Burt Bacharach. My parents had few 45’s of which one was a copy of, ‘She Loves You’ by the Beatles. Both my parents whilst at Blanchards became part of the Sports and Social club and would organise bakery evenings at the Commodore International. Live music (I remember) was provided by The Gary Stewart Sound whilst on other occasions it was the Chicken in a Basket acts, The Rockin’ Berries and The Grumbleweeds…autographed LP’s by both sat within my parents modest vinyl collection.

What were your childhood musical influences?
The music within the house (before I developed my own music interests) was something I enjoyed…I knew little different, I loved listening to numerous soundtracks, Big Western Movie Themes and the Big War Movie Themes LP’s with Geoff Love and his Orchestra…one I recall was the theme to ‘is Paris Burning.’ I was fully versed in the atrocities of WW1 and in 1969 my parents took the family to see the film Oh What a Lovely War and we had both the stage cast recording and the film album. The top 40 listening experience during my 10’s was not yet about buying records but I did sing along to songs by Mott the Hoople, David Bowie, Slade and The Sweet!

I had friends who were some 3 or 4 years older than I so at an early age I was exposed to Hawkwind, Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix and Deep Purple. By the time I started Comprehensive School it was through our mutual love of The Who that drew David and I together. From that point on we would share and expand our music knowledge…I remember hearing the first Rainbow LP and upon release, ‘Rising’. By the time I was 12 I was fully versed in Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and folk Rock, The pentangle and Fairport Convention.

What drew you to the drums?
Mark Carlin who was older than I would invite me around to listen to his music and his sister’s records. Mark had a Pearl Maxwin drum kit one Christmas, his dad was heavily into Jazz and the Buddy Rich Big Band. On this three-piece kit I had my first play, however it would be some three years later that I had the opportunity to sit in on a jam/rehearsal at the local youth club…somehow I was able to hold down a groove to a few Rock standards, All Right Now and Smoke on The Water, Ian Paice was my first real drum influence. On the strength of my enthusiasm for the drums my parents purchased a second hand Premier Olympic kit in blue tortoiseshell, we had no idea what made for a good cheap kit and mistakes were made…the thing quickly began to fall apart and with my mum we began to look at new kits…in the shop window of Hardy Smiths (Sutton in Ashfield) I saw my first new kit close up…a Ludwig Silver Sparkle…just like one Ian Paice used…and it exceeded our budget. Christmas was just around the corner and so my parents took me to a new music shop (no idea what it was called except it did not last long) in the lower level of the Broadmarsh Shopping Centre and there my parents purchased for me a new red Premier Olympic four-piece kit with Zyn hi-hats and Zyn crash cymbal. The following Christmas my dad brought me a new Ufip crash-ride…a lovely cymbal and one I still keep.

Who were the first group you played with? School group or otherwise.
The first tentative steps towards something we would call a group involved David Longdon. We were both at school and most weekdays David and I would walk to my house during lunchtime…we would listen to records, talk music and then amble back to school for the afternoon lessons. As David lived further away from School home visits to his house were undertaken at weekends. David had a keyboard and he would ask me to sit next to him where he would play some of the music we were listening to. David and I knew a few friends (Nigel Styles, Neil Buxton & Steven Pike**) who were beginning to pick up instruments and at some point we’d get together in Neil Buxton’s parents garage in Awsworth. Eventually David, Steve and I began to practice separately in my bedroom out of which we formed our first band, The Zanti Misfits (name taken from an episode of the TV show, The Outer Limits). I think we played a gig at the Kimberley Youth Wing. David and I heard about another guitar player and we became interested in working with him, as things were not working well with Steve. David and I went to visit Ian White (Ian was in our form year at School) at his parent’s house. We liked what we heard and invited Ian to replace Steve in the band. David began to write new music which we all enthused over…Greenhouse became our first ‘real band’ and we’d undertake public rehearsals until such a time we began to find gigs in the city and regions. Greenhouse saw us through our final year at school and into the first couple of years at Art College.

David would record a song with Big Big Train called, “Make some Noise” recounting memories of starting first bands…the video features some old super 8 footage of Steve Pike, David and I. Watch it here.

The flying V (Arbiter) used by Steve Pike in this film would later be purchased by Gig of Solvent Abuse.

**Steve Pike joined ex Solvent Abuse members, Gig & Jono to form Sirens of the Mind Machine.

I figure from here I should ask you a little more about Greenhouse. In the paper cutting I see mention of some songs.

Can you tell me about their life as a band?

I have only vague memories of our early practices; I remember us holding a series of public rehearsals at Nuthall Church Hall. We booked the space from Mrs Prendergast and we invited our friends to sit in on the rehearsal’s…these practices were informal and we undertook a fair bit of jamming in which we extrapolated on rudimentary refrains. What became apparent (at some stage) is the three of us wanted to turn these social occasions into something more private and so we decided to hire out a room known as, ‘The Cow Shed’ at what is now the site of the former Nuthall Temple Primary School, the Nuthall Community Centre. The band generally practiced on Thursday evenings, turning up at the shed at around 7pm. In those first months all three of us could not drive so our respective fathers (Roy White, Eric Longdon and Tony Withers) would drop off our equipment and pick us up sometime after 9:30pm…our dad’s would also take us to our gigs!

The majority of our material was written by David, early songs such as, “A Warrior’s Lady”, “Curtain’s for you” and the instrumental, “Ballard le Mare” were all rehearsed with both The Zanti Misfits and Greenhouse, however as we rehearsed David’s new creative ideas so we dropped those more embryonic songs in favour of the new material. It is difficult to recall which songs penned by David galvanised us into a unit and, for all intent and purpose helped to define us as Greenhouse, material such as, “People”, “No Light at All”, and “Another Look’ would (I feel) have formed the core pieces of our set, along with “Bridge Town Skyline”, “Grip the Bars”, “Murder in the Dark”, “This is Friction” and the instrumental, “Throw the Knife”. In addition to David’s material we rehearsed an array of covers in which we’d choose some to include into our sets, these covers included, “Afterglow” by the Small Faces, “In the Air Tonight”, Phil Collins, “And Through the Wire” by Peter Gabriel, “Light My Fire”, the Doors, “Duchess” by The stranglers, “Roxanne” The Police, ”City Kids” by the Pink Fairies, “Substitute” by The Who and “Rock ‘n’ Roll” by Led Zeppelin in which we incorporated “Little Sister” written for Elvis by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman.

Where did you play?

I am uncertain as to how many gigs Greenhouse performed between 1983 and 1984. We certainly played a brace of gigs at The Nelson and Railway pub in Kimberley and also the youth club at Kimberley Leisure Centre and the Awsworth Youth Club respectively. Playing away from our ‘home territory’ made us feel that we were a “proper“ gigging band. We performed at the Victorian Music Hall the Old Malt Cross on at least two occasions and likewise Charlie’s Barn in Beeston. Other venues included, Lyrics on Maid Marion Way, The Newshouse (St James’s street), The Horse & Jokey in Bulwell and The Victoria Inn, Beeston.

Who did you play alongside?

The only gig I can recall where Greenhouse performed with another group, this was a support slot to headliners Bad Axe. This was at an outdoor festival at Castle Donington (October 1983).

Anecdotes?

Some of the first Greenhouse gigs were performed at the Nelson and Railway Inn, Kimberley…Harry Burton (the landlord) seemed to enjoy our gigs and we performed at least twice at the venue…on one occasion Cookie from the punk band Solvent Abuse joined us to play the spoons…as to which song we performed I can no longer recall!

In reference to the gigs we played, for some of them we received a fee. The three of us decided the band would purchase its own vocal PA. In order to acquire this my father offered to stump up the money in the first instance and we would pay him back with our gig money. With this agreement my father drove us down into Hyson Green to purchase a Carlsbro PA from Carlsbro Sounds. Over the year Greenhouse received payments totalling £394.00, we were generally paid between £10 and £30 for an evenings work! By the time Greenhouse disbanded and any money owing to my dad was covered when Ian purchased the PA equipment from the band.

During one lunchtime Ian, David and I sat in a semi-circular booth at Pizza Land (Old market Square) in Nottingham. Arriving after us and occupying the table next to us were three punks. Between mouthfuls of pizza we continued our band discussions. The three on the table adjacent to ours must have picked up our band conversation, one of the punks pipes up…”we’re in a band!” …And so for a good twenty minutes Ian, David and I find our selves conversing with Kenneth Spiers (Spizz) and several other members of Spizzenergy/Spizzoil/Athletico Spizz 80/the Spizzles/Spizzenergi 2…who were in town performing at Rock City.
 
Did you do any recording sessions?

Greenhouse never faithfully undertook any group recording sessions. David made his first solo recordings, a demo tape cassette called, “Another Look” which he sent out to record companies in about 1983. Ian and I both contributed to the recordings, ‘People’, ‘Another Look’ and ‘No light At All. I am not certain all three of us (as Greenhouse) are on any single recording.’ I don’t remember too much about this, other than to say it was not recorded in a studio but at the house of Charlie Stevenson in Beeston. We set the drums up in the dining room and I was recorded away from both Ian and David.

Many years later (2017) David & I sat in the Ikea (Giltbrook) café and reflected back on this recording and our time in Greenhouse. David by 2017 had a lifetime of live and recording experiences. We felt that at the time none of us had any experience of what recording entailed and the session was somewhat hurried, we had no time to listen back, to reflect and to try again…I guess Charlie was also on a learning curve. The recordings revealed weaknesses’ in my playing… David was developing in leaps and bounds both as a songwriter and also what he wanted to achieve both in the studio and live; David was meeting far more experienced and proficient musicians than I.
 
When did you come to and end and why?

After finishing school David and I attended the same art college (South Nottinghamshire Collage of F.E) and as the course began to come to a conclusion, we both had to think as to what we were going to do work wise. Ian (if I remember correctly) was undertaking an engineering apprenticeship. The recording as I have highlighted that David was outgrowing Greenhouse, David needed to flex his wings and to play with more experienced musicians and to develop his craft. David was my best friend I had to step back and our friendship endured. One evening as David and I walked through the Victoria Centre to catch our 331 bus I confessed to David that I wanted to go to study Fine Art and knew that by doing so the band would not continue…Greenhouse had played out it’s common purpose.
 
What did the three of you go on to do? I figure Dave started The Gift Horse or was there something before this?

Just prior to starting my degree (Fine Art) at Sheffield City Polytechnic, David, myself, Mick Brown (Mick would continue to work with David in The Magic Club) and Dale Perkins jammed a few times at the “Old” Cow Shed! Some of the material we ran through came from David’s second demo, “Up on the Plateau.” I remember we attempted David’s song, “We kept on Believing” as well as “Blazing Apostle’s” by Be Bop Deluxe…at summers end I headed off to Sheffield!

After completing my fine arts degree I returned to Nottingham and rented an artist studios in the City. I had stored away my Yamaha 9000 GA in my parents loft space and never anticipated I’d return to playing the drums. David and I remained in touch and I attended several gigs of the first incarnation of the Gift Horse, in the band with David was partner Isabelle, former C Cat Trance drummer Pete Clarke and bassist Jenny Hinson who (I think) joined Melodia after GH.MK1 disbanded. David asked me to have a few sessions with some additional musician’s and we had a go at playing some of the Gift Horse material…one evening this group of musicians decamped to a recording studios in Beeston to record a piece of music (A Tourist on Parade) for guitarist and vocalist Les Eastham.

David and I reflected back on these sessions, these were not auditions, it was an opportunity for two friends to play together once more and after only several practices David and I knew we’d made a mistake, the reality was I had not played the drums for over four years and I simply was not up to the task! David would go on to recruit a new rhythm section and second guitarist (David played the guitar also) for the Gift Horse.

A few years after this experience I teamed up with Cookie (Solvent Abuse) and Alan S. Robinson aka Robbo (White Feather) to form a new interpretation of White Feather…I think we performed three gigs, two at the News House and one at The Old Angel. Following the break up of White Feather I continued to play with Alan as a duo which identified itself as The Watnolian Institute of Art & Science. The WIOA&S possibly played three gigs before events intervened and we ceased to be.

For a period of time I once more gave up playing the drums so I could concentrate on my fine art practice. However one evening I answered the clarion call of guitarist John Harrison. John and I had at some time previously fancied performing in a band that simply turned up to a gig and performed. John Harrison guitar (formally of the band Emily with Shelley from Solvent Abuse, Robbo and Darren Warner) and bass guitarist John Cooper (The Killer Clowns) and I were asked by Cookie to play a series of support slots to The Little Pigs (we undertook one additional gig supporting Jetstream Whisky). In less than three weeks we went out on stage as (amongst other names now long forgotten), The Sid Marshall Experience/The Wrong Room/ Florence and the Bears and Zobvobza.

I think we played some 8 or 9 gigs…importantly for us we’d choose not practice before or in between our gigs as our music was largely improvised. We included few covers in our set, for example “Matty Groves” by Fairport Convention and two instrumentals, “The Fretful Porcupine” and Bert Kaempfert’s “Strangers in the Night.” John, Trapper and I say these gigs were the most fun each of us ever had on stage!

For another extended period of time I seldom picked up the sticks and only and only did so to jam with a few old friends. In the case of Boccioni on Horseback, which consisted of Shelley Eaton (formerly of Solvent Abuse), Alan S. Robinson (White Feather), Trapper (The Killer Clowns) and I we undertook a short period of rehearsing for two gigs that would take place on the same day…Ridings music festival during the daytime and at The Narrow boat in the evening. This project quickly disintegrated and another latent period ensued. One evening I attended a gig by John Etheridge and I noticed the drummer was playing on a Yamaha kit (made up of different coloured drum shells) that was completely new to me. I enquired about it and found out this was a new model not yet released into the UK/American market. Wanting to buy a new kit (rather than using a second hand kit) I went down to Carlsbro Sound Centre in Hockley and ordered a new 4-peice Maple Custom (in red). With new kit (it took nine months for the kit to arrive in the UK I commenced rehearsals leading to several gigs in a 3-piece band called Milch (with Alan S. Robinson and Denise Weston). Following the demise of Milch I joined a band called Zoo and remained with them for about three years (2001-2004). Zoo recorded three CD’s, “Sinistra”, and “Discovery of Land“ and ”In between the Silence.” Zoo performed at Nottingham venues, The Maze, Junction 7 (in support of Lorna) and The Monastery. Zoo also undertook several gigs at The Marrs Bar in Worcester. After I left Zoo I seldom practiced or performed live, a few rehearsals and gigs as The Memory Men with Trapper and Steve Pike came and went, but for all intent and purpose I ceased playing.

There are many details as what David recorded and with whom he performed with. I think in the future this can be researched, colleagues interviewed and ultimately written about, it is a narrative worth telling.

David recorded his second demo called, “Upon the Plateau” in 1985. This was recorded at ‘Nightfall 1’ the studios of Charlie Stevenson. If I remember correctly Charlie offered David a job working in his record shop, firstly in the upper level of the Broadmarsh Centre (a premises near the Drury Hill escalators) and subsequently at a premises in Beeston. David performed the majority of the music on this demo. Mick Brown who also attended Art College with David and I plays guitar on one track, Steve Wheelhouse who also features on the first demo occupies the drum throne. On one song, “Insult to Injury,” Richard Barnett plays the guitar part. Richard’s sister Jane had been undertaking the same art course as David and I and Jane also played in her brother’s band and for certainly one gig they invited David to perform with them.

Throughout his twenties David formed several Nottingham Bands, O’ Strange Passion and The Gifthorse. It was whilst David was in Gifthorse that he signed a five-year development deal with Rondor Music Publishing. David recorded material with Craig Chettle (The Chettles) and worked with David Dickie (Dave Dix) the musician, sound engineer and producer who had joined the band Black.

It was through happenchance that a friend of David’s called Gary Bromhan from the band The Big Blue secured David an invite to audition for Genesis following the departure of Phil Collins. The audition process bookended May to November 1996. For his audition David was required to sing to a series of Genesis ‘Top Of The Pops’ mixes with included, Mama, No Son of Mine, Land of Confusion and Turn it on Again. When asked if there was anything else he would like to sing David chose ‘In the Cage’ from ‘The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway’. A subsequent visit to The Manor recording studio gave David the opportunity to Jam and write with Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks and this material eventually became part of the ‘Calling All Stations’ album. As history records Genesis chose to go with former Stiltskin vocalist Ray Wilson and the rest is prog historic present.

Either side of his Genesis audition David continued to put in the hours. Following a Gift horse gig at the Borderline in London, David became friends with Louis Philippe the London based French singer-songwriter and football journalist. David recorded several albums with Philippe, ‘Jackie Girl (1996) and upon joining the Louis Philippe Band the album, ‘Louis Philippe Live’ (2006). Whilst part of the band David met former XTC guitarist Dave Gregory, Dave would later contribute guitar and mellotron to David’s solo album ‘Wild River’.

Historically musicians undertaking a recording may find themselves unconnected from their counterpart players, it is possible that musicians appearing on the same recording will never meet up in person, this disjointing is familiar to nomadic musician’s. Occasionally a new sphere starts to form and new musical partnerships created. In 2008 David was invited to record at Aubitt studios in Southampton to provide vocals on Martin Orford’s final album, ‘The Old Road’. The studios producer and engineer Rob Aubrey introduced David to BBT founding members Greg Sprawton and Andy Poole and in 2009 David joined Big Big Train…David found his musical home. With David on board several other musician’s David had encountered previously also became part of the Big Big Train family.

Contributing to Martin Orford’s, ‘The Old Road’ album was the Spock’s Beard drummer, Nick D’Virgilio. Nick had been one of the two drummers chosen to replace Phil Collins roughly at the same time David was auditioning for Genesis. Dave Gregory would guest on BBT’s first album with David, ‘The Underfall Yard’ in 2009. The album received favourable reviews in both ‘Classic Rock’ and ‘Prog’ magazine. Following the 2010 release of the 40-minute ‘Far Skies Deep Time’ EP Dave Gregory became a permanent member of the group; swelling the ranks further BBT added keyboard player Danny Manners from the Louis Philippe Band.

BBT embarked on an ambitious recording schedule with a brace of albums. Entitled, ‘English Electric’ the two volumes were released separately between 2012 and 2013, and subsequently melded into one definitive package ‘English Electric: Full Power’. In 2013 BBT went on to win, ‘Breakthrough Artist’ at the Progressive Music Awards. In 2014 at the Classic Rock awards ceremony BBT won three awards, the stunning ‘East Coast Racer’ was voted song of the year, David ‘Best Male Vocalist and the group were voted ‘Band of the Year’. It is perhaps apt to end this all to brief outline of David’s professional music journey; it is pertinent to end here in reference to BBT’s 2013 Make Some Noise EP. The title song “Make Some Noise’ composed by David reflected back to our unsophisticated beginning, the song drew inspiration from Greenhouse and our own ‘Embryonic Journey’. The lyric told a familiar narrative that will resonate with countless other musicians…groups of mates getting it together, jamming out standards, fashioning home-grown songs and then forming a band.

Can you tell me a bit about the Kimberley scene? Groups and musicians? 

My memory is rather vague on details about the local scene and the musician’s who played within the catchment area of Kimberley and including, Awsworth, Eastwood, Gilthill, Giltbrook, Watnall and Nuthall…I hope some of the material below is basically truthful!

The first time I picked up the drum sticks was whilst my brother was having an informal jam at the former Nuthall Youth Club with drummer Paul Warsop (Paul worked in the drum department at Carlsbro Sounds) and guitarist, Chris Rowell. At the time Chris was a big fan of Andy Powell of Wishbone Ash so he purchased a second hand Arbiter Flying V. This guitar passed through a number of locally based musicians including Steve Pike who can be seen using the Arbiter guitar in footage of The Zanti Misfits that is included in the video of Big Big Train’s “Make Some Noise”; The guitar also passed through the hands of Gig (Solvent Abuse). I last saw this guitar was in a second hand music shop at the corner of Forest Road (East) and Mansfield Road some ten years ago. At the time a small sticker attached to the scratch plate by Chris was of a hippy rabbit playing a guitar and this sticker distinguished the guitar from others of the same make and model…only several weeks later I saw in the same shop the Ibanez SG double Neck guitar that my brother owned and used during those jam sessions many years previously. On the reverse of the twin neck and scribed onto the neck plate was the name Andy Farrell, Andy continues to undertake guitar repairs from his premises in Kimberley.

I knew few musician acquaintances that one could say were of a different generation to my own, or who were at least several years older than I. I was aware that John Harrison senior (John Harrison junior was in my year at school and who is aforementioned in this text) played double bass as a member of the Gary Stewart Sound, a big band who performed at the Commodore (International) on Nuthall Road. This establishment along with The Heart of the Midlands were the venues of choice for ‘chicken in a basket’ events where an evening of entertainment could also include the resident house ‘big’ band, followed by a star attraction such as The Rockin Berries, The Barron Knights or The Grumbleweeds. John Harrison senior was also (for a time) part of Tom Jones’s touring band.

Musicians who were several years older than myself include Grego (Russell Gregory) who was in the bands Satan with Wayne Brown on Vocals (I think) and Deuce who later became Wraith with Emmy and I believe, Punky Wayne.

David (Longdon), the guitar/vocalist Deborah Dilks and I held several informal practices at the Nuthall Church Hall in early 1980/81. David had played some flute on several of Deborah’s home demos and for these rehearsals David’s dad borrowed an open backed pick up truck so we could make use of his new Wersi electronic organ. As previously mentioned, the Nuthall Church Hall could be hired out by almost any individual or community group and local band. On several occasions numerous ad-hoc jam nights were organised, giving some local musicians an opportunity to hastily form a band so they could perform on the stage in front of an audience. Punky Wayne and Emmy joined up with Anton (Grezzo) to play as Sleaze Patrol. The Killer Clowns was Anton, Dean (Darren Tongue), Trapper (John Cooper) & Shelly (Eaton) and Scott Lawson who went on to drum for Sack Sabbath.

Andrew Whittaker (Witt) gathered together some friends for the event…as heavy rain beat upon the roof of the hall; Satan’s Claw took to the stage. Whitt wore a dress and began to sing, “The Church of Evil” …outside the thunder growled and lightning split the night…to conclude Satan’s set Whitt proceeded to smash up his guitar!

David (Longdon) & Steve (Pike) introduced me to Trevor Bamford (Between 1985 and 1992 Trevor formed the group every New Dead Ghost) from Gilthill, Trevor came over to my house on several occasions to Jam with David, Steve and I. Trev brought to the jam a Wasp synthesizer (produced by the Electronic Dream Plant manufacturers) and we jammed through various space-rock songs by Hawkwind in addition to improvisations. At one of the Nuthall Church Hall jam evenings Trevor assembled a band and I think it was during his bands performance someone in the audience let off a smoke bomb…and so ended our stay at the Church Hall!

I knew Shelly of Solvent Abuse from both Larkfields Junior and Kimberley Comprehensive Schools and through mutual friends I’d sometimes go and visit Jono, Gig, Cookie and Shelly. Jono would have his drum kit set up in his parents’ bijou loft space complete with train set! On occasions Jono would invite me to play on his kit and have a jam. I remember one dank November 5th I went down to the Broadway Studios in Nottingham Lace Market to sit on a mixing session for one of their early demo tapes…I think this would have been the first time I’d heard the song, Heroin Girls.