Nottingham group 1982-84

1st line up:
Jeremy Cottterill – Vocals, electric and acoustic Guitars
Lee Watt – Drums
Paul Sands – Bass
Lisa Keenan – Guitar

2nd line up:
Jeremy Cottterill- Vocals, electric and acoustic Guitars
Lee Watt- Drums
Jon Harris– electric Guitars and all Keyboards
Paul Sands– Bass

Scott Povey – Saxophone (For the vinyl record)

Basic history

Originally formed in 1982 as Head For Texas by Paul and Lisa when they asked Jeremy Cotterill, who was working in Gedling pit, to join them. Jeremy then brought in Lee. Jeremy had previously been in bands: Slim’s Easy Beats, Alternative 3 and The View. Lee watt had played in The Cult (no, not that one) and Celebrate This. Paul had been in Cactus Man, Napalm and Aimless Dance Party. Lisa had been in Sublime and Aimless Dance Party. Their first gig was supporting “If All Else Fails” and they played places like Lyrics Wine Bar and Hardy’s Wine Bar in Nottingham and Smithy’s in Derby. They produced two demo tapes and recorded a radio Trent session.

Head For Texas changed their name after being constantly mistaken as a Country and Western group and also wanting to freshen up their image a little plumped for “The Presidents Men” after the book and film of the same name. Lisa Keenan left and was replaced by 16 year old Jon Harris who had previously been in a school band called The Guilty Rich. The Presidents Men released a three track single at the beginning of 1984.

You can hear the EP here

Paul Sands got in touch, March 2025, and gave me a look into his musical past.

Raised through junior years, The Meadows and later Stapleford before being transplanted, age 11, to Selston, a mining village about 13 miles north of Nottingham, for my secondary years. Early years most of time spent with grandparents who didn’t have a record player so what music I heard was snatches on the radio. Mum later got a radiogram but it was all Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Herp Albert etc. I remember becoming more aware of music last couple of years of primary 71-73 and it was all T-Rex, Slade, Sweet, Bowie and 10CC’s Rubber Bullets is the first single I bought. First Album, Holst’s The Planets, 79p at Asda, West Bridgford.

On moving to Selston I finally got a small record player and promptly got into Zeppelin, Sabbath, Purple…the usual suspects. Avid reader of all the music weeklies, discovered John Peel and when punk exploded, that was me lost, year zero, no Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones on 1977. Because I’d criminally not been exposed to that great 60s music, it was easy to dismiss (nowadays I adore the Small Faces and their ilk). I fantasised about being in a band but the remoteness from any decent town, or more to the point the lack of buses after about 8pm and lack of money meant I never got to indulge fully in that revolution so I sat back and consumed everything going.

Finally started proper job in August of 79, after attending Zeppelin at Knebworth (a lot of summer work needed to fund that) and first few pay packets, it were cash back then lad, I saved and first upgraded stereo and then bought a very crap bass from a junk shop. No idea about tuning, totally forgot about amp and pretty clueless. I played it through the mic jack on my stereo and destroyed it. Why the bass, only 4 strings of course but the music moving me was Unknown Pleasures, Entertainment, Secondhand Daylight and Bowies Station to Station which I’d got a cassette of for 5p at same time I bought bass. All of those albums very bass centric.

Messed about remaining clueless until the summer of 1980, when I decided to give it a proper go. Answered an ad in Selectadisc, tried an tested route, met a guitarist, no audition and found myself in a band with 5 Trent Poly freshers, all of whom could play. Drums, 2 guitars, vocals, keys and me. First practice was quite frankly an embarrassment and I’m amazed I survived but I persevered. I got luck that on my 18th birthday some shares my grandad had left me, that I was totally unaware of, became available so I cashed them in and bought a sunburst Fender Jazz bass and a ginormous Calsbro Stingray amp/cab combo, it was a beast. Also got a Boss Flanger for that Barry Adamson sound. Lots of practice and song writing saw me gradually become fit for purpose and after a drunken night in Lilly Langtrys where we nearly named ourselves Ferret with Donkies Cocks (I kid you not) we settled upon Cactus Man after the art on Magazine’s “Gimmee Everything” single.

We played our first gig Jan 4 1981 at the Ad Lib on an event called ‘The Bomb Party‘ as a sneer at the inauguration of Ronald Reagan on that day. I believe 23 Jewels headlined. More gigs followed, the biggest supporting The Freshies at the poly but our drummer suddenly vanished without trace and from point on we were constantly borrowing drummers. We got about a bit outside of Nottingham (Birmingham, Crawley, Horsham…we actually played at a school during lunchtime in Crawley) but so many members with different tastes meant the lead guitarist left, followed by the vocalist. It actually turned out for the best as we became a tighter unit as the remaining guitarist picked up vocal duties and the sound coalesced. Unfortunately them being students meant the band wasn’t going to last as they all left Nottingham for gap years and I was left without a band mid 1981.

At the end of Cactus Man I obviously needed another band. Rather fortuitously the last drummer we’d been using was in an out an out punk band called Napalm and because I could play both upstrokes and downstrokes on the bass where their bassist couldn’t the sacked him and asked me to join, very basic stuff but fast and fun. Didn’t last though as we played a gig in Manchester (Tony Wilson and Peter Hook wandered in stayed about 30 seconds and left) and on returning to Nottingham on unloading the van discovered my bass had been stolen along with a Gibson SG. Gutted. Manc police not interested, I drove back the next day went around every pawn shop and second hand place I could find but to no avail. That pretty much did for Napalm and I bought a Dr Rhythm drum machine and started trying a different approach with my guitarist girlfriend Lisa. Called ourselves Aimless Dance Party for want of a name but nothing really gelled.

Early ’82 we joined the Nottingham Music Combine looking for collaborators. Jez was in a band called The View and Lee was in Celebrate This with his brother Gary and both were looking for a change, we had similar musical tastes, Talking Heads probably being the most common ground. Initially started rehearsing in a pub on Lower Parliament Street and one lunchtime I was flicking through a newspaper over a well earned pint when I saw a full page ad for a DIY store that said “This bank holiday Head for Texas” I thought it sounded cool, put it forward and all agreed Head for Texas. We rehearsed and wrote constantly, Jez providing bare bones of a song and us adding and improving our parts. Decent crowds we were definitely part of a little scene at the time. Recorded two demo tapes using a mobile studio, the second recorded in my newly bought house which became the permanent rehearsal space (I think we were all burning the candle both ends working shifts).

Then me and Lisa split and she felt she had to leave (she eventually ended in a country band called Lazy Dog but unfortunately died, I believe in 2006, though I have been unable to find out anything else). On YouTube listen to Lazy Dog featuring Lisa Walker – Somewhere Tonight.

Jon Harris joined the band late in 1983, using the 2nd demo tape to learn some of the songs.

I don’t remember how we found Jon but he joined and gave us a bit of extra spark. 1983 we were playing lots and I was actually getting quite proficient. Our sound was developing, crowds getting better, Played the what used to the Sandpiper on my 21st birthday and next day were interviewed at Radio Sheffield where I remember us all being a bit leery but our tastes were diverging a little. Late 1983 we entered Q Studios at Quenniborough in Leicester to record the single. The owners were very quick to let us know they’d had Showadywady in the week before. Great thing was there was a brilliant organ there which came into it’s own on One in a Million. We had recruited a saxophonist for the session, Scott Povey too. We had no producer so the studio basically engineered our live sound. I was never too keen on the A side Candidate as I felt it was trying to emulate that Spandau Ballet sound but felt that The Day Before (guns and bullets) and One In A Million were both stronger candidates for a single. What we weren’t aware of was that putting two tracks on one side compressed them so much they were too quiet, my bass is virtually invisible on The Day Before. I had a cassette of the master that is such a better mix and was how it would’ve sounded on it’s own side. I’m particularly proud of the groove we got into One in a Million and think both the b side tracks stand up today. We were on Terry Christians show twice on Radio Derby.

I can’t remember at which point we changed the name to Presidents Men, before or after recording, but I never liked the change (despite my comments in that Nottingham Recorder interview, which I have no recollection of). 1984 more gigs under new name. We sent copies of the single to every record company we could think of and thought we’d hit the jackpot when we got a letter from Warner Brothers (WEA) saying they were coming to see us. We arranged a showcase at Lyrics, packed the place out, played our hearts out, two encores, only for the A&R guy to turn up after we’d played, comment on the crowd, ask where the party was and proceed to flash his cash around for the girls. Pretty sure I told him to eff off as I was so disappointed and disgusted. I think about this time my new girlfriend became pregnant which effectively started the countdown for the bands demise (the Yoko factor).

We recorded a session for Radio Trent which was a big achievement but I think we wasted the opportunity as we recorded one of our oldest songs, So Lucky, which I know I was bored with, Candidate, which I wasn’t keen on, and a new track I can’t even remember the name of that was in a similar vein to Candidate but wasn’t fully formed and I definitely wasn’t happy with the bassline. I think our last gig was at 1984’s Riverside Festival, I remember feeling very detached from it all, maybe because it was in bright sunlight. Jon had got a new car, I think it was a Triumph Herald with a removable roof and have a happy memory of us cruising around the field in it. I ended up getting married in September and the Yoko effect kicked in to full effect. New wife not happy and I ended up quitting at a practice where a new keyboard player appeared from nowhere. Shortly after the group disbanded.

I absolutely regret it and feel we’d got a lot more in us, probably with a slight change in direction. I think if we’d pursued the sound we had on the singles b side we could have made a real go of it but that’s the story of a million other local bands I suppose. I fell out of love with music for quite a few years and it was only after hearing The Pixies and Throwing Muses I really got back into it. In 1995 I briefly joined a band similar to All About Eve in Farnsfield but left before it got too serious as I was due to start working in America at some point in the future (it didn’t happen until 1997 in the end so I could’ve given them more time) While in States I got sampling software and started messing about under the name Holy Dub Inferno and did actually manage to get a track played on a Wisconson radio station WILL but by the end of 1999 I finally sold everything and totally gave up any idea of creating music.

I absolutely loved my time in what I will always call Head for Texas and loved the guys to bits and wish we’d made it last. Hindsight and experience lets you see what you should’ve done but it was fantastic while it lasted. I know Jon had some success with his Seven Little Sisters band and Lee was in a few other bands after. I met Lee out and about around 10 years ago and he mentioned that Jez had quit and was apparently embarrassed about that whole stage of his life, which is a shame because it was great.

HEAD FOR TEXAS Second demo tape

Three tracks from recently re found, extremely poor condition, second demo tape from band Head for Texas that I (Paul Sands) was bassist in back in the the 80’s. It was recorded in the front & back rooms of my house (54 Hemlock Avenue, Long Eaton) using the PST mobile recording service that was based in Toton. The warbling is down to a wet and stretched tape. If memory serves there were four tracks on the tape but thus far I have only been able to recover three. Lead guitarist was the late Lisa Keenan.

On further investigation about recordings and photos Paul said:

“So much of the music and photos have been lost. I have a couple of Evening Post clippings that my mum saved. It was me and Lee reviewing the singles and Jez being interviewed. I do have three tracks from our second demo that I burned but they were from a cassette that I found in a cellar that had virtually rotted away. I think two tracks are about passable but So Lucky wobbles and wavers as the tape was just destroyed. The fourth track, Backwards at Coming Forwards was impossible to recover. I have not managed to find a copy of the first demo, Radio Trent session or the single master”

AFTERMATH

Jon Harris would next play with a short lived group called “The French“, then roadie for “Killing Floor” before joining “Kings Of Oblivion” who released three vinyl records and did a John Peel session. He would later join “Seven Little Sisters” after many other musical escapades.

Lee Watt has played with the Marcel Marceaux Sound, In Swing and others.

NEWSPAPER CUTTINGS

1982

1983

1984