So then I had to do what a lot of Teens needed to do, I had to get someone to buy me what I needed, in this case it was my Dad, Tom. I (finally) received my first Bass Guitar, a Columbus, when I was 14, along with a small Studio Amp. It was meant for my 15^th Birthday - fortunately (for me ;-) I discovered it's hiding place I pestered Tom, for months. He relented around Xmas time, my birthday is in January, so it was only a small concession for him. At least I think so.

I will always be glad that Tom bought me that Guitar. I may have got around to it later on, who knows, the fact is I could not imagine my life without a Bass Guitar.

So, some friends & I (one had a 6-string Electric Guitar, the rest improvised) made an awful racket in the name of 'Punk - dom'. It was pretty dire and sounded awful - Great! That's what Punk was all about! Anyhow, this came to an end primarily because we could not agree on what our 'Band's name was to be. Ah, the egos of youth.

If I remember things correctly, the name I wanted to use meant something like, 'the sweat that gathers in the armpit' which sounded pretty PUNK to me. Remarkable it was chosen at random by flicking open a dictionary and stabbing a finger on a word. I felt that this was 'destiny' and was most aggrieved when the others turn it down and none of the others came up with anything useful at all.

With the end of School, and the usual parting of the waves that comes with it, I had very little interest in the Bass for a couple of years. I more or less forgot about the Playing & spent a lot of my time going to Gigs to see other Bands play. My poor Bass was left Out of Tune & Dusty in the Corner of my Room.

Occasionally I would pick it up & have a Play although this was mainly trying to Copy Other Band's Stuff - which I must admit I'm not very good at. Whether it's because I've always wanted to do my own thing, I couldn't make out  the notes or there was no reason for me to Learn anything I'm not entirely sure. Most likely a little bit of each.

I know now that I play better with others Input than just on my own. I'm not that much of a Composer, as the stuff I come with is difficult (too complex) for others to fit things too. I still find that today although I become better at diluting it down & then adding the complexity later, although it generally never gets back to the same level as the Original Idea.

This List of others, of which I can remember only a few names, included other Guitarists, Keyboard Players, a Violinist, Harmonica Player and various odd assortments. Two of them, Angie (Vocals) & Jackie (Keyboard), returned later on - you can read about this below, though most were around for a little while before moving on.

Eventually, mainly due to the Closure of the Youth Club and changes in fashions & styles things wound down. This time, however, with my Interest rekindled I continued to Play (Practice;-) & started to develop my own 'Style'. This was not to everyone's taste mind you, which was part of the whole Idea. I wasn't content with the Usual Play the Bass Note & move on when the Chord changed. I can only describe it, from my recollections at the time, as wanting to move about a bit & Experiment.

This could be viewing by the more Cynical as a confession that I did not really knowing what I was doing, this could well have been the case. All I can say, in hindsight, is that I still approach my Playing with the same Basic Idea, hopefully with better knowledge of what I'm doing & with a bit more Skill.

I will state now, for the Record, that I haven't anything really Complimentary to say about either of them.

I did like what they were trying to do, particularly the use of unusual Chords. Sadly their Ego's were running on Overload for most of the time I knew them. There are some elements of their 'Lifestyle' which I will not go in to, as I'm not sure anyone would Believe me, the few that I have told certainly don't!

I will say that their 'drive' to Succeed was very strong, stronger than mine anyway. Unfortunately they were unable to focus that 'drive' into a useful direction other than to criticise most other people they came in to contact with. I heard a few years ago that they might be doing fairly well in Germany although no one I know, who knew them, seems to have any first-hand news.

It was with Snatch that I Played my First Gig. It was at Club Foot in Hammersmith. I was so nervous that I still had shaky hands half an hour after I had finished the set. Quite a number of friends turned up, although few, if any, actually liked what they heard - still no change there I'm afraid! ;-)

As things progressed the brother's strange 'personal dynamics' started to become increasingly more difficult. Their Idea was to have 100% 'Commitment' to the Band, & did not 'allow' me to take one evening every other Week to do some Youth Worker Training - just in case a Gig became available at short notice. They also started to try and influence My Personal Relationships & Beliefs (or lack of them). We (the band) went through quite a number of Drummers as well & things were not going too easily on the Gig Front either - for me that means there's still not much change there either ;-))

Eventually they weren't happy with my overall involvement with the Band, etc. so I was unceremoniously dumped. This also included being forced out of the Flat I was renting from them.

As you may be able to discern I bear a bit of a grudge about this particular Era in my Bass Playing Life. You'll have to ask them for their version of events, I have tried as much as possible, where my own Personal Feelings are concerned, to be Factual. The comments I have put here are the main events & not open to alteration because they are fairly well known to my Friends, etc.at the time. As for the rest - well, I don't really give a **** and lets be honest, it would only be an issue if they had made it big! ;-)

What happened next was, by complete contrast, the Best Part of my Voyage to Musical Obscurity, please read on ... (It'll help - honest ;-)

Oh I must just say that there were 2 pluses at the end of this particular episode;

• My desire to play was set aflame, although my faith in ambitious Musicians was doused just a little.
• I had a New Amplifier

So, after a few months of getting my Life back in some sort of order I went back to watching other Bands play & practicing at home with increased vigor (oh, I also bought a Guitar Tuner, which helped me learn what the Strings should more or less sound like ;-)

This started what was, for me, the best times I've had playing the Bass and Noise-A-Noise was born. I seem to recall that the name was Steve H's idea and was a play on words from a Buzzcocks song.

Noise-A-Noise performed a number Local Gigs and a few in London. We had a small following, most (if not all) were friends, most (if not all) didn't really like what we were playing that much and were there because they were friends. After a few months time Jackie went, I haven't heard about any other Musical Stuff that she's done, although she has thrown some pretty good Halloween Parties. Lizard left a while later and we were joined by Dave 'the Drummer'.

The next couple of years were probably our 'peak' and we achieved quite a bit for ourselves. Through a reasonable amount of hard selling and persistence we managed a reasonable number of Gigs in and around the London area. You could even say we had a kind of 'following' that we shared, to some extent, with another Band called The Price. It worked well as, for the most part, we all seemed to get along & like what the other was doing (for more on The Price click Here)

A local Fanzine producer, Andy, interviewed us for his So What Fanzine and put 3 tracks from our Demo on a Compilation Tape he released called What Now. The interview counts as one of the things in my life I would definitely do differently if I got the chance, I was quite drunk and, as usual, mouth & brain were functioning on different on wholly incompatible plains.

As a coincidence, It turned out that Andy was quite 'into' Snatch (& the Dead) who he had also interviewed for the same Edition o So What & were going to appear on the Tape as well. I'm still convinced that 2, if not all 3, of the Snatch & the Dead songs were taken from a Demo that I had played on. It could be the their new Bass Player was either so like myself that he played the Tracks identically to the way I played or it's a case of Great Minds Think Alike (Fools Never Differ ;-).

I will probably never know for sure. I suppose I going on about this, in some respects, to 'sing' my own praises and to also to demonstrate that the Music World can be bloody annoying.