THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM:

 

The record sold OK in a couple of record shops, not enough

to change our lives, we travelled down to London & played it 

to Rough Trade who took a box off us. It got played on local 

radio & even on Radio 1, fame for a fleeting second. Then we 

returned to the reality of being a small fish in a small pond. 

There were local gigs & some of them were fun, but there was also 

a growing sense that we were stagnating, we were loosing the faith 

of the audiences you could see it in their eyes. Throughout our 

time together there had been two tribes with the band, our keyboard 

player & the rest of us. Gary was a good guy, enthusiastic about 

playing live, loved to be on stage. Maybe it was just down to musical 

taste, the classic ‘differences’that splits most bands, but the day 

he didn’t show for a rehearsal, siting a drinking session the night 

before, we took it as a sign that his priorities were changing & 

decided it was time to let him go. It may have seemed harsh to him 

the day Alf & me went round his house in Splot to let him know, 

but he went back to his old band & had a lot more fun. That left a 

hole in our band we had to fill quick, gigs were booked. It did 

however give us an opportunity to bring in someone on the same wave 

length as the rest of us this time, though finding a keyboard 

player who could afford to own a synthesiser & who wasn’t already 

earning good money with a ‘big band’ seemed impossible, until Stuart 

remembered his best mate from school. 

Stuart was a talented guitarist, a brilliant history graduate, 

formerly the front man with the Soft Centres & always broke. He loved 

music & a beer, could pick learn a tune in minutes, but didn’t have a 

clue how to look after his gear. Bits of his guitars were always 

falling off & getting lost. We bought him a vintage Strat once & even 

that ended up missing bits he left behind, migrating between borrowed 

flats, the soles of his pointy white shoes full of holes, a fantastic

smile & always looking fly – girls loved him.   

 

(K)