The band had been together for a few months, and we had some songs roughly worked out.

I had managed to arrange a meeting with Miles Copeland (manager of the Police), and he wanted us to bring a demo tape.

We didn’t have much money, but I found a very cheap studio in Hayes in Middlesex, which we booked for two hours. At that point I didn’t have my own amp but the man at the studio said not to worry because he had a great Fender amp which was all set up and ready to go. The studio was a very small, converted building in a back garden, it was a tight fit, and the Fender amp was actually a miniscule combo amp, with a very clean sound.

It was a million miles from the overdriven noise I was looking for. Also, there was no proper headphone mix and I had to play guitar in the tiny “control room” to avoid sound spillage. This meant I could only vaguely hear the rest of the band.

We quickly ran through our three songs. The man thought we were playing so fast because we were nervous, he wasn’t aware of punk rock yet. I told him it was meant to be like that.

All three songs were recorded and mixed within the two hours.

He was mainly interested in what our ambitions for the band were, we should have said “we wanna be worldwide stars,” or something like that but we didn’t.

The following week myself and Esso took the tube up to Oxford Street for our meeting with Miles Copeland. He had a good listen to the three songs and appeared unshocked. He was well aware that punk was “happening” so he was friendly and took us seriously.

PETE STRIDE – NOVEMBER 2022