Fast Cars were formed in 1978 by myself (Stuart Murray) and brother Steven. We had been in a band together at Moorside High School in Swinton, Manchester, (1974-76) but Steve was interested in forming a punk band the rest of us were more into rock, Deep Purple, Led Zep, Black Sabbath, Bowie Etc. so he went off, put an add in a music shop, and formed a band called "The Sirens" with Marc Riley, Craig Scanlon and Steve Hanley.

They were not very good at that time (although they later joined The Fall and guitarist Marc 'Lard' Riley is now a Presenter for the BBC on Radio 1 and TV), so me and Steve got our old mates together and formed Fast Cars. Our school days guitarist was Craig Hilton but he was doing something else, so our original line up was; Steve Murray vocals (and main songwriter) Haydn Jones on lead, Me on Bass and Tony Dyson on drums. After about 6 months Haydn left and Craig Hilton re joined us and that is who played on the single "The Kids Just Wanna Dance". At the time I was 21, Steve and Craig were 19 and Tony 18, we really were only Kids !!!

We had 2 songs put on "A Manchester Collection" LP Object Records. Our first single "Images of you" should have been released on TJM Records but we fell out with the owner, Tony Davidson so it never got released. We also did 2 tracks for Identity Parade but they were removed before the final pressing. We played up and down England between 1978 and 1980 and had quite a good following. We supported The Jam, The Buzzcocks, XTC, The Rezillos, Dillinger, The Chords, and played with bands including The Ruts, Joy Division, The Stiffs, The Drones, Frantic Elevators, The Freshies, The Smirks, Ed Banger, John Cooper-Clarke,The Out, IQ Zero, Not Sensibles, Salford Jets, Two Tone Pinks, and others, we played at the Marquee in London and various Universities, Colleges and Clubs. We were nearly signed to Polydor, (we actually made demos in their studios in London) and for a short time we were looked after by Dennis Munday who was A&R man to The Jam, but it never happened, we eventually called it a day in January 1981.

FAST CARS WEB SITE