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How
did it all start? Well... in the beginning, back in 78, from the
ashes of FLYING SQUAD (sometimes billed as Flying Salad) and inspired
by the new wave, Mike Lodge and Steve Marsh combined
to form the LETTERS (we were the DUMMIES for a time and
the SKATEBOARDS for an even shorter time!). Mike discovered Kevin
Reed, the duo became a trio and we were off.
Rehearsals
started at Monkton Farleigh village hall and needing a demo to
secure gigs the band booked in at Pickwick Studios, Corsham. Five
tracks were recorded on 8 track one weekend in 1978. The band
started gigging and the tape was sent to record companies. One
of these was Heartbeat records based in Bristol owned by Simon
Edwards.
Simon
liked the track "Nobody Loves Me" and to cut a long
story short dispatched us off to Crescent Studios in bath to record
it for a single, where it was teamed with "Don't Want to
Back" as the B side. One saturday morning, arriving at the
studio we were met by Peter gabriel who requested another hour
or so to finsh a track he was mixing. of course we obliged, thinking
that he would problably to able to pull some strings in the business
thereby ensuring our forthcoming hit single! We didn't even get
the price of the cup of tea we decided to pass the time away with.
You can't win them all. Or is it that you can't win any?
Anyhow, the single was done, local radio, TV interviews and airplay
followed. it received something like 30 plays on Radio 1 making
all the playlists apart from the breakfast show, even John Peel
played it! Buoyed with this sucess Simon informed us that he wanted
to record another 6 tracks, determined to get a hit. So, what
did we do, that's right we split up! Doh!
Of
course, durring this time, we were gigging in the locality along
with names such as the AT's who were great and Graduate. Some
people said we were better than them, yes I know there is no accounting
for taste. Graduate went on to a major deal orchestred by Tony
Hatch. As mentioned the band split and the year was 1980. We all
carried on playing in various band at various times. Well that's
it then, end of the story, life continues...
THE LETTERS
"Here Comes That Feeling Again" LP/CD available c/o
Detour
THE LETTERS
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