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Northampton bands and my quest for stardom

Northampton bands and my quest for pop stardom

Me and Ady at Langham Place for Wheres Lisse? practice
So where did it all begin?  Well in mum’s dining room I think. Must have been the summer of 1978. I had just left school, Ali had too I think and Ady was going into the 6th form. We had nothing to do for the holiday. I think we considered starting a football team and with the benefit of hind-sight, that may have been a better idea. Still after much deliberation, we decided on starting a band instead.

Goodness knows where that came from. None of us had any musical 'previous'. Ali was going to be the singer, Ady the bass player and I picked drums. And that was it, off we went. None of us knew a guitarist and none of us had any instruments, let alone any ability.
Ady got a bass guitar from somewhere and bought a Carlsbro amp from a shop on the Wellingborough road , which I think we took home on the bus. Ali bought a microphone, but nothing to plug it into. I got a drum kit for £100 off a bloke in
Towcester.( I don’t know where I got £100 from although I think it may have been from Ady's brother Mark).

It’s been 30 years and I honestly can’t remember who ended up on guitar, but someone did and we started rehearsing at the farm youth club which was part of our school. (Weston Favell Upper).

We called ourselves  the Articles, after the name of a classified column in the Chronicle and Echo, and we were terrible. I don’t know how long all this lasted, but we never played a gig. We did however come up with a punk classic (which unfortunately no-one ever heard) called ‘What do you think, Telfers stinks’ (Telfers was a notorious meat packing plant in Northampton).

 There’s going to be a a bit of a gap here because I can’t remember how we got from there to being in ‘proper’ bands. Ali dropped out somewhere along the way, but me and Ady almost became massive in Northampton, if not the midlands!

.Wheres Lisse?
                              
There were loads of characters and events along the way, but the most significant next event was my first ever gig at the Nags Head near Northampton in the fantastically named Wheres Lisse?: (don’t ask because I don’t know either – I was only the drummer!).
Just a bit of context needed here. At the time, everyone was in a band and there were some decent ones about in Northampton. Everyone wanted to be the Stranglers, Buzzcocks, or in Ady’s case, Joy division. Bauhaus were from Northampton, (bet you didn’t know that), and the first time we saw them was I believe only their second ever gig at our school youth club, supported by the Isaws. John and Alex Novak were in the Isaws and crop up throughout this story.

So Wheres Lisse at the Nags Head: Paul Evans, me, John Novak and Patrick Egan. I don’t know what we were like, but I still remember the nerves!


Sometime after that Paul was chucked out. God knows why, and John took over the vocals (ah thats why) which is also when Ady joined on bass (having previously played with Religious Overdose with Alex Novak).

Two singles came and went (both on Glass Records), then it all fell to bits, although again, I can’t remember the details. More people came and went and eventually it just stopped.

Hi-light was supporting Altered images at the Roadmender in Northampton and the singles of course, which I never kept, but recently bought on ebay! I think Wheres Lisse was a great band and I'm sure if we could find Patrick Egan, the guitarist, we'd do it again. So if you're out there Pat, get in touch!
Wheres Lisse?: Patrick, John and me on the right




 The Tempest

Next up was the Tempest, fronted by Alex Novak and with Mark Refoy on guitar, who went on to be in Spiritulised and The Pet Shop boys backing band among others. Commercially we were far more successful than Wheres Lisse?, getting signed to Anagram Records, part of Cherry Red and playing some decent gigs. But it never quite worked and we split before our first Album was released, which didn't go down well with the record company!. (Fast forward to 2017 and the Album - '5 against the House' has just been re released by Alex, on vinyl and for the first time, CD too. I've got as copy (which I seem to remember Alex made my buy) hanging on the wall, but luckily dont have a record player!

Hi-lights were a Kid Jensen session recorded at the BBC Maida Vale studios, supporting Bauhaus once at the Hammersmith Palais on their last tour (I think it was their last but one gig before they split), meeting John Peel when we supported some factory bands in London and getting to number 21 in the indy charts no less!

And that was it, two shots at stardom and a damn fine time had by all! 







Wheres Lisse

 Red Light Video. Roadmender Northampton supporting Altered Images
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM305PeHdp4

All the Wheres Lisse singles and videos 
http://www.reverbnation.com/whereslisse

 https://www.facebook.com/wheres.lisse

 The Tempest

 Attic. Single
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSZpdWvuhpk

 Lady left this. Single
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7pEC_lpwgg

 Montezuma. Single
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_1AjQCXENo

























































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  1. Anonymous16 July 2014 at 02:33

    That first Where's Lisse? gig was at the Navigation Inn at Cosgrove. You obviously didn't remember driving the van there Mick (comes with being the drummer). Johnx

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