From as early as 76 ...we weren't really all that into the fashion thing, most of the people who you saw dressed up at the beginning of Punk were a bunch of Chelsea posers like Malcolm Mclaren, and most of them were a couple years older then us. When the Pistols records and the Damned came out, New Rose made a BIG impact on us all. As I remember it, really it wasn't until it broke outside of London and the kids in the sticks started getting into it in 77 that it began to be an authentic movement, before that it was a just hype, don't believe me? Remember the Great Rock n Roll Swindle, confession cleanseth the soul my friend.

Anyway having said that check out those loon pants!! You'll see the original Puncture line up, which includes myself on Bass sporting a lovely Brian Jones basin doo, milkman jacket and loons, Paul McCallum dressed like a Nazi youth (he was by far the most fashion conscious member of the band) on a Woolworths guitar, Jak Stafford (who you will be interested to know later joined "X-Ray Spex" and became Jak Airport) Sporting a fake Les Paul dodgy cowboy hat with a lovely pair of loons, incidentally I remember we were all sitting in the pub with him before the first X-RAY SPEX gig at the Roxy when his manager came in and sent him home to change because he showed up in yep ... looons!! It doesn't sound that unreasonable now but at the time we all thought it was a total sell out, he had a hard time living that one down, we laughed about almost everything in those days, God bless him. And last but by no means least the Fabulous Marty Truss on Drums..

Kenny Alton was Jaks immediate replacement on guitar but he left and joined the Fingerprintz as their bass player! Then Anthony joined the band, he went to the same school with Paul and myself at Islington Green comprehensive.

What was Puncture all about anyway? Really we were a bunch of cockney kids who wanted to be like our cockney heroes the Small Faces, if we'd still been together when the Mod thing happened a few years later we would have fit in nicely, by then I was in 'Miles Over Matter'. Paul and Anthony then went on to form a band called the "Dead Sea Sound". More recently, Anthony can be found in a band called "The Elementals".

After that I joined "The Duelists" with "Slaughter and the Dogs" Mick Rossi and "The Professionals" Ray McVie. I then left the Duelists to form "Twenty Flight Rockers" with "Generation-X" drummer 'Mark Laff', we got the name from my 'Eddy Cochran' LP in my flat in Kentish Town, then we found 'Gary Twin' and Ian what's is name.

After that I replaced Glen Matlock in the "The London Cowboys" who were introduced to me through Mark, we played a bunch of European dates with them when they needed a bass player and drummer, I ended up staying with the Cowboys. We then came to Los Angeles in '88 and landed an ill fated MCA deal and this is where I am today...

After the Cowboys split I stuck around and played the LA club scene which was still band focused unlike the London scene which had gone House, I must admit I didn't feel there was much going on for me back in UK, why would I want to listen to "music" that sounded like heavy metal type writers played through a vacuum cleaner instead of a Marshall stack, made by typist on plastic type-writers while mum made the tea and vacuumed the stairs? So I formed a retro-sixties style psychedelic blues band called "The HomeWreckers", we were doing a Yardbirds kinda thing, we landed a deal with New York based 'Viceroy Records' and released an Album called "Out Of The Shadows" which was produced by Savoy Brown's Kim Simmons. The main problem was we were in Los Angeles and the label was in New York so although we got great reviews it didn't really do what we had hoped, you can see "The HomeWreckers" backing up 'Shane McGowen' on his TV show, "A drink with Shane McGowen". Towards the end of the 90's I began to realize that my drug and drink habit was taking it's toll on my health and relationships so I began seeking spiritual answers, In '97 I had what can only be described as a miraculous encounter with God, as I came to faith in Christ Jesus I was immediately set free (delivered) from my horrible cocaine habit, I call it the "One Step Programme" one step to Jesus and it was a done deal. I never went back to it.

Today I am venturing back into the club scene with a great band called "Steve Counsel and the Living Stones" playing a rocking form of Rock n Roll Gospel, I have a CD out called Broken Bones Rejoice.


STEVE COUNSEL	PAUL McCALLUM	ANTHONY KEEN	MARTY TRUSS

PAUL McCALLUM - GUITAR / VOCALS	STEVE COUNSEL - BASS / VOCALS
ANTHONY KEEN - SYNTHESIZER	MARTY TRUSS - DRUMS