The first record on Boring Records - Don't Tax Me actually had 1600 pressed of which about 1500 went out for sale. The initial pressing was for 1000 but demand was greater than expected so a further 1000 were ordered but a balls up meant that we only got 600.

 The second single on Charly was great for us as we did not have to fork out our cash for the recording studio etc but unknown to us, and as far as I know Charly Records, the idea was for our new management partners to buy some success for this release by fixing sales in the records shops then used for compiling the charts. We were told that a specialist promotion company would ensure good distribution etc.

 Just as the record was released the company promoting our record came under investigation for fixing the charts basically, or trying too,  and when this came to light we promptly split from our management deal but not before they had advised us to turn down a deal with a well known label and pulled us out of a tour put together by Beggars Banquet to promote the STREETS album on which our track 'Disaster Movie' was featured. They had bigger things planned for us and we thought we had taken a good step by signing this management deal trying to avoid some of the pit falls we heard about from other bands.  Such is life.

 After this set back original bass player Robert Kirk left the band after trying out two new bass players we eventually settled on Frank Douglas who fitted in really well.

 Friction were not formed from the ashes of The Exile we were actually forced to change our name. Micky Most, a well known name in the Music Industry, promoted an American band called EXILE.  They had the copyright to the name apparently and our claim that we were THE EXILE fell on deaf ears. So we settled on Friction (from Televisions first album) to avoid any legal problems.

 We released World In Crisis on Boring records under our own steam once again and it sold OK, about 1500 copies. We made a small profit on it, enough to return to the studio and record another 4 numbers which never saw the light of day. By 1981 we started to gig less and less due to work commitments from some of the band - we knew we were never going to be a success by this time anyway. 

 Recently there seems to have been a bit of activity on E Bay for The Exile and Friction  and this prompted me to sell about 20 copies of the World in Crisis and one copy of Don't Tax Me. Checking out the market for records from my collection I came across your site which I found very interesting it helped me remember that in the early days of punk or new wave you did feel that you were part of a wider movement, a change to the order of things in the music business. In 1976 when I said to my mates that I was going to form a band and put out a record on my own record label I was told it can not be done. Like many others  we did it and had a lot of fun doing it!!