Jon the guitarist and song writer reminisces
I am happy that Ashley has penned the history of the Stereotypes. He is, after all, qualified to his neck with the music press. From my point of view, I found that I needed the band to cope with all the ‘teenage angst’ that is the norm these days. Instead of the reactions that are commonplace now, having a thrash on a guitar was a much more stimulating exercise than sitting in front of a laptop. It was the only form of art that I was any good at - and it was a much more credible instrument than the ones I had learned as a kid. We had, admittedly, no finesse as a band but we did what we could and what we enjoyed.
Our history of a single gig and one record was one that should have been the template for the many bands of the punk and new wave movement. We weren’t a band that was ever going to earn the dollars from the big record companies and paid for the record ourselves. It’s easy to fight the establishment when you’re given great advances and royalties and could just sit on the leather chairs in your agent’s office without having to recourse to that horrible four letter word ‘work’ or, as in most cases of our band, ‘school’. Our blueprint for a new wave band was jam, write something, practice, gig, record and quit. Not that we understood this in any way, shape or form. We, well I, certainly didn’t expect to team up with Dizzy or ever have anything to do with The Stereotypes again. It was all chance coming together. I think now that this has all come about, I have felt a pang of regret at not having any recordings of our other songs - including the classic ‘Volt City’ and the rueful ‘EJO’. To tell the truth, it’s taken me ages just to remember those titles but no words or music - no chance for a comeback now!
Our day in the studio, Stage One, in Forest Gate was actually only a few hours and was full of surprises. The first was how Ashley had the balls to sing on his own to the backing track. The second was more worrying - Mr X (yes, changed by deed poll) paid Steve to change the intro to ‘Countdown’ - it was a shock when we started but it has remained that way for ever more. I’m still trying to figure out why he just didn’t say something instead of resorting to bribery. If anyone out there has the masters from Stage One or SRT, can we have them back please - you could be a part of history!
The band was no ‘garage’ band. Mostly, on a Sunday afternoon in the 70‘s, cars were in the way and so it was my place where we had an extension which was large enough to accommodate a big ‘f***-off’ Vox speaker cabinet, a small practice amp from Woolies and a ‘bird cage’ valve amp and a set of drums. The amps could just about take all the crap we threw at them but I found that plugging my ‘Ibanez Les Paul’ copy through a fuzz box and a wha-wha pedal I could still crank it up a notch. Hence our ‘no thrills’ approach. Unfortunately, we obviously had no sponsorship from Marshall where we could turn everything up to 11! Chris had a real ‘Les Paul’ and each session started with everyone trying to get a go! The drums did not appear too often, depending on whether Steve could borrow his dad’s car and failing that, he became one of the best ‘cardboard box hitters’ of all time. Otherwise we had one jam session in Paul’s mum’s front room, Paul being our roadie and ‘sixth Stereotype‘. Well, it worked for the Beatles! He was a well switched-on electrical wiz and owned the microphone we used. Steve was probably the most talented amongst us and could have gone a long way in the drumming business and, if I remember correctly, he was offered the chance to tour with a pretty big band around that time but declined. Ashley, of course, did far better in the music business, joining a number of bands with varying degrees of success until he went solo. He managed to do few gigs and signed some publishing deals but the real turn around came when he teamed up with Bill Balfour and formed Outer Active. Punk to Trance in one quick move. A small crowd to the Brixton Academy. The rest of us went our separate ways, jobs, universities etc. and it all became a memory. Even my mum got in on the act and sold all my guitars and stuff while I was away working! Revenge was obviously a dish best served cold! Now it’s like we’re kids again waiting for the next step to our stuff going onto a CD for general release. I was shocked and in awe! I still am, if truth be told! Dizzy and some others had even been scouring boot sales for copies of our EP. Even I don’t have a copy! Dizzy then felt the need to put out a ‘thirty year anniversary’ edition and advertised in all sorts of places. Now I’m not working, I had an idea to go back through my old stuff, after all sorts of moving, and came across a cassette of the recordings - everything, even shit, is getting re-mastered so I thought I’d try it as a small project to keep me off the streets! One google came up with Dizzy’s ad and the rest is history and we’re only three years too late for that particular anniversary…
I also found various blogs devoted to finding our vinyl - it felt most strange seeing these - and included various lines I thought were cracking….. On the Worthless Trash site I found the alpha and omega of all reviews: Stephen (AI) came up with this beauty …. ‘I like it! "Countdown" in particular has a real shambling charm…. Everyone should strive to be this bad’. I hate to think what he would’ve written if he didn’t like it! Mind you, Dizzy is putting us out on the ‘Bin Liner’ series! And we’re ‘Bored Teenagers’ (#6) once again.
The blogger himself came up with ‘Pretty good if you ask me’ - so that sort of balances out. This whole episode has only reinforced one thought - ‘good things come to those wait’. As a band, we were basic but a true sign of the times but if only one person (apart from us) gets any enjoyment from our music then there can be nothing better. I can only thank the others in the band, Paul and now Dizzy for making Sunday afternoons worthwhile. Like Ashley, I too miss them but we only need to wait a few months more……
©Detour Records