UNORFADOX came to be after I left school summer of 1976 and started working for an oil research company called 'Seismograph' in Keston Bromley. Whilst I was learning the print trade there I came to meet Ray Amos who I heard played Bass. When we got talking I thought of introducing him to a really good friend of mine Peter Heyward who played guitar. Pete & myself had been in another Bromley band called 'Mothers Ruin' but never got passed rehearsal stages in a youth club called the Acorn Club in Shortlands Bromley in a backroom there.

So my introduction of Ray to Pete led us to form the band UNORFADOX with a friend of Ray's on drums, Andy Elphic. We started to write and rehearse in a pub ran by Petes mum and dad in New Cross called "The Talbot". From there we went onto another pub called "The Goat House" in Penge where Pete's mum and dad had been transfered to.

One of the first gigs we played was in The Goat House one Sunday afternoon by request of Pete's dad. Little did we know that this was a private party after hours for the celebration of the release after 30 years in prison of one of London's top mafia type Underworld villains. It was a strange gig and the atmosphere was heavy, you knew the people there were important but with a sinister edge to them. They were Kray Twin related and were introduced to Pete's dad by mutual friends. When we wanted to finish our set they wouldn't let us go and insisted under no uncertain terms that we had not finished and would continue to play until they had had enough. I do recall we were forced to do a cover of Hotel California by the Eagles, we blagged our way through and they loved it, eventually allowing us to pack our gear away.

We played as much as we could in all the pub venues in London that were springing up just about everywhere giving a voice and platform to the Punk and New Wave scene that was taking hold of the UK.

Regular gigs at a pub down the road Called the "Free Masons Tavern" gave us our first real taste of getting the band tight learning to work an audience. The Tennis Shoes also played regular at the Free Masons! Our music  influences were far and wide and drawn on by all members of the band in pursuit of our own sound and to try and get our own style together. When I listen now I can hear for sure bands like Dr Feelgood / Budgie / XTC, and Mike Pattos band Boxer, as well as Split Enz were also influences on our live performances. I know my very manic stage persona was pulled very much from the likes of these artists.

Our manager was a working colleague of Pete's who just loved the band and wanted to contribute all he could, this was Gerry Paffett. Gerry was and still is one of the nicest blokes you could meet, salt of the earth and gives no and takes no bullshit. It was his belief in the band that led to Dizzy over 30 years later pulling our demo tape from a skip outside the now demolished Bridge House in Canning Town, London. For Gerry had sent the tape to that venue along with about 200 others to various London DJs and clubs and pubs, most to no avail. Although it may well have been his actions that secured us a gig at the famous Roxy Club.

Now this I remember very well indeed as the whole experience was one you would not forget. This was THE ROXY CLUB ! We went down well and we enjoyed being in a place that oozed both excitement and seediness and angst. In the toilet I remember walking in on a few people who were sniffing glue through a paper bag and others who were puking up not in the pan but just where they were standing. I cant say that I was chomping at the bit to play there again, but i was glad we were a small part (very small) of a bit of history in the making.

Another couple of gigs that stand out were playing with a friend of mine who guested on guitar for us, his name is 'Billy Jenkins' from Bromley band 'Burlesque' (they were just awesome and simply so unique and so entertaining) Billy Jenkins has gone on to become without doubt the most original Blues/Jazz guitarist this country has produced, and a top top geezer to boot. Anyway he played and jammed with us at the now demolished great venue the 'Tramshed' in Woolwich and at 'The Crooked Billet' pub in Bromley. We were well out of his league, but he graced us with his presence on these two gigs and made us very happy indeed, and gave the crowd a real buzz seeing him give his eccentric twist to the UNORFADOX sound.

We played a couple of times at 'Ronnie Scotts' which was great and one gig at the Roxy Theatre in Harlesden, which was destroyed the following week by a very full on gig by the Clash. That venue was closed down after that and had no more gigs there. Actually I recall that the gigs at 'Ronnie Scotts' were with a new bass player who replaced Ray Amos. I cant remember his name other than his first name which was Matt and he came from a band called 'ShadowFax'. If I remember they too were from Bromley Area and quite good too.

Also when UNORFADOX came to an end shortly after the 'Ronnie Scotts' gigs, I think Pete and I had a few rehearsals with the rhythm section of 'ShadowFax' in view of forming a new band, but it never came to anything. Like all bands you give it life and make it grow but in the end it becomes something else and the original energies and ideas and youthful innocence get lost and no one can see why at the time.

Songs we covered in our sets at the early stages were really off the wall now I look back! They included our new Punky take on 'Hey Joe' by Hendrix, 'She Does It Right' by  Dr Feelgood and a very little then known song by Genesis from their first album called 'That's Me'. Gradually these were replaced by the new songs we were writing. We were after all finding our way as fresh 17 year olds and needed to do covers as all bands do and learn to do what we needed to in order to eventually get our own sound to develop.

I am so glad that Dizzy is doing what he's doing and that he saw a small light still shinning in songs that Pete and I and the rest of the UNORFADOX put together all those years ago in the heady days of the late 1970s. As we all know now, that that time was so special to all that were lucky enough to have been around, and the creative juices that flowed were great and many and helped shape the sounds of the UK, a small but very very important island as far as music is concerned.

Brian Jardine