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A brief
biography of The Records 1978-1982 by Will Birch
The Records 1978-1979
John Wicks (guitar/vocals)
Huw Gower (guitar/vocals)
Phil Brown (bass/vocals)
Will Birch (drums)
 I first met John in 1977
when he auditioned as rhythm guitarist for the Kursaal Flyers. John was ideal
musically, but his image was a no-no, so our singer, Paul Shuttleworth,
conducted a makeover. Two days later John looked like a Sex Pistol.
Together, John and Paul wrote a
great song called Moral Fibre. Inspired by John’s grasp of pop melody, I sought
to co-write with him following the Kursaals’ demise. John and I spent a number
of afternoons together where I would have a snooze on the couch whilst he
grafted wonderful tunes to some of my more juvenile lyrics. Early titles
included Teenarama, Up All Night and one called The Weather In My Mind,
thankfully, not a keeper.
It was plain we had been
listening to 'Revolver', plus lots of stuff by the Raspberries, Big Star and
Badfinger. Gradually, the direction for our fantasy group evolved. We envisaged
a classic four-piece of uniform height and head to body ratio. John would play
rhythm guitar and sing; I was on the drums. To fill out the group we placed a
carefully worded ad in the Melody Maker and found Phil Brown, whose sympathetic
bass playing and infectious grin got us through the trauma of recruiting a lead
guitarist. We auditioned over two-hundred. An early choice, Brian Alterman, made
all the right noises but, after a few weeks, lost his nerve. Eventually, Huw
Gower materialised. He played great left-handed Gibson 345 and had heard of
Spirit. His party trick was simulated backwards guitar. We should have called
ourselves The Void and waited fifteen years, but The Records we became.
1978 was a great year for the
un(der)signed. Let me digress… As The Records were preparing themselves for
world domination, Dave Edmunds had put a tune to my lyric A1 On The Jukebox and,
more importantly, recorded and released it; John and I wrote Hearts In Her Eyes,
which would soon be recorded by The Searchers, the group that had invented the
sound we were mad for, and Rachel Sweet, a sort of new wave Brenda Lee, picked
up another of our compositions, Pin A Medal On Mary. It was like falling off a
log.
We also had a strong new song
called Starry Eyes, which was a shameless re-write of Eddie and the Hot Rods’ Do
Anything You Wanna Do. When we were asked to join the Be Stiff Tour, as Rachel
Sweet’s backing group, we confidently stated out terms, i.e. ‘give us our own
spot in the show’. Stiff agreed and we were on the train. No wonder we were
feeling pretty cocky when the record labels came knocking. For a brief moment we
were red hot, or at least, fairly warm.
The Be Stiff Tour was the perfect
launch pad for The Records, especially when we all went to New York to play four
nights at the Bottom Line and we had some freshly-pressed copies of Starry Eyes
up our sleeves. Virgin Records signed us. In early 1979, with Starry Eyes
getting US airplay as ‘an import’, we started recording our debut LP, 'Shades In
Bed', with producer Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange and engineer Tim Friese-Green. Mutt
and Tim worked endless hours honing the sound and although the Boston-style
harmony guitar lines came as a bit of a shock, the whole thing sounded like a
real record.
A few words about the songs: In
addition to Teenarama and Up All Night, which were originally demoed with the
aforementioned Brian Alterman on guitar, John and I wrote Insomnia and All
Messed Up And Ready To Go, the latter with Wreckless Eric in mind. Girls That
Don’t Exist, an old Kursaals song co-written with Richie Bull, was substantially
overhauled in the studio by Mutt Lange. The Phone was largely Huw’s creation; it
features a Jane Aire cameo vocal and was recorded at the eleventh hour to
replace Rock’n’Roll Love Letter, which had bombed as a single.
 Another Star was a re-write of
another early song, Held Up High, whilst Starry Eyes was re-recorded for the LP.
Huw and Phil contributed much to the arrangements throughout. Huw shared the
songwriting credits on Affection Rejected, our attempt at a Badfinger-style
rock-a-ballad, whilst Phil had a hand in Girl (our Cheap Trick moment).
We also recorded a bonus EP
(‘High Heels’), with four cover versions of favourite songs on which we each
took a lead vocal. In the USA, our LP would be distributed by Atlantic, who
represented the Virgin label there. The Americans re-titled the LP ‘The
Records’, and re-vamped the sleeve. This involved Atlantic’s art director and a
photographer coming to London, carrying an illuminated ‘The Records’ sign. The
photo session took place in the wholly unique atmosphere of Dobell’s record shop
in Shaftesbury Avenue.
In May we went on a UK tour as
support to The Jam. We were a few years older than Paul Weller and Co and his young
audiences didn’t really take to us, but the experience was invaluable as
preparation for our first full American tour. This was the realisation of a
long-held dream - eight whole weeks in the land of neon.
America was an eye-opener. Acts
whose records I had previously collected, such as the Dbs and the Rubinoos,
opened for us! Conversely, we supported others, including a number of dates with
Joe Jackson and opening for The Cars in New York’s Central Park (a real buttock-clencher).
The Virgin/ Atlantic publicity machine never slept as our debut LP scaled the
charts. In every town we visited we did a dozen interviews, two radio stations,
an in-store appearance and a more or less sold-out show.
 I’m sure it’s a familiar story
for any group ‘breaking’ America. Your record company’s Vice-President of record
promotion accompanies you to numerous radio stations. You discover that he is on
first name terms with all the disc jockeys and you ask yourself, ‘how come this
guy has so many friends?’ Writers whose songs you’ve covered turn up at your
shows, sometimes bearing tapes. In our case Tim Moore (Rock’n’Roll Love Letter)
and Blue Ash’s Frank Secich (Abracadabra - Have You Seen Her). You meet stars:
in LA, the legendary Kim Fowley; on Long Island, Billy Joel, who comes backstage
for a spot of tie-swapping (and you get lumbered with Billy’s kipper). Flo And
Eddie show up everywhere, and in Cleveland your phone rings at eight in the
morning and a female voice asks, ‘which one are you in the photograph?’
The Records 1980
John Wicks (guitar/vocals)
Jude Cole (guitar/vocals)
Phil Brown (bass/vocals)
Will Birch (drums)
Following our 1979 US tour we
commenced recording our next LP with producer Craig Leon. We had met Craig
in Toronto where he was producing The B-Girls and I knew his name
from early LPs by The Ramones and Blondie. Craig came to
London and we cut some tracks at Air Studios. We also played
dates in Europe, opening for Robert Palmer, but soon after this Huw left the
group. The trouble had started a few months earlier in Detroit. I
vividly recall the moment when we knew that Huw had become a loose
cannon. It was on stage, halfway through the song The Same
Mistakes, which Huw had introduced veering wildly off-script. We rode it out for a while, but when things got too intense,
Huw was summoned to a 'group meeting'. Huw, the last to arrive, walked in and said, 'Don't tell me... I'm fired.'
Our manager replied, 'Well Huw, er, The
Records, that is John and Will, have decided, er, they no longer require
your services.' Red faces all round, then a sigh of relief.
Huw took it well, but what the hell were we going to do now?
On mature reflection, it was a mistake, one of two big ones we made
in the aftermath of our fairly successful debut album. (The
second, lesser mistake was to split with producers Mutt Lange and
Tim Friese-Green, although I'm not sure they would have stuck
around.) Coming back to Huw (and groups in general), I do think
that if you have a
dissenter on board, but he/she is part of the original magic that
made it happen, no matter what it takes, find a work-around. Separate cars, planes, underpants, whatever, but don't mess with a
winning team. Maybe.
 In
early 1980, with backing tracks for 'Crashes' captured (with the
help of former Kursaals' guitarist Barry Martin), we sought to
replace Huw. Craig Leon suggested 19-year-old Jude Cole. I'd seen Jude,
a great guitarist and singer,
with Moon Martin at The Marquee. Jude flew in, and instantly
clicked, his soaring vocals enhancing our songs. We recorded
at The Townhouse, with The Jam in the adjoining studio, working on
'Sound Affects'. We invited Paul Weller to listen to playbacks
of Spent A Week With You Last Night and I Don't Remember Your Name,
both heavily influenced by The Beatles' 'Revolver'. 'I don't
think you'll get away with it,' were Weller's only words.
Weeks later, The Jam released Start, even more Revolver-like than
our efforts!
A US tour was arranged to promote
'Crashes' and its offspring 45, Hearts In Her Eyes. In direct
contrast to the previous year's outing, there was scant promotion. Whereas in 1979 a stretch limo met us at the airport to whisk us
into Manhattan, we now had to board a public bus, equipment in hand.
Whereas in 1979 we did seven interviews a day, we were about to do
no interviews in seven weeks. Maybe 'Crashes' was a turkey;
maybe it was because our debut album had been the first release
under a Virgin Records/Atlantic Records pact and 'Crashes', merely one year
later, was the last, but the honeymoon was over. Never mind,
we got to play Chicagofest, opening for Alice Cooper (I think).
 After
the tour, Jude stayed in the USA, whilst John, Phil and I returned
home, unsure of the next move. We'd fallen out with our manager
and the inevitable court case followed.
It dragged on for months.
Our barrister was named Gordon Bennett!
We won, but now down to a three piece, with no live work
and just a ragged portfolio of new, bitter ham-fisted songs, we were on
the verge of disintegration. Amazingly, Virgin picked up its
option for a third album! Wha! And indeed, Hey! We
rehearsed, we demo-ed, we plotted and we auditioned. We
decided, perhaps unwisely, to recruit a 'lead singer'. His
name was Chris Gent. We also enrolled a guitarist by the name
of Dave Whelan and proceeded to make our third album.
The Records 1981-1982
John Wicks (guitar/vocals)
Dave Whelan (guitar)
Chris Gent (lead vocals)
Phil Brown (bass/vocals)
Will Birch (drums)
I was tired of playing drums and, as the
'producer' of the new album, enrolled the great Bob Irwin to thump
the tubs on my behalf. In 1981, we went to The Manor and 'laid
down' tracks. We toiled at The Townhouse for weeks,
overdubbing and mixing, but we knew in our hearts what little magic
we had possessed two years earlier had waned. A single,
Imitation Jewellery, was released. The LP, 'Music On Both Sides',
despite a great Barney Bubbles sleeve, languished on Virgin's shelf
for a year before it was pressed up and distributed.
 As
a quintet, The Records played two last gigs in London in 1982,
before calling it quits.
Virgin released a compilation CD
entitled 'Smashes, Crashes and Near Misses'. A CD of our early
demos, 'Paying For The Summer of Love', was released in 1990 and
reissued in 2001 by Angel Air. We attempted to re-form the group on several
occasions, the last being in 1992 when we played one date in
Kingston-on-Thames.
These days, John lives in California
and, apparently, New Orleans;
Huw is in New York; Phil and Will remain in London, UK. 'Shades in Bed aka The Records' and
'Crashes' and
'Music On Both Sides' have been reissued on CD by On The Beach
Recordings. Air Mail Recordings (Japan) has released 'The
Records Play Live!!' (recorded in Evanston, Illinois in 1980).
© Will Birch /
On The Beach Recordings 2002-2008
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