theprice

I remember the summer of 1991 as being very long. Very long indeed...

Although Mick had left the band we had gigs booked that we didn't want to cancel, including one supporting The Primitives at the Wellhead Inn at Wendover. Yet more proof that I didn't actually know anyone who didn't used
to be in The Others with me comes with the fact that we recruited Pete Kennedy to fill in for the gigs. I seem to remember he expressed an interest in joining permanently but I could be wrong there. Anyway he made his debut with us at Uxbridge Football Club- Mick played the first set (bye!), Pete played the second (hi!) and things looked good, for the immediate future at least.

Earlier in the year I'd ran into an old mate of mine, Eddie Richards, He'd previously been a successful drummer; he came to see us at The Old Trout in Windsor and stated turning up regularly at gigs after that, talking about management... which came at a rather bad time for us as things started to go wrong with Pete. On stage with The Primitives in front of a sold out crowd he tried to get us to play the songs slower; and at The Amersham Arms in New Cross the show literally fell apart around us. All this and more drove Huggy to a 'him-or-me' situation- I think he may even have tried to get Mick to rejoin. So Pete departed and it was time for another Melody Maker advert and another round of mad phone calls... we carried on playing as a 3-piece with
Malcolm on tambourine (!) and played one show (at U.F.C. yet again) with my brother Terry on drums- if you didn't see it you missed our only performance as a Motorhead tribute band. Excellent!

Ironically one of the maddest calls was from the man who got the job. Paul lived in Uxbridge, had played in a band who had been on 'The Tube' and sounded so perfect for us it was almost as though we'd invented him. We arranged for a rehearsal to try him and another candidate- Paul set his
cymbals up 6ft high and the other guy never stood a chance. His first gig with us was at Going Underground in Berkhampstead with our old mates Genius Freak.

Our first recordings with Paul were demos recorded at The Square in Harlow and finished off at P.B.S. in Cowley. Then it was time for a rather more unusual project. Vince (from Released Emotions Records- remember?) was planning a Clash tribute album- there's tribute bands and albums everywhere
these days but they were all but unheard of then. We recorded a version of 'English Civil War' with local legend and whistle wizard Terry 'Leadfingers' Silver (he calls himself that, honest!) which went on to be one of the most
acclaimed tracks that we ever recorded.
Except for the fade-out that is...

By 1992 Eddie was managing the band and was attempting to get us some record company interest. One of the people he contacted on our behalf was esteemed producer Pip Williams who started coming to rehearsals and gigs and generally encouraging us. I remember the first rehearsal he came to- mice ran out of the P.A. speaker cabinets. He bought with him a 1959 Gibson Les Paul standard- probably the only one I'll ever see, let alone play. And on a punkier note we played several gigs supporting Glen Matlock's band The
Mavericks (yes, they had to change their name! They became The Philistines, a name Glen continues to use). He recommended a studio in Acton to us (under a chip shop- excellent!) where we recorded 10 demo tracks in 2 marathon
sessions.

1993 kicked off with a gig a The Red Lion in Brentford followed by a show at The Mean Fiddler in Harlesden. By now Eddie had got A&R interest from several labels (one of the interested parties was Feargal Sharkey, then at
Polygram) and every 'bigger' gig felt a bit like an audition. But we were playing well and writing more and more songs, 4 of which we recorded at a studio off the North Circular Road in Neasden. We played a particularly
memorable headline show at Brunel University and even played The Marquee. Things were going very well... or were they? Unbeknownst to Eddie, Malcolm & myself storm clouds were gathering on the not-to-distant horizon and it was
about to start raining. Hard.

It all began innocently enough with Paul acquiring a new girlfriend- Pip Collings, singer with The Robb Johnson Band of whom some of you may have heard. Inevitably he began playing gigs with them when their drummer couldn't make it. This turned out to be rather more frequently than we first
expected. He put us first- initially at least.

Meanwhile we were still writing and recording- our last session of original songs is one of my personal favourites despite mounting tensions within the band. We also recorded 'The Limit Club' and 'No Feelings' only ..'Limit'..
was used) for Vince's next venture, a Damned/Sex Pistols tribute album- these were the only tracks recorded with Pip Williams in the production chair. And we were still gigging- a show at Ealing College supporting '60's hero Jess Roden being the last time (to my knowledge) that the 'original'
band was videoed.

With labels showing more and more interest and at least one ready to put some money into the band Huggy announced he was playing for 'someone else at the weekend'. You don't have to be a genius to work out who... the storm clouds I mentioned earlier finally broke early in 1994 on the way to a gig
at The Swan in Fulham. Eddie was giving out some new gig dates; as he said one of them I saw Paul's face fall- he didn't say anything, he didn't have to. It was the 'gig date clash' that was bound to happen sooner or later. I
remember him and Huggy talking nervously away from the rest of us at the bar... the next day everyone's phones went beserk. It all got pretty heated with Huggy saying that he wanted 2 weeks notice on gig dates, that promoters
would need to be more understanding... you can always tell the band members who have never booked a gig in their lives.
Paul was first to go; we borrowed John McShee from local band Substance for a few gigs- and then I had a drink with Huggy. It was St. Patrick's Day- as he started on about how he liked the fact that the RJB all hug each other at
the end of their gigs I knew that the luck of the Irish had deserted me. Malcolm, Eddie & myself stumbled on for a few months looking for bass players and drummers, finding bass players and drummers, losing bass players and drummers, refusing to accept defeat... and then one day Malcolm didn't
turn up.

And that was that. One by one they'd all left me and The Price were no more.

This has been by far the hardest part of our story to write, and as it stands at the moment (I'm likely to revise all the 'History' sections at some future point) I've left quite a lot out, especially regarding the end of the band. I COULD mention all sorts of things- the, lies the deception, the bullshitting, the self righteous arrogance and hypocrisy... I COULD go on about the amount of work and effort done on certain people's behalf that was just thrown back into people's faces without any apparent regret or even
the slightest thought that other people could be hurt by their actions. I could even wonder how someone can have perfect eyesight one minute and tunnel vision the next. Oh yes, I COULD mention a lot of things. But I won't, because I'm not that kind of person. And anyway, we're all mates now
aren't we?

Piczo