ONE FREEZING WINTER DAY in 1980, Jonee Mellor called round to my house in Holly Grove. I'd known Jonee for years as he'd been a part of the Roby contingent.

Jonee had brought a guy with him who sported a huge blonde quiff and the three of us set off down Roby Road towards Huyton village. It was freezing cold and we hobbled over the frozen broken snow on the pavement. As we walked towards the village we talked and bantered. The guy with the quiff was Lee Mavers. Little did I know from that first meeting how our lives would later become entwined.

Lee had recently joined Neuklon playing bass, while Jonee had joined up on percussion with another guy called Timmo (John Timson) who now played drums because Sevo had left. Neuklon were expanding and since I'd got them their first gig at Eric's I had been placed in a tenuous managerial role. Next thing, Lynn Metcalfe and her mate had also joined as backing vocalists. Neuklon were turning into an ‘electronic punk big band’ and one night in Eric's Roger Eagle responded to my earlier request of a supporting slot for them asking me if they would be available to support an up-and-coming new band called Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. As it turned out their first single, ‘Electricity’, charted the week of the gig and Neuklon played to a packed house. I introduced them and then physically threw them on stage – ‘BE IGGY POP!’ That was the first time I saw Lee Mavers on stage playing bass. Great night all around.

I had started writing poems, small comments and observations in a notebook. Usually it was a case of me bitching about mediocrity or sniping at fashion victims, putting the boot in on the scallies or (worse still) the trendies. Oh, the trials of youth! I had titles like ‘Pseudo Masochist’, ‘Jesus and Tommy’, ‘Parkas, Drainies and Trainies’. The last one contained the line ‘all that they do and all that they know / is getting their tit at the Leisure Centre Disco’.