MY NEXT LIVE APPEARANCE wasn't an Onset gig, but was with Paul and John Robb.

We went over to Manchester during the afternoon and had a jam at John's and some food. We went directly to the venue, an upstairs pub, and sound checked. There was a good vibe in the place. The overall idea was that we wanted to do something like Tom Waits. It ended up being a very punky Tom Waits, but pretty great for all that.

Pete Wylie was on the same bill, and he was as passionate as ever, although he was dead nervous before he went on. It was his first-ever solo gig. I recall him playing a song called ‘Forever Disneyland’ about the Guildford Four.

Before John, Paul and I went on, this bloke called Mike (from a local band called The Man from Del Monte) came on to do a set. He had a lady singer called Sheila Seal performing with him. I was really taken with her. She was a Scot with a discernible Celtic lilt in her voice which really impressed me, and later on I called her up. She would later appear on two Onset sessions: the first was for The Pool of Life Revisited and the second was for the unreleased Stone album, which we would record at Ian Broudie's during 1994–95.

John, Paul and I were very well received. We used a minimal amount of equipment – marimba, Casio, two guitars and voices and it was fun. Mark Radcliffe and Marc Riley were compèring the evening and they had enjoyed our set. Mark Radcliffe remembered having featured The Onset on his Hit the North programme and said that he had enjoyed our album.

Our good friend Henry Epstein had introduced me to an old family friend, John Rubin, who had recently had a freak hit with a singer called Rozalla. He managed artists and Henry had introduced him to me thinking he might be able to help. Thanks to this, John Rubin committed to helping out financially with a new album that would appear on Probe Plus, an expanded CD reissue of our debut album with additional new tracks to be called The Pool of Life Revisited.