THANKFULLY, THE MOMENTUM IN my sculpting career then showed an upturn. The opportunity of a joint exhibition with fellow Huyton artist Amanda Ralph – herself a very talented sculptor – was about to become reality, with plans for a show in Gostin's building being confirmed for early in 2000. Early in November, I met up with Amanda to discuss the invites for the preliminary private viewing and also the catering, supplying the wine, etc.

The exhibition was a great success. I sold quite a lot of pieces and enjoyed the ambience of the gallery, where I would write a lot of my diary entries in my spare time. Adrian Henri attended in his wheelchair after he had suffered a massive stroke. Catherine, Adrian's girlfriend, had always got him out of the house, though, maintaining a solid interest in the local arts scene. There's a nice photograph of me taken there with Adrian Henri (he had referred to Amanda Ralph as ‘a poet of the found object’). Adrian had attended the exhibition and bought another of my sculptures – the Bella car – for Catherine. The piece was one of my favourites, too: I'd crafted it from a corned beef can I'd picked up at a supermarket in France some years before.

The same day, I called in to see Steve Hardstaff. He worked in the graphics department of the Liverpool Art School, in the Hahnemann Building on Hope Street. We had a cup of tea and talked about Buddy Holly, Johnny Burnette, reggae and a load more. Knowing Steve to be a great authority where all things 1950s rock ‘n’ roll were concerned, I told him about an idea that I had also put to Paul about the release of a sci-fi rockabilly compilation (mostly based around early ’50s rock ‘n’ roll recordings) on Viper. The revenue that we had received from the lost La's Breakloose album had now given us license to look further afield at other potential releases. Steve was immediately taken with the idea and even suggested he do the cover himself – right answer! Ironically, we might never have had the idea had it not been for the Jukebox at Eric's album he had helped compile with Roger Eagle.