This photograph. We had just formed The XCerts. Dave Pepper on electric guitar joined Kev on drums and myself, Gray, on bass guitar. A bit of context. On the song here below, Station 71, Kev, my brother, had been playing drums for about two weeks. Never played before. Myself? Played bass guitar for the same amount of time, two weeks. Before that I played rhythm guitar in a band with my other brother Steve. He played lead guitar. He went to play rock music because he thought we were going to pick up on playing punk. He was right. Now? Steve is joining the reformed XCerts so we will be a four piece band. Bigger sound live and for new songs. Dave had played guitar and piano for a few years. He was also into rock before he joined Kev and myself.

This all happened in the blink of an eye. It was just a few months before punk really exploded onto the scene. When it did we embraced the sound. Also changed our image a little, but no way near the extreme punk fashion of that time. After a brief dallying with school striped blazers, we toned down! We changed our music quickly and wrote songs really fast. Gave it a harder sound.

I have been uploading some comparisons regarding myself warbling acoustic song ideas against/from the original sounds. Below? A short time frame of Pop versus Punk. Station 71 has a totally different vibe to Satisfied. And Satisfied is going to be played this year live at gigs. But slower! Dave said to me that he remembers Kev saying a fair few extreme expletives. I’ll give the equivalent meaning here…..’Oh! I feel rather drained’. This was after playing Satisfied at break neck speed for a drummer in the recording here. Double foot pedal will do that to you.

Anyways. Here’s the two songs.

Station 71 was written and recorded a week after forming the band and quickly dropped as a song. Dave on main vocals.

Satisfied. A favourite when played live. Often played at the end of gigs…..but a little slower. Gray (me) on main vocals.