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It was probably the Summer of ’76 with the Pistols belting out ‘God Save The Queen’ on Capital Radio that first got me hooked me onto punk and an accessible music scene I wanted to be part of…the inspiration that bands like The Pistols, Damned & The Stranglers had on me (…and no doubt numerous others!) went a long way to inspire me to wanting to cut my own disc…
As a little lad I remember having an uncle that that owned a set of big Indian Bongo drums. Further to this my mum tells me that I always had a penchant for hitting tin cans with knitting needles and as I sat on the carpet I would happily pound away to Beatles tunes prevalent of the 60’s era… Consequently it was only natural that (after I’d grown up of course) whilst at Lowlands 6th Form College I went on to fulfil my ambition by getting a supermarket evening job to pay for me getting my first drum kit….
Sadly for me by the time I did actually get round to buying a drum kit, the music scene had moved on and the New Romantics had taken over…still undeterred I went on to found Scarlet Strange, a sort of pop/punk combo with the ultimate aim of getting to a studio to record my own disc… sadly we never made it…
A succession of band appearances followed not the least of which was ‘Muddy Boots & The Groin Strains’ a derivative band from SFC Wealdstone, the supporters football team This featured me on drums, Trevor Davies on Guitar & Justin O’Brien on vocals. Whilst several rehearsals took place, I believe our one and only gig was performed at the social hall in the Dortmund Actien Brewery (DAB) in Germany. SFC were on a football tour there in 1987 where, as well as our German hosts, and SFC as the English representatives, some French team were there for a 3-way tournament footy tournament … with the footy comp over, the competition somehow expanded to the musical evening with a German oompa band, the French with some dodgy old bird performing on the piano and a hastily arranged get together of the ‘Boots’ to provide the English reps…still remember the look on the German drummer’s face as I hit shit out of his lovely drum kit…
Roll onto 1998 and a Wealdstone FC EGM issued a rallying cry that we needed ideas to raise more money for the club (…some things never change!). The guys at Metal Mode had got me back into seeing local bands again and thoughts lead to me forming my own combo again…Whilst the endless sponsored walks and raffles had their place I thought that here was a stepping stone (pun intended) to launch a vehicle to satisfy not only my own vanity but to do it for a worthwhile cause!!!… It was obvious to me at the time that at Wealdstone FC we probably had enough bands to provide enough tracks to cut a whole album’s worth of stuff and so with a little help from the likes of Colin Bunner & Martin Lacey, people were approached and ‘Sticks & Stones’ was born!
In view of Martin’s contribution towards the booklet that went with the disc, I actually offered him a spot on the CD if he wanted it! Whilst he declined he did say that he knew the guys from the Sheffield Wednesday Brass Band that follow their team and England everywhere and he suggested that maybe they could possibly make a contribution!…unfortunately production deadlines meant they were excluded!!!
Since its initial release on 14 August 1999, at a Stones home league game played at Edgware FC (v Harlow Town) it has been featured on a Bradford Radio Station and made a notable mention in The Times no less (…yes The Times!)… After costs it has also raised about £1,500 for the club!!!
Sateesh Khanna
From the StonesAid 3 Programme dated 15 March 2008 held at Grosvenor Vale
