At the begining... A Special Moment was a school band comprising Tot, Mick Bass, Jonny Whetstone and John Drake (later replaced by Gus Goad). The band were signed by A&R man Richard Williams - now sports editor for The Guardian newspaper - while Tot was studying for his GCE exams, and they recorded this one single for Island.

Gigs were lined up supporting Chris Spedding’s band Sharks and John Swannell took pictures for the single cover but the band were suddenly dropped when Island boss Chris Blackwell was finally played the recording and proclaimed it to be ‘the worst thing I’ve ever heard’. We then changed our name to The Blue Kittens and moved from Norfolk to London to try our luck again

Tot had left The Blue Kittens who had now changed their name to The Zips, were being managed by Police manager Miles Copland. The Zips were about to record for Ted Carroll’s Chiswick label. Tot had met up with guitarist Simon Boswell from Cambridge band Duke Duke and the Dukes - today a very successful film composer - via the back of Melody Maker, and recruiting cousins Dennis Smith and Paul Bultitude, the pair had formed a new band - Advertising.

‘Lipstick’ This new group was almost immediately snapped up by EMI, who were intrigued by their high -concept image and Monkees-type music manifesto. They liked the idea that we were self-confessed ‘pop’ rather than the by now ubiquitous ‘punk’. John Cale was set to produce but he went a bit weird at rehearsals, and we went with American Kenny Laguna who had produced a lot of bubblegum stuff in the States. The record sounded good, and still does. Nothing happened, though, as John Peel was the only one who played it. And EMI forgot to do any promotion".

‘Stolen Love’ This was the second single with Kenny, again sounding heavier than it should have done. Both the singles had terrible sleeves which was a pity as me and Paul were very ‘design aware’ but were not allowed to get involved with the packaging. When I saw the sleeve to ‘Lipstick’ I almost cried. It was supposed to be very Warhol-esque and trashy. Instead it looked like something from Exchange & Mart. On the other hand you were so pleased to get anything released you just sort of accepted it. A third single ‘Ich Liebe Dich’ was scheduled but never came out

We got on well with Andy except musically. I hated the changes he made to my songs. And also we were touring all the time - supporting Blondie, Talking Heads, The Jam - and all we wanted to do was to concentrate on recording. This time the songs sound much too ‘pop’ and we had become a liability to EMI who had by now signed Glen Matlock and Rusty Egan’s band, the Rich Kids. We were at Abbey Rd for God’s sake, but it still didn’t sound any good. There were huge money problems and again, we couldn’t get the records played on radio. Our only TV appearance was on Panorama ! EMI paid for us to record some more demos for the second album - which were the best things we ever recorded - then we split up. EMI then put me into KPM Studios in Denmark St to record some solo stuff but by that time I was busy doing other things to make money ( sessions for Sham 69 and The Pretenders, and writing reviews for Record Mirror and Music Week). Punk was well over and it was 1979. By that time I only wanted to do what I wanted to do so I got together some more songs and got myself a song publishing deal with Andrew King at Blackhill Music - now head of Mute’s publishing company - who were sharing an office with Stiff Records. Andrew also managed Ian Dury and The Clash at that time.We then recorded a couple of tracks with Manfred Mann’s drummer Mike Hugg as producer at The Workhouse Studios in Old Kent Rd".

‘Jingles’ ...we were touring all the time - supporting Blondie, Talking Heads, The Jam - and all we wanted to do was to concentrate on recording. This time the songs sound much too ‘pop’ and we had become a liability to EMI who had by now signed Glen Matlock and Rusty Egan’s band, the Rich Kids. We were at Abbey Rd for God’s sake, but it still didn’t sound any good. There were huge money problems and again, we couldn’t get the records played on radio. Our only TV appearance was on Panorama ! EMI paid for us to record some more demos for the second album - which were the best things we ever recorded - then we split up.

___________________________________________________