None of this is happening in order by the way – I’ve done a couple of things that were kindof early on, but almost everything that happened, happened in the middle, and nobody knows what came before what.

There’s no rhyme or reason to it. It’s just some stuff that happened.

So that aside, this about the first time we got together.

I can’t remember how we all connected. Andrew and Alan were already doing stuff… Andrew Gordon (manager Richard’s brother) was also there… playing drums? When I turned up I assumed everyone already knew each other – but I think Ian was there for the audition as well. Did we answer adverts? No idea.

I’d just left Uni – moved to Wellington – was living with Susan – my first girlfriend, and the most argumentative critter in the entire universe. She’s still my best friend. We still fight like cats if we’re in the same place for more than a couple of days. I miss the shit out of her.

Anyway – I got my first job as a computer-bod in a bank (they made me wear a tie). After about a month I took a look around at the grown-ups around me, and kindof figured “if I stay here I’m going to turn into one of these people” – so I quit. Started selling hand-made jewellery in the local market, and doing odd little temp jobs. I was listening to The Cult and Led Zeppelin… gradually sliding into the American Paisley Underground thing – The Rain Parade and REM (early, early)… and The Church in Aus.

And somewhere from that, I wound up at Alan’s place in Porirua… And there we were. All of a sudden.

It must have sounded bloody awful – but we must have seen some potential in each other… possibly because we were all quite pretty – could easily have stood in for this lot

Did it click? I think it must have clicked. Most of it was Ian I think – I’ve never really thought that until I started writing this… but he was always conspiratorially persuading us to do stuff we’d never have done on our own. He was gay… 1/2 the time, and had a shadow. The black-sheep – he’d seen quite a lot more of life than the rest of us. I miss him too.

So anyway. Things I can actually remember about the first day:

1) We all drove Minis. It was like The Italian Job with Rickenbackers.

Alan also had a Daimler or a Bentley or something – it literally cost more in gas to get from A to B than flying.

2) I was the only one who hadn’t stolen a car at some point

3) That’s all really. I played a strat through a little transistor amp, with an echo, a wah, a volume-pedal and a fuzz-box. I can kindof visualise where I stood… I had absolutely no idea what I was doing – but every time I did something weird, Ian would say “yea – do that”.

So we kindof clicked I guess. A week later we did it again.