So we chose Oxford.

Everyone (for years afterwards) would ask “Why Oxford? no bands ever came from here. You’re fools etc. Foooooools”… that was before Radiohead, Ride, Swervedriver, Supergrass, Foals and a whole load of others.

So many bands came from Oxford that someone actually made a documentary about all the bands that came from Oxford, which had everyone in it, except us….

…even though it was literally us (and specifically, me) that started the whole thing.

Ok – that’s not strictly true… I don’t know who started it all. Someone from the 17th C probably. Bobbie Gillespie perhaps. Lost in the mists of time. That said, the reason we moved there, is that there was already a pretty good music scene there – a lot of which was to do with Dave Newton.

He was running a local (ie: Thames Valley) music magazine, and putting on gigs etc. He’s probably the main reason we moved to Oxford, and probably the main reason that a whole lot of music that started in Oxford, wound up growing out of the place, and moving up to that London. He organised our first gigs for us, put us in touch with whoever we needed to get in touch with, paid for our EP… and a whole lot more besides. He did this for a lot of people.

He went through over 5000 haircuts before he settled on this one.

Dave is one of those super-fans who manage to create entire environments where people who would otherwise be disparate wastrels can come together. Oxford should really put up a statue of him somewhere. God, he’d absolutely hate that.

We should definitely do that. We owe it to him.

Happy Birthday Dave, where ever you are.