1978-'81

Andrew Reader- guitar and vocals,
Roger White -Bass,
later -Jonathon "Cab" Phillips-bass,
Gareth Brown - guitar,
Mitchell Edmunds-vocals,
Jeremy Radcliffe-drums.
later- Steve Hyett-drums

 

 

 

 

Yeah, summer's coming and for one moment it's alright;

 

Originally called the Losers, it was as Johnny and the Nuforms that they played their first couple of gigs at Pennard church hall supporting local school mates, Mannequin. By the time they'd graduated to the SSA bar however, at a benefit for Rock against Racism in the summer of 1978, they'd changed their name again, to become the Nuforms.

"That summer saw three appearances at the celebrated punk watering hole, supported by Mannequin, The Trendies and The End. The last, on September 16th, was sold out by 8:30 and the fab Nuforms, then Reader, White and Ratcliffe, hit the zenith of their career amidst a mass of heaving bodies and unsold copies of Alarm. That night the Nuforms split up." -ACE

 

DC10's

 

In 1979, Andrew got the band back together for a few months but the feeling wasn't there and Gary Brown (who'd recently joined from the now defunct Trendies) soon departed. After a drastic rethink, Mitchell Edmond from Virgin records was roped-in on vocals, leaving Reader to concentrate more on songwriting duties. Unlike,most of his contemporaries who simply charged through their songs, Reader was a stickler for detail and was always striving for perfection, and when writing songs, each piece of the song, drum rolls, fills, bass parts etc were meticulously pored over and examined before being included or discarded.

In June 1980, they went into Spaceward Studios in Cambridge and recorded the self- financed single, Bermuda / I Can See Through Walls before driving to London the following day to get it mastered and sent off for pressing.

After being played on the John Peel show and a review in the NME (who went on to call it one of the best independant singles of 1980), record companies soon began to take an interest, most notably, WEA and Bomp Records (owned by US "powerpop" supremo, Greg Shaw). They didn't get any further however, as Hyett joined the RAF shortly after, with both John Cab and Reader opting to take places at university and Mitchell moving to London to become head of the Virgin superstore in Oxford street.

 

 

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