Whilst at university, I became a massive fan of The Jam – around the time of their 3rd album ‘All Mod Cons’. After moving to London I managed to see them a few times after ‘Setting Sons’ was released. I also managed to get hold of my first Rickenbacker guitar and spurred by this, my songwriting went up a gear and I wanted to be in a band again.
I recruited Helen (my partner at the time) on bass guitar and perhaps inspired by Soft Cell and early Echo & The Bunnymen, along with a drum machine we became Glass Toys.
Cover of Glass Toys’ cassette-only releaseWe worked together in our tiny flat on jagged minimalist songs that never quite managed to convey the anger that all young men of London felt at the time. After getting hold of an early 4-track cassette recorder, we promptly bashed down the whole of our set in a day, and marketed a tape of the best 7 songs.
Listening back to it now with the naively primitive production, it’s not surprising we never really sold any, but in a way that didn’t matter – that fact that we’d done it only served to boost the hunger to go on and do more. Well it did in me anyway… Helen lost interest after a while, and I needed to find another bass player.
