I had known Simon on and off for a few years – and I was sharing a flat 
with his mate (Jim) at the time of the first album, so when Simon Edwards 
left for Fairground Attraction and there was a new album in the ‘offing’ 
Simon TC said to me one day, words to the effect of:

“If you cut your hair, shave your beard off and buy some proper clothes 
you can be in my band”

There’s not a lot one can really say to an offer like that, so I just 
agreed. (I should probably point out that my hair was extremely long at 
the time – definitely more 1960’s than 80’s… and I’ve never been big on 
clothes. In fact, if I ever wear a suit, I look like a bloke who’s had a 
head transplant).

We then met up with Al Gavin who as you know was co-writing a lot of the 
material, and for a month or so we met in his studio with Chris on drums 
and worked through the tracks, changing and adapting, and trying different 
‘feels’ as we went on (this also gave STC a chance to finish his lyrics!).

When it came to the recording at Livingstone Studios we seemed to spend 
ages getting the right drum sounds. I’d been used to being a session 
musician so having so much time to get things as we wanted was a novel 
experience. It was a really great atmosphere to work in as we all got on 
very well (and would spend a fair amount of time kicking footballs around 
in-between sessions). 

We then got Neil Taylor in to do some guitar, who, if memory serves had 
just been working with Tears for Fears. I’ve never met a rock guitarist 
with so much instant feel… he’d just have to listen a couple of times and 
always seemed to come up with the right line to suit the song.

On the back of Simon’s first successful album (and his innate ability to 
charm) we even got a full string section to play on the album and a whole 
day at Abbey Road Studios in which to record them. I remember the day well 
as Dave Gilmore from Pink Floyd was in the ‘smaller’ studio upstairs.

As the album was released I think we were all pretty pleased with it. I 
actually like the track ‘New England’ best and was pushing for the album 
to be named the same. We did a live performance on ‘Pebble Mill’ in 
Birmingham and Simon appeared on Juke Box Jury and the single seemed to be 
doing very well. Every time we looked it was higher up the charts… then… 
well the rest is history and I for one, couldn’t believe that that much 
money could be spent on an album/single and video, and that even though it 
was being so well received it was pulled from the shops.

Since then I’ve kept in touch with Simon and regularly work with Alastair… 
and every so often I listen to Motive…. some of which I really like.

 
Steve Carter - 27/11/07

www.SteveCarter.com


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