So we were about to put out the first 101ers single and I was at the Red Cow in Hammersmith meeting someone a bit early. I think the Jam were on that night and they were sound checking. I was at the bar getting them in, when I got a tap on the shoulder and turned round to face Joe saying ‘Have I done the right thing?’ Behind him was a skinny kid who Joe informed me he was forming a band with. So what can you say – great – we’re about to put a record out and you go and break up the band!!!??? To be fair it turned out well in the end.

Dig those funky sideburns Joe or shall I call you Woody!!!

In a curious twist of fate many years down the line Richard Dudanski, drummer for the 101'ers, would join PIL for a short while with Johnny Rotten !!

I agree that the original band were a great punk band. They were about as raw as it gets. It is a shame that the name was dragged through the gutter like that. The other three guys in the band were really pissed off too. Grinny the drummer came from solid Northern Socialist stock. When they made records for us Ian Stewart showed no signs of Fascism. The skinhead image was a – maybe in hindsight misconceived – fashion thing. It was cooked up by a bunch of us, including the band’s then management and the Photographer Peter Kodick. The teeth on the back of the sleeve are Patti Paladin’s of Snatch fame – NY art punk!

They sent in a tape from Blackpool with a hilarious photo of them in torn blazers and flares standing in front of Blackpool tower.( this is probably on the cover of 'You're So Dumb' - Nasty Nasty)The whole thing was so gormless and the tape such a noise I couldn’t resist. I think that the motivation for signing them was a reaction against the studied arty side of the Pistols and the Clash as projected by Malcolm and Bernie. Here were real kids from the arsehole of nowhere and very angry at anything they felt like being angry at. But as out of town kids they were a bit in awe of it all. They were part of that 2nd generation of Punks inspired by the Pistols. I think we might have pulled Streetfighter because of worries about violence at their gigs. The whole punk thing in general was disintegrating a bit by then and the cliquey scene that had started in 76 had fallen apart. It had all got bigger and there was some nasty violence at some of the gigs. The fun really began to go out of it then.

We nearly signed the Damned the first time out after seeing them at the Nashville Rooms, but Stiff got in first. I think that they were supporting a band called SALT who were essentially hippies. The tables at the front of the stage were occupied by cider drinking long hairs who did not like the Damned. Regardless the Damned played on and on and on. Eventually someone pulled the curtains over at which point all hell broke loose culminating in a bass drum careering through the curtains and sending the pints of cider all over the poor hippies at the front. The Damned had arrived at that point. When Stiff dumped them they broke u[p for a while with the captain forming King, Rat the White Cats and Dave joining Drs Of Madness. Eventually they came back together as the Doomed without Brian who laid claim to the name. Henry from King was bass player for about 5 minutes, but he was much too sensitive to handle it. Lemmy played with them occasionally. Eventually they got Algy. By this time our press officer Rick was managing them. They were playing the Lyceum one night and it was packed. The third business partner in the company Trevor came along out of curiosity – he certainly was not a punk fan. He encouraged us to sign them on the basis that they were drawing crowds who bought records – pretty straightforward. The band had the Dodgy Demo out and so we re-recorded Love Song. The late Eddie Hollis (manager of Eddie & the Hot Rods) produced a version, but the vocal and the mix were not happening, so I took Dave into the studio – did the vocal again and mixed it. We certainly used the fan base to manipulate it into the charts. As regards Top of The Pops, it should have been amazing. On the the first appearance Captain discovered that he could use the BBC costume dept. So at the rehearsal he turned up in a full wedding gown and Doc Martens. Everyone in the studio just stood and applauded when he walked in – looked amazing. Then the producer told him that he could not go on in the wedding dress. They had an exclusive on Bowie’s ‘Boys keep Swinging’ video that featured the grande Dame in drag and they thought that he might think that the Capt was taking the piss – bollocks! So what could have been one of the great television events of all time was still pretty good, but not as good as it would have been with Vanian in full bow tie and tails singing Love Song to Capt in a wedding dress.

Chiswick publicity photo - Machine Gun Etiquette

Below. One of The Damned's four sleeves for Love Song.

Well we used it to full advantage I think. We were among the first to use coloured vinyl and invented the multiple picture sleeve with the four Damned shots on Love Song . Basically you had to give records away to the chart return shops to make sure that they had them in stock. Then a team of housewives would go in and buy them up. Friendly dealers might be encouraged to put in the extra sales in exchange for a consideration. It was all dreadfully corrupt, but at least everyone was being dreadfully corrupt. It was viewed as a bit of a game. I would say however that you couldn’t hype an absolute turkey and make it stick. The record had to have some appeal to some section of the populace or the act had to have a genuine following. It was not unknown to co-opt fan clubs into buying up singles from chart shops.

In the early ‘80s we got out of the pop end of things. Partly we didn’t have a clue about the kind of records that were becoming hits and partly the introduction of the video seemed to really up the cost of hyping to beyond a joke. It got to the point where you would lose money on even a hit single and just hoped to sell enough albums or break the act in America. Really the odds lengthened at that point and we retired to re-issue land where we have been happily ever since.

They were'nt adverse to the old scantily clad woman on sleeve trick.. 'Dirty Pictures' by The Radio Stars