How and when and why did you came to form V2 ??
I formed V2 in December 1976, when I had just got myself out of the RAF. My best friend from school, David Wilks (Jonathan E) and me were regulars at a club called Pips, which had a Bowie/Roxy room. When punk first appeared in Manchester, this is where a lot of the bands emanated from.  I had wanted to be in a band for a couple of years but had no idea how you went about it. After a few attempts at finding suitable people, we asked another Bowie fan Stan the Man to join. He had never played an instrument in his life, but he had good hair! He turned up with a cheap bass one Saturday morning, and I just showed him where to put his fingers. I didn't have any notion that I could write songs until punk. The first song I ever wrote was Speed freak.

What did you think of other manchester bands like Slaughter, Ed Banger and The Fall and I'll add in the Bolton Buzzcocks.
Our second gig was supporting Slaughter, then Drones and Fastbreeder at Middleton civic hall, a big place. We all liked Slaughter, and were in fact quite influenced by them. It was the Bowie-esque glam aspect that appealed to us. Stan had known them since they started and used to follow them around to gigs before he joined us. I liked most of the Manchester bands, but as we started to get more known, there was a lot of rivalry which spoiled it a bit.

Is there any truth in a similarity of Nothing To Do with slaughter's I'm Mad ??
I had not heard 'I'm mad' when I wrote' nothing to do' I don't think. Even if I had, I wouldn't have thought it possible that I could play it. I always thought other people's songs were beyond my abilities. I tuned my guitar to E in those days so I presumed that I wouldn't be able to do other peoples stuff!

What do you remember of The Drones?
I remember seeing them for the first time, when Iggy Pop played Manchester Apollo with David Bowie on Keyboards, the Drones threw a load of leaflets from the balcony advertising a gig that night. It was the first time I had seen a local punk band. I thought they were great and it spurred us on.

Your style of dress/image in V2 was a little interesting !!!! What made you go for that sort of image ? Did you tour a lot and what sort of reaction/ objects did you receive across the country ?. I take it you must have been playing to a predominantly punk audience who must have been suprised at your image? Strangest thing thrown at you ? When I interviewed James Stevenson he once got a whole bottle of tomato ketchup emptied over him on the first chord !!!!( ha ha ha )
As I mentioned, we were brought up on a diet of Glam Rock, particularly T.Rex, Bowie, Roxy and Lou Reed. That along with the Damned and Slaughter is where we were coming from. We just took it a bit further! There was a kind of love them or hate them attitude to us. We had a lot of girl fans (which annoyed the other bands a bit!) Yes, all the gigs were to punk crowds, we used to come off stage totally covered in gob and beer. We used to fling an open bag of flour over the crowd during the encore. It went all over us too. So we looked like ready to bake cakes when we left the stage when it mingled with the beer and gob. The worst gig for thrown objects, was the Marquee with Slaughter in 78 I think. It was packed and I had just literally began to walk out of the dressing room when a full can of beer hit my guitar and broke a string. We only managed about 4 songs before we legged it back into the safety of the dressing room in fear of our lives! We played there again the year after, with the Dickies. This time, someone hurled a piece of metal at Stan so hard it stuck in his bass! In the end, two of the Dickies roadies (Big Californian Surfer types) jumped in the crowd and beat the tosser up. I think we managed 6 songs before retreating that time. (James Stevenson was on that tour too, in Chelsea)

Any disastrous / funny V2 moments ?
Loads! The time in Carlisle, when one particularly obnoxious twat was throwing loads of beer on us. Dave whispered to me that he was going to pretend to get an electric shock to see if that would stop him. He suddenly threw himself backwards and lay still on the floor. We kept playing for a bit then stopped and I knelt over him looking worried. Suddenly, the crowd turned on the beer thrower and started to beat the shit out of him! I literally saw his teeth leave his mouth. I was whispering to Dave ""Stay down for fucks sake, it's gone off"". We had to play it to the end. He got up looking dazed and we pulled the rest of the gig. Another repercussion was that the PA firm said that we didn't have to pay them and that they would check the PA thoroughly before they used it again! so we eat well on the way home. Another one is when we played Wythenshaw forum with Slaughter in 77.  There was a lot of rivalry between us by then, and it was their home town. As we started, the drummer hit his drums and they all collapsed. Slaughter had loosened all the nuts. The crowd was hostile to us, and when one of our female fans passed up a box of chocolates to us, they started to hit her. Stan took his bass of and lifted it over his head charging at them. Luckily the security intervened and it was stopped. 2 minutes later, Dave leant into the crowd singing and someone grabbed the mike, cut the wire with a knife and ran of with it!. When we came off, I went and de-tuned Mike Rossi's guitar and took the battery out of his foot peddle, ruining their big entrance. Stupid stuff really, but we were all young boys. These are just a couple of the daft things that went on.

What was it like seeing the Overground compilation and what did you think of it ?
It was nice to get that out. We always felt that we were the forgotten men of punk! At the time, Dave was becoming very ill, and in fact he died not long after. The last time I saw him, we went round the record shops in Manchester putting it to the front of the V sections. His death really fucked me up, he was my oldest and dearest friend. I thought they did a good job on it, a lot of the later stuff is from cassettes that have been hanging round my house for years, so the quality is not what it could be.

Worst thing said about V2 in the press etc ?
This ones easy. Our first ever review in NME by Tony Parsons, for the Speedfreak EP. I remember meeting Dave outside the Dickinsian dole office. It was raining. He handed me the paper. It was a right slagging. He said we 'packed the aural punch of a fart in a rust corroded baked bean can'. He accused us of ripping of some Led Zeppelin thing (Which I hadn't heard in my life!) We went and got pissed.

OK Paul, I hope that's helpful. 

Hope to hear from you soon, Regards Mark.