The Now

Mike McGuire on Vocals, Steve Rolls on Guitar,
Faz Farrow on Bass and Joe MacColl on Drums.

The Now were formed in 1975 and hailed from Peterborough and were a combination of The Mekons, Desperate Bicycles and the Sex Pistols. Their first single Development Corporation / Why (Ultimate Records 1977) is a classic. Bedeviled by fate their next release was in 1979 on the troubled Raw Records. Into The 1980’s / Nine O’Clock recorded in April, was released in November with only 800 copies and without a picture sleeve.

Another two tracks by this overlooked band were found by a site contributor Room At The Top and Don’t You Believe Me on a 1982 compilation tape called All This And More on Peterborough’s Solo Records…An unreleased third single?

“I suppose I should own up to being the drummer with The Now. At that time, there were no clubs in town & none of the pubs would entertain the idea of promoting punk bands, so we used to put on our own.

We used to work with a local anti racist organization, P.A.G.A.R, [Peterborough action group against racism] & we used to put on gigs in conjunction with our local West INdian assoc. in their meeting hall, The Marcus Garvey. This was initially with a great local reggae band called MASAI, and later we used to bring other bands to town, but because we always played under the P.A.G.A.R. banner, we always had trouble from the N.F.

Joe MacColl

I remember when we brought THE KILLJOYS, I had to step in to stop KEVIN ROWLAND getting a kicking, from some fascist cunts. I won that one, and they went on to play a blinding set; a real beer & adrenaline workout. Other bands we gigged with were, 999, ARTATTAX, X-T-C, THE FLYS, fuck…Im having trouble remembering,….after the first single came out we got played on PEEL, & started getting some decent gigs in London including ,THE VORTEX, MARQUEE,& THE ROXY [before it turned into a tourist freekshow] anyway…my typing fingers starting to go numb, we’ll talk again,……..after The Now, I was a founder member of top mod band The Name,…but that’s another story altogether. one love joe drummer.”

Joe MacColl, Email 16/2/02

On audition night at the Roxy Club on 27th June, the Now and the Transmitters, both from Peterborough, were pepped up and ready to go.

Steve Rolls (the Now) There was a real buzz to the place which we hadn’t experienced before (and after). Initially there was an air of menace and subversion to the place, especially going in and descending those stairs to watch all of those great (and some not so great) bands.

However, pretty soon it was clear that the place was cool and friendly as a whole. The odd nutter was usually despatched by the majority, though spotting the nutter in a room full of people bouncing off the walls and each other wasn’t easy. Everyone was at ease with each other.

Roxy WC2 Book
The Now at the Roxy Club – Photos Allen Adams

With regards to playing there well that was something else. If I’m honest the Roxy had seen its best days by the time we got to play there. There was still a buzz there but not like it had been before. The Now nearly didn’t play and were threatened with being banned from the Roxy. The band’s bass player was, shall we say, somewhat hyper and in an attempt to impress the people from Peterborough who had come down to see us play decided to decorate the Roxy by spraying a ‘Now’ logo on the front.

The management weren’t impressed. After a few discussions it was all back on. We had a reasonable sized crowd the first time we played and the atmosphere was good. Most of the ceiling tiles had disappeared. The changing room was pretty grotty but served its purpose! There were people jumping around on the stage and all that but it was all part of the fun. The second time was also good but by then it had lost its ‘edge.’ Still, it was fun while it lasted.

Roxy WC2 book

Check out The Now’s website



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