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Strand was the brainchild of Tim Harper, Phil Morris and Mike Morgan. Mike and Phil had grown up together in Brynmawr in South Wales and had played in lots of bands by the time they move to the Midlands in early 1979 to form Strand with Tim, who had also played in bands with Mike and Phil. The idea was to create a vehicle for demonstrating the song writing skills the boys had discovered they possessed. Phil in particular was always full of ideas! A female vocalist called Lynda (I'm sorry, but time has erased her surname from my memory!) was already in place when I answered an ad in The Wolverhampton Express & Star for a bass player....."Original band with record company interest, seeks...." Hmmm! The upshot was I passed the audition and joined the band....probably more to do with turning up in my Red Transit Van (with purple curtains in the back windows!?!...thanks Mum! KOV 648P.....aaaah, happy days!) than the amount of practice I'd put in for the audtion! The boys had just about completed building their own studio in Tim's back garden and we set about equipping it with the various stuff needed to make 4 track demos ("how quaint!" I hear you say!....it was 1980!). Sadly, Lynda did not stay and Phil was landed with the 'frontman/vocalist' role, which was'nt a bad thing! That's Phil singing the songs you hear via the buttons on the left! I recall the rehearsal/writing regime was quite strict, 3 evenings a week after work and all day Saturday, plus going out doing gigs! We called it a day in late 1981, but you can hear some of the demos here. The sound is not great, but I hope you can see why I'm so proud of my involvement in creating these songs. David, January 2005 |