The Fixations

Paul and Pad went to the same school and started playing guitar together, playing in a band with other school friends.  Ken, who is Pad’s cousin later joined them on the grounds that he owned a set of bongos. With a Wem speaker, a sunburst Les Paul copy, two mic’s taped to broom handles, and a second hand drum kit, they started rehearing in a Scout hut on Holloway Road in Islington. They transported the gear piled up on a friend’s scooter and ‘walked’ it in first gear. During rehearsals the hut was regularly attacked or pelted with stones by local ‘youths’, though they had an average age of only 17 themselves (this was late ‘75).

 For a while Pad played bass, but this was a waste of his talent. They began a search for a bassist, playing with a host of different line-ups, which included a very talented jazz/funk bassist and a sax player. Then Richard came along. He played rhythm at first, but was willing to switch to bass. He got in for several reasons. Firstly he could play, secondly he had the right image and attitude and finally, he ran an off-license in King‘s Cross, which was always going to be a plus when several of the band were alcoholics.

They rehearsed in the basement of the off-license for a while, till they got complaints from the brothel next door that the noise was disturbing their clients. So they Moved to Alaska studios in Waterloo, and this is where The Fixations were born. Deciding on an image was easy. Paul had been a mod since he was ten and would only consider playing in a mod band. The name was more difficult and after a number of suggestions Paul came up with ‘The Fixations’, which we all liked as it had a Motown feel.

 The first gig came along and the band ate together in Richards flat, feeling that strange mixture of fear and excitement. The gig wasn’t bad and they were encouraged, but had not dominated the stage. The next week they were offered the Pied Bull in Islington. But something had happened between those two gigs, the band suddenly took on a personality of its own, becoming greater than the sum of its parts. They transformed from schoolboy hopefuls into a powerful force at the spear-head of a new generation.

 It was fantastic and frightening, wild and aggressive. There were arguments and even fights, but they were ‘a band’ and from then on they dominated every stage they walked on. That first night at the Pied Bull they walked on stage like princes, played like God’s and walked off as King’s of an emerging new Mod cult. Other band’s would follow, but these were the real McCoy, the Ace Faces, the Sound of Young London!