It has been hard to remember much, Machine were formed in 1978 after myself and Nigel split from our previous band called 'RENEGADE', after answering an advert in a local paper for a vocalist.  Myself & Nigel [aka Stumpy] arranged a rehearsal in our home town of West Bromwich at a place that is well known called The Schools. 'Slade' and many other famous bands started out from this former school.

We sort of hit it off straight away as we all liked our rock music but Chris and John had a sound that was a bit different to ours, plus they were pretty good song writers as well. However, between the years of 1972 - 1973, Chris had previously played drums with another up and coming rock band called 'Judas Priest’. So for Chris, playing the drums was in his blood and he didn't just play the drums he battered them. As for John ....well,  it was Hendrix reincarnated, oh and we actually played a song called reincarnated but sadly we never recorded that one! However Nigel and myself recorded it with another  band called NITERIDER after Machine disbanded.

We had a great time playing the local scene with a good sized loyal following, one of our best clubs in Wolverhampton was the 'Lafayette', which many famous bands thrashed it out on that stage including The Sex Pistols (just as they were starting to get well known), Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake, Deep Purple, and Motorhead and many more. So it was a bit of a honour to say we played the Lafayette, very happy days.

We decided it was time to look at some recording so off we went to 'Outlaw Studios' in Birmingham with a few pennies each. Times were hard so we recorded 'Bored with the city' and 'Brown eyed girl' as quickly as possible due to the lack of funds. We then went ahead and quickly set up our own record label and sent the master off to 'SRT' pressing plant. I seem to remember that we pressed up 200 copies but other members of the band think it was only 100 copies, either way it wasn't very many. We had no manager or promoter so we just plodded on hoping for some recognition one day. Chris sent out promo copies of our single to all the major record companies all over the globe but sadly there were no takers.

We did record further material but sadly all these tracks have been lost in time due to a divorce and numerous house moves. Thinking back, some of the songs were very good even if I do say so myself. The music scene changed so much in the next few years and sadly Machine drifted apart, but we enjoyed every minute of it.

We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time but we rocked all the way.

Paul Beckett

January 2012