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The Period

Tyldesley, Manchester

1976 - 1977
Wendy Sharples - Vocals	Diane Caswell - Bass & Backing Vocals
Adrian Evans - Guitar	Philip Thornley - Drums

1978 - 1979
Philip Thornley - Vocals & Guitar	Adrian Evans - Bass
Ian Smith - Drums


Russ Booth	Diane Caswell	Philip Thornley	Adrian Evans

The first original line up of The Period were from left to right on the photo; Russ booth, Diane Caswell, Philip Thornley and Adrian Evans, unfortunately Chris Jackson was taking the photo!. We played the local school halls and scout huts in the area including the locally famous Briarcroft during 1976. People didn't really understand the kind of music we were playing at the time, it was only later in the year we discovered it was punk rock! We continued to play live and record ourselves on 1950's reel to reel recorders till early 77 when Russ and Chris vanished off the scene when they couldn't get to grips with the music I was writing with Diane. In came Wendy Sharples on vocals and became a four piece punk new wave band with me on drums and Diane on bass, Adrian continued on guitar. We called ourselves 'Exhibit B' of the period' but dropped 'exhibit B bit' after a few months and reverted back to the single Period again!. Diane decided to go away to art college late 77 after we had played some real cool places including the Electric Circus and Pips disco Manchester meeting bands like the Buzzcocks and Split Enz the latter were somewhere else at the time I seem to remember. Very soon into 1978 Wendy left too so I was left with Adrian on bass and myself on guitar. I needed a drummer and asked a guy who I knew from school to join the band. Ian Smith was and still is a fabulous drummer and we toured and recorded as a three piece for 12 months. Real fun times but we never made it big!

In came 1978 and we were in real demand locally but couldn't seem to break out from our restrictive chains. I decided to book a studio and we recorded four songs without Ian Smith who just didn't turn up for the three days at Cargo Studios in Rochdale. I ended up playing drums instead with Adrian and another school friend Colin Potter playing bass. We recorded six tracks: “We hate Wigan Casino”, “Promiscuity”, “I feel sick”, “Don't go swimming on a period”, “Seaside towns and “Don't know don't care”. All mastered on reel to reel. I transferred “I feel sick” to one cassette tape and sent it to Virgin records. About a week later I got a one line answer, it said 'so do I!' Richard Branson!

Absolute classic!. I wasn't really happy with the recordings anyway I think the studio was very Sad Café oriented and everything turned out too clean. The master was put in the cupboard and eventually got lost somewhere; I think my eldest son recorded over it in the late eighties! Anyway there were three other local bands in the area that sprouted up much to my disgust! The Plukes, The System, and The Naughty Boys. The latter begged me to play drums for them so I did for six months. That was fun but I wasn't used to taking a back seat and only a bit player in writing songs, so I left in December 1979.

Now I had to cherry pick myself a new band!! I decided to poach Steven Riley from The System to sing duet with myself, re install Adrian on bass, get the unreliable Ian Smith back on drums and the fabulous Martin Tiernan from the Plukes on lead guitar. I would play rhythm on my futurama again. It all worked out well the other three bands folded and we became a local super group!!