THE DRIVE

The original pressing of 1,000 copies of Jerkin' was done around the time Elvis Presley died. Pressing plants around Britain were in overdrive to cope with the demand for his material. That meant that our master tape was sent to the first company that said they'd do the job. Unfortunately, the quality of the pressing was sub-standard. The lacquer that covers the discs after pressing was either not applied, or was applied badly, and the result was poor quality sound. Despite this disappointment, we were in full swing with our plans to conquer the world and couldn't stop. A Scottish chain of record shops - Bruce's Records - asked us to give them all the pressings after a spikey interview with me was published in a Scottish Sunday newspaper scandal sheet. Sales went well, and the 1,000 pressings were sold in a couple of weeks. Job done, I thought, and started to write more material for recording.

Meanwhile, the result of all this self-generated newspaper publicity was that a small chain of record shops in London, Beggar's Banquet, got in touch and asked us if we would like to include Jerkin' on a compilation LP called 'Streets' - it was their first venture, as well as promoting a band called Tubeway Army with Gary Numan. We said 'yes', and sent the master tape to London. So, the version of Jerkin' on the 'Streets' LP is far superior.

There were two further songs recorded "Queen of the bitches" and "Steal Yourself". Despite the awful sounding titles, these songs were musically far superior to our first efforts - especially "Steal Yourself" - brilliant guitar solo. Sadly, that tape was dumped in the loft of a flat in Dundee, Scotland around 27 years ago. If the quality of the tape hasn't degraded badly by now, it's probably likely that the tape was junked.

Circa 1977

Angus McFarlane
September 2014

Angus (Gus) McFarlane - Lead Vocals	Ron Neish - Lead Guitar
Bob Phillips - Slide Guitar	Roger Patterson - Bass*
Ron Jack - Drums**