"WE WERE GONNA BE SO BIG IN JAPAN, AND THEN WE'D CONQUER THE WORLD"

A line from the last song FAST CARS ever wrote back in November 1980, just before we split up, which was only weeks after the triumphant gig supporting The Jam at the Apollo Theatre in Manchester.

The irony is, 21 years later, the song from which the line was taken "Everyday I make another mistake" the lyrics about the frustrations and pitfalls of the music business that led the band to split up, was released in Japan, as the band's follow up to their 1st single "The Kids Just Wanna Dance" which was released back in 1979. There was a huge demand for the single which sold out the 1000 copies made in weeks.

Completely oblivious to it all, FAST CARS had been hailed as "The Kings of Powerpop" and "The Best British Powerpop Band" in Japan for years and on July 20th 2001, we headed out there to play two dates at Tokyo's prestigious Studio Jam Club.

It doesn't end there, the original single has been changing hands amongst record collectors all over the world for up to £200 a time, which led to the band signing to specialist record label, DETOUR RECORDS, who released the single "Everyday I make another mistake" and a 16 track album "Coming ... ready or not !" in August 2001.

Immediately before we went to Japan we played a one-off gig at "The Band on the Wall Club" in Manchester on Friday, 13th July 2001. The last time we played there was in 1979, supported by Mick Hucknell's Frantic Elevators. (Mick is Simply Red)

It has been said we were probably one of the most underrated bands around from the Manchester scene in the late Seventies, we rehearsed at T J Davidson's alongside The Buzzcocks, Joy Division, The Fall, Slaughter and the Dogs et al, played with most of the above, and also the likes of XTC, The Rezillos, and The Jam.

We recorded with Martin (Zero) Hannet at Strawberry Studios at the same time Joy Division were recording Unknown Pleasures. We had our single played on daytime Radio One, appeared on Tony Wilson's Granada T.V. programme "What's On" played key venues up and down the Country including the legendary Marquee Club on Wardour Street, London.

We were very nearly signed by The Jam's A & R man at Polydor, Dennis Munday, but it never quite happened ......
21 years later and FAST CARS went back in the studios to re-mix some of our old tunes along with some of the original demo's on an album that celebrates the history of one of Manchester's best kept secrets, FAST CARS are COMING ... READY OR NOT !

And it's not finished yet!!! ......... we have carried on playing and had two singles released in Japan in 2002 on 1977 Records, "Here we are today" and "Turn on the radio" the former written in 1980 the latter 2001.

Released on 9th May, 2005 a live Cd taken from the tape recorded on the PA desk at the Deeply Vale Music Festival in Lancashire, August 1979. This features the raw teenage Fast Cars not heard in over 25 years. The recording has nothing added and nothing taken away. It has been released on Ozit Records UK.

Also during 2006 we hope to release another album entitled "WELL ... YOU STARTED IT!!" featuring some old songs and some written now including the single "Best Friend" written in 2002, Penthouse Monkeys, Piece of England, Instant Popstars, to name a few !!!

FOR MORE INFO VISIT www.thefastcars.com and http://www.myspace.com/thefastcars