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"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
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