4 Just Men… and then there was only two!
Moving to Manchester would mean giving up a steady job in Retail and risking finding enough work in and around the North West to justify such a drastic step. We were relatively unknown outside the Liverpool area and it was only the fact that the new agent we had acquired kept re-assuring us the work would be there.
Besides, Liverpool was being plundered of bands by recording labels, but after learning that the scouts were also swarming around Manchester too, this point was no longer a factor. But there were still some serious issues such as losing John Kelman to another band, while his replacement Lally Stott had gone his own way and Pete Turner was very reluctant to commit to such a leap into the unknown.
Dee and myself sat down together and discussed the idea of us as a duo getting to Manchester and looking for a couple of new members there, an even riskier strategy, for without getting gigs right away how would we get by?
And anyway, neither of us had any savings to fall back on so surely it would be more foolish than brave to up sticks and move? However, at about this time the Agent who had seen us at the Philharmonic, and was aware of our predicament, suggested that he might know of a bass player who was looking for a band and was willing to meet up for a chat about joining, his name was Keith Shepherd.
The get-together worked out and we all agreed on him joining the band.
