Masterswitch

Masterswitch were in essence Jimmy Edwards and it was all a bit of a mess if truth to be told – a very messy mess. Jimmy had been in bands since the late sixties when he was already a teenager and in arguably the first mod/skinhead band Neat Change. Over the next few years he sang in bands and on records, and became a producer and was involved in the massive hit single Kung Fu Fighting and signing Kilburn & The High Roads. In 1976 he became involved with a young teenage band Flintlock and while living in Walton a band on the opposite spectrum called Jimmy & The Ferrets who became Sham 69. He would be connected in some way with both bands over the next couple of years and beyond.

Masterswitch came bout in late 1976 when he joined an existing band and basically took it over and renamed them as he recounts to Stewart Home in his excellent interview.

The first line-up wasn’t the same as the one the public saw. It was always the same drummer Martin Lee . Ray Simone was the original guitarist and leader of the group until I joined. Steve Wilkes came in late as another guitar player. The bassist was Mark Steed. We were a punk band coz I’d started writing punk songs before punk began. I was ready for punk. We played a couple of pubs and then the Roxy, so right from the off with punk we were in the thick of it.

We did a lot of rehearsing because we wanted to be good, which wasn’t really the ethic in those days. It was more I can’t play so let’s get up and form a band. Which was great but I was a bit older than most of them and already could play and had already put records out. I was lucky in that the punk scene sorta embraced me

Mark P from “Sniffin’ Glue” liked what I did. Savage Pencil the cartoonist and singer with The Art Attacks liked us. We were like the Genesis of punk, our drummer was a really good drummer and the guitarist was a great guitarist. I had to fight the group to play the music I wanted to play. I still didn’t get it how I wanted it. I wanted it even more punky, more thrashy, not so arranged. I had to tell them what to wear, to get their hair cut. They ended up near what I wanted but not perfect.

The band could obviously play and they picked up some good support slots with The Adverts & Doctors of Madness. They played on the infamous Vortex Club live album recordings night but weren’t recorded as there was an argument over publishing which as other bands have recounted basically was the band got nothing. Interestingly they were paired as much with Sham 69 (Roxy Club, Woking Halls) as Menace.

In 1978 guitarist Ray Simone left leaving them as a four piece and well after the initial punk signing gold rush, they were signed by major US label Epic/CBS in February in one of the strangest deals and it made the music papers.

Jimmy Edwards on the Bored Teenagers site recounts to Alex Ogg the surreal way the band got signed.

I met this guy called Bruce, he had a big cowboy hat on. He said, what do you do? I said I write songs, I’m in a group. He said sing me some of the songs now! And I did, thinking this has be some kind of joke. He gave me a hotel number, and said ring me tomorrow at the Grosvenor. I want to hear more about what you’re doing. I thought, fuck, this is stupid. But I rang him the next morning. He said I’d really like to give you a deal on what I heard last night. Just from me singing to him! I’d sung him ‘Action Replay’ and a couple of other things. He organised a deal and we signed to CBS America, to Epic, and got a massive deal. I don’t think it was a great idea as a) we weren’t there b) we were playing new wave clubs and we were English. To cut a long story short, we got Vic Maille, who did Live At Leeds for the Who, he produced ‘Action Replay’.

But the whole thing went to the group’s heads really quickly. I’d been in the business for years before that, making records and helping people out. We just put that one single out and the group got so big for their boots that they’d got such a big deal that I sacked them basically. Then I got bought out of my contract with CBS.

It all looked to be going ok for Masterswitch. Good producer, promo shots and a massive advance over 6 albums.

You would have thought that Edwards with his 10 years in the music business would have been more savvy but there you go – it was a major label contract and oodles of cash.

The band was taken into the CBS studios and demos were recorded for an album. A single was released Action Replay though is infamous as a non single. Released without a picture cover, which was the kiss of death in them punky days, apparently the demo-stamped version is the most common version found which suggests that had a very very limited pressing! It was played and reviewed, but nobody could buy it!

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Steve Wilkin saw the breakup of Masterswitch differently (obviously). For him it was driven around questions about the advance money which saw the manager Keith West say Jimmy Edwards wanted to stop and so Mark and Steve quit. Steve then sees a ‘musicians wanted’ ad for Masterswitch and goes down to see Mark, Jimmy and others playing. Embarrassing! This time the band does split up and Steve and Mark join Ian North’s Neo who ironically did play and get recorded on the Live At The Vortex album.

Jimmy meanwhile had been keeping his hand/hedging his bets all the time as singer with wannabee pop sensations Flintlock and it was they who bought him out of his CBS contract. He appears on their 1978 album.

Flintlock – talk about hedging your bets. Though Eater did play a gig with them to screaming girls!

Jimmy’s career post this goes a little mental and much credit to My Lifes A Jigsaw Blog for the below.

He forms Jimmy Edwards Profile and records a single Nora’s Diary in April ’79 on major label Warners during the recording of the Sessions for Sham 69’s The Adventures of Hersham Boys.

Other Credited / Uncredited Work
1978 During the dying days of Masterswitch Jimmy was the vocalist for Mean Street and according to the man himself used to dep on drums for gigs

1978 After Masterswitch he was the singer for Flintlock with his Vocals (Uncredited due to his CBS contract) on the LP “Stand Alone” and the 45 “(Hey You) You’re Like A Magnet”,

1979 (March*) during the recording sessions for Twentieth Century Time The Public Pisstake track [My Own Creation] was recorded. This was a one-off studio project by Jimmy Pursey (Voc) Jimmy Edwards (Guitar) Jimmy Honeyman-Scott (Lead Guitar) Pete Farndon (Bass) Martin Chambers (Drums) 

1979 (July – Aug*) Jimmy Pursey briefly left “Sham 69” and Edwards was drafted in as the new singer. A single [Dare To Win / Just Ordinary] was recorded [but not released until 2011] as Pursey re-joined once The Sham Pistols fell through. 

1979 (Aug -Sept*) Jimmy Contributed Backing Vocals (along with Elvis Costello) for The Twist’s LP “This Is Your Life”  His involvement was due to him sharing Twist’s lead singer, Peter Marsh’s then manager, Tony Gordon, Who also managed Sham 69. 

In the eighties, there was one last surreal punk twist when he married punk chanteuse Honey Bane.

All his life, success eluded Jimmy throughout with so many near misses. Sadly he died of cancer in January 2015 following a short illness aged 65.

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