The Machines

Nick Paul – Guitar & Vocals – John Dee – Drums & Duff – Bass

If you think of Southend you probably think of Eddie and The Hot Rods, Dr Feelgood and that whole Canvey Island  R’n’B thang. But think again. The spirit of The Stooges and MC5 was alive down there too, and when the Sex Pistols arrived to give music a much needed kick up the butt, Southend soon had The Machines as well (though not to be confused with the similar sounding Machine from Coventry).

Formed in 1977 by guitarist Nick Paul they played The Roxy Club and Vortex in the twilight of those venues popularity and even blew The Damned off stage one gig at the City Of London Polytechnic. In all fairness though The Machines were not major league players, but they had the spirit and drive, like so many, for one maybe two singles.

Nick Paul takes up the story…
I think I was the only one with ‘previous’ as I’d been in a band called Raw Power in 1973/4. The name, as you’ll guess was nicked from the Iggy and the Stooges album of the same name. We were punk before punk and specialized in leather jackets, sunglasses and noise. It was a great band and very popular with the local Hells Angels! Happy days!

In 1977 I was living in Southend on Sea, Essex (about 35 miles from London) when I decided to form a band called The Machines. I spent the first few months of that year sitting in my kitchen (the only room with any heat!) writing and playing my guitar about 12 hours everyday. I was completely driven so choice was not really a feature, I HAD to do it.

Southend was an R n B town e.g. Dr Feelgood and Eddie and The Hot Rods, and we were not an R n B band. I found that stuff suffocating and narrow and we pretty much kept ourselves to ourselves to avoid pollution.

Once I’d written about 16 songs I put an advert for a bass player and a drummer in the local paper ‘The Evening Echo’. That’s how Duff, the bass player, was recruited. No luck on the drummer front so the first two months were spent teaching Duff the songs. Then Duff happened to run into someone in the pub who reckoned he could drum fast and loud and that was how we got our drummer John Dee (nee John Dearlove). We started gigging June/July 1977.

I was always a music fanatic and was particularly big on USA punk and pre-punk e.g. Velvet Underground, Stooges, MC5, Flaming Groovies, New York Dolls, Dictators, Television, Patti Smith, Ramones, Modern Lovers. In short, the lot. Duff had a devotion to Thin Lizzy (and I had to make him have his hair cut!) and John had a taste for heavy dub reggae.

Punk77 In fact The Machines produced one single on Wax Records in April 1978 – the True Life EP – True Life/ Everythings Technical/You Better Hear/Evening Radio. A searing slice of punk that is both essential and collectable. The back sleeve reads ‘Recorded in 1/2 hour at 8 quid an hour’ Classic punk stylee! Like so many others the band also received zilch for their efforts.

Early in 1978 our two ‘managers’ (I use the word loosely) introduced us to a chap called Paul who had a couple of hundred quid spare and wanted to set up a record company. Our EP was the first release on his Wax Records label and it came out in April 1978.

The initial pressing of 1,000 sold within days which pushed it straight into the ‘Alternative’ charts at No.20. I was furious about the sound quality of the pressing and refused to allow any further copies to be pressed which doesn’t quite explain why it is on many different record labels and in so many formats around the world! At last count I worked out that our True Life EP had probably shifted over 20,000 copies! (And NO I haven’t had a penny!)

Right – Nick Paul on the cover of ‘Strange Stories’ a fanzine “run by our TWO managers, Dave the hairdresser and Richard the 18st civil servant with a leg iron (you should have seen him pogo!) They cobbled it together in Dave’s bedroom where he was on the run from an ex-wife!”

We played the lot! From Youth clubs to pubs to halls and colleges and of course the then twin Mecca’s of London punk, The Roxy and The Vortex. I think Keith Moon was there that Vortex night plus strangely enough the actor Gareth Hunt! We loved live work and yup violence/spitting and adulation pretty much cover it except for the blood. A lot of blood (mine!) tended to get spilt as I was, let’s say, a lively sort of guitarist and hit the thing very quick and very hard. I’m proud to say that we never played a gig without getting called back on for encores.

  • Typical Set List
  • 1. Racing.
  • 2. Tomorrow.
  • 3. You Better Hear.
  • 4. Parents Zone.
  • 5. Weird Phone Calls.
  • 6. Everythings Technical.
  • 7. Chain Gang.
  • 8. True Life.
  • 9. Don’t Be Fooled.
  • 10. Evening Radio.
  • 11. Head on Crash (always finished with this! Starts slow and then speeds up and up and up and up and up and… lasted between 5 and 13 minutes – it never failed!

The Machines ended when Nick kicked John Dee out of the band and unable to find another drummer moved to London to start a new band.

For me punk was and still is the best music. I am as devoted to The Clash today as I was after the first time I saw them in 1976. When it started to break in late 1975/early 1976 I was so excited as I’d been waiting for it for about 4 years! I know it sounds trite but it changed the way I looked at things and to be honest my whole life.


Nick Paul 2004 | Check out The Machines website



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