The Moderates - Peel Session (1981)

The story of the band has already been posted (see relevant post), though containing some inaccuracies. Here is Tom Gould’s account of his time with the band:

‘There were two distinct periods in the bands existence, the first was mainly staff members from the Everyman Bistro (bar staff, serving staff – The Everyman is a local theatre, the Bistro is located in the basement), who formed the band in response to Deaf School’s growing success. The set was full of in-jokes poking fun at local celebrities, using the likes of Dame Looney and Margie Clarke (who starred in the movie Letter to Brezhnev, and was a poet during this period championed by Anthony H. Wilson from Factory Records). In fact the track ‘I Don’t Want to Go Bald’ on the ‘Street to Street’ album featured the taxi driver who drove them to the studio playing guitar.

The second version was made up of musicians that John Brady had lined up from other Liverpool bands who had regularly played at the Everyman Bistro (he promoted a local band night on Thursdays). So this version was more ambitious than previous, the jokey songs and spots from Dame Looney and Margie Clarke were ditched and the band concentrated on more serious songwriting.

I rehearsed with half of the band for two weeks to learn the songs, and played the first gig at the Everyman Bistro (I met Bobby Carr and Martin Cooper for the first time during the soundcheck). The following week we went into the studio to record ‘Fetishes’. On its release it received favourable reviews and was chosen as the ‘Single of the Week’ in the Melody Maker. John Peel regularly played all four tracks on his Radio 1 show and a few major labels started to take an interest.

This is where it became complicated, we only had 1,000 copies pressed, so couldn’t keep up with the high demand, but if we had pressed 10,000 more the demand would have waned and we would end up with a bill for 10,000 12” singles we couldn’t sell. John Peel invited us to do a session at the BBC; the Musician’s Union had a dispute with the BBC and placed a ban on Union members undertaking live sessions for the BBC (we were all members). The Melody Maker did an interview and photo shoot with the band; but due to the Fleet Street strikes, it was shelved. So we were constantly 'in the right place at the wrong time!'

A major record company was on the verge of signing us, but a member of the decision making panel thought ‘Don’t be Silly (You Only Want Me for My Willy)’ was too sexist. We eventually signed for Greensleeves ( the reggae label). They had set up a subsidiary label called ‘Hyped Records’ and signed us and a band from Birmingham (who we never met). The company booked us into a 24 track recording studio in London to record the 'Yes to the Neutron Bomb’ single.

We went back to Liverpool, writing new songs and undertaking a lot of gigs, building up a bigger following. One was at a venue in Matthew Street to 200+, an Irish band on their first UK tour played a venue on the other side of the street to 65 people, called U2. Another was supporting John Peel at Liverpool University, where he invited us back to do the session at the BBC (the Musicians Union ban had been lifted).

We spent a week at a local studio recording demo's of eight new songs, in view of recording our next two singles. We then went down to London to record the Peel Session and after returning went back into the studio again. This time a 24 tack studio in Liverpool, where we recorded ‘Emile’ and ‘For What It’s Worth’ for the first single and 'Nightlife', 'Housewife for Life' as the second (unreleased) single. I could not get time off, so I took my guitar to work attending the studio in the night recording my parts, the band had recorded theirs during the day. Most bands don’t like working in the studio as tension between members of the group begin to manifest, then once they play a few gigs the camaraderie returns. Our biggest mistake was spending three long periods in recording studios without playing any gigs, so we hadn’t given ourselves any outlet to release the tension, which was the catalyst for us going our separate ways.’
(Tom Gould, Liverpool 2010)

The Peel Session mentioned in the text was recorded on 25/03/1981 (with Dale Griffin - former drummer of Mott the Hoople - producing and Pater Watts engineering) and broadcast on 20/04/1981. The band’s line-up included Bob Carr (guitar, violin), John Brady (vocals, keyboards), Heidi Kure (vocals), Tom Gould (guitar), Mike Pursey (bass) and John Potter (drums).


Peel Session (1981)
- Housewife For Life
- Nightlife
- What's That Sound (For What It's Worth)
- Emile


Peel (new link)


(Thanks to our friend Multihit who provided the complete version of the session)
(see also http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/johnpeel/sessions/1980s/1981/Mar25moderates/ )