In 1985 Little Murders were on their last legs. The gigs were great and we could still headline a gig like the Venue and pull 500 people. But we were playing 4 times a week and we were so busy we didn't realise we were on some kind of treadmill. I remember getting in a pushing argument with a friend and once loyal fan who said we were now a "square" band.
Something was wrong. So we fired our manager and got Paul Kelly's manager Peter Davies to look after us. He loved us but suggested we change our name to The Bleeding Hearts. The name of a band I used to go and see back in 77. We felt that was a bit dodgy. Good name but I don't think you could do it. Our next band meeting their was a bunch of Bleeding Hearts posters on the carpet. We were a little taken aback. I think this was the last straw for our guitarist Rod and he left us and went back to the Pete Best Beatles eventually ending up with Dave Grayney's Coral Snakes.
Our manager then starting holding auditions for every other position in the band. Weddings Parties Anything blossomed from those auditions. They went on for weeks. Even girl singers came in. It was a strange time. I decided to end the band. Didn't bother to tell the manager and organised our final gig at the Venetian Room. It was packed. It was emotional. It was almost Christmas and we actually got to keep the money we made and share it with the band. 6 times our band wage.
The frustrating thing was hearing all this great stuff like the Stems and the Lime Spiders and Huxton Creepers. I first heard Tears Me In Two at the Venetian Room and I was knocked out by how the sound just leaps out of the speakers. How can you not dance?
In the early days of Rubber Soul after the initial blast off and when the numbers slumped we tried adding Sixties influenced songs like this to the DJ list. No matter how great a song we quickly came to our senses and just played the real thing.
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