THE ZONES STORY

Originally going back to the teeny-bop days of Slik

[ who had a series of hits in the early 70's with Martin / Coulter tunes such as Forever & Ever and Requiem ]

whose line-up featured :

Billy McIsaac (Vocals, Keyboards)

Jim McGinlay (Bass)

Kenny Hyslop (Drums).

Midge Ure (Vocals & Guitar)

Slik eventually found that working for nothing wasn't worth the fame and eventually called it a day sometime in 1976. Without management and a record contract they lost Bass Player Jim McGinlay, recruited Russell Webb and recorded a 3 track Punk Demo [Recorded at the White Elephant 8 Track Studio in Glasgow] under the nomme de plume PVC2 :

PUT U IN THE PICTURE

DERANGED, DEMENTED & FREE

PAIN, PAIN, PAIN.

This limited Pressing 7" was well received and once again reinspired the Ex-Slik crew to follow the, then, current taste in all things fast and punky. Meanwhile Midge Ure was attracting some substantial attention in London, his marketable looks, strong guitar playing, vocal style and songwriting abilities making him a potential winner. Soon after he departed the PVC2 fold and stretched out on his own hanging with The Clash and more crucially Ex-Sex Pistol Glenn Matlock [who was then looking for a front man to lead the embryonic Rich Kids ].

This left the other three with the invidious task of finding a worthwhile frontman for their own project which was now developing into a more Power-Pop orientated project.

At this time 1976 - 77 there was a little Bill Nelson-Ronson based band called Hot Valves [Derived from the title of a Be Bop Deluxe EP] playing the usual circuit of Glasgow Pub gigs [Maggie, Amphora etc]. This slick combo feature Colin King on Drums, Danny Mitchell on Keyboards [Later to front Modern Man and back Midge Ure in his solo years] as well as a punchy singer-guitarist called Willie Gardner. Soon after catching the band the PVC2 crew recruited Gardner to front the new combo now titles The Zones.

Within no time they had secured a one off deal with Bruce Findlay's Zoom Records [Bruce being the man who ran a chain of Record shops inventively called Bruce's Records, as well as being the guy who took Johnny and the Self Abusers from Glasgow obscurity to world domination as The Simple Minds], resulting in STUCK WITH YOU / NO ANGELS. [1977]

Smelling the scent of success on the horizon the band gigged hard playing every worthwhile Glasgow gig [The Dial Inn, the Universities and especially the legendary Mars Bar where every Glasgow band on the way up played], making them one of the tightest and best bands on the circuit at that time.

With a clutch of fast, memorable pop tunes behind them as well as a strong knowledge of the Music Industry, The Zones soon netted a major recording deal with Arists Records releasing SIGN OF THE TIMES / AWAY FROM IT ALL[1978]. Supported by TV & Radio Slots [anybody got a copy of them promoting Sign of the Times on BBC1's Swap Shop?] and receiving reasonable reviews they expected to see some chart profile from the single, but due to Bryan Ferry releasing a song with the exact same title within 14 days…it didn't happen.

Still gigging hard and writing more and more material the band's debut album was eagerly anticipated by the growing legion of fans who loved the sweaty, hard, fast pop tunes The Zones exemplified…but the release of the next single LOOKING TO THE FUTURE / DO IT ALL AGAIN [from the forthcoming album] made many reconsider.

The single with its sub-reggae backbeat was mellower than anything The Zones had done before and the production lacked the hard edge fans had come to expect. This was a slicker, more vox-populi orientated release designed to break into the mass market - but was it going to work?

In 1979 the album UNDER INFLUENCE was released, featuring many of the stage favourites they had been honing for 2 years - the tunes were still great but the production by Tim Freise-Greene was not what anyone had expected. All the hard edges were gone, the songs were still great but there was something elusive missing. Released in a variety of formats [unusual for the time ] Arista wanted to score mass success with The Zones, to have their very own Power-Pop band who would shift substantial units for them…but the trade paper reviews belied that dream. Notable critic of that time, Paul Morley [who eventually went on to form ZTT records with Trevor Horn and dominating everything for a couple of years with Frankie Goes To Hollywood] wrote a scathing review of the album suggesting that it embodied everything wrong in current pop music...The Zones became a sacrificial lamb for Morley's own, admittedly entertaining, self-promotion.

The album didn't do good business.

Towards Autumn Arista released a third single MOURNING STAR / UNDER INFLUENCE the "A" side being an edit of the album version, punchy and pop orientated but once again it failed to set the world on fire. Despite touring with Iggy Pop, Magazine and other notable acts of the time, The Zones just couldn't break through to the success they deserved. With one last high profile gig in London to seek a new recording contract, one of The Zones fell by the wayside - leaving hours before the gig and in so doing finished the band. It was a genuine shame.

Whilst Midge Ure had reaped success after success with the Rich Kids [See Below], The Clash, Thin Lizzy, Visage, and other notable projects and stand in gigs before hitting his stride with the modified Ultravox the other Ex-Slik boys went their separate ways still seeking stardom :

Russell Webb

Joined the Skids

Kenny Hyslop

Played with The Simple Minds, Midge Ure, sessioned with dozens of other acts. Formed Set The Tone, The One O'Clock Gang

Billy McIsaac

Was Irresponsible with a Chemistry set before going solo, returning to finish a Music Degree and becoming an established Lounge act.

Willie Gardner

Went solo, releasing 2 singles on Cuban Heels Ally Fraser's Cuba Libra label

GOLDEN YOUTH / TIME TO ROT - 1982

[Ironically "Time To Rot" was a Zones song]

IMATION / HIRUDINAL BOY - 1982,

before getting on the gravy train again with Endgames.

[See ENDGAMES]

Instead of leaving a real mark on Musical history The Zones barely left a dent, a real injustice as they had some great pop songs, were tighter than Kylie's pants and really ripped in live gigs…and it could all have been so different if only…

Below is how The Zones are remembered in The Book of Punk Rock :

THE ZONES :

ORIGINAL LINE-UP:
Willie Gardner (vocals & guitar)

Billy McIsaak (vocals, keyboards)

Russell Webb (bass)

Kenny Hyslop (drums).

This offshoot of Midge Ure's pre-Rich Kids Scottish pop outfit (Slik), had strong players, two of whom - guitarist Willie Gardner and keyboardist Billy McIsaac - wrote good songs and one of whom (Gardner) had an attractive if limited vocal style, like a young hybrid of Mick Ronson and Dave Edmunds. But what to do with it all? Pop? Hard stuff? Commercial new wave? Reggae-pop? The Zones try a little of everything on Under Influence without any forceful, unifying personality, despite passing nods to Mott The Hoople and the Skids (which two Zones later joined). No bad cuts, but only one rises from enjoyable to exciting.

SINGLES

STUCK WITH YOU / NO ANGELS

ZOOM RECORDS 1977

SIGN OF THE TIMES / AWAY FROM IT ALL

ARISTA RECORDS 1978

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE / DO IT ALL AGAIN

ARISTA RECORDS 1979

MOURNING STAR / UNDER INFLUENCE

ARISTA RECORDS 1979

ALBUM

UNDER INFLUENCE

[ ISSUED WITH 4 DIFFERENT COVERS - 4 TIME ZONES AND WITH EACH COVER

FEATURING A DIFFERENT MEMBER OF THE ZONES ON THE REAR ]

ARISTA RECORDS 1979

DO IT ALL AGAIN

VISION ON

DEADLY DOLLS

THE END

MAINMAN

YOU'RE NOT FOOLING ME

ANYTHING GOES

STRENGTH TO STRENGTH

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

MOURNING STAR

MISC :

NEW LIFE - FROM "THAT SUMMER" OST

WILLIE GARDNER SOLO SINGLES

GOLDEN YOUTH / TIME TO ROT

CUBA LIBRA RECORDS 1981

IMATION / HIRUDINAL BOY

CUBA LIBRA RECORDS 1982

AUTOCRAT - 1982 [RUNNING IN MAZES ALBUM]

RICH KIDS

RICH KIDS - Formed London, 1977; disbanded 1978.

After being sacked from the Sex Pistols in February 1977, Glen Matlock (bass/vocals) recruited ex-teenybop rocker Midge Ure (guitar/vocals), Rusty Egan (drums) and Steve New (guitar) in an effort to create a sound that mixed a pop sensibility with punk energy and would stand some chance of chart success. From the start, expectations were high: Matlock was seen as 'the Pistol who could play', and was known to have written some of that band's best songs. Punk seemed to be losing its direction, but anything to do with the Pistols was still big news - so the Rich Kids were bound to generate enormous interest.

For a few short months at the end of 1977 and the start of 1978, they were the hottest band around, their gigs packed with press and fellow musicians. The band was musically tight: Ure was a surprisingly effective frontman, while New's aggressively inventive guitar was anchored by Matlock's dependable bass. The songs were a mix of old Small Faces numbers and two-minute punk-pop anthems: they even played the Pistols classic "Pretty Vacant" for an encore, Matlock telling anyone who would listen 'I wrote it, so I'll bloody well play it'. In response, Rotten took to wearing a T-shirt on stage with the legend 'Never Mind the Rich Kids, Here's the Sex Pistols'. It was a rare complement.

The band's first single, "Rich Kids" (1978), was two minutes of controlled adrenaline, and greeted ecstatically in the music press. Although tuneful, it was very much a punk single - indeed, Matlock had written it originally as a Pistols song. It was a knockout debut, but credibility problems were there from the start. Matlock, for all his ability, had always been 'the straight one' in the Pistols, and never shared their penchant for wildness, while Ure had previously fronted the execrable Slick, once hyped as 'the new Bay City Rollers', although he had once been offered the job of Pistols frontman by Malcolm McLaren. The other two suffered from alarming haircuts: New had a punk pedigree (he'd briefly been a member of the legendary London SS) but a floppy fringe; Egan, meanwhile, had a reputation as a wideboy, and had what can only be described as a leonine cut.

Inevitably, the media attention, so useful at first, began to be a hindrance. To their horror, the band were hailed as leader sof 'a new wave of new wave' - dubbed 'power pop' - and were categorised with anodyne bands like the Pleasers and the Boyfriends. As if in response, band members started mucking around on other projects. Matlock and New joined with Rat Scabies and Sid Vicious to form 'punk supergroup' the Vicious White Kids, who played a one-off gig at London's Electric Ballroom. The idea was to prove that Matlock and Vicious were friends, though musically it was a disaster, as a bootleg of the event testifies.

Meantime the band cut a second single, the anti-fascist anthem "Marching Men" (1978), which was released to a less than rapturous response. It was better than the press implied, but the band's hipness rating had gone through the floor. A third single, "Ghosts Of Princes In Towers" (1978) was a contrastingly catchy piece of pure pop, but was critically hammered and did not sell. The writing was on the wall.

The band grew their hair in an effort to distance themselves from punk (now in its death throes) and from the dreaded power pop, but their one and only album, Ghosts Of Princes In Towers, released in October 1978, was a lacklustre affair, and the intensive gigging undertaken to promote it ensured their end. The inevitable split came when Ure suggested that the band should add synthesizers.

In the years since, Matlock continued to play pop-rock with, among others, the Specters and, for a short while, Iggy Pop, and in 1996 was allowed back into the Pistols fold for their summer get-together. New joined Johnny Thunders, but reportedly battled with heroin addiction. Ure went on to join Ultravox and write the Band Aid single with Bob Geldof. Egan joined Steve Strange (another old Pistols fan) in Visage, and became his partner in the London nightclub business.

Ghosts Of Princes In Towers (1978; Dojo/BMG).

CD release of the solitary album, with all the singles plus their B-sides, including a scorching version of Small Faces hit "Here Comes The Nice", recorded live in 1977.

SINGLES

RICH KIDS / EMPTY WORDS

GHOSTS OF PRINCES IN TOWERS / ONLY ARSENIC

MARCHING MEN / HERE COMES THE NICE

ALBUMS

GHOSTS OF PRINCES IN TOWERS [1978]

STRANGE ONE 4:24

HUNG ON YOU 2:56

GHOSTS OF PRINCES IN TOWERS 3:32

CHEAP EMOTIONS 4:03

MARCHING MEN 3:51

PUT YOU IN THE PICTURE 2:43

YOUNG GIRLS 2:48

BULLET PROOF LOVER 3:08

RICH KIDS 2:55

LOVERS AND FOOLS 2:34

BURNING SOUNDS 3:40

BURNING SOUNDS

GHOSTS OF PRINCES…

RICH KIDS

NO LIP

THE MOVE

EMPTY WORDS

STRANGE ONE

BULLET PROOF LOVER

BURNING SOUNDS

HUNG ON YOU

SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME

CHEAP EMOTIONS

KING

PRECIOUS

JUST LIKE LAZARUS

AMBITION

TWISTEDTOMORROW'S

ZERO

FOREVER AND EVER

12 MILES HIGH

POINT IT TO YOUR HEAD

SILENCE

THE RICH KIDS ROCK GOES TO COLLEGE 1979

ONLY ARSENIC

HUNG ON YOU

RICH KIDS

BURNING SOUNDS

HOLY HOLY

12 MILES HIGH

FOREVER AND EVER

MARCHING MEN

LOVERS & FOOLS

STRANGE ONE

EMPTY WORDS

GHOSTS OF PRINCES IN TOWERS

(REVOLVER TV)

12 MILES HIGH

GHOSTS OF PRINCES…

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