Rehearsals were intense hard work. The band sounded good and looked good. It was of course 1976 and a social revolution was looming. Disillusioned with having no future Britain’s youth were frustrated and angry and only a spark was necessary to light the fire of rebellion. The spark came in the form of Malcolm Maclaren. Through his Kings Road shop SEX he put together a group to be known as The Sex Pistols and the now infamous interview with Reg Grundy on an evening television news programme began the era known as Punk. There was a backlash against the comfortable musicians of the 1960s in their ivory towers. The youth culture armed with 3 chords and lots of attitude began it’s assault on Thatcher’s Britain.
The Only Ones were going to have to deal with this if they wanted to make a mark. Having a drummer who had been part of that comfortable era of the 1960s was the kiss-of-death and Kellie remembers having to keep very quiet about his previous career in order for Zena Perrett, now the band’s manager, to secure their first gig which came in the form of The Greyhound, a pub on Fulham Palace Road run by a music loving Scot named Duncan. He was a big fan of music and football and was a great supporter of new bands. Zena arranged a date for the band’s first live performance.
Meanwhile The Only Ones had started recording some tracks. They were self financed due mainly to Zena’s clothes designing and Peter’s poker playing amongst other things. They decided to put out a 12-inch single on their own label something a lot of bands were doing at that time. The two tracks chosen were Lovers of Today and Peter & The Pets. The record was pressed, labels designed and printed and the whole group sat around at one of the Perrett’s south east London flats sticking labels on a run of 1000 copies in true cottage-industry style.
That was pretty much how their whole career was handled. Peter Perrett had always been used to getting his own way or making people pay the price if they prevented him and this was reflected in the label title ‘Vengeance’. The singer’s boyish good looks and undeniable sharpness of mind meant that Perry, Mair & Kellie were always playing catch-up. Even Kellie’s passionate enthusiasm could only sometimes influence the songwriter to re-think something…
Peter & Zena were a force to be reckoned with in many ways but history paints a picture of a couple who never quite reached the heights people expected mainly it could be argued because of their habit of ‘cutting off the nose to spite the face’. In the end this large world and the big players in it never really took The Only Ones seriously and eventually after some success, a devoted cult following and Another Girl, Another Planet in most observers – all time greatest pop singles chart, the drug reaper got his men.
Perrett and Perry both succumbed to the rampant invasion of heroin at that time…the late 1970s & early 80s ….while Kellie in typical fashion dabbled, trying to keep up, but in the end in his own words…. I always enjoyed a smoke but was getting caught up in a very ugly hard drug scene. There’s no doubting the seductive effect of heroin but in order to give in I found I had to give up all sense of self respect and vanity, two qualities which every functioning human being need to some degree. I was not prepared to sell my soul. The seeds sown by early parenting are often the ones coming to one’s aid at times like this. I had a couple of day’s discomfort and have never touched it again.
That was early 1981….Throughout these events Alan maintained his position of enjoying life for what it is and only occasionally taking a puff of a joint when offered, usually at some kind of celebration… a final mix for example or a good show when everyone had something to celebrate.
There will always be arguments for or against the recreational use of drugs as an artistic aid but this is not the platform from which to launch those arguments.
Following a disastrous end to an American tour of late 1980 both Mair & Kellie decided enough was enough….Perrett reluctantly agreed and Perry raised his hand in agreement. The Lyceum in London’s Strand was the scene of the farewell performance.
Kellie again…” It seems ironic that the band, the road crew and especially the light show, with the mirrorball coming into play for the climactic Another Girl, all fell into place for that event – as anyone who was there will tell you…�
The year was 1981…..it would be 2007 before The Only Ones performed together again.
