1995 reunion

Steve & Mike, The Roadhouse, 1995. (c) Mark David Cooper at Facebook.

In 1995 Mike Finney and Steve Perrin briefly joined forces once again under The Distractions' banner. Mike takes up the story: "In 1995, Steve and me got together with Nick Garside (Manc producer), on bass, Bernard Van Den Berg (The Distractions after Alec left, then Secret Seven) on Drums, Kevin Durkin (ex-Direct Hits, who we knew from TJM records at the beginning, and Escape Committee) on guitar (bass on Good Girls Don't Get To Paris) and played half a dozen gigs in and around Manchester and Liverpool."

Mike, The Roadhouse, 1995. (c) Mark David Cooper at Facebook.

"All these songs (from the 1995 demos) were in the set, with many other new songs, but only Still It Doesn’t Ring and It Doesn’t Bother Me from the old stuff. We were tempted to do Looking For A Ghost for an encore, but settled for Valerie and a few Lou Reed songs, which is in keeping with what we would have done originally. Good Girls Don’t Get To Paris was written in 1979, but unrecorded until 1995 at Chiswick Reach (Joe Meek’s Studio where Telstar and My Generation were recorded). The other four tunes were recorded at Manchester’s Out of the Blue Studio in 1995" (the original ‘Madchester’ studio, owned by Nick Garside).

Steve, The Roadhouse, 1995. (c) Mark David Cooper at Facebook.

Thanks to Mark David Cooper and Facebook we have a glimpse of one of these shows, at The Roadhouse on Newton Street (a few yards from where The Distractions played their New Years Eve 1979 gig with Joy Division for Factory Records in an Oldham Street warehouse). Join up to The Distractions facebook page for many, many more great images of the band from 1995 and the first time around.

Steve, Mike & Kevin Durkin, The Roadhouse, 1995. (c) Mark David Cooper.