Fast Cars

"WE WERE GONNA BE SO BIG IN JAPAN, AND THEN WE'D CONQUER THE WORLD"
A line from the last song Fast Cars ever wrote back in November 1980, just before they split up, which was only weeks after the triumphant gig supporting The Jam at the Apollo Theatre in Manchester (the song featured in the set that night). The irony is, 21 years later (2001), the song from which the line was taken "Everyday I make another mistake" (the lyrics about the frustrations and pitfalls of the music business that led the band to split up), was released on Detour Records as the band's follow up to their 1st single "The Kids Just Wanna Dance" which was released back in 1979!!
Completely oblivious to it all, Fast Cars had been hailed as "The Kings of Powerpop" and "The Best British Powerpop Band" in Japan for years and on July 20th 2001, they headed out there to play two dates at Tokyo's prestigious Studio Jam Club. The original single has been changing hands amongst record collectors all over the world for up to £250 a time, which led to the band signing to specialist record label, DETOUR RECORDS, who released the single "Everyday I make another mistake" and a 16 track album "Coming ... ready or not !" in August 2001.
Immediately before the band went to Japan they played a one-off gig at "The Band on the Wall" in Manchester on Friday, 13th July 2001. The last time they played there was in 1979, with Mick Hucknell's Frantic Elevators (Mick of Simply Red fame). It has been said they were probably one of the most underrated bands around from the Manchester scene in the late Seventies, they rehearsed at T J Davidson's alongside Buzzcocks, Joy Division, The Fall, Slaughter and the Dogs et al, played with most of the above, and also the likes of XTC, The Rezillos, Dillinger, The Chords and The Jam.
Fast Cars recorded with Martin (Zero) Hannett at Strawberry Studios at the same time Joy Division were recording Unknown Pleasures (they used their downtime during the night!). They had their single (‘The kids just wanna dance’ recorded at Smile studio, Chorlton) played on daytime Radio One by Peter Powell and also on the John Peel Show, they appeared on Granada T.V. programme "What's on" and played key venues up and down the Country including the legendary Marquee Club on Wardour Street, London.
They were very nearly signed by The Jam's A & R man at Polydor, Dennis Munday, they recorded demos at Phonogram's London Studio but it never quite happened***
21 years later the band, following the interest from Detour Records, went back in the studios to re-mix some of their old tunes and along with some of the original demo's an album that celebrates the history of one of Manchester's best kept secrets;
FAST CARS are COMING ... READY OR NOT was released.
And it's not finished yet!!! ......... They have carried on playing and had two singles released in Japan in 2002 on 1977 Records, "Here we are today" and "Turn on the radio" the former written in 1980 the latter 2001.
Released on 9th May, 2005 was a live CD taken from the tape recorded on the PA desk at the Deeply Vale Music Festival in Lancashire, August 1979. This features the raw teenage Fast Cars not heard in over 25 years. The recording has nothing added and nothing taken away. It has been released on Ozit Records UK, the festivals also became the subject of a TV documentary broadcast by Granada TV in November 2004. (There is an interview with Stuart and Steven Murray in it).
Another Fast Cars demo from 1979/80, recorded at Drone Studio in Chorlton, was found in a box containing the original version of "I won't be coming home" (Just another day) and 2 unreleased songs (All my friends & Pretty & the idiot) attracted interest from Rave Up Records in Italy and in September 2006 they released 500 copies on vinyl, also inviting the band to play at the "Road to ruins" festival in Rome, on the 19th of November which they did!
During 2007 they released another album on Detour records entitled "WELL ... YOU STARTED IT!!" featuring some old songs and some written in the 2000’s including another single released as a picture disc "Best Friend" written in 2002, Penthouse Monkeys, Piece of England, Instant Popstars, to name a few !
In 2008 they returned to Japan this time playing twice in Tokyo then onto Hakata, Okayama and Nagoya.
They have appeared on many compilations over the years including; A Manchester Collection (1979), Back to front #4 (released in Germany 1994), Killed by death #20 (1998), 100% British Mod (1998), Punkarama (1999), Mod Box (USA 2001), Everyone’s a classic #5 (2001), Do you know it’s last year’s youth (Japan 2004), Greater Manchester Punk Vol. 1 (2015), Greater Manchester Punk Vol. 2 (2017), Manchester North of England (Cherry red Records 2017), Gary Crowley’s Punk and New Wave (2018), Harmony in my head (Cherry red Records 2018).
The single “The kids just wanna dance” was originally released by Altrincham based label ‘Streets Ahead’ (also a record shop) on 13th of October 1979, since then it has been bootlegged in Japan c. 1999 (white label) then officially released in Japan on 1977 Records in 2001, released in Germany in 2003 on Last Year’s Youth Records (along with the Manchester collection songs, making this all our 1979 releases on one ep!) and released again on Breakout records in Italy in 2017.
** *The original Polydor demo tapes were found in an archive in 2021 by the owner of Detour Records, they were sent to a specialist for re-mastering and eventually after over 40 years the songs were released on vinyl as “Once again I’m lost for words”. 100 Magenta and 500 Back vinyl albums were pressed and sold out immediately!
They continue to play until this day when asked to do so.
Unfortunately in 2021 they lost their lead guitarist Craig Hilton after a long battle with cancer but continue to play as a 3 piece.