Magazine – Real Life

Tony Wilson had a cultural show, So It Goes, where he’d have bands from Manchester and all around the North West. I didn’t really watch it because that was my dad’s time to watch whatever he was watching, usually spaghetti westerns, so I’d be in a different part of the house. But then, Magazine’s ‘Shot By Both Sides’ came on. It was infectious. It took me weeks to find out who they actually were. In the meantime I’d met Yorkie and he had their album. I loved their musicianship, the way they were crafting their songs, and Howard Devoto’s voice was so different to anything I’d been listening to. I couldn’t really play guitar at this stage, I was playing keyboards with one finger and singing, but Yorkie had asked me to do lyrics for his band, throwing me in at the deep end, and then I started helping formulate the music. They were probably, early doors, inspired by the likes of Magazine.