1985 and 1986 were fun times to be in a top band such as The June Brides. I think we loved playing live for the most part, and the folks who regularly came to see us play were wonderful. We loved them so much we even went to the extremes of taking the live show, lights, staging, costumes, special effects and all into their living rooms (well we did that once!) Live we enjoyed ourselves although the fact we never took ourselves seriously enough probably did for us in the long run, and may have come across in the gigs.
There was a great network of places to play, the Twang club up in Preston, the Wilde club in Manchester run by Big Flame (fresh haircuts needed for entry), the club down in Plymouth and the one in Brighton (the Escape?) all made playing live enjoyable social occasions. But for each of these there was also the odd gigs such as playing in front of 10 people in Southampton and running out of petrol on the way home, having half our gear nicked in Liverpool, and 6 of us sharing one pint in a pub in Carlisle (at the very time our mugs were on the front of the NME).
Touring with the Smiths in Ireland gave us a fair amount of exposure at the wrong end of our lifespan. Phil tells the story of me giving Morrissey a handful of peanuts when he came to say hello to us before the gig in Belfast, but I like to remember that a few years later when I was delivering some equipment to a studio near Reading where he was recording a solo LP, he actually remembered me as a member of The June Brides and stayed chatting over a cup of tea for quite some time. It was of course his choice of us as his favourite indie band of 1985 that got us the tour in the first place. Thinking back on the press we had seems like we were the press darlings for as long as it suited them to like us. By the latter months of the band's life we were no longer tolerated. The writing either wasn't there or it was, at best, ambivalent. However it was not until 1994 that we got out biggest slagging from some wanker called David Hemmingway who the powers at the NME had sent to review our one off reunion gig. He must have been pissed off at the posting because he was an angry little bunny reduced to describing one band member as Mr Twat, posterity does not record which one.
Of no doubt is the fact that we owed our existence, as did the entire indie scene, to Margaret Thatcher. Had she not created over 4 million unemployed in the mid 1980's then we might have had to sign on more often than once every two months and we might have had to become 'jobseekers'. As it was, her crass handling of the economy meant we could collect our dole and plan tours free of the need to seek gainful employment and free of any hint of wealth….oh yes, that was the crap part, but it did mean that when we got handed over £750 like the time we packed out The George Robey in early 1996, surely one of our best gigs, we could be excused for acting like Pigs in Clover.'
Jon Hunter 2002