Jimi King (UK radio profile) sent me this info in Nov 2024:

I recently found your website dedicated to New Musik, and subsequently the dialogue from the interview that I did with him in the 80s [1982]. I just wanted to say thank you for helping bringing the memories back. I didn't record the interview, so I assume someone in the Mansfield family did [Lee Mansfield]. I did spend a bit of time with the band in the late 70s/early 80s, especially Tony. Btw, I found Tony to be a bit shy, but not to the extent of being reclusive.

I mentioned in the Radio Jackie interview [unknown date] that I had been invited to TMC studios when they were recording the first album [Sep/Oct/Nov ca 1979]. I specifically remembered during the interview, that the song they were finishing at the time was "Adventures". I remembered because Tony was trying to hit the note for the word itself in the chorus, which as you'll recall is quite high. It took a few takes, and as this would have been one of my first ever visits to a "proper" recording studio, I recall being spellbound as it became clear that it was possible to literally drop one word into an already completed song. And keep doing so until you got it right. The first time I heard "Living By Numbers", was when they played the master track in the studio for me. I guess that visit could have been in October or November. As I have mentioned elsewhere on the Facebook group, the band came into the pub I worked at with a copy of "Straight Lines". It had either just been released, or possibly it hadn't actually come out yet. I vaguely recall that it was a demo copy but unusual because most demo singles were on a white label (usually with a large red "A" on it so you couldn't mistake the A side). I think that GTO demos were in the familiar blue, with just some typed text saying that it was a demo and not for sale. Like I said, that's a very hazy memory, and could well be incorrect. I have wondered though, if I was the first person to ever play "Straight Lines" publicly. No prizes I guess! Anyway, it's likely that they invited me to the studio on the very same night they came into the pub. Hence my suggestion that the visit could have been earlier than November '79. Another memory of that visit. We were discussing the fact that "Straight Lines" wasn't going to be a hit. Would I like to hear the follow up? Yes I very much would. So a few pushes of buttons and the tape machine whizzed off to another location on the tape, where it stopped, and immediately started playing the whooshing noise that was the intro to "Living By Numbers". I told them I thought it would be a hit. I also asked the question that everybody asks, "who are all the people at the end of the song", and was told that they were either the band, people in the studio at the time, or people they got off the street. I guess if my visit had a been a few days earlier, I too could have been one of thos voices. I asked specifically the last "they don't want your name" of the 3rd batch, as it really stuck out. That was a schoolgirl that happened to be walking past the studio. How times have changed. Nowadays they'd be arrested for enticing schoolgirls off the street. Also noteworthy that TMC studios was above a shop, and from the front, it didn't really look like a recording studio, although the name was clearly displayed outside.

As for the Radio Jackie interview [possibly Feb 1982 or possibly earlier], I'm trying to remember where that would have taken place. They had a number of studio locations over the years. It's quite possible that the interview in question was done in a converted garden shed, as we utilised one of those for a year or two around that time. If so it would have been recorded and edited prior to broadcast, rather than actually going out live.

I have one other story, which happened a few years later [ca Aug 1984]. I received a call from Tony Mansfield, asking if I still did mobile disco work, as he had a gig for me. I replied that I did. He said he was currently working with Captain Sensible at a studio called Ridge Farm in Sussex (https://www.ridgefarm.com/history), and would I like to come down and have a chat about it. Which I duly did. When I arrived there, I found my way to the barn which housed the studio, and Tony introduced me to "Ray". I'd already been briefed who Ray was, which was handy, because without the beret and the dark glasses, you would never have known. Tony was finishing something on the desk, and after he was done, the three of us went to the pub, where Tony told me about the gig. He'd just finished producing a debut album for a Norwegian band, and the record company had big plans for them. So they wanted to have an album release party down at Ridge Farm. I think it must have been around late Summer [1984], as they wanted to have the disco outside the farmhouse. Who were the band? "You won't have heard of them. They're called A-ha". I also recall that while Tony was getting the drinks in, I was speaking to Ray about the chorus, or more specifically the note sequence, of the title of his recent hit "Glad It's All Over" [March 1984]. He laughed and said, "Yeah, I know, it's Living By Numbers. Blame him!" Pointing at TM. Needless to say. I did the gig. It was outside and Ray was there. I had no idea who the members of A-ha actually were. With one exception. I recall walking into the farmhouse at one point and sitting on an armchair in a corner was Morten Harket. Strumming an acoustic guitar and singing Norwegian folk songs to a small collection of girls kneeling in front of him. He could have been reciting the Norwegian telephone directory for all they knew or cared. I didn't know his name or indeed anything about him at that point, except that he was clearly going to be a star. It was a magical night. I've hosted hundreds of disco nights in my time. I'll never forget that particular one.

Copyright (c) 2024-11-13 Jonas Wårstad and Jimi King.

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