FACTORY FODDER

I read with interest the article about OMD [Uncut, September] and especially the comments by Lindsay Reade. Yes, Lindsay did seem to prefer the electronic/synthpop style more. A few years later she employed myself and another teenage friend, Myles Jackson, to arrange and perform the music to back a Dutch singer called Mathilde Santing. We had sent a demo of some material to Factory and were very pleasantly surprised to get the call. We were a struggling synthpop duo who went under the terrible name of Terry And The Turtles (there were three of us originally). We had no idea who Lindsay Reade was, or that at the time she was going through a very messy breakup with Tony Wilson.

She asked us to learn and arrange a pop/soul/synthesiser version of The Beatles’ “Yes It Is” (the B-side to “Ticket To Ride”). Luckily, Myles’ older brother had a copy, and so we did as requested. Unbeknown to us, Ms Santing pulled out of the deal and in stepped the late, great Marcel King. We never actually met him – he just came to the studio in Knutsford late one night and sang his bit. The engineer that night had enough about him to save a cassette master that he passed on to me.

We waited a few weeks and heard nothing, so we went to Factory to see what was going on. On arrival we were met by Alan Erasmus, who informed us that “Lindsay was persona non gratis, but hey guys, keep sending us demos”. That was the last we ever saw of Lindsay Reade, or our song with Marcel King. Maybe you could ask her if she’s still got the master tapes? Jonny Poole, The Distractions