A FEW TEARS
Formed: Preston, Lancashire, United Kingdom
This email came from Roy Hesketh:
A Few Tears were formed in their hometown Preston Lancashire around 1981 by Roy Hesketh (bass guitar & vocals) and Lenny (drums), shortly to be joined by Ian Banks (guitar vocals). Roy previously a member of early Preston punk bands The Youth and New Suburbia. Roy and Lenny were heavily influenced by The Ruts and early UB40 and Ian brought along his Jam influences. It was definitely a punk reggae crossover thing. Playing their own material and mixing in covers of The Ruts' ‘In A Rut’, the Motown classic ‘Get Ready’ and Toots & The Maytals ‘Pressure Drop’. The band played regular pub and club gigs in and around the Preston area building up a decent following. After sending a demo to Barry Lights Lightbeat Records a support slot with Blackpool reggae band IN2XS followed in front of a big crowd in Blackpool, which was filmed by St. Annes based Jettisoundz. Other Blackpool gigs followed with The Membranes and The Riverside Trio. The band had also sent a demo to Insane records hence ending up on the successful Demo-Lition Blues! album with the track ‘All We Want’- a song about the high unemployment of the day. A Few Tears bumped out their sound by adding a brass section for certain gigs supplied by Mark and Stuart, mates of Ian's from his side project- a military band! Plenty of exposure in local newspapers, demo tracks played on local radio stations it was all fun whilst it lasted. Usual differences and cracks started to appear and only when you look back you think ‘actually if we’d stuck at that it would have worked’. All the band members quickly got involved in other stuff notably drummer Lenny who joined Iggy/Heartbreakers/Dead Boys influenced Street Walkin Creatures with former members of Preston bands The X-Cells and Genocides. Twenty years on in the early noughties Roy wrote and produced the zine ‘Pogo ‘til I die!’ and played in a usa punk covers band The 315’s alongside old mate Lenny.
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DISCOGRAPHY
Various Artists
I've Got Those... Demo-Lition Blues! UK LP 1983 (Insane): All We Want
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