Red Guitars

This Hull-based guitar pop band featured Jerry Kidd (vocals), Louise Barlow (bass), Hallam Lewis (lead guitar), John Rowley (rhythm guitar), and Matt Higgins (drums). Formed in 1982 by Lewis and Kidd, they released two superb singles, ‘Good Technology’ and ‘Fact’, before achieving a number 1 on the independent charts with ‘Marimba Jive’. The latter was included on 'Slow To Fade' which emerged on Kidd’s own Self Drive Records in November 1984. This was a highly polished and original pop album, with Kidd’s analytical lyrics to the fore: ‘I said that I love you/God knows I tried/You say you still love me/But you’re always saying goodbye’. Fittingly, Kidd himself was to leave barely two months after the album’s release. He issued a press statement to the effect that ‘Technically we improved a lot during the last year but musically, from my point of view, we were standing still. New ideas and songs I had for the group no longer seemed to fit in. I still favour independence within the record industry and shall continue to look for success, both artistic and commercial, with releases on my own Self Drive Record label.’ He was quickly replaced by Robert Holmes, who played his first gig with the band at the University of London Union on 24 May 1985. Lou Howard replaced Barlow on bass as 'Tales Of The Expected' saw the band move to One Way Records, through Virgin Records. Although the lyrical focus of the band had changed, they were still capable of producing highly individual and moving music, notably on singles ‘National Avenue’ and the yearning ‘Be With Me’. Interestingly, both album sleeves featured quotes from poet Sean O’Brien. Hallam and Howard left to form the Planet Wilson in 1987, with drummer Jonah Oxburrow (ex-That Noble Porpoise), and released the albums 'In The Best Of All Possible Worlds' and 'Not Drowning But Waving'. Hallam now runs his own studio in Hull, while Holmes released a solo album in 1989. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]