I was in a pub in Brixton watching a trio on stage when the compere asked if anyone wanted to get up and sing. My mate nudged me. “Go on, you know you want to.
” I sang Yesterday by the Beatles and the six-person audience gave me a standing ovation. All the way home I kept thinking, “I can sing.” I was trying to put a band together when I saw an advert in Melody Maker from some guys in Leighton Buzzard who were looking for a singer.
I had nothing to lose. I got the train up looking like a freak – black and white paint on my face and arty hair. I liked being stared at.
Nick [Beggs, bass] met me at the station and drove me to the birthday card factory where they rehearsed. They had a monophonic synthesiser that only played one note at a time but they sounded interesting and I liked the way they looked. We came up with Too Shy in Nick’s flat.
He had the “Too shy, shy, hush hush, eye to eye” chorus, which I thought sounded cute. A businessman friend of mine invested £10,000 in new equipment for us, and having the same gear as Depeche Mode transformed the way we sounded. One night I was working in the Embassy club in London when I served a drink to Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran.
I found myself enthusiastically telling him about our band. He gave me an address to send a cassette to, and a week later called saying: “I’m gonna tell our record company I want to produce you.” When I picked myself up off the floor I phoned the band.
Nick Rhodes produced Too Shy with.