The Machines originally hailed from the seaside resort of Southend-on-Sea, which is about 32 miles East of London. They were not only Southend's first punk band, but also the first to release a record - the infamous 'True Life' EP on Wax Records. As punk trailblazers, shaking off the R & B paralysis that had gripped the towns music scene for so long, the bands time together really was an incendiary one. Together for barely a year, they managed to play a load of local shows that have long lived on in the collective Southend Punk subconscious, together with some historic gigs at legendary London venues such as The Roxy and Vortex punk clubs.

Vocalist / Guitarist Nick Paul formed the band in 1977, recruiting Duf (Ian Duffy) on Bass, and drummer John Dee. Nick was immensely fired up by punk, having bought The Damned's New Rose single on the day it came out, and literally had a life changing experience seeing The Clash at the 100 Club Punk Festival in September 1976. Nick had loved The New York Dolls / Stooges / MC5 and had started playing along those lines in his proto-punk band, Raw Power (alongside Stephen Reddihough). They folded in 1975 however, and after a short period in-between stints of moving to and from London, Nick was back in Southend in 1977 and inspired by the new punk scene he saw emerging, wanted to get a new band together.

After meeting Duf through an advert in The Evening Echo, they met John down the pub a couple of months later and began getting their set together and began gigging in July 1977. Their first gig was in a local Rock Contest at The Queens Hotel and they stunned everyone by playing a blinding performance and winning their heat! Jointly managed by Richard and Dave (Strange Stories editor), the band began playing in earnest. Speaking to Nick in 2005, he said "In addition to the already known gigs (Roxy, Vortex, City of London Poly, The Queens Hotel) we played the Alex about 4 times and the Roundacre youth club in Basildon about 4 times and the Shrimpers once. Our first would have been around July 1977 and our last about March 1978. In total I reckon we only played about 30 gigs. The life of a may fly really. Still it seemed longer at the time..."

"If restricted, tied down, they could stop us getting off the ground, backstabbers, hypocrites, pretend friends, you're just a bunch of shits." 'True Life'.

People did begin to take notice however, and the band would often pack out the local venues, including a key fan who loved the band and would see them regularly, namely Alison 'Alf' Moyet!.

Nick had been writing a lot of songs, with titles such as 'Racing', 'Tomorrow', 'Parents Zone', 'Weird Phone Calls', 'Chain Gang', 'Don't be Fooled' and 'Head on Crash'. Thus they decided to get something down on tape and put out an EP on local label Wax Records. They went into Spectrum Studios in Westcliff and recorded four songs: 'True Life', 'Everything's Technical', 'You Better Hear' and 'Evening Radio'. The single did well, soon selling it's pressing of 1,000, and even entered the lower reaches of the Alternative Chart, as published in Sounds.

As well as various local gigs, the band played in London at The Vortex (on the 07.11.77 with The Maniacs, Bazooka Joe & The Monotones), The City of London Polytechnic (on the 02.12.77) and the legendary Roxy Club (on the 17.01.78 with the Deviators). Things looked like they were going pretty well, however Nick had grown a bit restless and had decided to change the line up of the band, and moved to London in April 1978, effectively splitting the band. When asked about this, Nick said "I fully intended to rebuild a new Machines and even had a piece in the NME about the next planned release 'The Machines Turn On' but it wasn't to be. Endless auditions for drummers and bass players led to nothing and in (I think it was late April 1978) a piece went into the music papers to the effect the Machines were over".

"I dial a number on my telephone, answering machine says there's no one home, so I'm just talking down the line, to a technical gadget, not a friend of mine." 'Everything's technical'.

After the demise of the Machines, Nick would return with the more power-pop orientated 'The Collectors' in 1980, whom released a 7" single titled 'Different World', on Central Collection Records that year. Duf became a painter and John Dee continued drumming, in 1978 finding time to help out fellow Southend punks The Vandals, whom featured the aforementioned Alison 'Alf' Moyet on Vocals. He then joined his brother Paul in a band called The Electric Shocks, and later on played in reggae-orientated bands Bushfire and Charas.

Fast forward to a year or so ago, and Nick Paul had found a rare recording of a live demo the band had recorded in September '77, before the recording of the ep, containing songs 'Racing' and an early version of 'You Better Hear'. Detour/Bin Liner Records released these songs on a compilation called 'Bored Teenagers Vol 4' in July 2006.

Also in 2006, Nick Paul and Steve Reddihough (Raw Power) linked up with Steve Pegrum (Kronstadt Uprising / Sinyx) to play some songs that hadn't been heard in a long time. These songs included 'True Life', 'Evening Radio', 'You Better Hear', 'Everything's Technical', 'Chain Gang', 'Parents Zone', 'Racing' and 'Head on Crash', as well as one or two new songs.

The Machines story continues.