The All Night Decorators were born sometime in early 1983. David Innes and Finlay Crossan decided that the sound of Dexy's Midnight Runners' Too-Rye-Ay album was too good to let slip by and decided to form a band to play that sort of freewheeling acoustic-based music, taking the influences of diverse acts like Brinsley Schwartz, Jimmy Reed, The Band, Johnnie Allen and Elmore James into account. Finlay had studied violin when younger and he wanted to incorporate this into the sound
On the 15th or 16th July 1983, depending on whether or not it was before midnight (I suspect hours after) the members of the embryo band were wallpapering the hallway of Finlay's house, having promised to do this before his wife, Susan, came home from the hospital with their newborn second son, Andrew. Both men spent most of their free time wetting the baby's head again and again.
Susan was due to be released from hospital on Saturday 16th July. On the Friday, the boys thought they had better do something about it.
Halfway through the night, after many cans of beer and grilled pizzas, Innes turned to Crossan and said "Let's call our band The All Night Decorators". Decorating all night, see? And Genesis P Orridge had already copyrighted the first choice name, Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel. Bastard.
Needless to say, the first proposed incarnation of the band didn't materialise. The sum total of the band's equipment at the time consisted of an Eko 6-string acoustic guitar, a Hohner Stratocaster copy electric, a 6 watt practice amp, a couple of Hohner Blues harmonicas (keys of A & D) and a music stand "borrowed" form Keith Grammar School in 1973. None of these belonged to Crossan who was "saving to buy a fiddle".
Little happened, some months passed, and on 5th May 1984, a fateful event took place. Enter one Graham Stephen.
Innes and Stephen were acquaintances from some time back, having met through mutual friends who shared the flat in King Street, Aberdeen that was the prototype for The Young Ones. During one of the many drunken parties that had taken place in the flat, a performance by the Marones was witnessed. A four hour marathon dedicated to Louie Louie was the main event at this seminal gig. It was played, in shifts, on various guitars wired up to a stereo system (belonging to a very nervous George Boardman, who will reappear as this story develops) pots, pans, stolen microphones, cheese graters, many cans of beer and much hanging out of windows. They all looked the part, especially the lead singer Charlie Ritchie, who despite a reputation as a star choir boy in Dundee never actually plucked up the courage to open his mouth. In fact the only member who could play a chord (only the one mind, and that with tongue out and grimace of concentration on face) was Graham Stephen.
Stephen was a sad character, obsessed by Elvis Costello, The Beatles and Cherry Gillespie of Pan's People. Originally from Montrose his career had progressed from playing in his bedroom, his friends' bedrooms and now a career peak, the bedrooms of people he hardly knew. In his days with the Marones he managed to hide that fact that he knew what a major 7th was, having been hit on the head by a James Taylor Songbook at an early age.
In May 1984, following a 2-2 draw between Aberdeen and Hibernian at Pittodrie and a bellyful of St. Machar Bar ale, there was a brief stop-off at the Innes residence in Orchard Street. The Eko acoustic was picked up and Stephen strummed a 9th chord. Epiphany!. Innes' ears pricked up. "That's a ninth", he guessed, deciding on the number by dividing by two the number of pints he had already quaffed. He produed the D Blues harp and a short jam session ensued. Telephone bidding reached frenzied proportions at Christie's last auction of rock n roll memorabilia, where tapes of this moment were sold just before Lot 24, a very rare acetate of Phil Collins Doing Something Interesting. mowing his front lawn.
Stephen was impressed. Nobody he knew had ever recognised a ninth before. "Bugger" he mumbled "I'll have to learn a thirteenth diminished now, this guy's too clever............."
Now that the football season was over Stephen and Innes decided to take a dander down the road to stardom. Bravely meeting at each other houses on a weekly basis, cramming their gear into spare rooms, fighting for space with clothes horses full of drying nappies, enjoying a copius supply of cups of tea and Hob Nobs provided by the long suffering wives who obviously had an eye on future royalties, in a "massive divorce settlement" kind of way.