vera
We were running our tiny record label Crystal Groove Records from the living room of the flat in Tottenham. One day I had a call from Belfast. I could hardly understand the accent. (Vera thought everyone in London was deaf, they were always saying "what?" or "pardon?") Vera Hegarty was 16 and used to listen to John Peel on Radio 1 while she was doing her homework. One evening he played Orior. She scoured Belfast. Tried to order it through Good Vibrations. No luck. We were not widely distributed.
One day her sister's boyfriend came back from a trip to London with a fanzine he had picked up with Gary Numan on the cover, who Vera was bonkers about. It was called "In The City" and this was the issue in which Frank & Pete had asked me to review the singles and had given us a space to advertise Crystal Groove Records. Vera had now found Orior. She sent her Postal Order and I sent her the single.
She phoned again and, ever the salesman, I said "you might be interested in our other band, Home Service." Vera kept phoning after school, so much so that her father's phone bill quadrupled.
She visited London a couple of times and, at 18, decided she would come to London to study Japanese before going to Japan. I had offered her the back room of our flat. Two weeks before she came over I had split up with my previous girlfriend MLQ (Mary-Louise Quick). Vera was met with a concerted three evening campaign of candlelit dinners.
We got married in June 2009 after living together for 27 years - amazing!