In 1977 Billy decided to place an advert to join a new wave band. You can see from this the stuff that was influencing him at the time… New York Dolls, Patti Smith, Sex Pistols, Heartbreakers, Lou Reed and Alice Cooper.
“I believe that I put this advert up on the wall of Virgin Records on Market Street in Manchester as it was the only cool music shop in the city. It was the first place in Manchester to have punk records and you could see vinyl from the Ramones, The Damned, Patti Smith, That was the first stuff you could get your hands on as a punk. You could buy ‘Cranked up really high’ The Slaughter and the Dogs single or ‘Spiral Scratch’ by The Buzzcocks.
They had a noticeboard where people trying to form bands would stick stuff up to try and get connected once the Pistols gigs at the Free Trade Hall had happened. At that time I still wasn’t 100% sure I was a punk and this advert might have been early ’77. I also remember answering an ad there too from a band looking for a guitar player and they turned out to be ‘Magazine’. When I rung up they said “we’ve already got a guitarist now but we need a keyboard player” so I lied and said I could play. I’d had piano lessons when I was 10 years old but I couldn’t really play keyboards at all so they sussed out I was bull-shitting! The thing is, I was desperate to get in a band so I was just hustling.
I don’t think I got any responses to this advert but it shows clearly I’d left behind all my early musical influences. Seeing the Pistols had changed my life and by this time I’d got rid of all my old rock records.”
Billy Duffy - January 2013