Once upon the time in the far winter of 1981 three hopeful young schoolmates from Manchester recorded a two-track studio demo titled ‘The Kraak Therapy’ at Decibelle Studios, currently the home of Sankeys nightclub.
The band was called Freak Party and comprised of the two future Smiths’ Johnny Marr on guitar and Andy Rourke on bass plus the drummer Si Wolstencroft.
Their music didn’t have anything to do with The Smiths signature sound, but was instead an experimental funky jam, that could be compared to contemporary bands like Pig Bag and Maximum Joy, inspired by their early passion for George Clinton’s Funkadelic and The Parliament, and Grandmaster Flash.
Six months later Marr will be recording in the same studio, along with Rourke, with a certain Steven Patrick Morrissey and drummer Mike Joyce : the legend of The Smiths was born.
Si Wolstencroft, also a member of an early incarnation of The Stone Roses called Patrol with childhood friends Ian Brown and John Squire, did not feel part of the new spirit (in truth he didn’t like Morrissey‘s voice) and opted to leave and soon after to join the other Mancunian legend Mark E. Smith‘s The Fall.
The demo cassette was accidentally recovered by Wolstencroft himself moving house and, with the blessings of Marr and Rourke , will be soon released separately in limited 7” vinyls copies through his own Funky Si Records label.
The first remastered song ‘Firefly‘, features vocals from London’s dance music diva Angie Brown as well as additional guitar from “the fifth Smith” Craig Gannon, and is going to be released into Rough Trade Records shops in London and Amazon, ahead of a digital release via iTunes and Spotify on November 26th.
The second track called ‘Don’t Push Your Luck‘ is lined up for the upcoming months.
Fabrizio Lusso