It was around 1975 when I remember hearing my first recognisably electronic piece of music. Top of The Pops was playing a single edit of Kraftwerk’s Autobahn (although it was many years before I actually found out what the music was called or who had produced it). Immediately I was entranced. The music sounded so different and alien to what was usually playing in the charts around that time !

It’s important to realise that at that time, the synthesizer was regarded very much as a novelty instrument - used mostly by very obscure German experimental groups or by the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop for generating sound effects for Doctor Who. At the time, I had no idea how the music was produced, but nevertheless I developed a taste for this new, alien electronic sound.

A couple of years later in 1977, a friend of mine at primary school invited me ‘round to listen to an album of music which was really "way out". This LP turned out to be none other than Jean-Michel Jarre’s debut album Oxygene which had recently been released. Immediately I recognised many previously unknown (to me) pieces of music which had been played in the background on many TV programmes. Oxygene was the first record I ever bought. I must have played it to death ! I’m sure my parents couldn’t understand why I wasn’t into the Sex Pistols or any of the other current artists instead !!! Best of all, Oxygene actually listed the strange exotic instruments used to create this new music on the LP sleeve. At last I could research these strange instruments called synthesizers and fantasise about actually owning one some day and making my own electronic sounds….

The 1980's

As the decade of the eighties dawned, the synthesizer became the instrument adopted by the many ‘new romantic’ groups emerging. Electronic music (in a pop context) was now much more commonplace and could be heard on the radio and television everywhere. Andrew remembers his interest in electronic music being awakened in 1981 after hearing songs by the Human League and Kraftwerk’s Pocket Calculator and The Model. Also at around this time, Shirleyann’s interest in electronic music and the New Romantic scene was awakened after hearing Kraftwerk’s Computer Love / The Model single.

In his early years, Andrew had actually been a choirboy in Bath’s cathedral. Now in the eighties he formed his first band E.M.I. (Electro Magnetic Impulse) which comprised of his school chums - "three lead guitarists, a drummer and a manic lead singer and keyboard prodder" The band lasted for a year and throughout the eighties Andrew formed a succession of other bands and line ups. At first his bands concentrated mostly on producing cover versions, but as he gained in confidence he began to write original material.

Shirleyann’s early musical involvements initially started at the age of 11 by playing the clarinet in her school’s orchestra. Her music tutor encouraged her to branch out as a solo artiste and she quickly became something of a local celebrity playing the cabaret circuit with piano accompaniment or audio backing tapes specially commissioned from recording studios for the purpose. However using backing tapes could sometimes be problematic - Shirleyann remembers one occasion where her backing music suddenly ground to a halt. Her performance couldn’t continue until an elderly lady produced a step-ladder and inserted 50p into an electricity slot meter !

Throughout the eighties Shirleyann appeared on Welsh TV and radio and often entered local and nationwide talent contests in search of elusive fame and fortune - several times being shortlisted for BBC’s Opportunity Knocks programme. Nevertheless, she maintained an interest in electronic music. Enough so to purchase her first Synthesizer - a Korg MS10 in 1981. However, she eventually sold the instrument being disappointed that it was monophonic and she couldn’t play chords on it !

I bought my first instrument (also a Korg MS10 synthesizer which Kinetik still use it to this day !) towards the end of 1981. It cost me £279 - a sum which seemed like an absolute fortune back then. My uncle kindly took out an HP agreement for it and I paid him back in monthly installments from the proceeds of a part-time job after school.

Meanwhile, one of Andrew’s first electronic instruments was a Casio VL Tone (made famous by the German group Trio with the single Da Da Da). He distinctly remembers using it to pretend to play along (no batteries !) with Jean Michel Jarre’s Concerts In China in 1982. Andrew also hankered after Kraftwerk’s custom designed equipment and spent hours carefully recreating their drum pads and keyboards as cardboard replicas which proudly adorned his bedroom wall.

Around 1982 I formed my first musical project Axxent Opaque along with a drummer playing a ‘proper drum kit’. We played mostly instrumental pieces of my own composition in the style of Jean Michel Jarre or Tangerine Dream. By now I'd’ built up a fair collection of Synthesizers and sequencers and managed to also provide a pair of JHS drum synthesizers for my drummer colleague as well. The trouble was we both lived on opposite sides of London and both of us had to rely on public transport to shift our sizable collections of musical equipment around. I can still vividly recall to this day endlessly shifting cartons and cases of equipment on London Transport’s red busses and underground trains from one side of London to the other, making sure that nothing departed with any of my precious unaccompanied equipment still on board ! Often it was much easier and less tiring to jam along with my cousin Simon Darvell at home. Simon was to become a member of the ‘Kinetik family’ in years to come….

Andrew also had some novel solutions to transporting equipment. He’d often strap ironing boards (which his band used as keyboard stands) to his bicycle and pedal around the streets of Bath from one rehearsal to another, trying to avoid the attention of the police.

By the end of 1984, Andrew had formed his most successful band to date, Paradox. This latest band recorded several ‘albums’ of original material which were generally well received around Andrew’s home area. Andrew was also commissioned to write and record a solo project for the London School of Dance entitled Jo’s Dance at around this time.

1984 was quite an eventful year for me as well. I’d decided I’d had enough of London and moved to darkest West Wales. Eventually I made various musical friends and was soon commissioned to write a soundtrack for a puppet theatre who performed in a Punch & Judy tent on the beach. Soon afterwards I was invited to perform a solo spot of my "weird electronic music" supporting a heavy metal band in the town of Tenby. I duly turned up and did my ‘thing’ all completely live. In the bemused audience was someone who was to become a important member of the ‘Kinetik family’ - David England. He was most appreciative of my efforts and became a very close and long-lasting friend. It turned out that he was also a musician and often joined me on electronic percussion while I played my music in the Tenby Music Club - a group of local musicians who met once a week to play their music in front of a small audience.

It was at the Tenby Music Club in the summer of 1985 that I was introduced to a young musician by the name of Shirleyann Davies who wanted to form a band to play ‘something different’. At the time, Shirleyann was performing a solo spot in the Summer season cabaret for Tenby’s holidaymakers. She invited me to the next show and I was most impressed with her clarinet and saxophone playing - enough so to invite her to contribute to a track which I was about to record in a ‘proper’ recording studio. So began a working relationship which has continued to this day…

Meanwhile back in Bath, Paradox were about to embark upon their first live performance. By now Andrew had invested in his first ‘proper’ synthesizer, a Moog Rogue and was quickly building up an arsenal of various electronic bits and pieces. Paradox’s first gig went very well though Andrew’s mum (who provided the refreshments) remembers it as being "awfully loud". Despite Andrew being almost choked to death by a smoke machine, the concert was successful in raising money for a charitable cause for the church whose hall had been used for the gig.

Paradox played live and unleashed yet again in 1987 with a "disastrous attempt at re-creating a Jarre style laser harp". The home-built device had worked well in rehearsals, but on the night obstinately refused to work at all. Audiences were left wondering why Andrew was miming, waving with his arms outstretched in a robotic fashion for no apparent reason. This concert was also notable for featuring Andrew’s one and only attempt at playing a guitar in front of a live audience - an experiment that it was decided never to repeat again !

Throughout the remainder of the 80’s Andrew continued with various projects and bands including solo projects and periods of DJ ing. It was during this period that Andrew actually composed the song Trans Continental, but the band he was in at the time never actually got round to performing it. It was to be an awfully long time before Kinetik eventually played the song live for the very first time at EMMA in 1997.

Meanwhile in Wales, Shirleyann and I continued recording - both together and on solo projects. Once the Tenby Music Club disbanded however, my own solo live performances became few and far between. My last live performance of the 80’s was at a nightclub in Tenby playing my own compositions together with Shirleyann on miked clarinet towards the end of 1997. Shirleyann had also found herself playing live less often and eventually decided to concentrate her efforts at teaching woodwind music. In the summer of 1988 I briefly became involved in putting together a rock band called Defcon 4. We spent months rehearsing in an old caravan, mostly playing covers of U2 songs (really !) though we did start to write our own material as well. I played Bass using a Roland SH101 Synthesizer with a modulation hand grip. Eventually, on the very day before we were due to play our first gig, the band split up due to ‘personal differences’. All those months rehearsing for nothing ! I actually thought we were quite good at the time….

Into The 90’s

The 1990’s began with Kraftwerk playing live for the first time in a decade. Shirleyann had wanted to see Kraftwerk play live ever since she’d missed their 1981 tour so I went with her to the Brixton concert in 1991. The following year, Kraftwerk actually toured the UK again. Shirleyann and I attended the concert at Norwich University. While appreciating this concert, a germ of an idea began to form in my mind : What if we put together a band to play this kind of music ? I discussed my ideas after the concert with Paul Wilkinson, a newly made friend who had organised the UK’s Kraftwerk Convention earlier that year. He seemed very keen on the idea of such a band actually playing at the next UK Kraftwerk Convention in 1993.

Also at the same Norwich concert, we’d noticed an eccentric-looking fellow wandering around in a large linen lab coat earlier in the day. It turned out that he was also a friend of Paul’s. Paul introduced him to us as the "Prof" - aka Mr Andrew Slegt.

In the second part of The Kinetik Story : Elektro Kinetik are formed and play at two Kraftwerk Conventions, Work begins on Kinetik’s debut album REFINED, Andrew declines an invitation to join the band ! & Kinetik Prepare for The Burning Issue concert.