[peel] The Automatics

[John Bravin]

The Automatics broke up after the release of just one single. To quote 
their own 'modest' view of the world:

"Like most punk groups we didn't last long. We played too fast, stayed 
up too late, and burned out quick We came up through a time when you 
were more likely to get beaten up than paid every time you played. We 
never played more than a half hour (even when we were headlining at the 
Marquee as we did every Thursday night, or playing the Reading Festival) 
and nobody ever complained!

This record was many months in the making and when Island called me up 
to the office to explain why the entertainment expenses were twice the 
recording expenses, I looked them right in the eye and told them that it 
took a lot of very expensive drugs to make the kind of music we were 
making. The single was released and went straight to #1 in the 
Alternative charts (unseating the Pistols) , but Island canned the 
recording and gave our studio time, producer, and equipment to bunch of 
kids from Ireland who didn't drink, smoke, or misbehave.....called U2."

.... and so maybe that's why Peel would never give U2 airtime