Neo
Neo: fr left Ian North, Derek Quinton,
Mick Sweeney, Dan Black, Me
Neo had initially comprised New Yorker Ian North from "Milk n Cookies" on bass and vocals and Paul and Robin Simon on drums and guitar. Robin left to join "Ultravox" and Ian replaced them with Steve Byrd on guitar John McCoy on bass and Bryson Graham on drums. Ian had auditioned some 300 guitarists when I joined them in September 78 following the departure of Byrd and McCoy to "The Ian Gillan Band". At that stage the band also had Nick South another future member of "Time UK" on bass. There was hardly a famous act that either Bryson and Nick hadn't played with so we were extremely tight and roadworthy. Unfortunately the pair were also playing with another act and were reluctant to leave London on tour. They were consequently replaced by Mark Steed on bass and Derek Quinton on drums and off we went round the country to promote the forthcoming album supporting "Magazine".
The material having been recorded by the previous lineup was verging on heavy rock. Not a genre favored by Ian and sounding a little tired in relation to what was going on in the charts so at the end of the tour the material and the band received another revamp. Mark was replaced by Mick Sweeney on bass and keyboard player Dan Black later to be in "Psychic TV" completed the lineup. The band continued to work incessantly rehearsing recording and gigging around London. The set culminating in Ian tearing a feather pillow to shreds under a strobe light which looked great but made a hell of a mess on the stage, on one occasion sending Chrissie Hynde into a fit refusing to go on stage unless our roadie Malcolm cleared up every trace.
The band folded when Ian fell out big time with Jet Records by taking the management away from Sharon Arden ( later to be Mrs Ozzie Osbourne) and demanding out of his contract. The immediate effect of our split from Jet, an instantaneous lack of money caused a sudden depletion of band numbers. Mick promptly went off with "Classix Nouveau" and Dan dematerialized as well. Derek, Ian and I went back in the studio with Billy Currie from "Ultravox" on keyboards but Ian's visa was running out and he was forced to return to New York. An album consisting of the earlier rock material plus a couple of the pop tracks we recorded was later put out on Aura Records.
Ian continued as a solo artist back in New York producing several synth based albums, all quite ahead of their time and still available .
