Category: Zones

The story of Zones is a tad complicated.

You need to go back to the early 70s, and the emergence of Slik, a band who enjoyed a #1 hit in February 1976 with Forever and Ever, a soft-rock effort very much of its era.  The band consisted of Midge Ure, Kenny Hyslop, Jim McGinlay and Billy McIssac.

McGinlay would leave about a year later, to be replaced by Russell Webb.  Slik failed to get any follow-up hits, did get one more minor hit afterwards (Requiem reached #24), but before 1977 was out, they had decided to re-invent themselves as PVC2, playing a blend of power-pop and punk.  (PVC2 will feature in this series at some point in the future).

The new incarnation spit after one single, when Midge Ure was lured away to join Rich Kids, the band started up by Glan Matlock, the former Sex Pistol.

The three who had been left behind brought in Willie Gardner, a cousin of rock legend Alex Harvey, to replace Ure and renamed themselves as Zones.

The band got the attention of John Peel who gave regular spins to their debut single Stuck With You.  This led to a deal with Arista Records and helped gain a support slot on a UK tour undertaken by Magazine.

Zones would release three singles and one album on Arista in 1978/9 before splitting up, albeit the members would move onto other things to varying degrees of success.

Here’s their third and what proved to be their final single for Arista:-

mp3: Zones – Mourning Star

Do you think Midge Ure was looking on from the sidelines and taking copious notes that he would later refer to when Ultravox needed some new songs?

JC

From wiki:-

Zones were a British punk and power pop band founded in 1977, following the demise of PVC2 (formerly the bubbleglam and soft rock band Slik).

PVC2 comprised Midge Ure (future Ultravox frontman) on guitar, Russell Webb on bass, Billy McIsaac on keyboards and Kenny Hyslop on drums. In late 1977, Ure left PVC2 to join Rich Kids with Glen Matlock. Webb, Hyslop and McIsaac then called in Alex Harvey’s cousin Willie Gardner to replace Ure on guitar and vocals, and Zones were formed.

In February 1978, Zones released a single “Stuck with You”, which attracted the attention of BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, leading to the band recording a session for his show, and Arista Records, who signed them and released the rest of their discography. Their next single was “Sign of the Times” released in 1978. Zones also toured with Magazine and recorded a further session for John Peel.

In 1979, Zones released Under Influence, an album of post punk power pop. However, shortly afterwards, the band split up – Gardner joined Endgames, with Simple Minds’ original drummer Brian McGee, McIsaac moved to a piano college in Glasgow, and Webb and Hyslop joined Skids. Webb collaborated with Skids’ singer Richard Jobson (Skids singer) until 1988 and Hyslop, after collaborating with Skids album, Joy, moved to Simple Minds (1981–1982) and Set the Tone (1982–1983).

The bio hints at the diversity of talents involved in the band, but the sum never quite matched the parts as demonstrated by the lack of commercial success. This 45 is an example of what I mean…the tune is derivative of its time but there’s nothing about it which make it stand out while the b-side is more Status Quo than post-punk:-

mp3 : Zones – Stuck With You
mp3 : Zones – No Angels

Only the bands with numbers at the beginning of the title and this epic series will draw to an end…