The Needles - Fire In The City

The Needles, active in the late 1990s, were a fistful of energetic and powerful punk rock. The band, dealing with the grueling schedule of recording, touring and daily life, split. Exiting the stage for the final time but leaving a legacy of great rock songs behind. Recently there has been signs of a resurgent interest in the band with the Newcastle band Bear Park covering 'Teenage Bomb'. Powell said of live performances, "well if the records are well received we are hopeful of reuniting the band for a couple of gigs or so - I know Eric is really keen to get the band back on stage, would be fantastic wouldn't it? A major influence on the band was the producer Mark Nicol - the production values Nicols brought to the band developed their sound from raw sugar cane, rough at the best of times, to a high octane, take no prisoners rock n roll. The original band comprised Dave Dixon, Paul Curtiss, Richey Wolfe and Johnny Wolfe. United by a shared hatred of the same things, school friends. When self confessed ‘loser’ Dave Dixon and ‘teacher’s pet’ Paul Curtiss decided to do something with their lives they roped in the only other person they knew who was into the same music, Johnny Wolfe, laying the foundations for what would become The Needles. The fiery three-piece played their first gig at an Internet café in April 1996, after several pub and club gigs in their hometown of Aberdeen, coaxed another friend, Richey Wolfe, onto keyboards. With the line-up complete they were ready to take on the world. Richey made his debut with the band at Aberdeen’s Lemon Tree… with his leg in a plaster. Long-time Needles stalkers, the newly formed Lithium Records aka Mark Nicols, approached the band in April ’98 and asked them if they wanted to ‘do’ a single. They did. The result of this was ‘Teenage Bomb’. Dave, on the band’s writing style said, “when we started, so many popular bands were writing wanky, ironic songs that didn't mean anything. We just wanted to strip everyone down to their raw emotions and make them burst into tears and burn their record collections for being so futile and pointless.” Teenage Bomb was a success – capturing the live spirit of the band. It was short, straight to the point, and pricked up the ears of music lovers and radio stations around the country and abroad and flew out of records stores far and wide/ “There is no perfection. We are artists, we strive on chaos.” The band finally split in 2007 to pursue new projects. Dave, Paul, and John went on to form the Hidden Masters with Nic Denholm (Owsley Sunshine) and former Bangtwister bassist Alpha Mitchell. The Hidden Masters went on to record an album entitled 'Of This And Other Worlds' for Rise Above/Metal Blade Records and perform backing vocals on Trembling Bells and Bonnie Prince Billy's 2012 album The Marble Downs. Singer Dave Dixon later went on to front The Shiverin' Sheiks, who released the debut single 'Guided Missiles' on BrewDog Records in 2013, while bassist Paul Curtiss (née Milne) formed London-based psychedelic pop band The Magnetic Mind, which released the 7" single 'Maybe the Stars, Maybe the Sun, on Heavy Soul Records in 2012.

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