So I now had the Bass guitar, and now it was time to learn how to play it, so as there were no teachers about I bought The Chas McDevit and Shirley Douglas how to play bass guitar tutor. Mala got himself a kit of drums and we set about starting to learning some songs, in my bedroom. It wasn't long before my dad found us a place to practice in an old joiners workshop. That was great cause we could set up our gear and go down there as much as we wanted. Fingers bled and we recruited a couple of guitarists and before too long we were asked to play our first gig at a friends party in a church hall on Walney. The only things that I remember from this gig was the plume of white smoke that eminated from the PA blowing up, well not exactly a PA as we now know it but it went kaput big style.The other thing I remember was that somebody stole the money that theyld collected to pay our expences.

Our next gig was a big one as somehow we got asked to play at the rink, a huge gig at the time, on boxing day, with the legendry Rue and the rockets from Carlisle. The Cynix with an X were up and running.It was 1964 and the beat boom was in full swing and we were a part of it, except we were some way from the epicentre, in Barrow, and Liverpool was where it was happening and we were probably pretty rough but we had a rodie with a Morris 1000 van and we were playing village halls all over the southern lakes. Village halls were the gigs back then, the pubs still had old blokes playing a piano. The next step up would be to get a gig at the Public Hall in Barrow. The Public Hall had a gig every Saturday night, there was a resident Big band, a hang over from the 40s and 50s that played dance music for the punters to dance to. It was that cusp of a period between real dancing and jiving. We finally got a gig there, the band played an early slot, when no-one was there, the beat group played from 10-45 till 11-35 then the big band came on to play the Last waltz. That was the signal for everyone to try and get a partner that they could walk home, and a time for a drunken snog. The Big band were clinging on to a past that was fast dissappearing, but we just accepted the protocol and did our thing, it was a glamorous gig and it was confirmation that we were now a proper group on the circuit. Next stop would be the top gig in town the pinicle of any groups ambition in 64 the 99 caberet club, where some big names on the pop scene came to play. Getting a gig there was going to prove a big step for the Cynix, but also would prove to be the end of the Cynix, and the start of the Carnaby Squares