… I got into music. I became a DJ and started to make breakbeat albums for a record company in London. I earned no money at all doing this.

One day I took the cassette with my demos on into the 3 Beat Music record shop in Liverpool, as I’d heard they had a little record label. I left the tape with them and asked if they could have a listen to it. When I got home that evening from my job in the factory, Lisa—who was my girlfriend at the time—told me I’d had a phone call from them to say that they really loved the tape and wanted to put it out as a 12-inch single.

I thought, ‹this is it. I don’t need to work in a factory, I’m going to make millions!› I made £400. I started doing gigs at Cream and it was cool, but it was just me on stage pretending to play a keyboard—I had to make it look a bit better.

Brendan Dawes.