The Distractions

"One of the best bands ever to come out of Manchester!"

The Distractions were well known on the post-punk music scene 1978-1982. They released records on the TJM, Factory Island and Rough Trade labels to excellent reviews and were regarded as one of the top three bands in Manchester along with Joy Division and The Fall. They toured widely and shared bills with Joy Division, A Certain Ratio, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Fall, The Members, Squeeze and many others, They did gigs in in New York and Ireland before splitting up.

The band was originally formed in 1975 by college friends Mike Finney and Steve Perrin The band changed tack with the advent of punk in 1977 and Finney and Perrin recruited a new line-up of Pip Nicholls (bass), Adrian Wright (guitar), and Alec Sidebottom (drums), formerly of The Purple Gang, and were now mixing punk rock with sixties influences.

Their debut EP, You're Not Going Out Dressed Like That, came out in 1979 and led to a deal with Factory Records, who released the follow-up, Time Goes By So Slow.

Their first album, released in 1980 on the Island label, was called Nobody's Perfect. This wondrous, glorious platter was brim full of the most perfect pop never to have reached the top 40 but despite getting excellent reviews sales were disappointing. There was one more EP from the band on the Rough Trade label with Arthur Kadmon replacing Steve Perrin on guitar before the band called it a day.

Fast forward thirty years and Steve, Mike and new guitarist/producer Nick Halliwell of Occultation Records recorded new songs with some top players such as drummer Mike Kelie from The Only Ones and others from bands such as The June Brides and The Granite Shore. Two albums and an EP came out during this period: Come Home (EP 2010)The End of the Pier (2012) and Kindly Leave the Stage (2017) to very good reviews. They did two gigs at The Kings Arms in Salford in 2012.

In March 2020 Nobody’s Perfect was re-released as part of a double CD box set on Man in the Moon records containing a remixed version of the album as well as the Factory, TJM and Rough Trade releases. A booklet written by long time fanDavid Quantick was also included. It gained four and five star reviews in both the music and national press, was one of Amazon’s reissues of the year and continues to sell well in both the UK and USA.

One of The Distractions biggest fans back in the day, a permanent fixture on on the Manchester gig scene, was John The Postman who sadly passed away aged 59. Fast forward again to late 2015 when his sister Cathryn asked about getting a version of the Distractions to play at a memorial gig for him. Mike and Alex along with Chris Dutton, Joe Brehony, Dave Holmes and Tim Lyons had a few rehearsals and did a storming set of old numbers. It was so enjoyable and went down so well they decided to continue as a gigging band

They eventually got a settled line -up and continue as a live outfit to the present day.

See more info on the present band HERE

Most of the clothes worn in the photo on the right were made by Ann Clayton (1949-1994) who was a big part of the band in the early days

RIP Ann

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