THE DISTRACTIONS

Something lasts.

It was 1981, I was a student and there was an end of term ball. They’d booked a band that I’d heard of – a Manchester act called the Distractions, who were famous in some circles for releasing a single on Factory Records called Time Goes By So Slow. Time Goes By So Slow is one of those songs that exists outside time. It sounds like a dream, literally; when you’re hearing it, it never quite sounds real. It slightly overshadowed the rest of the Distractions’ output, even after the band released their fantastic first album, Nobody’s Perfect.

I went to the ball and the Distractions were great. Later someone (me) called them “the Buzzcocks on Motown” and their mix of Mike Finney’s powerful blue-eyed soul vocals and Steve Perrin’s melodies marked them out from the endless new wave bands of the era. There was melancholy in songs like Looking For A Ghost and Waiting For Lorraine, as well as pop in It Doesn’t Bother Me and the insane Valerie.

And then they played a new song. It was called Nothing Lasts, and it was bleak and lonely and angry and talked about the passage of time and getting older.

And all my friends they seem to grow so old

Before their time they’re smiling strangely cold

And when they leave they walk so fast

‘Cos I’m a stranger in a world where nothing lasts.

After the gig, I went backstage and invited them to a party. They didn’t come but they were very enthusiastic about being invited. The next day or so I went out and bought their new EP, recorded with what I now realised was a new line-up (Perrin had left after the chart failure of Nobody’s Perfect).

A short while later, the Distractions split. Mike Finney had a band called The Secret Seven for a while, and that was that. It was a small career: a handful of singles and one album. One of those brief flare-ups of brilliance that happened a lot in the post-punk era. Nobody’s Perfect wasn’t reissued on CD or rereleased on vinyl. None of the Distractions songs were used in adverts or sampled by famous rappers, and Nothing Lasts never even came out. Everyone in the band got real jobs. Mike Finney moved to Holmfirth, Steve Perrin moved to New Zealand. Time passed.

I think of you lately

Do you think of me?

Another year goes by

Yeah, nothing lasts

And then in 2012, thirty years after the band had fizzled out, something weird happened. Mike Finney and Steve Perrin met up and recorded a new album as the Distractions. The second album, End Of The Pier, is fantastic, full of songs about the passage of time, especially Wise, a song written by Nick Halliwell – who also supervised the CD and vinyl reissue of Nobody’s Perfect and other long-lost music. I did some work on the CD booklet and spent time with Mike and Steve.

Naturally, I asked them about Nothing Lasts: and they explained, very politely, that it was a song from after Steve had left, and they had no plans to revive it (it was written, by the way, by Adrian Wright, the composer of Time Goes By So Slow).

The reissues came out, to favourable reviews. I finally had one of my favourite albums in shiny fresh condition – and there were some gigs. I went up to Salford to see the Distractions play the King’s Arms, Paul Heaton’s pub. They did old songs and new songs and it was a thrilling and moving occasion.

Then Mike said, “Now this is a song that Adey – Adrian Wright - wrote, a long time ago, and it’s called Nothing Lasts.”

Steve said, “And it’s for our friend Dave.”

And they played Nothing Lasts for the first time in thirty years.