Memory Banks isn't his real name of course, but he felt it more in keeping with the image of the band, than his real name of Memory Lane. No, I jest, the angular Mr Banks' first name really is Pete, and I must say that I felt a lot more comfortable calling him such. The band as I'm sure you are all aware is After the Fire, one of the most hardworking bands that I have ever encountered. They have been gigging since 1974 with little chart success, save the single One Rule For You. which just crept Into the top 40; Memory reckons that was only because CBS did a good job getting the single into all the chart return shops.

Memory began his musical career as a guitarist,

'I got into music on six-string, but later transferred to organ. I found that I was thinking along guitar lines whilst playing keyboards, I would play octaves with my left hand, and block chords with my right. All the melody and lead lines came later. I had no formal musical training; sometimes I find that I can't do something that I want because I don't have the training in technique, but on the whole I don't really worry about not having had lessons- in fact it has probably been an advantage.'

I commented on his very precise playing style.

'Yes, well I like to be as accurate as possible, if there is a tricky phrase, or something, I will spend hours making sure that I've got it right. There's very little improvisation in the band, so I know what I've got to play, and I make sure that I can do it'

Memory's first keyboard was a Hammond T102, 'A nice piece of furniture,' I ventured.

'Yeah, it was in immaculate condition. I bought it in 1971 from some second-hand shop, I used it with a Leslie and it was really great. I had that organ for years, and only quite recently did I sell it, and I got more than I paid for it'

I asked about his PA manufacturing company Epicentrum.

'Ah yes, this was a sort of a parallel industry we used to run alongside the band. We built and designed a range of PA equipment, we did it all ourselves, and in fact it helped to finance the band. I designed a few cabinets and things took off from there. Epicentrum did very well for us and fitted in nicely with our band activities; funnily enough it seemed to do better when things were slack with the band, and not so good when the band was busy. About the time we signed with CBS, we had reached the stage when we had to decide whether Epicentrum or After the Fire was going to come first. Epicentrum had by then grown a lot and was at the stage where it would be necessary to go to all the big trade shows like Frankfurt to do justice to the business, but really this wasn't on, especially since we'd struggled so long to get a contract. So Epicentrum was sold off, and we concentrated on the band. The company is now run from Ireland I think, and though they have had to redesign a lot of the units as a result of the demise of ATC (the speaker manufacturers), I under stand that things are still going well for them.'

Roland SA-09

Multimoog

Yamaha CS80

Effects Pedals:
1. Footswitch for CR78 (Rhythm)
2. Stereo Vol for SA-09
3. Sustain pedal for CS80
4. Infinate Sustain Switch for Multimoog (S-trig)
5. Footswitch for echo (RE 201)
6. Volume Pedal for CS80

After the Fire have gone through a fair number of musical changes over the years,

'We were labelled a Christian band when we first started, and that label seems to have been with us ever since. People used to think we were going to be like the Joy Strings or whatever they're called, but we were a rock band who just happened to be Christians, anyone hearing us play would be unaware of any Christian involvement. I suppose that this categorising helped us in the beginning, but now we seem unable to shake it off."

Synthesisers seem to have played a large part in the band's musical development.

'I bought a Minimoog in 1975. and sat down with the instrument and the owner's manual, and I worked through that book from cover to cover. It was amazng, I leamt so much from that one little booklet. It was written by Tom Rhea, he does all the Moog manuals, though he seems to have adopted a more question and answer approach recently. But I leamt almost all I needed to know about synthesisers from that one manual.'

The accompanylng diagram shows Memory's current stage set-up. It is very tidy and simple without going over the top as many keyboard players seem to do these days.

'I got the CS80 at the end of 1978, and I love it. The keyboard is both velocity sensitive and touch sensitive: by pressing the keys harder after they are played, you can further modify the sound. It is this facility that I find particularly useful. In facy it was the touch sensitivity that prompted me to switch from Minimoog to the Multimoog. Here I use the touch facility mostly for modulation effects, and only occasionally for pitchbend. I think that the Multimoog has a different sound to that of the Mini, not so rich; the Minimoog seems to sound a bit out of date these days'

The keyboards are mounted on an Ultimate Support Systems stand. (Further information on these stands can be obtained from Roland (UK) Ltd.) Memory has had the stand modified so that the CS80 can be played at any angle tilting down away from him.

'If you stand up to play, as I do, you have to bend your hands back. If the keyboard is flat, by tilting the the keyboard I find it more natural and mare comfortable to play. We have to suppat the CS8O on blocks because of its excessive weight, but the blocks also serve to form part of the pedalboard. Although the CS80 can produce a great organ sound, I find that I use the Roland SAO9 primarily for an organ voicing. I have a rack-mounted amplification system which also contains a mixer, the Flanger / Chorus, Space Echo, and a CR78 rhythm unit and I have a special patching system so that I can mix my keyboards after they've been sent off to the desk. It gives me a greater control of my stage sound, and I can easily pick out a certain signal if, say, I just wanted a CS8O on stage.

The subject of songwriting then cropped up.

'I like to use the rhythm unit when writing stuff. I find that I either get a rhythm and work a melody into that or else start off with a tune, and play around with the rhythm till I get something that fits. I've got one of those Portastudios which I use with a Revox so that I can wrork out a whole arrangement for the band, this way I can express more clearly my ideas of how a song should go. Of course everthing changes when you have proper drums etc, but I think that it is helpful to have a clear idea of what you want, and to be able to easily communicate it to the rest of the band. We did the last album originally with Tony Mansfield as Producer, he was the man behind New Musik. However things didn't work out quite right so we re-recorded some of the numbers with Mack which helped a lot. He has shown me a whole new direction to take with the CS80; there is just so much you can do with the ring modulator. I was thinking about buying a Prophet or an Oberheim OB-X, but now that I've found out that I can do so much more with the Yamaha, I'm really content to keep my set-up as it is. I have, though, been thinking about buying a sequencer; I read your review of the new.. .'

At this stage the interview took a rather unusual about-turn, and it seemed that I was having to answer Memory's questions on various new pieces of equipment. Well I suppose it's only fair.