Luke: No. Aw alright.

Stretch: We been watching Top of The Pops one night and there was a mad band performing, and we thought, "hey they're quite like us lot" so we thought it would be a good laugh to be a band, so we became The Highliners. (Named after our 1950's Convertable Ford motor cars) Couldn't actually play anything at the time, but we've never let that get in the way of us having a good time on stage. After a few months of learning to play the instruments in the streets we decided to spend the summer in the south of France. So with 17p in french francs, and a tank of fuel, we set of on the last cheap ferry sailing in our 1964 split screen volkswagon camper. More busking en-route saw us reach St Tropez where we ended up playing every night in different bars and clubs, meeting lots of girls, and luckily, being taught how to play our instruments by some local bands. We came back at the end of the summer, rented a cheap house in the Derbyshire moors and started recording. Soon after we toured with King Kurt, moved to London and party'd hard. Several years later we are still partying on and off stage. Current line up includes original members 'Captain' Luke Morgan on lead shouting and crazy guitar, and Kevin 'Stretch' Feeney on naughty bass and backing shouting noises.

July 1986
The Highliners: 1st edition "Studio Demo"
4 track, cassette only. Limited general release of 2000.
Tracks:
Henry The Wasp, Hoots Vicar, Wild Thing, Jungle Love

September 1986
The Highliners: 2nd edition "Studio Demo" same tracks as above but each cassette came with a fitted carrying handle made with pink fur to make it easy to remove from your pocket when your drunk at parties and wanted to play some Highliners. Limited release of 200.

November 1986
The Highliners: 3rd edition "Studio Demo" same tracks, but each cassette came with the fitted pink furry carrying handle and a pink furry tail to prevent the cassette from being stacked sensibly on a shelf next to other cassettes, to allow the cassette to fall over with you at parties, and to attract people of the opposite sex when you are on the floor. Limited release of 100.

1988
ABC Records. ABC 017
7" single: Double shot of my baby's love c/w Come Dancing (Live) and Henry The Wasp

ABC Records. ABC 017
7" single: Henry The Wasp
c/w Come Dancing (Live)

ABC Records. ABC 017T
Henry The Wasp 12" supersting remix
c/w Come Dancing (Live)

Occassionally found
ABC Records. ABC 017
7" single labelled Henry The Wasp, but with Come Dancing c/w Double shot of my baby's love and no H.T.W.

1988
ABC Records ABC LP15
Stomping at the Klubfoot Vol. 5 - Compilation
Tracks
Wooly Bully (Live), Come Dancing (Live), This Train (Live)

1989
Razor records RZST 115
7" single & 12" single: The Benny Hill Boogie
c/w Surfer Jones (Radio mix & Surf mix)

1989
Razor Records RAZ45 (LP) RAZCD45 (CD)
11 track album & CD "Bound For Glory"
Tracks
Surfer Jones, Naughty Nigel, The Benny Hill Boogie, Jock Tom, Inspector Clouseau, Crazy Tattoo, Henry The Wasp, Come Dancing, The Dentist Song, I aint gonna bump no more (with no big fat woman), This train is bound for glory

1995
DoJo Ltd. Psychomania Vol. 3 - Compilation
Track
Double shot of my baby's love

1996
The Vatican Tapes
Limited release tapes recorded with new members Kenny Stewart on sax parping, Russ "Tiger" Ward on drum banging and crashing, and Doyle (Klingonz & Celtic Bones) on guitar twiddly fiddly bits.

Tracks
Glorious and Wonderful, Scooter Dad, Dead Man's Surf !, Fetish Party, Fetish Party (Live at Dordrecht, Holland), Naughty Nigel (Live at Dordrecht, Holland), Hot Russ Boogie (Live at Dordrecht, Holland), Henry The Wasp (Live at Dordrecht, Holland)

1998
NV Records. NVEP7
The Fetish Party EP
4 Track EP (Vinyl only)
Tracks
Fetish Party, Scooter Dad, Dead man's surf !, Glorious and Wonderful

Spetember 1999. We have just completed the mixing of the next album "Spank-o-matic" which will be available we are told, early next year from Vinyl Japan records;

Luke: Magical punk

Stretch: Imagine a size 12 foot trying to squeeze into a size 10 Dr Marten (one of our sponsors) boot (it hurts) whilst balancing (you might need to think about it) on the edge of a swimming pool diving board and avoiding the drop by chanting 1929 season Yorkshire cricket score averages (it can be confusing)....add a dash of punk,(noisey) and you've captured the weird Highliners sound.

Luke: Shouting "Hey" or "Aaaagh" together

Stretch: Yes, though I would say I thought it was mainly shouting "Hey", but with lots of spanking, trousers, beer and more beer

Luke: One show on a tour of Finland which had 50 dancing scantilly dressed girls for the support act.

Stretch: That show was excellent, the girls were virtually naked with feathers sticking out all over the place and we all had a big aftershow party. I can vaguely remember the comatosing effect of the free Russian vodka.

Luke: Q: Why are so incredibly attractive to the opposite sex? A: Oh! Do you really think so, thank you.

Stretch: Q: So what happened at the aftershow party with the girls in Finland? A: I've been told a few stories but I wish I could remember for myself.

Luke: Yes! Letzepp. Magnificent.

Stretch: The last decent Band I saw was Bad Manners just before Christmas, oh yeah I went up to The Charlottte in Leicester to see a garage/surf band called The Beach Bastards from Liverpool. They only play once a year now, and that was the first time I had got to see them. They were superb, and well worth the journey. If it's a band I like I'll travel pretty much anywhere to see them, luckily most come to London where we live. Some places, like Stoke on Trent are a shit hole. The people are real nice, but the place is like a spot on a bum; you put up with it but you don't care for it.

Luke: Elvis, Clash, Thin Lizzy, Led Zep

Stretch: I wanna see Bo Diddly again, I would like to see Little Richard on stage, and I did go and see Rose Royce in Manchester a while back.

Luke: Rose Royce? You didn't did you?

Stretch: Yeah I did, maybe it's not cool but I like their stuff and I met up with the Band after and had a drink with the singer Bernie and you know, it was fun. Ok maybe I shouldn't have mentioned Rose Royce, but I guess it's too late now. Anyway, I want to go and see more ska bands at the moment. Let's move on...

Luke: The new, cheeky, and some say, long awaited album is out soon, it's called Spank-o-Matic and is released on cd and vynal format from Vynal Japan Records; there's a link from our web site which is www.TheHighliners.com
info@TheHighliners.com

Stretch: There is talk of a short tour in Japan to promote the album, and usually at this time of year we play a bunch of gigs on the mainland of Europe. What we would like to do is a few shows somewhere warm near a beach with a bar.

Luke: Ya Hooie!

(Rebecca) If you let me know the album news nearer the time, I will add it to my News page.

THANKS

(Rebecca) Finally, are you the Stretch who left them email about Special Duties in my guestbook on my website?

NO, for sure.