Sneechs Friday Top 5 - The Buzzcocks



Sam Handwich said:
Spot on mate
Good interview here
RETROPOPIC 175 - JOHN MAHER: EARLY DAYS, DRUMMING WITH BUZZCOCKS TO ERISKAY PHOTOGRAPHY IN 2018
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Thanks - a good interview that, although a bit of a shame that it only makes passing reference to his engine building business, which I think was a big part of his life for a good few years & not really what you would expect of a musician.
He started doing VW repairs in Manchester under the name of Mr Beetle. I read about it in an article in City Life in the 1980s - sort of a "where are they now" kind of thing. So I gave him a ring one day to see if he could fix some steering judder on my old 1300. In those days he was working from a lock-up round the back of his parent's terraced house in Trafford. I remember dropping the keys off with his dad there. In that interview he talks about his dad and his Irish heritage, and I do remember his dad had a real thick Irish accent. Later he started operating as John Maher Racing from an industrial unit in Chorlton and was employing at least one other mechanic there. He was one of those guys you could trust to do a good job, and over the years I always used to like dropping my aging beetle off there to do whatever was necessary to get it through another MOT because I could get to have a chat and drool at the drag racing monsters that were being built up in the back of the garage. He then carried on building racing engines to order from the outer Hebrides. I don't know if he is still doing this, but he did seem to be regarded as one of the top guys in the country at that malarkey - completely self-taught.
 

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