The Slow Readers Club formed
Omerta disbands. Aaron Starkie, Neil Turvin and James Ryan form The Slow Readers Club. Kurtis Starkie, Aaron’s brother joins the band. Aaron:
To cut a long story short, Omerta broke up, Neil (drummer) and Nick (guitarist) left. Me and Jim (bass) carried on, brought my brother Kurt in on guitar and worked with a few different drummers for a few months before Neil came back and The Slow Readers Club was born.
On the name:
It’s kind of our take on The Smiths – it feels outsider-ish. It’s a little bit rebellious I think. I have a very clear memory of going round secondary school, when I was leaving junior school to be orientated, and we went round all different rooms like science labs and I thought it was crazy. We came to one room which was called ‘special needs’ which is such a non-PC term these days. I thought it was curious that you could be put in a stream from that early on and SRC is our version of that. It’s a rejection of that notion.
Omerta formed
Omerta is formed when Aaron Starkie joins Neil Turvin (drums), James Ryan (bass) and Nick Moylan (lead guitar), who had met at St Matthew’s School in New Moston.
JR: When we were looking for a singer, we put an advert in the paper for “The Next Freddie Mercury” We were just taking the mick, but he replied. So we thought, right we’d better get him in to see what he’s like. And it was good.