In 1983 a young lad called Mike Badger started up a band with his friends in Liverpool, he named the band The La's. They started to do gigs and became one of the many small bands touring around the area at the time. In early 1985 a record was issued called A Secret Liverpool it was a record with around 20 tracks on it, each track done by a different band, all the bands were unsigned so as any record producer who liked a particular track might sign up the band. One track `I don't like hanging around' was by The La's.

Later that year, I don't know how but one of the guitarists quit so they got a new one in, a certain Lee Mavers.... Then, sometime later another compilation of unsigned bands was issued `Elegence, Charm and Deadly Danger' with yet again another La's track on it. The track was called `My girl sits (like a reindeer)'. The funny thing is it's sounds a lot like Feelin', well, the guitaring does anyway, the instrumental part was written by Lee while the lyrics were by Mike Badger. In `87 Mike Badger was kicked out or just simply left the La's and formed a band called the Onset who split up in `95 (I think Mike is now in a band called Kachinas?). Also in `87 Mike introduced a then 19 year old John Power to Lee and then later John became the bassist. 

The La's made a demo tape in 1987 with tracks like `Liberty Ship' and `Feelin''on it. On the strength of the tape Go! Discs signed them immediately and they released their first single `Way Out' that year, it got good reviews but stalled in the charts. In 1987 Lee set about recording their album. In 1988 they released `There She Goes' which also got good reviews but didn't climb higher than the top 20.....After 4 years in the recording studio from 1988 to `91 the La's self titled album finally came out. Lee had recorded this album over 4 times because he wasn't happy with it, he claimed Go! Discs rushed him into releasing it because he wanted to re-record it again.

Lee was a strange kettle of fish, he wanted to capture the La's as they sounded `in his head' !? Mostly people called him crazy I think he was just a very strict perfectionist. The album got rave reviews and sold very well, John Power had written a few songs such as `Follow me down' and `Alright' that the La's performed live they were s'posed to go on their second album but as you know that never came out. John later recycled these unreleased tracks for his `band', Cast a copy cat La's band that doesn't do a very good job of it.

The La's re-released `There She Goes' in `91 and then the album and other singles too, it's hard to document their releases because they aren't very well known. After Lee finished the first album he started on the second and he wanted to wait for 8 years to finish it!! John Power couldn't be bothered to stay in the recording studio for that long so he buggered off to start Cast. All the other band members left Lee too, so poor Lee was all on his own. Some say he carried on with recording the album on his own. In 1995 some very lucky people may have gone to see the then new exciting band Oasis, but as a surprise Oasis' supporting band were none other than The La's!! Lee had got some new band members and was performing some of the old classics and a few new ones too. After that Lee disappeared again.................

Back to MAIN PAGE