FROM LITTLE ACORNS

MARCH, 1981. Beer is 4p a pint, Max Miller is still the housewife's favourite, and in a Culter garden great things are in the making. This is the earliest known photograph of what became The Trees. Styx, then 13, was on Spanish guitar, Tombola, 15, was on bass and Rat, 17, was on banjo. The Great Dictator, 14, was behind the camera as well the drums here.

So why didn't this line-up survive? Firstly, Rat couldn't sing -but he did know someone who could (McPherson), and who was a songwriter of genius into the bargain. As for the Great Dictator, he was already playing professionally with club rockers Prestige and viewed The Trees as "rank amateurs" - an opinion that didn't mellow with time. If Culter's Quincy Jones was ever disparaging about the band, it had nothing to do with rejection. "It was simply that they were crap," he said. "When I produced them I tried my damnedest to get them to sound good, but personally I don't think it was ever there in the first place, certainly not after I quit the line-up." Campbell - with his thuggish haircut and fondness for hitting things - was happy to take his place on drums.

What of this impromptu outdoor jam? The eclectic blend of instruments raised a collective two-fingers to punk, but because only Tombola had an amp the sound was bottom heavy and Campbell's florid flamenco guitar evaporated into the afternoon air. Nobody can remember what songs were played. "It's just possible we only set the gear up for a picture," Tombola said mischievously.

Naturally the police arrived to bust up the gig. It wasn't that the music was especially loud, rather that the authorities viewed The Trees as a social menace (see "From Lenny Bruce to The Trees: the State as Censor" by Dr Lilian Hermann, New York University Press). Styx and The Great Dictator went off to play on their bikes and blow up some aerosol cans in a fire. Defiantly, Tombola and Rat took to the garage roof but this performance was also cut short when Tombola was called in for his tea.