Eyeless In Gaza ‘Photographs As Memories’ (Cherry Red, 1981)

In 1997, R&S Records’ UK head honcho, Bob Fisher, persuaded me to check out a new band from Japan at a small venue in Camden.

The love affair started with ‘Flaming Desire’. The single got played on the radio at least once, possibly more, and had me swooning with its propulsive rhythms, swirling synths and croonerish vocal – a weirder version of Blancmange, Yazoo on speed.

"Looking back, I see now that I spent my mid-90s university years in Colchester buying excessive amounts of music as a defence against a largely miserable existence"

Synder: “If you got outta here, there are a lot of people who think you’d start killing again.”

Few music discovery anecdotes start with “I was rugby tackled by a man in a cinema because he liked my T-shirt”, but discovering Lancashire oddballs Element starts like that for me.