Flat 19

Hailing from South London, Flat 19 were formed in the spring of 1980 when old pals Steve and Gordon found Barry through an ad in a music paper and Andy was a mate of Gordon’s older brother. So the band was formed with Steve Bartlett on Vocals & Guitar, Gordon Watson on Vocals & Guitar, Barry Frost on Bass and Andy Hunter on Drums. All four of them had a love of all things Beatles, Stones, Mod and the Sixties. They named themselves after an, at that point an unreleased Merton Parkas song as they were their local band and they were all fans. Their first live performance took place at a school friend’s wedding in late1980 but their first proper gig took place at The Castle pub in Tooting in Feb 1981 supporting Andy’s brother’s band “Hit and Run” who were very popular at the time playing RnB that was very similar to Nine Below Zero. They played regular gigs at The Castle in Tooting (and became their house band as Andy was now DJing there too) and Kings Head in Fulham and in no time they had built up a hard-core following of fans as they mixed their set up with some classy original tracks along with the trusty covers one of which was “Run Run Run” by the Who which they always closed their set with, accompanied with plenty of feedback along with an manic strobe lighting show! The Crowed loved this and it always went down a storm! On Saturday 30th May 1981, they ventured into ‘Wave Studios” in Twickenham to lay down these three tracks. This was actually 40 Years ago and has stayed unreleased to now!!!! During their three year existence they played a lot of gigs, sometimes up to 4 in one week. The biggest gig that the band got to play was supporting The Purple Hearts in Ilford. When Andy and Barry left for reasons no one can remember, Simon Smith of The Merton Parkas and Andy’s Brother Phil filled in until permanent replacements could be found and then a young Steve White took over the drums and Mick Martin was drafted in on Bass. This line-up did one gig supporting The Truth at the Marquee. They were offered more gigs, but decided to call it a day as it wasn’t the same in the summer of 1982.