Tony (and Rod)	Tony and Simon (and John)
Simon and John	Rod and Jonny

This is an oblique view of the group of musical friends that often calls itself Forever & Ever but has variously been named Tony Caro & John (folk phase). Salome & Nihilists (Pre-Raphaelite phase). The Polyphonic Tadpoles (just-discovered-synthesizers phase) Tone Deaf and the Philistines (punk phase) and Ageing Hippies (time-to-own-up phase). These songs are of their time, but they're of our time too, a timeline a bit outside the mainstream of fame, style and the music business. You know those trees in the middle of forests, the ones that may or may not fall? Well, they're us. But art doesn't require the whole world to notice. If we were that desperate for attention we would be sawing sharks in half or something, certainly not making music.

The 60-second band history for those with the longer attention spans. John (bass), Rod (keyboard), sister Julie (voice) and I spent our childhood in Derby, a Rolls-Royce town with one bookshop, one record shop and one musical instrument shop. It could easily be a cultural haven now, but back then you just got away quick. Down in the Bright Lights we bumped into Caroline of the banana-like melismas and her harp-blowing brother Jonny. Shortly after, Simon walked through the door with his quantum-leap guitar and all-round musicality. And that was the band, a slightly bizarre combination of ex-folkies (Tony, Julie, Caro), electronics aficionados (John, Rod) and R&B types (Simon, Jonny), one that has persisted through the loss of several drummers, groupie-famines, onstage electrocutions, Caroline marrying at least two of us, and expatriations to Norway, Holland and the USA.

We are still together, and "Life still flickers in the flames......where sounds of laughter still remain".

Tony Doré. 2001