Alien Tint

Alien Tint was originally formed in November 1977 at Xaverian College in Manchester by Paddie Smith (vocals), John "Billy" McDonald (drums) and Ged Start (bass) along with Stuart Grimshaw (guitar) a friend of Paddie's. The first gig was played under the name "Discharge" at a party in a friend's cellar in Chorlton - the only notable aspect was the presence of Barry Adamson (Magazine) in the crowd. Shortly after this first gig the band changed its name to Alien Tint and was joined by Martin Moscrop on lead guitar and Diane Barlow on vocals.

In 1978 Alien Tint played support for Joy Division at the Band on the Wall on two occasions - the second time also featured "A Certain Ratio" and subsequently Martin Moscrop left to join them. Around the same time Billy quit over musical differences. Martin was replaced by Steve "Howie" Hallworth (an accomplished cornet player and guitarist) and Billy was replaced by Bobby Marchant and the band went on to develop its own brand of "Glam Punk" with a raw take on 70's glam rock and a distictive visual style lead by Stuart and Paddie.

Ironically the band attracted a hardcore skinhead following for a while and some gigs got quite out of hand - in particular one gig at Stockport College required a heavy police presence after the plug got pulled halfway through Tint's set. The band peaked in 1981 with a storming gig at UMIST in front of a crowd of several hundred - however subsequent gigs did not attract large audiences and the band became disillusioned leading to an amicable split. Stuart went on to join Marquis de Sade. Ged moved away from Manchester and played for several bands on the south coast. Howie played for several bands sometimes playing trumpet/cornet in the brass section - he is now a music teacher at a school in the Manchester area.