Fire & Desire by Juice

Back in the early 90's Mark started writing his own material and I started singing with him for fun. We didn’t have any money and wanted to record our songs and we heard of a new place in town that we could go to for free! The Warren. It was a hum of activity, with lots of different groups to engage in and get support. There was even a crèche so young mums weren’t excluded. Back then that was impressive. We could even get a hot meal!
I remember the small 16 track recording studio at The Warren. I was so in awe of it. It was amazing to be recording our music there. We were young and we had the world at our feet. It was exciting times. There was talk of an American tour. There was an offer of a record deal. But nothing happened. My brother suffered with Autism and struggled with depression. Back then Autism wasn’t ever talked about, there was a stigma with depression. Men had to toughen up, pull themselves together. Man up.
My brother took his own life at 33 years old. I sold all the equipment and threw all the music away. It was a painful reminder of our lives. This I regret now. The only thing I kept was the unfinished reels. Over the years I have looked at the reels and thought of finishing and releasing them but ended up in tears and buried them away again.
Last year I lost both my parents and after that I decided I had to finish what we had started. Get some closure. I sent them away, got them digitised and we booked a day at Young Thugs Studio with Nick Russell. I wanted to bring the tracks up to date and invited my son Tom and partner Lizzie to do a new vocal on Desire. Both of them have been involved with music at The Warren in the past.
Music for all of us started at The Warren and it is here that it should end. This is a tribute to him, to his music and to The Warren for making this happen.