Picture caption - ' That post Sharrock La's line-up (from left): Mike Badger, Lee Mavers,
John Power, Neil Mavers. ' - Photo included with Cast Interview.

Publication - Q Magazine

Origin - UK

Date Of Publication - Month ? Year 1997

Subject - John Power's Past

Title - ' Mind yer car for £50,000 Mister? '

Author - Tom Doyle

Input - Chris Sharrock

Content - Account of rifts within The La's..

" Mike Badger had the name The La's, and we were like, what, The La's? As in alright, la'? And
he was like, no (sings) La, la, la, la. The first La's following was basically about forty of my mates. I still had this big crew, and so I'd phone them up and it was like, I'm fucking playing a gig. And it was like, Wha? It was real news, one of the lads being in a band. "

What were your first impressions when you met Lee Mavers?
" We got on straight away - it was all very natural, it was weird. Mike, Lee and myself, it just felt
like part of the plan. I can't explain it to you. If you believe in the future and something that's
brewing in you, then finding people like that is just great. I learned to play in that environment. I wasn't a player who joined a band, I was just a lad with enthusiasm. They recognised it in my eyes, which were probably twirling about a hundred miles an hour in my head. They must have thought, Well, he's got everything apart from the fact that he's never played bass in his life. It wasn't just attitude, it was like I knew the power of music more than anyone. Apart from Lee, of course. "

The dawning of The La's seems to have been a hugely inspiring era for all involved. Drummer
Chris Sharrock, who - between his long period with the icicle works and his current position in The Lightning Seeds - joined the group for a year, recalls a visit to The La's rehearsal room where, " John and Lee just played accoustic guitars, kind of at me, and sang these amazing songs in these amazing voices. It was goose pimple time. "

Sharrock also remembers being impressed by the sheer unharnessed bottle of the young John
Power, then 19. " One time I met him in this pub in Liverpool, The Grapes, " the drummer
remembers. " One o'clock in the afternoon, and John goes to skin up in this boozer, I couldn't
believe it. It was the first time I'd ever seen anyone skin up in a pub in the afternoon. So I was like, Yeah, great. "

The incredible potential of The La's (a strong influence on the nascent Oasis) would be thwarted by Mavers's single-minded determination to create a sound akin to the earthy " vibe " of The Who's I can't explain. This would lead to a six year period where the group would attempt to record their debut album four times with different producers, each to be subsequently scrapped by their mercurial singer (allegedly battling with a heroin habit through-out the entire period), forcing Go! Discs to issue an eponymous album with the discarded tapes - without the band's permission - in 1990. Sharrock claims to have spotted the creative warning signs very early on.

" The first time we went in the studio, I was a bit suspicious because Lee wanted to do all the
recording in the kitchen. And then it was, like, Nah, that sounds wrong and don't dust the guitars, they sound better with dust on them. So I realised all was not right. The best recordings we did were with Mike Hedges because he's got the old Abbey Road Studio Two desk. The version of the album done on that was amazing. Lee was kissing everyone, going, That's it, we've done it. This was, like, the third attempt. "

To celebrate the supposed completion of The La's album, Sharrock and Power took their girl-friends on a cut-price holiday to Hawaii in 1988, with a £400 cash bonus that Go! Discs boss Andy Macdinald had gifted each band member. On their return, they were met at the airport by their tour manager, who sheepishly  informed them that Mavers had once again abandoned the tracks.

" I just remember this really depressing journey back from Manchester Airport, " Sharrock says, " and that was it, really. My heart wasn't really in it. John was very frustrated by all that, more so than me, because he'd been with Lee for a good while before I joined. And Lee's a genius and you can't argue with that, you can't really argue with him on any point because you're not gonna win. "

Disagreements within the famously insular group had now begun to spill out onto the stage, most dramatically at a key date London's Town & Country Club in 1990, where, only minutes in, Powers and Mavers were seen to be physically squaring up against one other.

" We'd just started and second song in, it was guitars down and head to head between me and Lee, " Power grimly recalls. " It was always, y'know, if you're not going to sing on my song, I'm not gonna sing on your fucking song. Just schoolyard shit, like. That night we'd put a new song of mine in the set and he decided because it was my song, he wasn't going to sing. So I just started shouting into the mike, Sing the fucking backing vocals, and then we stopped and it all went off. "

Following a draining US tour in 1991, Power finally decided that after five years, he'd had enough, quitting the group to begin sowing the seeds of what would become Cast. Since then, despite the occasional live sighting of Lee Mavers, there has been no real activity from The La's. Q contacted Mavers's management in an attempt to talk to the reclusive singer, only to be informed that he had " better things to do.. " Power for his part, has only occasionally bumped into Mavers since The La's.

" I don't see Lee. The last time was probably walking down the road. He's a funny... he's a
funny cu... y'know. I leave people to it. Leave people to their own devices. "

There were always widespread murmurs of heroin use within The La's. Ever dabbled? 
" No. No, I don't touch skag. I'm not really a big hard drugs man. I'm nearly 30 and I'm -there's lots of people who lost the plot and are mad. See the thing with me is that I don't look for drugs. You think you can control something and it's a big thing, like. I don't really want to go delving into other people's problems. We've got our problems, like, and we get on with them. I don't judge other people. "

With the benefit of hindsight, would you say Mavers had a strong influence on you?
" Oh yeah. You've got to remember that I'm the oldest in this band, but I was always the youngest in The La's, I was the puppy running around. When it came to conversations with Lee, it was good. Of course it was very inspirational for me. It all just flows into the stream, like. "

Have you heard what he thinks about Cast?
" No and I really don't give a shit. Really don't give two flying fucks to be honest. And that's not meant to be nasty. But I stopped worrying about what he thought when I left the fucking band. "