The Patrol (lost demo tape; 1980)
The Patrol, pictured at one of their few gigs in the early 1980's (left to right: John Squire, Andy Couzens, Ian Brown).
Status: Lost
In 1980, schoolmates Ian Brown and John Squire, who knew each other from their days at Altrincham Grammar School for Boys and would later go on to form the legendary Manchester band The Stone Roses, formed a band called The Patrol in 1980 along with Andy Couzens on vocals and guitar and Simon Wolstencroft on drums. Brown, who is the vocalist for the Stone Roses, played bass in The Patrol, while Squire took the duties of lead guitar. However, the members lost enthusiasm in 1981, with Brown selling his bass guitar to buy a scooter and Wolstencroft joined Johnny Marr and Andy Rourke's band Freak Party.
The Demo Tape
Before their breakup in 1981, The Patrol recorded a single demo tape, which is known to be their only recording as a group, and which has since been lost. No audio of this tape has ever surfaced online, and the tape itself was misplaced and lost for more than 30 years. In an interview with Andy Couzens, he stated that "with that demo, we didn't know what we were doing, afterward we got the hand of recording and playing, but that demo, we were clueless". Brown has said that there is no lost album, but they did write songs from this period that were either recorded on the tape or never recorded at all. None of the members of The Stone Roses, nor Couzens or Wolstencroft, have ever gone into a deep discussion about this tape, so finite details are quite unclear.