Adapted from THE VERY FIRST BADLANDS ANNUAL published by PEDIGREE BOOKS (1994)
 

 1. STEVE McGARRY was born in the North of England, on Manchester's sprawling Wythenshawe state, on January 24, 1953. The eldest of three brothers, STEVE's first school was Saints John Fisher and Thomas Moore in Benchill. He later attended St.Bede's R.C. College, in the same year as fellow MANCHESTER CITY fanatic and future JOY DIVISION/NEW ORDER manager and FACTORY RECORDS founder, the late ROB GRETTON.



2. At 14, STEVE lied about his age to land a weekend job selling raffle tickets at MANCHESTER CITY's home soccer games. Not only did he get paid, he got to sit on a touchline bench for all the games and could regularly be seen posing for the TV cameras whenever the action strayed towards his position.
(Years later he had his own cartoon series in the MANCHESTER CITY match-day magazine - mainly so he could blag free tickets!)

3. In 1977, a rush of blood to the head saw STEVE quit his job in the catalogue production department of a mail order company to try his luck as a full-time freelancer. His first published works were illustrations for love stories in the now-defunct girl's comic ROMEO, published by D.C.Thomson of Dundee.
4. In the late '70s, STEVE designed record sleeves for a host of Mancunian punk-rock luminaries, including JOY DIVISION, JILTED JOHN, SLAUGHTER & THE DOGS, JOHN COOPER CLARKE and ED BANGER AND THE NOSEBLEEDS.


He was also the in-house poster/flyer designer for legendary Manchester rock venue RAFTERS. Promoted by the great Northern Cabaret Superstar DOUGIE JAMES, the venue played host to fledglings such as ELVIS COSTELLO, DIRE STRAITS, THE POLICE, WHITESNAKE and XTC.
(ROB GRETTON was the house deejay and it was at RAFTERS that he struck up a rapport with WARSAW and offered to manage them. Soon after, the group changed their name to JOY DIVISION.)

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