Speed - Man in the Street / On the Road

These two tracks - "Down the road" and "Man in the street" - come from a recording made by Steve White in 1980. White was the keyboard player in the band Speed and re-used the name for this release which features Bruce on vocals. However, this is not a recording by the actual band Speed, but a recording that White made for educational purposes. White and Bruce are the only original Speed-members on it. Other musicians are Steve Adams (lead & rhythm guitar), Gary Edwards (keyboards) and Jeff Moody on drums. The single comes with an info-sheet which has a pic of Bruce from the Samson days.

According to Bruce the two songs are not really representative of Speed's sound and given the circumstances of the recordings he's probably right.

The Speed-single with info sheet

Drummer Jeff Moody tells the story about how this version of Speed came about:

"Paul White, one of the original Speed members, was advertising for a keyboard player and drummer. Gary Edwards and myself were in a band that split so we went to an audition and joined Paul White with Steve Adams, the guitarist, and formed Speed. We started playing gigs after some time rehearsing, the photo [below] was Paul White's Speed with the above line up playing at a pub called "The double 6" in Essex. Paul wanted to take us in to the studio and record the double sided A-side single. Bruce came in with us. It was great fun. Bruce was really good, sounded like Gillan. This single was pressed 1000 copies only. Caused a sensation in the local press. The lyrics of 'Down the road' having a go at the local council. Front page press really wound them up!"