A lost York album is finally getting a re-release after 43 years.
The debut album from York power pop group Nerve Senta was originally released in 1981 by Supermusic Records and since then hasn’t been available for over 40 years.
Now the album has been lovingly restored for the 21st century and is set to be released this month.
Nerve Senta were a four-piece band from York, which featured Garry Barrett on lead vocals and guitar, John Foottit on lead guitar, Geoff Locker on drums, and Garry Varley on bass.
Ian Cole, who is now the owner of record label Sinners Music Records, also joined them on keyboard for the album recording.
The album was recorded over a weekend at Fairview Studios in Hull in 1980.
Though the band split up in 1982, all five original performers reunited for a one off concert on 28 May 2010.
“I always felt it was a shame that the album has been unavailable for so long,” Ian told YorkMix. “I contacted Garry (Barrett) back in April 2023 to see if my record label Sinners Music Records could put the album out – and Garry said yes it would be great.”
What Ian didn’t realise was just how difficult the project was going to be.
“Firstly the original master recordings had long disappeared, so I had to re-record each song from my original vinyl record,” explained Ian.
“The turntable had to be speed checked against the recording that I was given at the end of the record session in 1980, and my turntable had to be upgraded with a new belt and cartridge before the digitisation could take place.”
After that, the turntable rumble and surface noise of the record had to be removed with specialist software before the digital version of the album could be re-mastered for download and streaming.
“I’m very proud of the album we recorded all those years ago, and while this has been a labour of love over the last 18 months I’m so pleased that it is now available again.”
The album was released on Bandcamp on Friday 26 July, followed by a full download and streaming release on Friday 25 October.