Neale Harmer, inspired by the 'do it yourself' attitude of the punk era, decided that he too should learn to play the guitar. The Ramones, The Sex Pistols and The Buzzcocks amongst others provided a source of exciting new music to glean the all important three chords from. Neale invested in an electric guitar and despite family members calling the purchase a 'passing phase' and 'a waste of money', Neale stuck defiantly to his new interest, discovering that lifting one finger from the 'E major' chord could form 'E minor' and a whole new insight into the world of rock 'n' roll! He would often come home from work, fired with contempt for his job and go straight to his room to practice. It wasn't long before ideas for songs started to come.

The songs came thick and fast and Neale needed a way to record them. By setting up a 'ghetto blaster' he found that he could record the songs by playing guitar into one channel and singing (or ranting!) into the other. Songs such as 'Shit', 'Leather Jacket', 'Pissed Off With My Job', 'Wound Up' and 'Not Aid' combined furious thrash guitar with acerbic lyrics. Most songs lasted less than one minute! Neale found an outlet for his compositions by selling tapes. One song, 'Hard Nut', made it to a Crass compilation LP, 'Bullshit Detector 3'. He also undertook some 'solo' gigs.

Neale eventually concluded he wanted to be part of a band and teamed up with some friends - Gregg the singer, Alan the bass guitarist, Nigel the rhythm guitarist and drummer, Steve Goodridge, formerly of local punk band 'The Gonads'. When discussing a band name, Steve, who had an interest in American gangster films, suggested 'The Hoods'. When the others cried, 'yeah right!', the name was decided - 'Hoods Yeah Right!'

Hoods Yeah Right became infamous from the start, spray painting a stencil of their name all over town. They aimed to break the malaise of rock and blues bands in the town and inspired others to form bands creating a thriving scene. The band practiced each week, developing their own songs such as, 'Bells' and 'My Funny Love' and playing established songs by Velvet Underground; 'There She Goes!', 'Femme Fatale' and 'Heroin' together with The Doors', 'Break On Through'. During their few years together, they played 14 gigs, encouraging their faithful audience to dance the way of the 'Jane Fonda Workout' and shout 'Yeah Right!' after each cry of 'Hoods!' They even dressed up in costume for one riotous Halloween show. Neale, in particular, dressed as a mummy complete with bandages, found real blood dripping down his 'costume' because he had accidentally hit his mouth on a microphone, chipping a tooth in the process. Just another rock 'n' roll casualty! Sadly, all good things come to an end and Hoods Yeah Right! folded when the singer wanted to go his separate way.

All was not lost, however, as Neale, Alan, and Steve joined Adrian, former singer/guitarist of 'The Playroom'. Steve's influence with band naming came to the fore again. This time the band name was from a misquoted line from Jimmy Cagney film, 'The Roaring Twenties' - "I don't want any geraniums in my gang!". Thus, 'No Geraniums' became the group name. No Geraniums were a tight power pop band concentrating solely on their own songs. Early songs 'Freedom', 'Pastures', 'In My Head', You Are' and 'Everything But...' showed great promise. Steve's drumming was cool, clean and hard, Al's bass playing was melodic and punchy, Neale's lead breaks were cutting and delicate and Adrian possessed a voice akin to Edwin Collins. Each new song showed a vibrancy and melodic power and the local gigs were usually packed out. The band supported a number of minor indie acts of the day in larger towns. No Geraniums ventured into the studio a few times to try and capture their live sound but were nearly always disappointed by the recording process and recording engineers' time wasting with irrelevant ideas. One successful session, however, produced two fine recordings, 'Lost That Feeling' and 'Drag Me Down'. These songs were due to be pressed as a single but Adrian, inexplicably left the band just as they were making plans for its release and unfortunately No Geraniums were no more.

For a some time during No Geraniums, Neale had been composing his own songs, which didn't really fit in with No Geraniums group-composed songs or their sound. Mark at this time, had lived in Horsham for a couple of years and had started to learn the guitar. He was soon put in touch with Neale's brother, Colin, who was learning bass. They formed 'The Beat Circus' using an early drum machine for rhythm as competent, available drummers were hard to come by. Eventually they played gigs using a drum machine recorded onto a backing tape. They mostly supported bands, including No Geraniums a couple of times. They also had use of a four track portastudio. Neale used the drum machine and portastudio to make his first four track demo - a recording of a song called, 'It's Stopped Raining'. After No Geraniums split, Neale recorded more songs, 'In My Room', an early version of 'Single', 'Nothing', 'Dedicated To You', 'Forget Me Not', 'But I'm Better Now' and 'It'll End In Tears'. The last four songs formed the basis of 'Autumn', his first cassette release under the name of Fragile.

Neale wanted to play these songs live and without a band took the brave step of playing some gigs solo. His set consisted of originals - 'Dedicated To You', 'Goodbye' and 'But I'm Better Now'; standards - 'I Get A Kick Out Of You' and 'Blue Moon'; and covers - Velvet Underground's 'Over You' and The Smiths' 'Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want'. He also sold many copies of 'Autumn' - a good quantity abroad - and gained lots of contacts. Neale soon started to record more ideas which turned into the second full cassette release, 'Fruit'. He wanted to play some of these songs live as a band. Mark and Colin, as The Beat Circus, were not doing much and practiced a few times playing Fragile songs. However, Colin's interests were in other things and not only did these early sessions come to an end, but the Beat Circus ceased to be as well. Neale persuaded Al and Steve to learn the some of the songs Neale had written over the past couple of years and with the addition of Mark as a guitarist/singer, a full line up of Fragile was completed. The first batch of songs was made up of material from 'Fruit', i.e. 'Happy Anarchy', 'Fruit', 'Wednesday's Child', 'I Give Up', 'Want Me', 'I'm Not Here To Make You Happy' and 'I Wish Someone Would Send Me Some Flowers'. The set slowly expanded to include 'Surprise Me', 'Up Against It', 'I Don't Get It', 'Bootboys In Love' and one of Mark's new songs, 'I Remain'. Everything appeared to be going well until Al dropped the bombshell that he was giving up playing music. This left the band in limbo again, without a bass player. A local bass player was given a one practice trial but was found to be unsuitable. There didn't seem to be much hope of finding another either.

Some time went by without much band activity although both Neale and Mark kept recording demos. In this time Neale released 'Jangly' and 'Not For Sale'. Also around this time, a German fan of the 'Autumn' song 'It'll End In Tears' arranged for it to be included on a 7" vinyl single with three other bands. The compilation single was entitled 'Take A Look At Max'. One day Mark was introduced to Robert by his girlfriend. Although Rob was mainly a guitar player and had never played in a band, he was keen to take up the bass and join. A meeting was arranged to practice a few songs and Rob fitted in perfectly. Soon the band were practicing again, dropping most of their previous set in favour of fresher songs from 'Jangly' and 'Not For Sale' as well as a handful of Mark's songs, such as 'Haunted', 'Don't Mention Her Name', 'Don't Turn Away', 'Ever Love You' and 'Turn Your Love Away'. Two songs survived from the early sessions, namely 'I Remain' and 'I'm Not Here To Make You Happy'.

The band arranged their debut gig in March 1994 at The Inn On The Prom, Worthing. This was the culmination of years of line up changes, practicing and song writing. Before the band played the gig, they learned six new songs, 'Pass Me By', 'Write The Wrongs', 'Gnashville', 'With God On their Side', 'Miss Me' and 'Change'. A visit to Anzac recording studio in Brighton was made in February 1995 where the band recorded 'Don't Turn Away' and 'Pass Me By'. This recording session led to gigs played in April, June and August 1995 - all in Brighton. The April gig was a triumph for the band who played a blistering half hour set and sold several Fragile T-shirts and tapes.

In October 1997 they decided to attempt a home recording of some of the songs in the setlist and recorded the drums with three microphones onto a Tascam 488 eight track in their practice hall in Crawley. Twenty two songs were recorded in all but these had be checked and a decision was eventually made to continue work on thirteen of the original batch. By May 1998, guitar, bass, vocals, effects and mixing were finished and the songs were completed. Neale and Mark had been in contact with Hanns-Christian from the fledgling Apricot Records in Wiesbaden, Germany for about a year and a half. Hanns-Christian had picked up the 'Autumn' tape from Rough Trade in London and was a fan of the songs. He later heard some of Mark's 'The Shining Hour' demos and was keen to release some material.

The Apricot team of Hanns-Christian, Martin and Johannes released a four track vinyl seven inch E.P. in November 1998 which contained; 'Worlds Apart', 'I'm Not Here To Make You Happy', 'I Remain' and 'I Need Help'. Apricot's vinyl releases are strictly limited to 800 hand-numbered copies. The first 400 were pressed onto yellow vinyl and the second pressing of 400 were on 'lipstick' pink vinyl. The sleeve design by Apricot friend, Mariko, was very impressive and Fragile were extremely pleased with the results. Apricot simultaneously released the now classic Airpop CD. Airpop was a Various Artists compilation which had 11 bands, 22 songs (12 bands, 24 songs on the double LP version). Fragile contributed the recordings made in 1995 at Anzac Studios in Brighton; 'Don't Turn Away' and 'Pass Me By'. In November 1998 Neale and Mark made a trip to Wiesbaden and played two gigs to help promote the single. A full report on the visit appears on the Gigs page.

There have been no more gigs since 1998, although the band continues to practice. A number of gigs were meant to be played as support but the band had the ill-fortune of cancellations. Neale and Mark have continued to record demos. Fragile have contributed to numerous compilations around the world (either Neale's solo demos or band recordings) including several Apricot promotional items in Europe and Japan, compilations in USA, Japan, Sweden. A CD-R was put together of the 11 songs completed in May 1998 which included some hilarious out-takes from practices, acoustic renditions and parts of the two unfinished songs. The CD-R was entitled 'Norwegian Jazz' (a band catchphrase for mistakes or 'bum notes'!).

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