Take a lyricist with his head in the clouds and a bizarrely eclectic range of influences. Add a techie with an overactive soldering iron and a copy of Practical Electronics. Stir in a junk-store guitar, a bass made from floorboards, a DIY drum machine kit and a cheap synthesiser. Filter through an echo machine and a range of sub-standard recording equipment. Leave to simmer in a North Lincolnshire farmhouse for 2½ years. Throw in a well-seasoned rock'n'roller with a Mick Ronson fixation and a nice line in crunchy guitar licks, and add a dash of saxophone. Bring to the boil and serve up on assorted vinyl platters. That was the recipe we followed. The result? The Instant Automatons. The Automatons are no more - we finally called it a day back in 1982 after 5 years of lo-fi tomfoolery - but even today there remains an undercurrent of interest in what we did, or tried to do. Hence this website. Don't expect a lot of eye-popping graphics or state-of-the-art web technologies; this is not a site dedicated to promoting "the band" and showing how cool we are, because we're not. It's too late for that. This is just a repository for all the kinds of stuff we still get queries about. We hope it proves useful. Sign the Guestbook Credits and Contact Info Site Map