Speed, in Bruce's own words, sounded like a crossover between Judas Priest and The Stranglers with a Hammond organ on top of it. The main direction was that any song they made had to be megafast, hence the name. "Damn, it was like Speed Metal, but ten years too early", Bruce reminices. By this time he was in college in London, and the band consisted of Bruce on vocals and guitar, Martin Freshwater on guitar, Paul White altering between keyboards and guitar, Adam Hayand on bass and Steve Jones on drums.

Below are some exclusive pictures of Speed, kindly supplied to the site by Steve Jones. Please do not use without permission. Steve can be contacted through hcjones30_at_yahoo.co.uk

There are two tracks from Speed in circulation - "Down the road" and "Man in the street" - taken from a 7"-single. However, these are not demos of songs by the actual band Speed, but recordings that keyboard player Paul White made for educational purposes and has Bruce on vocals. White used the Speed name for this project but him and Bruce are the only original Speed-members on the recording.

The tracks were written by White. 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 on it which places the release nicely in time, around 1980.

According to Bruce, the two songs are not really representative of Speed's sound and given the circumstances of the recording 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!"

Paul White's Speed at the "Double 6" in Essex.
(Pic from an eBay auction, hence the "sample" text.)