11:59 were but a brief shooting star amongst the constellation of bands of that time. Michael Hassan and Blair Cameron had been playing Portrush surf punk, blistering Ramones covers and the odd “original” composition since 1978 as Wipeout. After attending a seminal and ear-splitting performance in Michael’s garage in 1981, culminating in Michael’s mother pulling the power, David Heaney went out, bought an electric guitar, learnt all of “It’s Alive”, and asked to join. Just like the Beatles the original Wipeout drummer was the legendary Pete Best, known to all as George. Just like the Beatles, the fifth Wiper outer was later to be unceremoniously dumped. Trawling the youth club circuit the band gradually moved on to the dizzy heights of Spuds despite all being 16 or under, supporting the Xdreamyists and then the Mighty Shamrocks. When booked to play a kids Christmas party in Ballysally only to discover the kids were actually pre-schoolers, the band played on regardless, thundering out breakneck versions of Christmas carols and “Now I wanna sniff some glue” to bemused 5 year olds, stopping only for a well deserved break of jelly and ice cream. That aside, the band sound was evolving with Hassan and Heaney beginning to churn out a string of melodious pop punk tunes . In 1982 the band went for a name change, and chose 11:59 – a name meant to capture the sense of impending nuclear holocaust in those times or was it just from the Blondie track? Around that time a demo-tape was produced, or to be more accurate over-produced, with keyboards and a drum machine. The laid down were ‘Time Bomb’ ‘Raa Raa For the School’ ‘Quagmire’ and ‘Easy Way Out’. Time Bomb was the hit, despite its leaning on the fast bit of Freebird “There’s a time bomb waiting in the USSR and its pointing at the US of A, there are little red buttons all over the world just waiting for the pressure to come. Time Bomb, Mr Reagan, Time bomb, Mr Breshnev. Time Bomb.” With such lyrics the demo somehow failed to make an impact on John Peel, but did impress ex-Perfect Crime/Fix drummer Peter Kerr enough to join the band. Most of 11.59 witnessed Pete throw his drumsticks off the stage in disgust at his final Perfect Crime gig. Pete was looking to get back to something slightly less ponsy.

After one attempt at having a two-drummer band, Pete Best was dropped like a stone, although somehow 11:59 managed to hold on to his drumkit! Pete Kerr brought some groovy little songs (like the popular “Cold Light”) with him and the band practiced furiously for the impeding and now infamous Battle of the Bands in Coleraine on 22nd May 1982, where the lads set out to impress Terri Hooley who was one of the judging panel. It was a real punk rock night, with Stalag 17 and Decontrol also playing and of course, there was THAT performance from the Antrim punks Mistaken Identity.

Then one day, out of the blue, Pete Best turned up and took his drumkit back! And that was the Cinderalla moment for 11:59, their minute of fame was up. After a bit of falling out over what to do next 11:59 were done. Michael and Blair reformed Wipeout, went back to their roots and played Portrush for years; that’s another story. David and Pete headed off their separate ways, across the water, dreaming what might have been.

Sadly, David Heaney passed away suddenly at his home on July 16th 2020, aged Just 55 years.