The real back story as told by Ed himself absolutely & unequivocally in his own words…

The Sex Pistols connection

When the Sex Pistols exploded onto the scene in 1976, Ed’s mates, who knew what he was like, said,
“That sounds like the sort of band you should be in ha ha!”but being a man who likes to finish what he starts,
he completed his course in acting school before leaving in April ’77.

Then extremely eager to become involved, replied to an advert in the Melody Maker for ‘Wild front man wanted’ and got the job, (obviously).

That band, ‘The Visitors’, played 12 gigs before chucking Ed out after a review of them at the Marquee said, ‘Great band apart from the bug-eyed cretin on vocals’.

Not long after, a fan of that band alerted him as to where and when The Sex Pistols were auditioning for a new singer, as John Lydon had resigned.

Ed got the job, (obviously) and met Malcolm McLaren who started the conversation by saying, ‘I want you to write a song called Who Killed Bambi. and I’ve changed your name to 'Ten Pole Tudor’.

What elated him was that McLaren was taking him seriously as a composer….(‘He must be psychic’ thought Ed)…

Dear Malcolm, R.I.P.

The song was recorded at Wembley Studios with a 45 piece orchestra and then rehearsals began in earnest
with Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Andy Allen, a stand-in bass player for Sid Vicious, who was in America.

They recorded a version of Rock Around the Clock and then Sid died.

Malcolm was ousted from the controls by a court order and the Sex Pistols folded.

“Going for the Sex Pistols job was to get a foot in the door and I had enough anger to power Battersea station, but I always wanted to be the first Ten Pole Tudor rather thanthe second Johnny Rotten” (ETP 1980).

With the advance for Who Killed Bambi, Ed funded the forming of his own band and it was decided that his stage name elided to Tenpole Tudor would be a good name for it.
 
Inspired by the likes of the Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis, Kinks, The Who and the Beatles, coupled with the derring-do of punk, and loving a great pop song, Ed and his band attempted an amalgam of the above and it was simply a matter of writing enough songs for a set before they were up and away.
 
Tenpole Tudor signed to Stiff records in 1980; they toured the northern hemisphere, had some hits including
'The Swords of 1000 Men', and then imploded acrimoniously, riven with dissent and rancour three years later.

The grisly details of which you’ll have to wait for Ed’s memoirs to find out…

“The purpose of music is to uplift the human heart, uniting one and all in that universal spirit of joy and goodwill” is what I mean by ‘the Ten Pole Tudor spirit’ and that cannot be achieved in the hall unless that spirit exists between the members of the band on stage”.
 
Other line-ups followed, and plenty of wonderful tours and trying to write the greatest song in the world, but no record deal.

Additionally, Ed was getting a few film offers on the back of ‘The Great Rock & Roll Swindle’ and
’Absolute Beginners’ , also theatre work so Ed thought he would try his hand as an actor, for which he had trained.

Give the music a rest for a bit. But he always played his guitar when he got home.

If you’ve nothing better to do, being in a film is the best fun in the world and Ed had some great jobs; like three months in Nicaragua with Alex Cox and Joe Strummer making ‘Walker’ and, in theatre, playing the juvenile lead
at The Haymarket with Rex Harrison and Edward Fox and of course the late great Spike Milligan in
‘ The Peter Sellers Story’ to name but 3 of them but the life of an actor can have long periods of inactivity and waiting like a moron for the phone to ring, so Ed would always be compelled to form another band
 in between jobs, rehearse it up and then in time a film would come along e.g. ,which he
would have to accept in order to put food on the table, which meant that the band suffered.
 
So something had to give; and eventually it did.

“There comes a time in a man’s life when he has to decide what he is and what he is here for and I came to realize that I’m the wrong animal to be an actor; I am a musician, I like the company of musicians and resent anything that keeps me away from the guitar and channeling songs, tunes and rhythms, and playing gigs and meeting the people.

If I were to be shot dead in a drive-by, my ambition is for the headlines to read - 'Musician shot by gun-man!', rather than, for instance, 'Crystal Maze man dies".

Dear reader let us talk no more of death for now is the time for life so play some music and live!

It took me 30 years of practice on the guitar before it was sounding good enough to these
ears to play in public.

The last thing the world needs is another average guitar-player!

Now I am doing what it is I am meant to be doing I am happy.

“To achieve recognition for being a musician would be a nice bonus.” Says Ed.

  Keep rockin’ y’all xxx