HE gave The Police their first gig in Newport and paved the way for many well-known rockers on stage.

Now Jonny Perkins, 62, of Melfort Gardens, Newport, is completing a book about his adventures with people most only get close to on the front of an album cover.

At the age of eight, he bought his first track by Little Richard, called Bama Lama Bama Loo and enjoyed using his record player whilst his sister and three brothers preferred activities like horse riding.

During his childhood, he gradually built up a vast collection of records and began DJ-ing in a tin shed in Maesglas to help out a friend in his teenage years.

Mr Perkins said there were many of these discos at the time and he continued with this hobby, until he started managing a couple of bands in South Wales through his contacts.

He was delighted in 1977, when the Racing Cars, which had members from Newport, Cardiff and the Valleys, entered the charts at number 14 with 'They Shoot Horses Don't They'.

At the time, he was one of the first to use St Woolos Church Hall as a venue, giving gigs to bands such as Budgie who had several top three hits.

But his most notable achievement was giving The Police, who were then relatively unknown, their first gig in Newport.

The soon-to-be world-famous band were then looking for work, so Mr Perkins, who calls himself 'the origin', put them as a supporting act to Cherry Vanilla, an American singer he was managing.

Soon after the evening at the old Alexandria Club, in front of around 30 people, they became more well known as a band and it took off from there.

"I paid Cherry Vanilla £100 for the gig and she paid The Police £15," Mr Perkins recalled.

He said many people were wary of punk music at the time, but he had success with The Jam, The Stranglers and The Vibrators, amongst others.

He also started a fanzine in 1974, called The Welsh Grapevine, to go alongside his promotion work, so people could see when and where the bands were playing, including a gig with The Jam in the Roundabout Club.

He also became friends with the late Joe Strummer, most famously of The Clash and still retains a hotel room card signed by him when he was in Newport and his lighter.

Mr Strummer, who came to Newport to study, would also put Jonny's name behind the door if he was playing anywhere in the seventies.

In 2002, when he was part of The Mescaleros, Joe dedicated a song to him at TJ's in Newport.

"It was sad actually, because that was the last time I saw him," Mr Perkins said of the lead vocalist, who died the same year.

Due to ill health, Mr Perkins gradually had to scale down his promoting of bands after his initial successes and admits he did not make much money from it, hence the title of his book, 'In it 4 the crack.'

He has devoted the last three years to it and is now looking for a local publisher to make it onto the bookshelves.

He also has a fanzine, of the same name as his book, which is out quarterly.