Friends formed in early 1986 in Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England. The band was intended as a vehicle for the songs of William Jones, who was working at the Dovecot Arts Centre in Stockton as Music Officer. The early band was closely associated with the Dovecot, rehearsing and often performing there as part of a regular flow of independent bands both from the region and elsewhere who formed the burgeoning independent music scene of the time.

Jones had started out as a classical guitarist, coming to acoustic and electric guitar relatively late, and had intended to remain as guitarist and songwriter with the band. The first batch of songs was worked out and rehearsed using members of another local band, Whirlpool Guest House, with Carl Green, WGH's vocalist, singing, and Green and Jones recorded an early Friends demo in Gosforth, Newcastle, as a two-piece with drum machine. Jones' rapidly expanding catalogue of songs, and his desire to make the band a permanent entity, led to his recruiting a live line-up and taking on the vocal role until a singer could be found.

"My dictatorial running of the band at that time meant that I could never take a back seat, and I had a very tight rein on how the songs were presented. Eventually I found myself increasingly enjoying the role of singer, learned to sing better, and decided to stick with it and take it on myself".

The first line-up (William Jones, Greg Bone on guitar, Bruce Pearson on keyboards, Tony Stewart on bass, and Paul Lynagh on drums), never made it to the first gig in August 1986, as Stewart and Lynagh both left to pursue an interest in another band. Around this time, everyone was in at least one other band, and Bruce Pearson's brother Edwin was recruited on bass, with Chris Wood on drums. The band teamed up with Steve Daggett, who had engineered the very early demo, and went to Strawberry Studios in Stockport to record a first 7" single, It's Getting Louder.

"This was a mistake, and was far too early to record a single. We had better songs by this time, and I hadn't really got to grips with the singing. The songs were under-arranged and empty-sounding and we were very disappointed with the results".

Nevertheless, Friends started playing live extensively throughout the area to support the single, which was distributed by Probe Plus through the Cartel (the independent distribution network), though without shifting large quantities. It's Getting Louder was released in October 1986 on the new Summerhouse label which Jones had formed earlier that year to provide an outlet for his and Carl Green's songs, and those of 4,000,000 Telephones, one of a steady stream of brilliant independent bands that was passing through the Dovecot.

Undaunted by the experience of the first single, Friends were soon back in the studio, this time at Fairview near Hull. Fairview and its resident engineer John Spence had been recommended to Jones by Steve Skinner, singer and guitarist with International Rescue, who Jones had seen supporting Orange Juice and subsequently booked to play at the Dovecot Arts Centre. The same Friends line-up recorded four songs for a 12" single, three of which had become fixtures in the band's live set. The sessions took place in a very bleak December, and involved a perilous journey where the band's van, loaded with equipment, came off the road into a ditch in the countryside miles from the studio. With the failure of the first single, and the label struggling, the release of Far And Away was put back to September 1987, and plans to release it in two formats, 7" and 12", abandoned.

A feature of this time was the impossibility of finding a decent trumpeter to join the band without being paid a large amount of money. So for live work Friends used session trumpeters of varying ability and commitment, and arranged parts for them. For the Far And Away sessions, Fairview had an old trumpeter called Norman Baron working at the studio on cassette duplication, and the band booked him for the job, playing on Burning Bridges and Over And Over, with Martyn Clarke, a Newcastle-based session man, coming down for the final song The End Of The Affair.

"Trumpeters were a nightmare. I hated them. If they could play, they always looked wrong, and if they looked good they could never play. They never learned the songs. Plus they cost a fortune. My biggest ambition was to get a trumpeter to join the band full-time. Additionally we liked to use two, which doubled the problems, and the wage bill".

By the time Far And Away was released Friends had experienced another mass exodus of personnel, the two Pearsons and Wood leaving to concentrate on their other two ventures, a hippy-rock/Dylan-influenced band and a jazz-funk outfit. Jones advertised for replacements locally, and the result was the youngest ever Friends line-up, all the new members clocking in at under 20. First recruit, drummer Craig Vear, brought with him bass player Peter Maude, and later Stewart Moffat, a trumpeter who eventually doubled up on keyboards; Jo Spayne joined on guitar, with Michele Lackenby on keyboards. The latter two lasted only a handful of gigs, with Stewart Moffat moving to keyboards and Graeme Robinson joining on drums.

The new line-up was ready to play live by July 1987, and by this time Friends were playing throughout the country, with dates in London, Bristol, Newcastle, Birmingham and the many venues in Stockton, Middlesbrough and Darlington which made up the local band scene.