The next piece of big news came on the 20th of January, when we found out that Yamaha had chosen our song 'Would You Ever?' to be on their 'Best Unsigned Bands of 1999' CD. It was a great honour, and it even got featured in the press.
Not letting this brush with fame affect us, we headed down to Mark's house the last weekend of February, to lay down 3 tracks.
We cut 'You Stop Time For Me' and 'You Better Stick With Me Baby' with few problems, but our second attempt at Mark's 'Always Wanting More' was as disastrous as the first and had to be abandoned. (Right: Saul drumming at the February sessions).
In March, meanwhile, Nicko Vaughn, a superb singer and guitarist came down to London to record guitar and vocals for 'Propinquity', another Monkees cover. In true U2/Frank Sinatra style, Saul overdubbed backing vocals later in the year. Nicko also jammed a couple of other tunes which may well go on our rarities cd. (Above left: Nicko)
In mid April, Aiden Saul and Mal gathered at Aiden's house and put together Saul's musical collage 'All's Well that's Never Begun'. It featured Saul reading a poem over various street sounds of Norwich, and also a classic quote from Mark (Saul recorded our dinner conversations at the February recording session specifically to get dialogue snippets), a snippet of an acoustic version of 'Elephant Sings The Blues' and Saul's Nan singing, which got us in trouble with the MCPS!!
May saw the first mixing session of the 'Music For Mook' album, which cleared enough hard disk space for us to finish the album. Then it was straight back to recording, but in a new location. We felt we had imposed enough on Mark's wonderful hospitality, and so decided to start recording at Backstreet, our regular rehearsal studio. Things went more smoothly there than we could have dared hope. We finally got 'Always Wanting More' as we wanted it, and also cut 'The Reverend Slymington and 'Eine Kleine Mook Music' in a very productive session.
Things were now proceeding apace, as we had booked a cd launch gig for August 8th, and had to take the cover pics, finish the album, and have the cds pressed and ready all by that date!! We accomplished the first of these tasks late in May, when Saul, Aiden, Mal and Dan travelled to Norwich for a photo shoot (Liam and Mark chose to send photos instead). For the cover, a parody of cheesy sexist 70's covers, we needed a bikini-clad girl. Jane, the girlfriend of one of Aiden's workmate's brother, stepped in, and at the rehearsal after the photo shoot, demonstrated that she was an amazing flautist. We promptly invited her to guest on the album, which she eagerly agreed to.
As June came around we finalised plans for a new t-shirt to celebrate the launch of the new cd. The front cover was an outtake from the cover-shoot, and on the back were listed the 3 dates of the cd launch tour we were planning. 
Then, on the weekend of the 20th/21st June we met at backstreet Studios in order to finish the album recording sessions. We were booked in for a full day and a half as we had a lot to do.
Jane (right) came along to play flute on 'The Treasure Of Sarah Madre' and 'No More Monkee Business', and Saul's girlfriend Anne played violin on 'Castro's Jig, which she had co-written with Saul.