Speaking with Saul shortly afterwards, Aiden found his friend enthused about returning, but worried about the amount of time the band took in his life. The trek down from Norwich meant a whole day away from his girlfriend every time we rehearsed. Ravi, meanwhile, while too busy to drum full time, had expressed an interest in continuing to drum for us beyond his four month fill-in period. So we reached a compromise whereby Ravi and Saul would split the drumming so neither of them was overburdened, and we could utilize each of their strengths. It was a perfect compromise. The following week, with the gig fast approaching, we received a major setback. The lady who had promised to edit our movie, having first postponed it from January to February, now pulled out. We had put the movie on sale for pre-orders and had even received cheques from fans, but now we had no-one to edit the film. We had to put the idea on indefinite hold, not cash any cheques, and look for a solution. But first we had a gig to play.
Above: Stuart overdubs his 'Dummy Love' parts. Right:Liam adds harmonica to 'Is Love Enough?'. Below: Ravi, increasingly at home in the Shorties, rocks out on 'Kirsten'.
Feb 9th came soon enough, the day of our first concert with the full new line-up, and we were eager to get out and show what we could do. The setlist was: Dummy Love, 1500 Wasted Nuns, Steve, Chuck's Party, Toxic Stamp Glue, Is Love Enough?, 9X Blue, Yuki and Kirsten. Only 3 songs from previous albums, and 5 songs making their concert debut. Up until a week before the gig we had been going to perform 'Coffee Cup' too, but Liam felt it wasn't really working as a live number, and so, at the last rehearsal, the decision was made to bring 'Yuki' back into the set. The Hope and Anchor turned out to be a lovely venue. The concert area was in the basement, and the stage was very small. The whole setting was intimate and ideal for creating a rapport with the audience. We were the first band on, and were delighted when we saw over 50 people packed in to see us. After the gig we found 38 had come specifically to see us, which the venue said was almost unheard of for a week night, and they were virtually begging us to play again.
We knew none of this while we were on stage, however, all we knew was the crowd was going wild. Bopping and swaying and reacting to us like never before. The energy was amazing, and the songs were simply grooving. At the end everyone rushed to tell us it was their fave Shorties gig ever, and that with the new material we had at last arrived. It felt fantastic.
The following week we met up with Mal at a pub in Central London, and amidst chatting and drinking, asked if he'd be able to help edit the video, and he gave us a definite maybe. It was great to see him well and happy, and we also talked about him making a guest appearance at our 10 year anniversary gig in Feb 2001, which he was very keen to do. He said he would contact us about the film editing in a month or so, when his work was less busy, and we headed for home a lot more optimistic that 'Shortyworld' would still see the light of day.
Next up, recording wise, was Saul's return. March 19th saw a Shorts session, similar to the one we held for the Mook album, with the rules being that we recorded in a much more relaxed 'jamming ' style than normal. We recorded sans drums, in Liam's tiny bedroom in Chiswick. We were to record 'Maren' (written by Aiden, Saul and Liam), 'Must Get To Oman' (by Dan), and Liam's 'Che Guevara and me'. The night before the session, over a pint in the local pub, we ended up having a rigorous discussion about one of the songs we were going to record.
Most of the Shorties felt that the demo was so good it should go on the album untouched.
The alternate argument was that Liam's demos always sound complete, that's why he does solo tapes and cds, but if we just put Liams demos on, why have a band?. They wanted to try a different take on the song (Che Guevara & Me), arguing that a mellow Shorties take on it could give it a different angle.
The majority view was the former one, but being the Shorties a compromise was reached and so, in true 'Boyce & Hart' pilot episode style, when we recorded the song, we took Liam's vocals off his demo, and substituted ours , Saul added a percussion track, and that was the finished song, it sounded superb and everyone was happy. The other two originals recorded were genuine group efforts, and sounded very mellow and relaxed.
Lastly, for the rarities cd, we recorded a cover of the Prince tune 'I could never take the place of your man', as we felt it would be nice to have something brand new on the rarities album. Dan had given a great new arrangement to this tune, and there was scope for Liam's harmonica playing too. All in all it was a very productive session.
Saul had fitted back in, as if he'd never been away, which pleased us greatly as we now had two superb drummers to draw upon. However, you can never have too many drummers, and not knowing if Ravi would definitely stay with the project, we had begun casting around for possible drummers early in the year. We didn't have to look far. Aiden and Stuart's work colleague, Chris Kiely, was a keen drummer and had the easy-going grooviness required of all potential Shorties. We had agreed in principle for him to drum on one of our new songs, and it seemed one of Aiden's new tunes '1500 Wasted Nuns' fit the bill perfectly. Having lent him the tapes, we had a rehearsal on April 1st, which went exceptionally well, and so we set a recording date of April 15th.
The other song to be recorded on the 15th was Dan's 'Chuck's Party' which featured Ravi on the drums. 
'Chuck's Party' was an inspired Velvet Underground-esque tune, that is catchy beyond belief. Aiden had initially worried it might sound too derivative, and almost managed to turn Dan against the song. Thankfully Dan was talked round, and by the time recording came round, we all knew this was a very special song. We laid the basic track for 'Nuns' first, so that Chris could be on his way. He gave the song a lovely shuffle-pattern feel, and we were all delighted with his contribution. Next up was Ravi, who proceeded to rock our socks off on Chuck's Party. Stuart arrived mid-afternoon for his usual one-take perfomances, his keyboards bringing both tunes to life. The album was coming together exceptionally well.