1998 (contd)

After the Harlow festival, we began auditioning new songs for our second album. We had planned to begin recording in October, but Mark had to postpone at the last minute, and we couldn't find a free weekend for all of us until nearly 2 months later. On the 5th of December we gathered at Mark's house in Upper Brailles, to begin recording at last. As well as 3 originals (Generation Why, Get Out Of My World and Always Wanting More), we also cut a rockin' version of 'Santa Claus' (an old Sonics song from the 60's.). On the Saturday afternoon, Saul's father arrived, and we started recording. First up was 'Generation Why', on which Mr Penfold played washboard.

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Above Left: Mr Penfold practices on the washboard, in the background you can see me singing a scratch vocal to give him something to play to.
Above right: I played bass for the first time on a Shorties song on 'Get out Of My World'.

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Next up was Mal's rockin 'Get Out Of My World'. I was delighted to be given the chance to play bass on this number. I'd played bass live before, but never in the studio. Mal and Dan handled the guitar work and Mal sang.

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Above Left: Mark takes centre stage on the keyboard driven 'Always Wanting More'.
Above Right: The Shorties add handclaps to Generation Why. Straight after this photo was taken I threw down the camera and joined in.

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Then came Mark's groovy 'Always Wanting More'. A catchy, bouncy pop tune, which is very much keyboard driven, and finally 'Sana Claus'. Then, that same evening Mr Penfold left with the drums. The following day we did all the overdubs..vocals, percussion etc. For Generation Why, all 5 of us did some funky handclaps (see photo). We finally finished at 4.30 on the Sunday afternoon, and went our seperate ways to join the real world. As 1998 drew to a close, we had good reason to be satisfied. Our debut album was selling exceptionally well, we'd played to our biggest ever crowd, and a new album was underway. How would events progress? You'll have to go to the 1999 section to find out!!

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Above left: Mal, Above right: Dan

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