As always Mark's lovely wife Belinda had prepared a feast for us. On this visit, the Saturday lunch was stunning. Belinda had made a terrific salad, with cold cuts of meat for all except Saul, our veggie, who enjoyed pasta. As we sat in the boiling sun, in the beautiful peace and quiet of the countryside, it all seemed a million miles away from London. And a million miles away from most rock band images, as we drank tea and ate sandwiches.
The 'Last Of The Middle Class Radicals' enjoy a famous five-esque spread!!
Personnel:
Vocals: Aiden
Guitars: Dan
Drums: Saul
Bass Mal
Keyboards: Mark
Notes: The last song Dan brought to us for the album, we had hardly rehearsed it with Mark when we recorded it. Dan asked him for a David Bowie style bit of manic keyboard playing at the end, and we were all delighted with what he came up with. Dan asked me for a soft vocal on this, so I sang it in the same style as 'Would You Ever?' . Unfortunately, when we came to mix it, we found that, compared to all the other parts, we'd set the recording level on the vocals too low. So it was a case of, have the song full of hiss, or have the vocals too quiet, and we went with the latter. As usual on his songs, Dan played guitar and Mal switched to Bass.
Dan explains to Mark how he would like the keyboard part on his song "Be Still"
You Say That You Love Me: (Mark Roberts)
Personnel:
Aiden: Guitar
Mark: Vocals and keyboard
Dan: Bass
Saul: Drums
Notes: This song, only 2 minutes long, proved the most difficult track to record on the whole album. We tried recording it as a group, but it had no spark, so we then tried building it track by track. At this stage it had two guitar parts (Mal playing a second part), but after 4 hrs we realised this wasn't going to work, as Mark's keyboard part, while keeping a steady tempo, sounded wrong when the guitars and drums were added. We abandoned the song for the day and recorded 'Steppin Stone' instead. We started 'You say...' from scratch the next morning (without Mal's guitar part), recording most of it together, with only vocals, bass and extra drums added later, and all went much more smoothly. I remember Mark making Saul redo the drum bit that kicks in at the start of the last verse about 8 times, each time saying: "Louder, more aggressive please". Saul's arms were dropping off by the time he got it finished. It sounded good in the end, but what a slog.
Two professional talented percussionists... and a picture of Aiden and Saul :)
Mark's kids, Sophie and John, get into the spirit of things.
'Steppin' Stone': (Boyce/Hart)
Vocals and guitar: Aiden
Guitar: Mal
Drums: Saul
Bass: Dan
Keyboards: Mark
Backing Vocals: Everyone
Notes: We had wanted to add another Monkee cover to the 3 we'd recorded in 1996, especially as we didn't like the production on the earlier tunes that much. We'd worked up a new and rockin' version of Steppin' Stone for the Feb 98 concert when Saul was ill (and Ravi played drums), so it seemed the ideal choice as it was still fresh to us. We explained how it went to Saul, and with me singing an unrecorded guide vocal we tried take 1. Just before we started Saul yelled: "I don't know how it ends", but we said: "Doesn't matter, we never get it right on take 1". And that's why, just before Mal's ending lick Saul does a mega drum roll. He thought it *was* the end :)). As he finished Mal played his guitar lick and everyone ended. Unbelievably it sounded BETTER than we'd ever played it. Saul's mistake worked. It sounded so cool, we decided we'd go with that take, warts and all. It was rough, certainly, but we felt it captured the spirit of 'Live '67' (great Monkees Live LP), full of spirit and energy. The only overdubs were vocals, backing vocals and my guitar. As a lot of our fans came via the Monkees list, that's why I thought I'd add the 'Well, all you Shorties fans, we've got a treat for you' bit at the beginning.
It's been a long hard day :))
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Two professional talented percussionists... and a picture of Aiden and Saul :)
Mark's kids, Sophie and John, get into the spirit of things.
Guitar: Mal
Drums: Saul
Bass: Dan
Keyboards: Mark
Backing Vocals: Everyone
Notes: We had wanted to add another Monkee cover to the 3 we'd recorded in 1996, especially as we didn't like the production on the earlier tunes that much. We'd worked up a new and rockin' version of Steppin' Stone for the Feb 98 concert when Saul was ill (and Ravi played drums), so it seemed the ideal choice as it was still fresh to us. We explained how it went to Saul, and with me singing an unrecorded guide vocal we tried take 1. Just before we started Saul yelled: "I don't know how it ends", but we said: "Doesn't matter, we never get it right on take 1". And that's why, just before Mal's ending lick Saul does a mega drum roll. He thought it *was* the end :)). As he finished Mal played his guitar lick and everyone ended. Unbelievably it sounded BETTER than we'd ever played it. Saul's mistake worked. It sounded so cool, we decided we'd go with that take, warts and all. It was rough, certainly, but we felt it captured the spirit of 'Live '67' (great Monkees Live LP), full of spirit and energy. The only overdubs were vocals, backing vocals and my guitar. As a lot of our fans came via the Monkees list, that's why I thought I'd add the 'Well, all you Shorties fans, we've got a treat for you' bit at the beginning.