RELEASED 29th FEBRUARY 1992 1. Laughing at the Boss 2. If Only She Could Know (How I'm Feeling) 3. Loser in Luck 4. This Must Be Love 5. Lifetime in a Teatime 6. Fake Rebel 7. The Grip of Love 8. Change 9. Don't Believe a Word 10. Sad and Lonely 11. Country Houses 12. How little Really Matters 13. Happy

BLOB HOTEL RESIDENTS ON "LIFETIME IN A TEATIME"

Mark Tingley: Lead vocal, Guitars, Bass, Percussion, Drums
Nigel Marvin: Lead guitar, Bass, Vocals
Matt Faiers: Percussion, Drums, Keyboards
Dave Goodman: Double-Bass, Penny whistle, Guitar, Percussion
Helen Smith: Keyboards
Nick Dzielski: Drums

Sandra Dunn: Piano, Backing vocals on "This Must Be Love"
John Booker: Bass on "Laughing at the Boss"
Philip Smith: Vocal on "Country Houses"
Isabelle Marcoul: Percussion on "Sad and Lonely"

Recorded: Harborough, Sidcup / Beverly, Sidcup / Plotts, Sittingbourne, Kent / New Road, Abbey Wood / Bexleyheath / Leyton, London / Maddocks Close, Footscray, Kent
August 1989 - February 1992

Cover drawn by Guy Tarrant.
Cover coordination: Mark Tingley.


"Lifetime in a Teatime" was an attempt at a 14 track pure pop album. It brought together the live lineup of Blob Hotel for what became the last album.

As with previous albums, "Lifetime" began with one defining session, this time with Drummer Nick Dzielski, which yielded the "Laughing at the Boss" and "If Only She Could Know" rhythm tracks.

Final work then continued on "Scowl", and attention soon moved towards playing live. However Dzielski decided to pull out of our debut performance at the last minute, but Bassist John Booker managed to persuade a friend, Matt Faiers to play instead.

Things weren't looking good for Blob Hotel. Booker quit after the first gig, the second we played as a trio, and a proposed 3rd never happened because I lost my voice. Eventually Helen left to work in Italy and Nigel insisted he was only helping out.

While on Jury Service, I came up with "Lifetime in a Teatime", meant initially as a working title. After a quiet 1990, I met Dave Goodman.

Dave had produced the Sex Pistols just prior to them hitting the big time. I replied to his advert searching for new talent and we spent a day recording "This Must Be Love" for a compilation album that never happened. Dave and I remained friends, and he helped me on other "Lifetime" tracks.

I rang Matt Faiers up and asked him if he fancied recording. We crammed into a garden shed within the garage at the bottom of his garden and got down the rhythm tracks. Meantime Nigel returned to the fold to play lead guitar and bass to complete the live lineup of 2 years earlier.

Taking the early tracks and the Goodman sessions and combining them with the new material, I had the third Blob Hotel album in the bag.

"Lifetime in a Teatime" contains some of my best work. I'm satisfied with every song but not every recording, some of which suffer a lack of consistency with badly executed tracks such as "Change" and The Grip of Love". It seemed that on those remaining sessions I had run out of ideas. But standout highlights "This Must Be Love" "Laughing at the Boss" and "Happy" among others deserve to one day be given a new lease of life.

Click below to find out more about "Laughing at the Boss".