THE NAME

Guy Tarrant went to the same school as me, and when we were 11, we had a french teacher with a rather round face who Guy began calling "Madame Fruitbowl". It caught on and drove the poor girl to tears......



Years later I remembered the name and decided it would be a great title for the new album.


THE COVER

As well as being best mates for as long as we can remember, Guy is also an accomplished artist who has helped out on previous album covers for Blob Hotel. Since he thought of the name, I invited him in to design the packaging.

We resisted doing cartoons for a long time, but in the end we went with the flow. I gave Guy a list of song titles which inspired him to create several situations for Madame Fruitbowl, then inserted them at suitable intervals within the booklet. The lettering had to be fruity. Guy designed each letter separately, which me and Nat (wilberweb designer) then organised in a row on Skipper the computer, where post production enabled us to clean up the images a bit more and colour them in.

SEQUENCING

This is how I did it...

"Drink", despite being a rather unconventional pop mini opera, seems the perfect opener because it makes you sit up and take notice. "She didn't understand" follows as a pop antidote. "Looking for" slows things down; "Painting" more weirdiness; "Rubber Bra" dragging you into fetish pop!; "Crying" slow and sad; "Beautiful love" cheering things up.

Then I figure on a half time break with an instrumental ("Theme from Wilberforce") that's a radical departure from the rest of the album, because everyone's ready for something different at this point, right?

But I don't want anyone getting too happy, so I go all melancholy with "Picture of you". Now I'm worried they'll turn me off, so I get jolly with the black humour of "Gooseberry". I pursue this line of inquiry with "Devoid", until I feel another ballad coming on in the shape of "Apple of my eye".

The album has made far too much sense so far, so I confuse everyone with the complete nonsense that is "Far away". And while we're in this sing-a-long mood, let's end with a real positive anthem in "Won't bring us down" because there's no way I can follow that one anyway!


STATISTICS

The album was almost entirely recorded at "Manorside Studios"! There are 274 overdubs.

"Rubber Bra" was inspired by a postcard and a fetish catalogue!

Recording spanned 5 years, 2 months and 25 days, between 29 January 1996 and 23 April 2001.

"Drink" was the first and last "Fruitbowl" song to be recorded, and the first Wilberforce song to be written. Featured on the album are "vomiting", cardboard boxes, a virtual pub, vacuum cleaners, humming and bottles!

51 songs were written, 18 were selected, 16 were decided on, but just 14 made it. Originally running for over an hour, the album was pruned to 51 minutes.

The recording of "Madame Fruitbowl" originated on analogue 4 track cassette (right) and evolved on digital 8 track and minidisc.

The album's artwork and mixing were finalised on Skipper the computer. Skipper (right) was actually rescued from a skip and turned into a computer powerhouse by techno wizzard Nigel Marvin!

In all 5 tracks were rejected. Among them "College", considered too old, and "Kiss Chase", which didn't fit. The running order wasn't drawn up until early 2000 and finalised later that year.

Mark's Dad (left) has a cameo on "Drink". "Fruitbowl" contains a cast of 12, of which 7 are musicians.

To order a copy of "Madame Fruitbowl" click here.