Recorded: Courtland, Thamesmead 29, 30, 31 January, 1 February 1996.

Manorside, Abbey Wood,

19, 26 March / 17 May / 5, 6, 7 June / 12 July / 7, 15 August / 15, September 2000 6, 13, 23 April 2001

Mark Tingley:

Lead vocal, Harmony vocal, Rhythm guitar, Lead guitar, Bass, Bottles, Fingersnaps & Handclaps, Keyboards (3), "Drums"

Helen Smith: Violin
Brian Tingley: Dad Voice
Guy Tarrant: Pub crowd
David Cook: Pub crowd


Despite believing it to be an ideal career move, my stint as a trainee radio journalist had turned into a complete nightmare ! Disillusioned, I retreated into the comfort of the one thing I loved doing most.... songwriting.

I'd been away from writing so long I wasn't even sure I could do it anymore. But within days of picking up the guitar, literally tons of ideas started pouring out of me. These initial writing sessions were named "Wilber walks", marking the first creative steps of Wilberforce.

From that mass of ideas, "Drink" came out of me fully formed. It was the first Wilberforce song to be written. It's unorthodox structure and no proper chorus meant taking a leap of faith to leave it more or less as it was.

To illustrate the lyrics I recorded a bar room style piano with a psychedelic feel and dragged my Dad in to do the "Son you wanna..." line. Helen Smith played laughing violin, and I sang like I was becoming more and more inebriated!

But a song called "Drink" needed a pub! In name and sound the "Frog & Horse" was a complete fabrication! Better than a real pub I invented one by roping together Guy Tarrant (who designed the album cover) and David Cook (who inspired "Gooseberry"). I recorded an afternoon of chat and replaced cups of tea with suitably stronger refreshments!

I bounced down the edited highlights and mutiplied the three of us into a whole pub of 43! The "vomitting" idea came from an adlib during a rehearsal (see right), resulting in me perched over a bucket dribbling sick noises into the microphone!