Recorded: Manorside, Abbey Wood

19, 22, 23, 25, February / 16 March / 8, 9, 10 May / 18 June / 8 September 2000

Mark Tingley:

Lead vocals, Keyboards (6), Tambourine, Maraca, Backing vocals (6), "Drums",

Paolo Kraji: Lead guitars (2 ), Acoustic guitar, Bass
Philip Smith: Harmonicas (2)

Some of the spoken phasing was influenced by Desmond Lynam, one-time British sports TV presenter!! It's probably the only song on the album that wasn't about anything, except that "The Brave and the Bold" was a Batman comic, and "Feel the Fear" a book. "Far Away" was directly inspired by a Nigel number called "Laughing Man". I originally had an idea for an Italian narrative going on behind the spoken verses. This was before I'd even met Paolo the Italian Architect!

Paolo replied to my ad for lead guitarist. While we were chatting about our interests, I played him "Far away" in demo form. Paolo immediately began playing around with ideas and we got them down. Not bad for a first meeting!

I told him my plans to put the album out on CD, but he had grave doubts about recording on hissy analogue 4 track cassettes. It was his argument that set me on the road to going digital. But Mark Purkiss warned me that if I upgraded to 8 track the album would be delayed even further.

And he was absolutely right! I redid sections and spent even longer pouring over production details.

The album was to take a further 2 years to complete!!!