So….I ran away. Manchester was another life, of students, theatre, acting and a household shared with Mick and his pregnant girlfriend.
I wouldn’t have to think.
Jeremy (Jel) came up to stay, bringing his guitars. He stayed in the attic – a large space which we decided could be our studio. We could play every day and into the night – I’ve always been a night person.
We started a new set. Significantly, the first song, initiated by me, was called Got No Drummer. Then, a torrent of songs, in retrospect coping with grief, though I didn’t recognise that at the time. Jel said, You’re coming up with a song every day, I can’t keep up!
Of course, the undeniable quantity wasn’t necessarily matched by quality. But by the end of the holidays, NTP had another album’s worth of work. And Mick started to contribute too – clarinet, vocal haronies, and more. This set became BEDROCK and was to be the last offering by NTP. Mick would become a regular collaborator with me and Jel and, out of respect to Al’s memory, we decided to call ouselves USSB.
BEDROCK, remastered and repackaged, will be released as a vinyl LP in the Autumn by BRIGHT CARVINGS. And on February 29th BRIGHT CARVINGS will release an LP of remastered songs by THE ULTRA SMOOTH SWAGGER BAND.
I only wish that everybody originally involved could drink together in memory of those days!
STUDIO DIARY
At last! There’s something on tape for These are the Things. Put down the bass guitar playing to a click track, having to count the first 48 bars before the first change! Then a rough version of electric guitar, sounding a bit like Keith Richards (I hope!). Tomorrow, Lottie will try to record a final version of the piano track – a mixture of thump thump in the left hand and some tasty jazz chords in the right. Will get back to you about this later….
Later. The piano sounds great though we want to make a couple of adjustments next session.