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.

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.

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 harmonies, 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 ourselves USSB.

BEDROCK, remastered and repackaged, is due to be released as a vinyl LP in 2026 by BRIGHT CARVINGS, following their 2025 release of 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

Beginning to get excited about These are the Things. Lottie re-recorded some piano, And I put on a second guitar - my Gretsch Tennessean, which I love playing. I saw it and tried it in Munjos in Denmark Street two or three years ago. It was expensive and I wasn’t sure I could afford it….So I rang a friend for advice who said, Go on, go for it. So I did. Later, I told Avvon who it was I’d phoned. He said, Very clever, you called one of your only friends who knows sod all about music. Of course they said go for it! He’s coming in on Friday to put down the drums. Before that I have to record a guide vocal so he’ll know where he is in the song….

It’s done! Mick came in to add some sax parts. I think it’ll be the first track on In the Company of Others - a good, strong start, I hope. And then a couple of days later Clem recorded an electric violin on You Never Know. She has a 5-string, so it works as a viola as well a violin. She played low and then very, very high. She’s always surprising with what she comes up with.

BEDROCK

I REMEMBER….

NUMBERS