Early days | Spearmint? | A Week Away | A Different Lifetime | My Missing Days |
Paris In A Bottle | Songs For The Colour Yellow | Oklahoma! | A Leopard And Other Stories |
The Boy And The Girl That Got Away | The Future...

Oklahoma!

It had taken us so long to put together "A Week Away" and get it released, and I knew that "A Different Lifetime" would need a year or two's work, so rather than have a big gap it seemed right to do something fast and light in the meantime. Somehow, it always felt inevitable that Spearmint would make a Christmas album of some kind at some point. I had the song "Oklahoma!", a true story about a homeless black guy who would wander round my all-white Yorkshire hometown, dressed as a cowboy, and singing songs from Musicals at the top of his voice. I conceived this also as a Christmas song for the homeless, and then had the idea of expanding the idea to a mini-album of songs about the inhabitants of this (suddenly fictional) town on Christmas Eve. The idea for "Oklahoma!" was born.

We wrote some more songs fast, rehearsed them fast, and headed up to Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire for a week in May 2000, with producer JB, who had worked on "A Week Away". The idea was to get all the songs recorded that week then mix them quickly back in London.

It was fun. It was hot. The studio was a converted chapel and we all stayed over in the adjoining house. We had a live-in chef who would make us breakfast, then leave mid morning snacks and coffee out while he prepared lunch, then the same in the afternoon while he made dinner. Apart from food breaks we would work through to nearly 11, then rush up the country lane in the darkness to the local pub where we would catch the inevitably relaxed last orders.

There was another studio in a second building in the grounds - a Belgian (I think) band called Das Popp were working in there - I think they are still making records now. We were a bit wary of them and they of us. I suspect they were wilder than us, working late into the night then surfacing well into the day. The locals in the pub must have been constantly bemused by odd looking bands turning up every night for a week or two then gone forever (we won the quiz though - ha!)

At that point Jim was still playing bass. On the first day we started with a song called "Leaves" and JB decided it needed a radical overhaul from the version we arrived with. So we experimented with ideas, including some nice Pet Sounds drumming from Ronan. But we got bogged down in the whole thing and ended up shelving it for the night. Jim and I were sharing a room above the studio - he was frustrated by the lack of progress and the fact that his bass ideas had been pooh-poohed. We decided to call it a night and start fresh the next day.

Jim is also a notoriously light sleeper and as usual lay there in the dark, annoyed by any slight sounds. Half an hour later loud music started up downstairs - the others had clearly carried on drinking and decided to do some more recording... didn't bother me; I am very happy for people to be working while I sleep... but for Jim it was intolerable that they were making noise and that he was left out. Then the tone of the noise changed and Jim sat bolt upright: "Wait a minute, is that the fucking bass? Is he playing the fucking bass?!" Indeed it was - JB had come up with a bass line and was recording it... I have a feeling that is the what is on the final record too...

We learned a lot working with JB, and I love his production on those albums. He did have an annoying habit of wanting to spar with me in that laddish way, that is basically beating me up, play-fighting people call it... It used to drive me mad - I hated it, but I put up with it as it clearly helped him to relax while recording. I knew that we would not work with JB on the next album as it needed to be different. So on the final Saturday night, after we had finished the last bit of recording, JB started playfully shoving me around after a few drinks, I surprised him by suddenly fighting back and quite easily got him on the floor and, basically, beat him up - revenge is sweet! I was like Kevin Bacon in that movie (what, The Woodsmen?). Jim was in hysterics.

The other thing I remember about that night was that Jeff had driven up to collect us and take us back on the Sunday. He got absolutely plastered in the pub, and stared trying to set free their pet parrot, crying "Unleash the parrot!" repeatedly - this became a band catch-phrase. When we got back to the studio, Jeff disappeared for ages in the kitchen (where we kept the beer), then emerged during the "play-fight" wrapped in a sheet, holding a dustbin lid and brandishing a plastic sword, shouting "I am Spartacus... unleash the parrot!" He was very happy wandering round doing that for a while.

I remember Si needing space in the mornings and going off to eat breakfast by himself. Everybody's quirks started to come out - I liked it, we all got on well. While we listening to the song "Oklahoma!" in the control room, Jim drew a little stamp-sized sketch of a cowboy in the street, gave it to me joking "There you are, there's your artwork". I took it and said "Yes, that's it!" (again)... The final sleeve is a posh version of Jim's sketch by his friend Maya Gavin, who also did the pictures in the booklet - nice artwork!

We often refer to the album as a bit of a joke, as it is so light. But it was never intended to be more than it is. I know it is some people's favourite album of ours - it certainly has some nice songs on it, especially "New Year Song", "Happy Birthday Girl" and "Leaves".