Pop-shield in one hand, microphone in the other; central heating bursting into life, texts chugging on to the phone, Offsprog One laughing on the phone upstairs.... pedal-driven Logic Express wheezing along weakly; singing Femme Fatale sent shivers down my spine.
The Skat cover of the Velvet Underground and Nico song was originally recorded at Alvic Studios in West Kensington by Mike Robinson, who had produced the first Chefs session for John Peel, assisted by Richard Preston, son of Dennis who was the former business partner of Joe Meek.
I think that's called metadata.
I remember our drummer Russ Greenwood putting a tambourine part on the song, and we hired an organ and I sat on the floor and played some chords almost as though I knew what I was doing.
We were a band about to split up, although we didn't know that yet.
I was doubled up half the time with the pain of what I was to discover was a duodenal ulcer; it was a stressful band to be in. Nobody seemed to like each other much and things could get pretty ferocious; even the sound engineer joined in once, leaving the van parked diagonally in the middle of Kingsgate Road in West Hampstead one night after a gig, just because he was so annoyed with everyone.
Yet I am still very proud of what we did and the songs we wrote, and of our cover version.
The Charlie Tipper Conspiracy have done a great backing track. I hope I do it justice.
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