TIME TO THINK - Be Yourself

The idea for this tape came about from listening to the fifth Apostles album, notably the first side which consists of thrashy/punky numbers of which Andy said he would like to do more. Due to my preference for this style of music, I was pleased/surprised to hear him having an interest, as I knew that he loathed the majority of modern punk music. I was asked whether I could do the drumming to 'The Reptile Kid', a song which Andy had written for his own group, Academy 23, which was due to be recorded as part of their second demo. I had to decline the offer as I could get no time off work to do the recording which was a pity as the band I was in at the time, State of Confusion, was more or less defunct so I had wanted to take part in more musical projects, especially punk/thrash as was the style of 'The Reptile Kid'. It was instead suggested that Andy and myself should record a tape, which would mainly consist of punky/thrashy songs, to be done sometime in the near future.

On the weekend of the 16th/17th/18th of November, we started on the recording of the tape which took place at Andy's home in Hackney, London on a 4-track recorder. The first lot of songs that were done were pieces that Andy had previously written, some of which were for the intended use of Academy 23, so not much time was needed for writing giving us more time for actual recording. Although a lot of care and time was taken during the recording, each track needed very little rehearsing. A lot of the later songs were written spontaneously, some being inspired by conversations we were having between recording sessions.

Although Andy and myself had done a lot of the work oursleves, other people helped to contribute something to the recording and the packaging of the tape. Helen, who did vocals on 'Fare Fan for the Common Man', currently works for the Race Relations Board in London; her friend Daz Lloyd, who plays guitar on 'Philosophy', and the only trained musician featured on the tape, used to be in a band called Terminus, but now records and releases tapes worked on only by himself. Sean Stokes of The Demolition Company, who incidentally hadn't recorded anything for over a year before this tape, intends to continue working with his group to add to the three tapes which his group have already produced. Sean played guitars, bass and was one of the vocals on 'Male, Macho and Proud', 'Hymn' and 'Heaven Street'. Muz and Dave did the artwork for the front cover. They are both in Academy 23 and it was Muz who kindly gave us his tape recorder to smash up for one of the songs, due to it being on top of the grill whilst one of his friends was making toast, resulting in the bottom of the casing being severely melted and, basically, causing the machine not to work any more. It was very kind of Dave to do the artwork for the cover, considering he has absolutely no enthusiasm for the contents of the cassette. Finally Andrew, who it must be said, is a total non-musician and also a good friend of mine for many years, was the person on the end of the hammer during 'The Death of Muz's Cassette Machine' and spoke on 'Questionnaire'. At the moment he is in Holland where he stayed during the summer of 1990. I am not entirely sure of what his intentions are while he is there, but I wish him all the best for whatever he intends to do. Good luck!!!!

Although we feel that the quality of this tape is of a high standard for 4-track recording, it needs to be stressed that no one featured, apart from Daz, is considered or considers themselves to be a musician and certainly none of us has or have required a vast amount of money to create a recording of this quality.

Pete. 04/02/91