Nigel: After me and Jase had got over the shock of Andy leaving, and informed Chris and Byrce, our would be managers, who in turn informed the industry people who had shown an interest, it was time to figure out what to do next. During 1994 I had played for a while with a London based singer songwriter called Groove (no, really), who had been introduced to me by Andy Shillitoe. He was still drummerless in when I got back in touch in late 1995, so I rejoined. With Andy Shillitoe playing bass we did a few recordings and acouple of gigs, but Andy had to leave as he was off on tour doing sound for somebody or other, so Groove asked me to reccomend a bassist. No prizes for guessing who I suggested. Through a lighting engineer friend I also fetched up playing for Amania, another London band consisting of to members of early eighties uber goths The March Violets, and Craig Adams from uber uber goths The Mission. Surprisingly, the music wasn't pure goth, leaning more towards a Garbage kind of sound. Between these two bands (Amania rehearsed twice a week, Groove reheased once or twice, and they both had at least one gig a week) I was kept pleasingly busy for the first half of 1996, even more pleasingly when Groove decided he needed a second guitarist. Again, no prizes for guessing who me and Jase made sure was recruited.
Also throughout this period I was writing and recording with a band (well, ther were two of us) called Mundaka, inspired by Ben Harper and Ry Cooder (I fancied putting some of that slide guitar vibe over some hard loops). Dave Holt suggested that Jason Sherwood, singer of a band called Charlie Don't Surf that he managed, would be interested in doing something, and Jason also provided the name (he's a surfer, and it's a type of wave). It was kind of interesting stuff, and Gut Records, who at the time were enjoying their first flush of success with Space, were very interested, but never quite jumped the fence into thhe world of signatures. When Unbelievable Truth resurfaced, despite my best intentions I just didn't have the time or energy to do both to my satisfaction, Jason eventually ending up singing for Interseed, my brother's band.
Just to fill the last few cracks in my diary, I also played for a few months with Amania, a band consisting of Craig Adams, ex-Mission, and two members of early 80s goth faves The March Violets. It was fun, very Garbage-y kind of stuff, Cleo the singer was underrated by herself, and Craig is a joy for any drummer to play with. To be honest I don't really remember why it stopped, although with that band I had the pleasure of playing to the smallest audience ever (3 at the start, none at the end, actually none since the sound man had to look after the bar in the other room). The odd lighting gig here and there for Strangelove and some other band who sounded a bit like Jesus Jones rounded it all out.
Throughout 1995 I'd found it hard to talk to Andy, not through any animosity, just the emotional soup that losing 'my shot' entailed. As 1996 went by, a bit of distance meant that we managed to get back in touch and reinstate our friendship. When Andy returned from Russia in August '96 he didn't fancy moving back in with his parents in the middle of nowhere, but he didn't have anywhere else to stay, so as a temporary solution I offered him the spare room in my flat while he waited to begin his MA at Oxford. But fairly quickly it became clear that he'd been writing while in Moscow, and was eager to play me his new material, even though he was concerned about what had happened the year before. I of course was up for hearing anything, and played him back the versions of Solved, Finest Little Space and Higher Than Reason that we'd done previously, versions that with slightly more dispassionate ears he seemed to find much more exciting. As the start date for his college course drew closer he went into championship dither mode about which path to follow, eventually deciding to give music a good solid go mere days before he was due to begin at University (he deferred his place, later letting it go altogether when it became clear that we were getting somewhere). With the lineup reformed, we launched into a frantic demoing session in my house, some of the fruits of which you can find on the
downloads page.
As the new songs started to come together we got back in touch with Chris and Bryce. However, by this point things had changed somewhat, and their main act decided that it wouldn't be right for them to be looking after us as well. At the time it seemed a blow, but ultimitely it was only a good thing. So we asked Dave Holt, who we all knew well as a friend, as well as organiser of the series of Rwandan charity concerts in Abingdon in '94 / '95, to come in as our manager. Pretty soon, as reported in the
gigography, there were record companies sniffing around, their interest piqued by the band who broke up just as they were about to sign tag.
And, to be honest, that's about it. Anybody who's ever read an interview with us probably know the bones of the rest (released a single on Shifty Disco, signed to Virgin, released single - single - single - album - single, toured all over the place, made another album, got dropped by Virgin, released the album on Shifty Disco, broke up), so I guess here is a s good a place as any to stop.