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Unlike Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba and
London Town, this is more a "content album" (groan…!). It
rather came from nowhere, Neil (with some input from Kevin) having
pretty much written it over a weekend! At this time, a curious American
fellow called Leigh appeared on the scene and, for reasons which still
escape us, Andy James was recruited to drum. We think he used to be in
the army. Unfortunately, we didn't go a bundle on parry-diddling as
opposed to rocking. Our man Leigh was a total basket case who seemed to
want to "smoke a bowl" merely to celebrate having survived
from Monday to Tuesday. The rest of us were more minded to stick to the
menthols.
You will also hear a bit of
Rueben the barrister on keyboards on this album although 1997 was in fact
a curious and fractured year. Let's just say that we had a smattering of
the Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Patti Boyd scenario - well, the third
division version of it. In any event, it caused the end of The Hamptons'
line up hitherto.
We give credit to Cameron at
Raezor Recording who not only endured the task of trying to make The
Hamptons sound good but also the intra-band personal flare ups which
periodically interrupted the sessions - guess that's rock and roll too -
Cameron the island of tranquility, the storm raging around him!
Listen to "Tell the
Hangman" on this album and tell us if you can't sing Benny Hill's
"Ernie the Milkman" along to it!… "and he drove the
fastest milk cart in the west".
In the end, we decided not to have any photos
on this album - it all seemed painful and inappropriate - "best
leave it", as Nigel Tufnell once said…
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