Personnel:
Vocals: Armitage, Sue Roberts, Smith
Bass: Glen Smith
Keyboards: Nick Watts
Guitars: Martin Malone
The Rest: Smith
Recorded and mixed: Steve Whitfield (aided by Dez)
Recorded and mixed at Chairworks in Castleford, 1st-3rd March 2008
Mastered by Pob
Smith says:
The annoying thing about Cardigan Girl is the composition was pretty much all Armitage's work. The guy is bored of a weekday, picks up his guitar and writes his first song, and it's a corker. I added the acoustic bit at the beginning, (and that's my first vocal on record, three cheers for me) but other than, it's Armitage all the way. Doesn't he have enough stuff he's good at without invading my turf?
This is the first appearance of real drums on our songs, (along with Modesty and Grace), which is a big step forward. And it's also the first appearance of Martin Malone on guitar. Martin used to be in the band Eskimo Chains, (in fact, I think he used to be the band Eskimo Chains) and his magificent jangle-athon really makes this record. The other great characteristic, from our point of view, is Nick Watts' excellent Hamond work. We were after something that hinted at Felt without being transparently a Felt rip off, and Nick nailed it. Similarly, we wanted Martin's guitar work to be Johnny Marr-esque, (we were thinking Big Mouth Strkes Again) without being blatent, and Martin's naturally exhuberant fretwork caught that mood perfectly.
Ned Williams created a great video for Cardigan Girl. Thanks, Ned:
Cardigan Girl on the worn-out station
Trains haven't stopped here since the dawn of creation
I'm watching you now through the upstairs curtain
Cardigan Girl, Cardigan Girl
Cardigan Girl on the unmanned station
Trains haven't stopped here since the dawn of creation
Watching you now through the upstairs curtains
Cardigan Girl, C-C-C-Cardigan Girl
Cardigan Girl, with your retro shades on
A boy like me could kill your reputation
But it's not in my nature to try and suggest some shenanigans, girl
C-C-C-Cardigan Girl
Have you really got somewhere better to go
Like a Cardigans gig or a Charlatans show
Are you feeling the heat in this most un-English weather
If I came down there with melted snow
And some tunes I taped from a radio show
Could we sit and dream, listen and talk together
Until whenever
Cardigan Girl, with your knitwear and jeans on
Are you cold to the bones or is coolness the reason
Your feathers are white at the height of the season
Ptarmigan Girl, C-C-C-Cardigan Girl
Would you think I'm forward if I smiled or waved, girl
Would you think me backward if I opened my cakehole
Am I something stuck to the taproom carpet
Am I something left over at the farmer's market
Cardigan Girl, on the empty platform
I'm thinking of entering terminal freefall
I'm thinking of chucking myself at your feet, girl
Cardigan Girl, C-C-C-Cardigan Girl
Cardigan Girl on the unmanned station
Trains haven't stopped here since the dawn of creation
Watching you now through the upstairs curtains
Cardigan Girl, C-C-C-Cardigan Girl
Have you really got somewhere better to go
Like a Cardigans gig or a Charlatans show
Are you feeling the heat in this most un-English weather
If I came down there with melted snow
And some tunes I taped from a radio show
Could we sit and dream, listen and talk together
Until whenever
Cardigan Girl
Cardigan Girl
Cardigan Girl
Cardigan Girl
Cardigan Girl
Cardigan Girl
Cardigan Girl
Cardigan Girl
Personnel:
Vocals: Armitage, Sue Roberts, Smith
Bass: Glen Smith
Keyboards: Nick Watts
Stylophone: Steve Whitfield
Cymbal Crash: Dez
The Rest: Smith
Recorded and mixed: Steve Whitfield (aided by Dez)
Recorded and mixed at Chairworks in Castleford, 1st-3rd March 2008
Mastered by Pob
Smith says:
I seem to classify songs by where I wrote them, or where I came up with the first idea for them. Some songs are Shelley songs, the ones I wrote when I was living at home with my parents. There are some college songs, which I wrote when I was away in Manchester. There are some post-Poly songs, which were written either in Shelley or Scissett. There are some Sheffield songs, (but really not that many - I started recording when I was living in Sheffield, and so it was more about learning to document what I'd written, rather than writing anything new). And there are a few London songs, and Modesty and Grace is definitely a London song.
I wrote it over a chord loop on Cubase, and it was going to be a dazzling Europop classic, except I couldn't get the verses to sit right. The riff and the hook were in place, and the vocal line, but it didn't sing very well, and all my verses were shamefully trite - I had this notion it could be translated into French, as everything sounds better when it's sung in French. The 'whores of fate' refrain wasn't there at the time - that arrived courtesy of Armitage when he got his ink-stained fingers on it, as did the words for the verses. And it was too slow, and it sounded lame.
So when it came to recording it, we speeded it up, and put real drums on it, which were really just a drum loop with a few fills dropped in. We didn't have a middle 8 for it, so we concocted one in the studio. I love the guitar on the break (a Les Paul Studio through a Fender Deluxe amp, guitar geeks), and I love the Hammond that Nick plays (a real Hammond - my dream's come true!) but the thing that really moves it along is Glen's bass line, which is subtle but gives it such a pulse! (True confessions - when we came up with the bassline, we were thinking of Red Light Spells Danger by Billy Ocean, one of the great disco classics).
Lyrics
Modesty and GraceRemember the incident at the motorway service station
A five ton trucker called the police
The sovereign and chain gang were giving the burger boy aggravation
You handed out the pick-and-mix of peace
Modesty and Grace
Modesty and Grace
Modesty and Grace
Modesty and Grace
The pimped-up petrolheads were pushing hard for a confrontation
Squealing tyres and handbrake turns
The way you ignored them was a kind of international condemnation
The kind of coolness that burns
Modesty and Grace
Modesty and Grace
Modesty and Grace
Modesty and Grace
(The whores of fate hitch up their skirts
The dogs of war reach the gates
The saints unmask their sneers and smirks
You walk on through time and space)
While every nation speaks annihilation unto nation
And every party ends in tears
While every person preaches poison unto person
I watch you walking through the years
Modesty and Grace
Modesty and Grace
Modesty and Grace
Modesty and Grace
(The whores of fate hitch up their skirts
The dogs of war reach the gates
The saints unmask their sneers and smirks
You walk on through time and space)
Credits:
Director - Martin McDonnell (martin @ blackboxfilms . .com )
Producer - Rob Miller (robmiller22 @ hotmail . com)
Camera - Sam Al-Kadi
G Brown - Christian Hayes
Scaremongers - Chisara Agor
- Kyle Bennett
- Chloe Downes
- Adam Dransfield
- Malachi O'Shea
Video directed by Ned Williams.
Craig says:
We had three great days in the studio, and we got through some really good work. I remembered how to play drums, for a start, and all our musician friends who came in to help us each added something magnificent we couldn't have created on our own. We came out with three songs - one of which there's two versions of - and we know they are the best things we've done yet. Special thanks to studio engineer Steve Whitfield and drum king, Dez, Lord of the Cymbal Crashers, for their time, effort, ideas and patience.
As a benchmark of how pleased we are, we're not going to release Less Is More/If You Ever Leave Me as a Double A-Side as we'd planned. Instead we're going to master Cardigan Girl and Modesty and Grace, and run with those.
More news when we're ready to go.
Craig says:
It's been a few months since I posted so there's some catching up to do. We've been doing a lot of behind the scenes, stuff which hopefully should come to fruition over the next few weeks.
The big news is we have a Second Double A-Side at the manufacturers, due to arrive at Vinyl Tap, our distributor, some time over the next few days. The two songs on there are Less Is More and If You Ever Leave Me, and as far as we're concerned they are a step forward, noise-wise.
We've also got a studio booked for the first weekend in March, where we're going to record at least three songs, this time with the magic ingredient of proper live drums. We've been wanting to add drums for a while, and now we are, and I'm playing them. If you listen carefully, you'll hear bones creaking and joints moving against their will.
And we've got some gigs lined up. But more of those later - frankly, right now I have to go and buy the chips for tea!
The Scaremongers – If You Ever Leave Me
Personnel:
Vocals: Armitage, Sue Roberts
Bass: Matt Brook
Keyboards: Nick Watts
The Rest: Smith
Engineer: Jason Salisbury
Mixed and Mastered: Steve Whitfield
Recorded at HD1 in Huddersfield, 17th-18th November 2007
Mixed: Chairworks, Castleford, 18th December 2007
Smith says:
I can't think of a full song that I've written since I put together the basics of If You Ever Leave Me, so as things stand this is the last song I ever wrote. As that was back in 2002, it doesn't bode well for The Scaremongers long-term welfare, not if it relies on me to instigate the songs.
It is perhaps the simplest to put write, even though I've tried to record it before on my own and failed. Armitage used the framework of my original lyric and ran with it, adding an extra chorus and a half, and writing the female vocal line. Recording was done in parallel with Less Is More at HD1 with Jason Salisbury and finished with Steve Whitfield at Chairworks. The arrangement I'd put together was a little bit too fussy, and some guitar lines needed stripping out. I need to remember to keep things simple. Matt Brook played simple, straight-forward bass, Nick Watts played simple, straight-forward organ, the vocals are simple and straight-forward, and there's nothing in the least bit complex about the drums. The only flourishes were guitar lines from the original demo I did at home, which weren't meant to stay but because we were running out of time and they did the job, we left them in rather than getting out my guitar and amp and re-recording them. Needs must, as they say.
Lyrics
If You Ever Leave Me
(She)
You're watching heaven can wait
I'm slipping out through the garden gate
(He)
If you ever leave me, you'll be sorry
In the movie in my head, you're traumatised
A door slams and it brings down all the scenery
Niagra comes cascading from your eyes
It'll be a lonely, lonely dawn that you awake to
The only, only person in a cold and stony time
With the tea leaves in the sink
you'll write a poem from the brink
But that won't break this bitter heart of mine
(She)
You're telling everyone everything's great
I'm halfway down the fire escape
(He)
If you ever leave me, you'll be sorry
You're weeping in the cafe where we met
Feeding at the trough of melancholy
Choking on the fishbones of regret
It'll be a lonely, lonely dawn that you awake to
The only, only person in a cold and stony time
With letters on the fridge
you'll write a poem from the edge
But that won't break this bitter heart of mine
It'll be a lonely, lonely dawn that you awake to
The only, only person in a cold and stony time
With anthacite and litter
write a letter from the landfill site
But that won't break this bitter heart of mine
With the airbag in your teeth
You'll give a sorry sounding speech
But that won't break this bitter heart of mine
The Scaremongers – Less is More
Personnel:
Vocals: Armitage, Sue Roberts
Guitar: Matt Brook
Keyboards: Nick Watts
The Rest: Smith
Engineer: Jason Salisbury
Mixed and Mastered: Steve Whitfield
Recorded at HD1 in Huddersfield, 17th-18th November 2007
Mixed: Chairworks, Castleford, 18th December 2007
Smith says:
I wrote the melody and chords for Less Is More in a room I was renting in Arthog Road, Didsbury, back when I was a student at Manchester Poly between 1986/7. One of my pals had mentioned that Easterhouse were the up and coming band in Manchester, and stopping in one night I wrote a song I was convinced was Easterhouse-esque, even though I hadn't even heard them at that juncture. (As it turned out, I went on to play in a band with a couple of ex-members of Easterhouse when I drummed for Lloyd Almighty, ten years later). The song sat in my back catalogue of unfinished clutter for 20 years, with a provisional title of I've Got a Promise On, till I thought it might be suitable for The Scaremongers.
I sent Armitage a rough draft of the tune with some deliberately crap lyrics. It has always had crap lyrics, even when I tried hard - often shamefully bad, occasionally magnificently bad, but the words I sent up to Yorkshire were bad by choice. The hook Less Is More was there, but I didn't expect it to stay. I was sure nothing would remain of my draft lyrics, but when Armitage sent it back, he'd picked the punchline 'less is more' and chucked the rest. He has a lovely way of tweaking the tune to really make it his own: the whole bit from 'Does nature make us what we are' to 'But then I see those clothes' was his invention, and the song is a lot better for it, in my opinion.
I drafted in a couple of pals for the recording. My guitar playing has improved a bit, but I needed someone else to fill in where I was struggling, so Matt Brook was kind enough to make one in. When The Scaremongers went into the studio for You Can Do Nothing Wrong and Nodding Dog, I hadn't had chance to sit down beforehand with Glen and Geoff, bass player and guitarist respectively, in order to teach them the songs. The poor boys were thrown in the deep end, having to learn the songs and their parts almost in the same moment as recording them. It's no way to record - it puts real pressure on the players, and though they coped admirably, we knew we couldn't do it that way again. So it really helped that Matt lives local to me in Streatham as we could rehearse before we went in. He played some of the lead lines toward the end of the song, as well as bass on If You Ever Leave Me.
The keyboards on You Can Do Nothing Wrong and Nodding Dog were all programmed, and while they didn't come out too bad, I wanted the real thing this time. There was only one choice: Nick Watts is the best musician I have played with, (and I've played with some beauties!) and he can switch between any number of styles - jazz, soul, classical, pop - at the drop of a hat. He can improvise, is happy to sit back if that's what the song requires, or can really let rip if needed. I played with him for several years in the Dez Lawrence Soul Explosion and when he plays organ, you'd think Booker T Jones was running through his blood. I hadn't seen Nick for a few years, so it was a great chance to reunite with him and catch up.
We recorded Less Is More along with If You Ever Leave Me at HD1 in Huddersfield with Jason Salisbury. As was the case with You Can Do Nothing Wrong and Nodding Dog, we weren't quite sure what we were after, and Jason did a stirling job trying help us discover it, but we only had two days, and by the time our time was up we hadn't quite found the mix we were after. We knew we'd need another day, so we thought we'd give a different studio and engineer a try. This is no criticism of Jason, who worked really hard for us and got us a long way down the road, but we're on a steep learning curve, and we're still looking for our ideal way of working.
We resumed at the Chairworks in Castleford with the freelance engineer Steve Whitfield. Chairworks is a new studio complex just off the M62, and I think it's going to prove to be an excellent facility when it's finished: it's very good as it is. And we really enjoyed working with Steve, too: there were a couple of parts we needed to add that our first session lacked - tambourine, a vocal line from the middle section - but otherwise it was a case of sitting back and letting him work, and seeing if we liked the results when he'd finished. And we did.
All we can do each time we record is make the recordings incrementally better than last time - we don't have unlimited sums to spend on unlimited time in a studio, so we have to be quick and bold, and learn from our mistakes - and I believe this time is overall better than our first time, sonically, just like the next things we record will sound better than these.
Lyrics
Less Is More
Go on, go out, I'll hit the couch
With Chateaux Neuf de Pape and Monster Munch
And while you're changing
My imagination kangeroos from hunch to hunch
In love, together and alone
I'd never claim possession of you, goodness knows
But you're the only decent thing I own
I hear those shoes and then I see those clothes
Less is more
Less is more
So what's the score?
Less is more
Less is more
So what's the score?
It's getting dark, it's getting late
When I consider how my light is spent
And killing me to sit here waiting
Contemplating what that outfit meant
In love, together and alone
I'd never claim possession of you, goodness knows
But you're the only decent thing I own
I hear those shoes and then I see those clothes
Less is more
(More or less)
Less is more
(More or less)
And now you're heading for the door in a back-less dress
Less is more
(More or less)
Less is more
(More or less)
You're one part leopard print and five parts flesh
I'm not a greedy man
I'm just a simple also-ran
So I'm familiar defeat
But in my heart I still believe
Does nature make us what we are?
And is there life beyond the stars?
It's coming dawn and in my brain
Your naked shoulders are as cold as meat
The vultures circle, homing in
Down at the sorry end of Stag Night Street
Does nature make us what we are?
No one knows
And is there life beyond the stars?
No one knows
And who're you cooing with, my dove?
No one knows
And do I trust you with our love?
I suppose
But then I see those clothes
Less is more
(More or less)
Less is more
(More or less)
And now you're heading for the door in a back-less dress
Less is more
(More or less)
Less is more
(More or less)
You're one part leopard print and five parts flesh
Less is more
(More or less)
Less is more
(More or less)
Get back upstairs, put on a polo neck
Less is more
(More or less)
Less is more
(More or less)
So what's the score?
Armitage did Show and Tell on the magnificent Radcliffe and Maconie on Monday 29th October. As his Show and Tell, he chose the Comsat Angels, his boyhood favourites from the deepest darkness of the '80s. If you've got the time, listen through to the end of the interview for the Comsat Angels song, Sleep No More. It's a fine tune!
There were more bits of Armitage at the end of the show, but I couldn't be arsed editing them down, and instead I've replaced them with a drunken rhetoric about how good my hair looks and what a miraculously gorgeous complexion I have.
Time's running out if you want to enter the magnificent Indie-mp3.co.uk Scaremongers t-shirt competition. The contest ends at midnight on the 27th October 2007. The winner will be announced on Indie mp3 the following day.
The Scaremongers had their first radio play in America last week. The Cleveland-based radio station, WRUW - More Music, Fewer Hits - were good enough to spin You Can Do Nothing Wrong (In My Eyes) on their Thursday morning indie programme, stonecoldbikini:
WRUW 91.1 FM is the campus radio station of Case Western Reserve University, located in the University Circle section of Cleveland, Ohio. WRUW is a non-profit, commercial free, all volunteer staffed radio station. WRUW operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year.
Thanks to Christine, the DJ, who kept the songs going, and a huge shout-out to Mark from the Bristol-based collective The Hi-Life Companion, who recommended us to them. Very, very kind of you.
Those Patron Saints of Indie Pop, Indie-mp3/Lost Music, are running a 'Win a Personalised Scaremongers T-shirt' competition. The t-shirt will be co-branded Scaremongers/Indie-mp3, with room for additional wording if the winner so desires, and will come fresh from The Scaremongers' Spice account. Dive over to the magnificent Indie-mp3 site to answer the competition question, and once you've entered, stick around and have a beak at the great acts they are championing.
The competition runs until midnight on the 27th October. Best of luck.
We got a message on MySpace that I'm sure is OK to share with you, which was triggered by Armitage's article in The Guardian. It came from Richard of Dolphin Music, and the the subject was Woods Music Shop - if you've read the article, you'll know it finishes with the following exchange:
A month or so later, I'm on the internet searching for Woods' Music Shop. If you live in Huddersfield and you want an instrument, you go to Woods'. That's how it works. Everyone knows that. Pianos. Drums. Piccolos. Sheet music upstairs. Plectrums, flageolets and kazoos in the glass cabinet. The bloke with the limp. But the worldwide web hasn't heard of Woods'. Neither has the phone book, or Yellow Pages, or 118118. In the end, I phone the only person I can think of who knows everything there is to know about Huddersfield.
Me: "Where's Woods'?"
Mum: "Where's what?"
Me: "Where's Woods'?"
Mum: "What's Woods'?"
Me: "Woods' shop."
Mum: "Woods' what?"
Me: "Woods' shop."
Mum: "Woods' music shop?"
Me: "Yes."
Mum: "What about it?"
Me: "Where is it?"
Mum: "It closed down. Or it got taken over."
Me: "Woods'? When?"
Mum: "Years ago. Why?"
Me: "I need to buy an electric guitar."
There's a long, contemplative pause, then she says, "No. It's gone. You're too late."
To which, Richard replied:
Hi there...Richard here from what was Woods music shop in Huddersfield.
Just seen your article in the guardian mag. Woods did indeed close and now internet supremo's Dolphin Music now run the shop.
We are aiming to keep the same standerd of stock but at better prices than the Woods days, even some of the same staff are here.
The downside is that the man with the limp (Barry) has now limped off in to retirement.
Come down and say hi to us all - you are more than welcome.
hope to see you soon.
Richard.
Woods was the place that I first bought a record, Snoopy Versus The Red Baron by The Hotshots. The shop was a Huddersfield institution on New Street back then: I bought the single for 45p on the day Princess Anne opened Huddersfield Sport Centre, and somehow all these facts seemed significant back when I was seven, and frankly they still do now. I've bought thousands of records since then, but the circumstances don't stick in my head like they did that day. I've still got that 45 in with my other vinyl, probably bent out of shape through years of woeful storage and I haven't played it for donkey's years, because I haven't played any vinyl for donkey's years. I tried to download it once from Audiogalaxy, but it couldn't come up with the Hotshots version - the original was written by Phil Gernhard and Dick Holler and recorded in 1966 by the Florida-based rock band The Royal Guardsmen, (bless you, Wikipedia). Holler went on to write Abraham, Martin and John. The Guardsmen's version is OK but it didn't take me back to that February stood outside the Town Hall, clutching my new purchase in a brown paper bag, giddy as anything. My music tastes have moved on but there's still a huge place in heart for that version of that song.
And as for Woods, it's good to know it is still alive in one form or other, and it was good of Richard to take the time to let us know that it's still around, albeit in changed state, (as we all are!)
Maybe for other people it would get tedious, but I'm still thrilled to hear myself on the radio. Maybe it's vanity, maybe I'm like narcissus staring into a pond at my own reflection, but so what: The Scaremongers were on Radcliffe and Maconie, again, and I couldn't be happier.
Because we'll never be a real Sunday night run-down, Gallup poll-style chart band, for our own amusement we've invented our own screwed-up version. For us, where we are in the charts is dictated by the radio station we're being played on. So when we appeared on Marc Riley's Brain Surgery, we were on Radio 6, which is a glorious place to be and we're still indebted to Marc and his team for that. Then this Thursday, that great arbiter of taste, Mark Radcliffe, and the writer of the greatest book about the north published this year, Stuart Maconie, played and discussed The Scaremongers on their show on Radio 2. So, like seedings in a tennis tournament, we joke that we have moved up four places.
I'm sure we'll never reach the coveted Radio One spot, but when I think about it, it's only because I'm a child of the seventies that makes me want to be on there. Back then, Radio One was pretty much the only place to listen to music on the radio, and though you might have had to timeshift your listening patterns to pick up the music you really liked, you still ended up listening to Radio One all day in cafes, school playgrounds and the workplace, and pretty much knew what was where in the charts of the time, by osmosis as much as anything. Back then if it wasn't on Radio One, it was nowhere, and nothing could redeem it but to get onto the hallowed airwaves of the Breakfast Show.
Radio is different now, and I'm glad to say that the focus of the whole panoply of pop music isn't focused on the charts or on Radio One anymore. You can make a respectable name for yourself yet never get anywhere near Radio One, what with the many other quality stations that abound and the wonderous wonderland of the World Wide Web. I wouldn't sulk if we ever got played on Radio One, obviously, but I'm ever so proud that Marc was the one who played us first, and I'd be thrilled if he ever decided to play us again. And I'm giddy that Mark and Stuart played us on Radcliffe and Maconie, (and gave me my first namecheck!), and I'll forever be glad that they did. I'm very pleased to take a stand next to these fine broadcasters, and if that's where we prove to remain, I would happily settle for that.
Anyway, I did the usual of shoving a microphone (which itself is hidden in the aluminium of my Powerbook) to the speakers of my PC, and recording the Listen Again function of the BBC Radio Player. Once again, I hope they don't mind us steal a little bit of their show. There's some glorious bits where they discuss the song, culminating in:
Mark: Now he's officially a recording artist, Simon can come on the show and do a Show and Tell.
Stuart: He can come on and do a set.
Mark: Hang on a minute, we've only heard one song. The rest of them might be bobbins. Let's not get carried away.
Thanks to Mark, Stuart and their team, and to my pal Neil who emailed me to tell me we were on!
The Scaremongers are good friends with the glorious Pocketbooks, who just released their first single Cross The Line on Atomic Beat Records. I've known singer Emma for ages, and I'm thrilled for her that Pocketbooks are starting to get somewhere. And it seems the feeling is reciprocated - she dropped me this Facebook message yesterday:
"Not sure what your plans are for NYE, but I'm guest DJing at How Does It Feel To Be Loved in Brixton and I plan to play a Scaremongers song!"
Which is particularly kind of her. Unfortunately, both Armitage and Smith will be away for New Year, (in fact they'll be in a huge old farmhouse together with their respectives bopping away to The Scaremongers at the stroke on midnight), but I can state categorically that:
a) we are both made up that Emma thinks enough of the songs to play one of them out in the wild, (I forgot to ask which one - Emma, if you're reading this, which song will you be playing, or is it a surprise?)
b) at the time of writing, this is the first and only time The Scaremongers have been or have been pencilled in to be played in a discotheque environment, which gives Emma a first of some kind
c) we know Emma's got a fabulous pop sensibility and everything she plays on New Year's Eve will be absolutely first rate, so if you've got nothing planned for the festivities that night and London isn't too much of a stretch for you, a night at How Does It Feel To Be Loved would be the perfect way to dance into 2008.
Thanks for spinning whichever song you play, Emma.
The magnificent Lyndon Hayes, the painter of the image that The Scaremongers used as the cover of The Scaremongers' First Double A-Side, is in The Guardian today, page 28 if you have a copy to hand. He was asked to come up with a series of designs for adverts the Guardian are to run about themselves, and as usual he did a particularly glorious job of it as you can see for yourselves below, with the first installment:
Smith was straight on the blower to Armitage on Friday night after Marc Riley played You Can Do Nothing Wrong (In My Eyes) for the second time on his magnificent Brain Surgery show. Neither Armitage nor Smith had caught the show as it went out on Wednesday, so they didn't get the chance to witness their first radio appearance as a band as it was happening, (and all hail the Listen Again feature, otherwise they would never have heard it at all). So on Friday night, they were positively giddy to hear it live:
"Did you hear it?"
"Aye. What did you reckon?"
"It sounded alright!"
"Did you hear the email request?"
"Eh? No. When was that?"
"At the top of the show."
"I only got home about twenty minutes into it."
"Then you missed it."
"So it seems. What did they say?"
"They asked for it again."
"Who was it? Anyone we know?"
"Someone called Petra."
"Petra? She left a comment on the site."
"She's a bit of an early adopter, eh!"
"Smart girl, that!"
"Aye. Smart girl!"
In honour of the outstanding Superfan Petra, we grabbed the audio of Marc reading out her request as well as The Scaremongers bit from later on. Thanks again to Marc and his team, and once again I hope it's OK to borrow a few minutes of Friday's show.
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