Five get overexcited
06 May 2000

The Regulars breathed a collective and elated sigh of relief on Friday night after two marvellously successful days in the studio recording tracks for their long-awaited debut single.

At approximately 11pm the band emerged from the Magic Garden recording suite in Wolverhampton clutching two DATs and five CDs containing the two tracks to be featured on the Bearos Records single, still unable to believe that the sessions had really happened and that a release was now in sight.

All five Regulars are delighted with the results; and initial reaction from those close friends and significant others who received an immediate preview of the tracks was also tremendously positive.

So the difficult decision to splash out on a 'name' producer appears to have paid off handsomely. Gavin Monaghan - aka The Bat - and engineer Andy Taylor brought their professionalism and enthusiasm to bear on the sessions to great effect. The overall sound is nicely polished yet deftly retains the rawness of the a-side track, Lie down and fight, and the atmosphere of the b-side North star.

Bearos Records' Alan Farmer confirmed on Saturday that the single is set for release in mid-June, with distribution by Cargo. The catalogue number will be Bearos011.

After over a year of umm-ing, ah-ing, and general fart-arsing about, The Regulars were initially scheduled to record the single in February, but an injury to original producer Paul Glave rained on that particular parade.

It was Paul, though, who then recommended Gavin Monaghan to the band, and Gav's proactive approach in the studio proved a breath of fresh air for the Regs, whose chronic indecisiveness is even more of a hindrance when recording than when rehearsing.

Not that the Wolverhampton sessions were entirely free from incident, however. On the Friday yet another chapter was written in The Regulars' long and terrifying history of death-defying escapades on the highways of the Midlands, as Paul was cut up good and proper on the Wolverhampton ring road by a potentially lethal 18-wheeler. (The offending juggernaut then executed a casual u-turn across the width of the dual carriageway.) On Thursday, when the recording began, most of the band travelled by bus.

Friday also saw mellifluous rewards for the Regs' infuriating slack-arse approach. Paul 'Wheelspin' Roach had conquered his inertia to rise before noon for a second successive day, but contrived to fall asleep again before managing to leave his house. The resultant lost hour of studio time, though, was chance enough for Chopper to write an extra acoustic guitar part for the chorus of North star while waiting for Paul to pick him up.

Finally, The Regulars would like to offer a word of praise for The Cornish Pasty Shop in Wolverhampton - which sells Cornish pasties - for the quality fare that sustained the group through the final gruelling hours of the mixing process; and also to the Raja balti house of Bearwood, where Chopper, Pete and Stu celebrated on their return home on Friday night.

In the space between now and the single's release, attention returns to the live circuit, where gigs are lined up at the Flapper & Firkin on Saturday 13 May and the Jug of Ale on Saturday 27 May - the latter billed as a Bearos Records night with the excellent Jameson and Baxter also on the bill. Get there if you can...

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