SubscribeElvis Costello was at that time Dec McManus, he was using his real name. He was just this mild-mannered, meek little songwriter who would hang out around Stiff Records, which was our management office. Elvis once said, "Man, I wish I could sing like you." He went to cut some demos, and they used Clover. Huey and I did not participate in those recordings because they had no need for us, but I remember they went and cut at this little place called Pathways - a little 8-track studio so small that all you had just enough space to play your instrument. They went in that first session, and in one session they cut "Alison" and "Red Shoes" and "Less Than Zero," these classic songs. I remember hearing them at this Rock 'n' Roll house we lived in outside of Headley, South of London called the Headley Grange House. John McFee brought back a reel-to-reel tape on one of those old Wollensak tape recorders. He played this stuff, and I mean, I was ready to quit after hearing that - it was so astounding. They did like three 8-12 hour sessions, and that was My Aim Is True, that album.So find out what Pathways had back then (besides what's mentioned above) and what Clover were playing.
The studio closed a few years ago. I am a guitarist and I recorded three albums there in the early 1990s, one with my power trio Groon, the others with Geoff Serle and King Crimson violinist David Cross. The studio was owned by Mike Finesilver and the engineers we used were Justin Underhill and Jim Coustance. It was a very low key place, a bit cold and damp with a unique sweet musty smell that clung to your clothes and equipment for days afterwards. The studio was very small, about 8 x 8 metres with a 2 x 2m control booth in the corner and an upright piano next to it. You could just squeeze three people into the control booth! The tape deck was a Brennell 1 inch 8 track. The monitors and desk were custom made, and they had a pair of Auratones as well, fed from Quad power amps. The desk was quite small, pushed hard against the front wall with the custom monitors hung above and the Auratones on the meter bridge. Outboard was very basic: a Bel delay line, an Alesis digital reverb and Drawmer gates, but they had a nice plate reverb in a cupboard in the office upstairs. I can't recall all the mics but they were the industry standard stuff. We got big warm sounding mixes and despite the cramped conditions the mixing process seemed effortless compared to the difficult digital learning curve I have been on in the last two years.
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One of the bonus tracks on the re-release is a take of another song recorded literally minutes after "Detectives" with the drums set to the same levels. It's the same "sound" but it sounds dreadful.
\going to go and listen to it now!
posted by Jofus at 7:53 AM on June 20, 2008