Day Ten: Saturday 4th June 2005
As it is a Saturday and we are all going places for the weekend. We decide to have a go at recording ‘I Never Left I Only Went Away’. We performed the song live for the first time at Gathering 13 with Billy Duffy playing guitar with us. The song had worked out really well in the concert environment and had been included on the EMI ‘demos’. The one thing that had always bothered me about the song was the chorus, I have always felt that I was missing something lyrically. During the run through I decided to sing the songs title during the chorus. What a difference it makes straight away. It opens the whole song up. It’s little things like this that can make a song. A simple, obvious change I know, but all of a sudden the songs makes sense, it’s message understandable, it’s direction clear. After a few run throughs to establish the final arrangement, Steve is ready to record his drums. I sing a new guide vocal over the guitar backing track in the upstairs control room and Martin and Steve work up a headphone mix and then Steve descends to the main room where his drums are ready for action. After four takes, Steve is pleased with his work and after a little audio tidying up, Craig plugs his trademark black ‘Overwater’ in and records his bass part in two takes. About four o’clock we all leave for the weekend.
Publication::
Author::
