Annotations: Fucking Hippy

This was an old song even when it was recorded, as I'd written it in around 1994 when I lived on Mere Road. I went round to see my friend Neil who was then living with a couple of hippies who used to annoy me INTENSELY, for all the reasons detailed in the song. I came home one night, sat down with all the guitar chords I knew, and this just POURED out. EASY.

Less easy was recording it - it's dead easy to play on it's own, but we kept trying to complicate it. Voon played it as a sort of Spanish Thrash Punk Polka (sort of), The Council played it VERY FAST INDEED, and then, when Tim joined we did it slower and HEAVIER. It's on my first two solo cassettes in yet MORE versions, neither of which were much cop, but as it always went down so well at gigs I decided to give it one more chance and do it SIMPLE and LOUD, and this is the result. I was really pleased with it, and remember it sounding BLOODY FANTASTIC when we went down to Porky's in London to MASTER it for the single. I went with Ann from Sienna and Rob's friend Gary (later in Frankie Machine), who said "Bloody Hell Mark, say what you mean!"

I thought this was one of my best songs at the time (NB it was) and putting it out as a b-side seemed very ROMANTIC and Like Suede (when they were good). I was EXTREMELY excited about the record coming out. I must say, and merrily daydreamed about it becoming a MASSIVE HIT. We even had stickers made for the other side, saying "Featuring members of number one hit-makers WHITE TOWN" which seemed a SURE FIRE WAY of getting sales. The whole process of MAKING the record was THRILLING too - having a photoshoot out in a Village College in Nottingham for the cover, going to the printers near Liverpool Street to sort out the printing and delivery, sourcing the plastic sleeves, designing the inserts, sitting in my flat putting them all together... it was a LOT of fun and VERY exciting.

We even used Overground in Newcastle to PLUG it for us, which was BRILLIANT as we found out all the little radio stations that played it. It didn't sell that many and, I think, got overshadowed a bit by Fortuna Pop! - I was still relying on the Work EP and association with them, for several years in fact, to get gigs, and it'd be a LONG time until I'd got an audience to properly call my own - who put out the World Cup EP featuring "The Fair Play Trophy" on the SAME DAY as the CLUBBING IN THE WEEK single upon which this appears. As I said constantly at the time, "You wait a year for a single and then two come out at once." No, it wasn't the start of a hit-making career, but it WAS the start of EVERYTHING else.