2. A Night In
3. My Sister
4. Tiny Tears
5. Snowy in F# Minor
6. Seaweed
7. Vertrauen II
8. Talk To Me
9. No More Affairs
10. Singing
11. Travelling Light
12. Cherry Blossoms
13. She’s Gone
14. Mistakes
15. Vertrauen III
16. Sleepy Song
The Bloomsbury Theatre 12.3.95
1. El Diablo En El Ojo
2. A Night In
3. Talk To Me
4. She’s Gone
5. No More Affairs
6. City Sickness
7. Vertrauen II
8. Sleepy Song
9. Jism
10. Drunk Tank
11. Mistakes
12. Tiny Tears
13. Raindrops
14. For Those…
release notes
April.1995
2xLP–This Way Up, WAY 526 853-0
CD–This Way Up, WAY 526 303-2
First run of vinyl copies included the Plus De Liaisons one-sided 7”.
There were also limited versions with different covers photos and colored text.
Neil cover/orange lettering [This 1.1X], Dickon cover/green lettering [This 1.1.Y], and Dave cover/yellow lettering [This 1.1Z], all of which included the 7” Plus De Liasons and limited to 1,000 copies of each.
2CD remaster–June.2004, Island/Universal, 981 688-4
2CD remaster included The Bloomsbury Theatre 12.3.95 album.
album credits
Recorded by Ian Caple.
Mixed by tindersticks & Ian Caple.
Written & arranged by tindersticks.
String arrangements on: A Night In, Tiny Tears, Talk To Me, Travelling Light, Mistakes, and She’s Gone by tindersticks & Terry Edwards.
Sleeve by Bartholomew & Windsor.
Photography by Phil Nicholls.
tindersticks outfitted by Timothy Everest, London.
Performed by tindersticks with:
Trumpets, saxophones & French horns by Terry Edwards.
Duet on Travelling Light sung with Carla Torgerson (courtesy of the Walkabouts).
Trombone on My Sister by Mike Kearsey.
Cello on My Sister by Ben Chappell.
My Sister whisper by Isabel Monteiro (courtesy of Drugstore & Go Discs).
Saw on My Sister & Vertrauen III by Biff Harrison.
String quartet on El Diablo En El Ojo & She’s Gone – Anna Louise Child, Calina de la Mare, Lucy Wilkins & Sarah Willson.
French translation & narration by Sendrine.
Recorded at Conny’s Studio, Cologne May 19th – 15th.
Abbey Road, London (strings) July 4th.
Orinoco, London July 5th – 10th.
Mixed back at the ranch July 11th – 17th and Townhouse III August 20th – 24th 1994.
Sleepy Song was recorded live on one microphone at Abbey Road I on the night of June 30th, Recorded entirely on 3M 996 at 15 inches per second.
String section on: A Night In, Tiny Tears, Talk To Me, Travelling Light & Mistakes:
Violins – Heather Broadbent, Vic Evans, Zilha Hawley, Suzanna Horne, Tanja Housten, Becky Leetch, Caroline Luckhurst, Kate Mackenzie, Suzannah Marsden, Jeff Moore, Julie Nicholau, Louise Walters, Amanda Westgarth & Lucy Wilkins.
Violas – Hannah Biss, Maritza Bulcock, Ann Lousie Child, Kate Fraser & Samie Pullman.
Cellos – Clare Parkholm, Annabelle Simmons, Andrew Skrimshire & Sarah Willson.
Organised and conducted by Rosie Lindsell
To James, Dave B, Matt & Tris, a place in our hearts.
remaster credits
tindersticks are Dave Boulter, Mark Colwill, Neil Fraser, Dickon Hinchliffe, Alastair Macaulay and Stuart Staples.
Cover Art by Suzanne Osborne and Stuart Staples.
Layout at Youngs Design.
Digitally Remastered by Tim Young at Metropolis.
Project Co-ordination for Universal by Joe Black.
Tape Research by Zoe Roberts at the Universal Tape Facility.
tindersticks are managed by Dave Bedford at A’Fi’ Me Music.
Thanks to Dave Bedford, Paul Reidy, Claire Sugrue and Ian Youngs.
The Second tindersticks Album
During the summer of ’93 we were putting the final pieces of our first album together, we moved house, we being myself, Stuart, Neil and Mark. Mark had been sleeping on the living room floor for a while and the house had rapidly shrunk around us, filled with people, three cats and a dog, lots of amps, organs, musical instruments and our studio, which was soon to get bigger anyway. So we moved to a larger house. We got a room for our studio and Mark got a room for his bed.
The great thing about living together was the music. Ideas were flowing, we still rehearsed as a band every week, but having the studio and people around just pushed everything that much further. It was hard though. Even with the success of our first album, most of us still worked. The deal we had with This Way Up was, by our own choice, small. We didn’t want loads of money. We’d spent so long working, finding ways to pay the rent and make music, it was just natural to carry on as normal. Well, not quite normal.
We were all very excited about our first tour of Europe. Twenty-seven hours and one bottle of Jameson’s later we were on the stage in front of three and a half thousand people. We were supporting Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, the first date was was in Prague. While on tour, Blixa Bargeld told us of a studio he knew called Conny Plank’s.
We returned to London to do our own U.K. tour and witness the reaction our first album was getting. We were very proud of our work, but didn’t really expect anyone else to get it. I don’t think many of them did, but they all had something to say about it. So we had success. And now were were thinking: “what’s next?”
We returned to Europe to play our own tour. We’d been writing since the finish of the first album and had a lot of new songs. We started playing them live in the set. A lot of the songs on the first album never really had been played live that much, and we felt even these were improving in some way, so we released the Amsterdam live album. Obviously, we didn’t include the new songs on this. We also went out to see Conny’s studio while we were in Cologne, and we liked it very much, arranging to go back for a few days to demo some songs.
And so we arrived at Conny’s on Monday 9th May 1994 to spend five days recording. We had about five songs and a few ideas. By the end of the week we had much more, and knew we had a record to finish.
Most of the backing tracks were done at Conny’s, some songs grew from nothing: “El Diablo”, “My Sister”, “Seaweed” and “No More Affairs”. Some we’d been playing live or rehearsing. We didn’t waste time. A lot of takes were done just once or twice, even the backing tracks. We tried things out and there were a lot of ideas. But there was still time for lots of fun.
We took the tapes home and started getting it together. On the first album, Dickon built the string sections by layering himself. It was time to take the next step and get a string section to play his ideas. He still wasn’t sure how to turn his ideas into scores so Terry Edwards helped him along. Terry also added his trumpet and sax to some of the songs and was becoming quite a part of our live sound. Some songs came later. “Cherry Blossoms” was basically made at home, Stuart on piano, toy piano and alarm clock. “She’s Gone” came out later as well. The final stage was recording the strings and one night in Abbey Road to record the live on one mic “Sleepy Song”.
We also had a duet with Carla Torgerson of the Walkabouts. Their covers album, “Satisfied Mind” was a favourite of ours for a while. We went into various studios finishing the record, adding vocals, instruments. A lot was done at home as well, including the mixing.
We finished the album at Townhouse 3, just before the idiots at E.M.I. tore it apart.
The first single was “No More Affairs”, not what people expected, but that’s us. The duet, “Travelling Light”, followed the album, with one of our favourite tindersticks films, by Martin Wallace, featuring Matt and Ilona.
The album came out in April ’95. The following month we played the first of a handful of shows with the strings orchestra. “The Bloomsbury Theatre” was recorded and released soon after. We’d always worn very ill-fitting second-hand suits, shirts, whatever, and, as a treat for our hard work, we arranged to have a tailor-made suit each. I could never be seen without my Timothy Everest suit for a long time after. Phil Nicholls took photos of the fitting, which became the sleeve. And very handsome we all look too.
There’s no title, it’s just the second tindersticks album.
David Boulter 2003
