Lovers in Life
(2000)

The Album

Life got stabilised a bit in the year 2000 - so there wasn't too much angst - hence a rather well-produced album of soppy stuff! This is The Hamptons ballads album, containing songs largely written for someone by the name of Sally. Cloud 9 turned out to be a rain cloud that peed on us all, but at least there were some sunny days, before Lady Gaia and the angels of the seventh heaven walked off with them (see further track 7 of Wrinkly Andrew’s Pie Dish). Some of these were written years earlier, but this album couldn't and shouldn't have come out earlier - everything has a time and place and the Millennium year was it for this collection of songs - superbly produced by Cameron at Raezor Recording, Wandsworth (again).

Marky seems to know everybody in rock and roll - in this instance, he got his mate Doug to do most of the guitar solos - Doug most recently was the lead guitar player for that still "big in a fair few places in Europe, including Germany in particular" legendary heavy metal outfit "Saxon" who's hits have included "Steelers Wheel" - or was it "Wheels of Steel"? - whatever. Anyway, cracking good guitar work, Doug - can you spot the two solos that were played by Neil instead of Doug? – yeah, ok, he tried :)

The vocals were all done by Neil and Sally using Neil's new expensive Neumann microphone (not the really expensive one - the half size one for people who aren't yet rock and roll legends!). You will notice that some of the notes are quite high - the neighbours also noticed this (and were probably reaching to dial 999 during the last note of "Reach for the sky") – scared the kids, it did.

If you ever want to give your mum a Hamptons album, this is the one - OK, if you're a teenager into Slipknot, Spineshank and Cradle of Filth you would gain zero credibility even playing frisby with it - but for those that have lived a bit, you can't knock the sentiment. One day, those teenagers will know...