SAS : We were well apart now. Neil and David in Maida Vale, Mark in Camden, I was in Catford staying in Phil Nicholls’ flat trying to find a house for our growing family. Writing trips to Monnow valley studio in Wales, but now we were recording to grids to lock in with the synthetic temporary string arrangements. The quality of ideas was there but the spontaneity was draining. We were working towards our third album.

Angel Studio in Islington is an orchestral studio that was usually rented out by the hour. We booked it for 3 weeks. We had the orchestra coming in for a session every 4 days. Things were tense, the band out of balance. With the rise of the orchestral element in the band Al, Mark, Neil and David started to feel and behave like a big rhythm section, Dickon felt that he had no melodic parts to bounce off, I was just generally disillusioned. To add to the stress Ian Caple announced he had been offered another project (that he couldn’t refuse) and that we either waited for him or carried on without him. I chose the latter. This put me at the centre of the album’s production – something I was desperate, but not ready for. August to October became a slog to get the album finished, I was learning so much but so far out of my depth, clinging on. Piles of my hair lay on the mixing desk at the end of each night.

The first time I went to master the album Tim Young sent me away and told me to come back when it was mixed properly. Shit times, lonely times. Some nice songs. It was called ‘curtains’ and it was the end of something. I just needed to figure out what.

DB: We were demoing in South Wales again. Feeling like backing tracks for Dickon’s arrangements. It didn’t feel right. But nothing quite did – This creeping feeling.
And still touring. A lot of shows. Our biggest yet in Athens, Greece. Crazy nights. Starting to lose control.

My own personal life was a mess too. I’d been in and out of a serious relationship. I’d planned to move to Germany. It collapsed. Me and Neil had already decided to leave the flat in Maida Vale that we could never really afford.

If I think about it now. It seems impossible that we managed to play five nights at the I.C.A. in London. Just as we finished recording the new album, Curtains. Each night had a different theme. A lot of work. I have some great memories of it. Meeting Belle and Sebastian, their first London show. Reminding me of us just a year or two before. Jarvis and Andy Weatherall DJ’ing. Being stood outside a late night bar with Jarvis in the pouring rain. Even his pop star credentials couldn’t get us in. The same bar I’d fallen down the stairs of a few months before that features in the Ballad of tindersticks, the song we’d just finished recording.

I remember arguing with Dave Bedford in Dublin. During the album mixing. He was talking about videos. Multiple formats. Getting into the charts. Success – We were almost there! For the first time in my life Top of the Pops was the last place I wanted to be.