After taking a short break following the Wonder
Stuff's December performances and promotional
work, Miles returned to the studio with Michael
Ferentino, Tony Arthy, Dom Murphy, Martin Bell
and Pete Whittaker to record more tracks for his
second album with Pat Collier at the production
controls. Six tracks were recorded - three new
tracks, 'Waiting', 'Flapping On The Pier' and
'Playing The Twist' plus new versions of tracks
previously released on 'Hairy On The Inside' -
'Not In My Plans', 'Amongst The Old Reliables'
and 'Everything Is Not Okay'.
In
February Miles announced that the schedule for
the second album had changed again. Following
discussions with his record label, the album
would now not be released until early 2002. He
went on to say that it would no longer be called
'Flapping On The Pier' and was unlikely to
include any of the tracks previously released on
the two 5-track EP's. He did however suggest
that GIG Records may be considering releasing an
album of the same title which would contain a
repeat of the tracks from both EP's in addition
to a couple of additional tracks which had been
recorded during the same period.
Following promotion and live work with The
Wonder Stuff during June, Miles headed back to
America for three months to write and record
more material. During his time over in the
States, he worked with Michael Ferentino and his
colleague Andres Karu - both former members of
GIG-signings Amazing Meet Project. The trio
worked on a number of tracks that had previously
been released on the 'Life's Great' and '5
Songs' EP's, in addition to new tracks which
were being co-written by both Miles and Michael.
The sessions also bought saw the addition of
other session musicians to provide additional
instrumentation to the tracks. Andres was
also working on the mixing and production of the
material and Miles was heard to be in awe over
how the tracks now sounded, and more matched his
ideas of how they should have sounded as opposed
to the versions currently available on the EP's.
So prolific were the sessions that, by the end
of August, the trio had finished the initial
copy of the new album and planned it's track
listing. On the last day, the group also
wrote, recorded and mixed a brand new track,
'Running Into The Dark With The Sun On Yer
Back'. The lyrics to the track were ones
that Miles had been playing with for almost a
year since he tried to tried to match them to
Pansy Division's 'Elders of Zion'. Since
then, he had returned to them only once when The
Wonder Stuff were rehearsing for their last tour
and the five-piece had tried out ideas for new
material.
Whilst in America, Miles was also offered to perform with Tom Robinson at
his New York City date in August. Robinson had
always been a hero of Miles', hence the reason
he had often included the track 'Not Ready'
during many acoustic performances. At one stage,
he even recorded a proper version of the track with
US group Pansy Division but this has
never yet been released.
During the concert, which included former
Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry in the
audience, Miles joined Tom onstage to perform
'Not Ready' plus one of his solo compositions.
In a later quote, Miles spoke about being asked
to play alongside Robinson who has always been
one of his musical heroes: "Imagine trying to
explain to a 12 year old Milo, at a TRB gig at
the Birmingham Odeon in September 1978, 'be
patient kid & you'll be playing alongside that
hero of yours at a gig in New York City in 23
years'. Sometimes, I think life is weird, and
then it gets weirder still..."
New
York's CMJ Festival in September was pencilled
in a second appearance by The Miles Hunt Band
after their original show the previous year.
Reformed Midlander's Ned's Atomic Dustbin were
also playing at the festival having also recently
done some work for GIG Records and Indian, GIG's
owner, had asked Miles if he would open for
them. This would give Miles, Michael and
Andres the chance the showcase
some of the tracks they had been working on over
the past few months with the addition of The Wonder
Stuff's bass player Stuart Quinell. However, a
few weeks before the festival was due to take
place, Ferentino gave notice that he would be
unable to attend so the group's appearance was
shelved. As it was, the whole festival was
cancelled following the terrorist attack on New
York's Twin Towers on September 11th.
In
August, as part of an interview to promote The
Wonder Stuff's appearance at the Longest Day
Festival, Miles spoke for the first time about
his plans for The Miles Hunt Club. The group
had now completed their debut album, which now
had the working title of 'Everything Is Not
Okay', and would contain new material combined
with re-workings of tracks from his 'Hairy On
The Inside' album and the two EP's. The album
was currently pencilled in for release in Summer
2002 and, when they toured to promote it, Miles
hoped that former Vent 414 colleague Pete Howard
would be taking on the drumming duties.
At the end of
November, after weeks of rumour and speculation,
the first tourdates of the Miles Hunt Club were
finally announced which included a month-long
Monday-night residency during January 2002 at
the legendary Borderline club in London. It was
also confirmed that the group's now self-titled
debut album was scheduled for release in
mid-February on Eagle Records marking Miles'
return to a high-profile UK record label. Prior
to the album's release, Eagle also planned to
release Hunt's first UK single, 'Everything Is
Not Okay', in over five years.
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