Revelations (FIDO1CDS)

Released Jan 2000 on Top Dog through Too Pure, CD only

Nobody Knows (the Trouble I See), Dragnet for Jesus, He Got Better Things for You, Turkle Dove

Nobody Knows (the Trouble I See)

Dragnet for Jesus

He Got Better Things for You

Turkle Dove

All cover versions

The idea for an EP of gospel covers came from a number of places. John had started bringing tapes of gospel tunes onto the tour bus, and it was something that was suggested. It seemed like it was one of those ideas that might fade away until it was mentioned to John Peel that it might be a good idea for a session for his show.

He leapt at the idea, the only problem being that now we actually had to do it! 'Gospel' can cover a lot of music if you're liberal enough with you definition. A lot of the stuff John was listening to was more of a soul persuasion; The Staples Singers and early Sam Cooke.

So he chose 'Nobody Knows' and 'Dragnet for Jesus'. where as I chose the more folky, 'He got better things for you' and 'Turkle Dove'. We were doing sessions for the BBC a lot at this stage and they really seemed to be bringing out the best in us.

This session, for me is the best we ever did, it was recorded by Mike Engels who we only worked with twice. It has a really solid live sound and the band are playing at their best.

The only weak one of the four is 'He Got Better Things', you can tell we weren't sure what we were doing there because of how much crap we piled on it. The other three are fantastic though. I particularly feel that 'Turkle Dove' is an over looked Hefner recording. We completely re-wrote the music for that, is that wrong?

Neither me or John were good enough pianists for 'Dragnet..' so a girl who was working at the BBC played it for us. We did pay her and everything, but her name was forgotten on the sleeve notes and is now lost in the mists of time.