Blog

As I said yesterday, World Service is now a year old. I was thinking back to the first time I listened to World Service and decided it would make an interesting blog entry (I hope it will be interesting anyway!). Having been lucky enough to visit the band in the studio, I'd heard the rough demo mixes of several World Service songs in May 2003. But the first time I heard the finished album in it's entirety was on 23rd October 2003. Yes, that is rather precise and I wouldn't normally remember the exact date I first listened to a CD, but that day was a bit special for me.

The band had invited me to accompany them on a brief visit to Canada. 'Brief' being the right word, since we would be there only long enough for them to perform a single concert, then flying home again. Anyway, the plan was for me to pick Jon up from his home in Littlehampton and then drive to Heathrow airport in London to meet up with the rest of the band and crew for the flight to Canada. The drive to the airport was about an hour and a half, and Jon decided we needed some musical entertainment for the journey. He pulled a CDR out of his bag, stuck it in the CD player, and there it was, my first chance to listen to the finished World Service album.

So I drove to London, listening to the album, with Jon sat next to me. As each song started Jon would tell me the track title, and I would listen with a stupid big smile across my face. Occasionally I'd make a comment like "love Stu G's guitar on this one" or ask a question like "who wrote this track?", but mostly I just listened. There is something decidedly bizzare about listening to a CD whilst sat next to the person you are listening to. After all, you can't really turn round and say "This track is pants!". Thankfully that didn't turn out to be a problem since, as we all now know, the CD is stunning. But even so, it was a surreal journey.