Third Rail - recording
Third Rail recorded their noise at many places over the years. Here are the details....
April '98
The first Third Rail recording was done in a practice room at Red Tape Studios and two cassette four tracks were used. The backing tracks were recorded live on the sPookYsounds Amstrad Studio 100 and were then mixed to 2 tracks of the sPookYsounds Tascam Porta 07 and vocals were overdubbed. The four songs recorded were Don't Know, Summat to do, diary of a no-one and no bridge (intsrumental) and the first 3 tracks were used as the Third Rail demo tape.
30th June '98
After watching England get knocked out of the World Cup on penalties by Argentina at spookYsounds (Priestly Street) Third Rail recorded an acoustic version of Summat to do for the "6ft under" fanzine/tape (the first failed take of which ended up on the album Third Rail). In addition to this Scott, Adam and johnnie recorded their solo songs for the "i guess indie punk rock still does suck!" CD. The songs were recorded on the sPookYsounds cassette 4 tracks.
22nd July '98
Third Rail spent the day at Fudge Studios and recorded Don't Know, Summat to do and I Hit A Wonderwall. The recording was produced by Simon Gilman on a 1/2" fostex 16 track and the recordings were used on the first two Third Rail CDs.
November '98
A three piece Third Rail (Adam, Scott and James) went to Red Tape Studios and recorded Forget and No Entry (though at that point it had no title). The recording was produced by Lyndon (from Electracloud) on 24 track tape ADAT. This version of Forget was used on the bands first album "Third Rail."
24th February '99
The three piece Third Rail returned to Red Tape Studios to record "high-string one" (later renamed "if what doesn't..." the recording was produced by johnnie and Alice on 24 track tape ADAT, but the tape went missing and there is no surviving copy of this recording.
19th-23rd May '99
Third Rail began recording their first full album on the sPookYsounds Fostex B16 at the Bed studios alt.name=sPookYsounds(Infirmary Road). During the recording sessions the band were not happy with the bass player and asked johnnie to join the band again. The recording had been scheduled to continue until the 24th May, but when Adam touched the 16-track for the first time on 23rd May it broke!!!
June '99 - January '00
After the B16 was repaired recording continued at sPookYsounds (Edgefield Road) in short sessions with long gaps in between. The album was completed and mixed at the end of January '00.
June '00 - April '01
Third Rail started recording their "swan song" ep in June '00 at sPookYsounds (Edgefield Road) on the B16. The drums and guide guitar were recorded quickly and the other instruments were overdubbed in a couple of sessions over the following few months. By the time the band were forced to split up by Scott moving to Leeds in September '00 all of the music was recorded. The vocals were completed by February '01, but the album was not mixed until April '01.