A brief history of Shiny Tight Stuff

Foundation (to 9 months)

Shiny Tight Stuff is the name of the band that I formed with my friend Craig at the end of 1997. A few months earlier I had bought my first bass guitar, after years of listening to music and imagining that I was up there on stage. I realised that there was no reason why it shouldn’t be me, and so I took the plunge. It was only a matter of weeks later that Craig, motivated by my own bravery, decided to get a guitar and join the fray. It was on the 27th December 1997 that I was idly flicking through a video games magazine in Craig’s bedroom, and I remarked “I wish I had a girlfriend so that I could make her wear shiny tight things.” Craig responded “Shiny Tight Things would be a good name for a band.” Hold on, we thought – we’re a band… kinda. In fact, the only thing stopping us from being a band at this stage was the fact that we didn’t have a name. Literally within minutes, we realised that by giving ourselves a name, we could legitimately claim to be in a band, and impress the girlies. Initially Shiny Tight Things, we took a poll amongst our friends and agreed that Shiny Tight Stuff was marginally catchier.

At this stage, the music was predominantly nonsense. We only knew a few chords, and as a result two of the songs on our first album, Big Bang, sounded almost identical. Whereas most punk-inspired bands would consider this to be par for the course, we were slightly more highbrow, and were ashamed. Despite this oversight, the songs on Big Bang were far more varied than anything that we have done since. Most songs contained one guitar part, one bass part, and one vocal track, and the recording was administered by Mark Dennis on a 4-track in February 1998. Stand-out tracks included Penguins, Month of Sundays, Moonwaltz, Cornwall and Where’s My Plectrum?

The next few months were a flurry of activity. We played a couple of gigs in April 1998, the first supporting Laurie Bennett and the Models, and the second at my parents’ local pub, for which dozens and dozens of people came expressly to see us play! Imagine the ego! We were suddenly very popular with the ladies, surprise surprise.

For the second gig, we adopted a guitarist named Martin Lynch, who also played at our third gig and co-wrote Rookery Lane, another album recorded by Mark Dennis in summer 1998. However, due to musical differences, our relationship with Martin was short-lived. The highlights of Rookery Lane included Horatio Fellatio, End of an Error, Romance is Dead, Get Away and the instrumental Samuel’s Song.

Two months later, we recorded another collection of songs called Huppies. With the exception of a few songs (Song For The Owls, Clare and Surfin CJD), most of these tracks were unmemorable, which is not particularly surprising in retrospect. 15 songs in two months, for gawd’s sake! I suppose that the main reason for the existence of Huppies was that I now had my own 4-track and was desperate to use it.

Idle (to 3.5 years)

After Huppies, I commenced a 3-year degree course at University, and as such would only meet up with Craig again during the holidays. During this period, we did a small amount of recording, including the 7-song Glamour Puss in September 1999. Four of these songs were written and arranged by myself, and bore resemblances to our earlier material, but the other three were composed by Craig and marked a departure from our earlier style, and demonstrated beautifully Craig’s blossoming songwriting skills. We also played one gig in August 1999, where we were accompanied by Nathan on piano.

Briefly Reformed (to 4.5 years)

In June 2001, I returned from University and was reunited with Craig in our home village. He was one year into a 3-year degree course, and had met a drummer called Jim who was interested in the band. Nathan was also at University, but was a year away from graduation. Over the course of the summer, Craig and I worked on the album that would become Poptopia, whilst holding down part-time jobs on the side, and occasionally being visited by Nathan or Jim to perk up the songs with their input. Of the 14 songs, Nathan appears on 8 and Jim appears on 2 (Early Evening Blues and Stay Shiny – for the rest of the songs, sequenced drums were used). Unlike previous albums, we made much more of an effort to produce something which people would want to listen to, and for the first time ever we would discard songs that didn’t fit in. We also had a hundred CDs pressed, another first for us. Despite a couple of songs that haven’t really stood the test of time, every single song on there still sounds good to our ears.

In September, the three of them returned to University, and I hung around for about 8 months, going to temp jobs by day, and working on a solo album in the evenings. Every few months we’d play a gig, which were always enjoyable and well-received. The last gig at which all four of us played together was in February 2002.

Back Into The Wilderness (to 6 years)

In June 2002 I got a permanent job in the South of England, and rented a flat. Due to shortage of space, the musical equipment remained up North, and occasions when we all made the journey to practice or record were very rare. We played one gig during this period, in August 2002, though it was not the full line-up – by now Nathan was living and working abroad. Over the course of the next 18 months I gradually moved the equipment into my flat – I had the space to store it, and the space to work on my solo project, but there was insufficient space for the four of us to play together.

In January 2004 I moved into a larger house, and was able to set up a studio once again. However, by now Craig was working in a demanding full-time job in London, and Nathan was still abroad, which meant that sessions were infrequent.

Signs Of Life (to 8.5 years)

In September 2004, Nathan came back to England, and we had a session to begin work on recording the songs which we had written sporadically over the last 3 years. We managed to get together and record on four occasions, and the result of this was the near-completion of the project entitled This Is A Quiet Room. However, in June 2006 I became a father, and shortly after that moved house. I don’t envisage any recording sessions for a while.