Recording Pills LP in Los Angeles
This was a great period for the Mondays, out in LA enjoying the sunshine and plenty of drugs, Shaun in particular being helped by a big ball of opium apparently. There was a couple of great features on tele back in the day about these sessions:
Rapido
The Word
July 23rd-Aug 4th
The tapes from these sessions are some of my favourites in the collection and some of the versions include different lyrics which is always interesting and its always cool to hear how the songs develop.
The first tape just has a couple of early instrumentals on it. There are no dates on it unfortunately but we can only presume this must be earlier on in the sessions.
Another early tape above which again has a few instrumental tracks on it.
Aug 6th to Aug 25th
Two tapes directly from the Capitol Records recording studios, one being the first early version of the Pills LP and then the demo tape for Harmony which was done pretty late in the sessions and hence why it wasn't included on the first tape here.
The L.A. Ruffs tape below is another interesting item which is basically the first iteration of what would go on to be the classic Pills N Thrills album. The highlight on this for me is the version of Holiday which has different, and much more offensive lyrics!
A great way to finish off the album and a tune unlike any other the Mondays have ever done really. This version is slightly different from the released one.