Yardman was a project that I started in around 1990 with Clive Watling (Elmerhassel) taking bass and vocals and James Kermack (Sink) on drums. In all we recorded 3 sessions-worth of material. The combined output from the first 2 sessions was released on 3 7″ EPs by 3 record labels on the same day…more about those songs in another post. The 3rd session took place a few years after the first 2 in November 2004 and saw a line-up change due in the main to the fact that James had sadly passed away sometime after the second recording.

I’d been in touch with David Hancox for a couple of years by that time. He was a Sink fan from back in the day and had been bassist in Kerosene a Manchester-based band who’d been signed by a major and had a certain amount of success. I think I heard about them because they released a song or an EP called Sink and someone saw the video on TV and noticed that the bass player was wearing a Sink t-shirt…or something like that; the details blur after a while. Somehow or other David and I got in touch and started talking regularly on the phone. At some point I floated the idea of doing another Yardman recording and asked him whether he’d like to play bass. I may also have suggested he bring his drummer, Chris, along to fill in for Kermack….drummers are never easy to find.

Clive was interested and was happy to switch to guitar seeing as how David was on bass duties. Clive also wrote two of the songs. If memory serves, we borrowed some rehearsal space in a friend’s basement in Ippo Rock City. Clive couldn’t make it until after work so Chris, David and I ran through 3 of the tracks a few times during the day. Clive popped in later on and taught us the 4th song, Aged & Crippled, which involved a switch to bass for yours truly with David taking over on guitar.

The next day we went to Purple Studios near Norwich and recorded these four tracks over a weekend. All things considered, they’re really pretty good. Previously unreleased. Enjoy.