"This box set was a labour of love for ourselves, our management and Blast studios. It's all been put together and paid for by ourselves. Michael McKeegan, Gerry & Susan our management team and Polly at Blast have really worked hard on a daily basis to get it out before the end of the year.
Most of the unreleased material had been in various band members cupboards and storage unheard since they were recorded and dusted down for the collection. There's a ton of material there which we hope you'll all love.
'Dark Naughty Steps' is a fave of mine that I wanted to be on ABCOL, 'All Low No High' should have been a single but didn't even make it on an album. The re-work of 'Animal Bones' has some sublime bass playing from Mr McKeegan and the drum pattern of 'Glamour of Potential' is Meester Cooper, The Derby Demon, at his finest. Speaking of drum patterns there's a classic one from Fyfe on ‘Mind Body Soul’ which was a constant in our live sets pre-'Babyteeth'. Watch out too for lots of lovely unheard cello playing from Martin McCarrick.
Most of the photographs in the booklet are from our private collections, taken on Polaroids and cheap cameras in various countries in the world over all of our career. From hotel rooms, tour buses and plain old sightseeing, there's candid shots aplenty and a few wee celebrities chucked in there too.
You might not want to know this but the 'Live At The White Horse' tape languished at the back of my sock drawer for years hidden inside a felt bag. It was only when I moved house for the 5th time that I discovered it. The track on it titled 'Reality Fuck' probably features my personal favourite guitar sound, a holy grail that I've been trying to get back since!”.