So we'd signed to Too Pure and we had to decide who or how we were going to record an album. I was so unbelievably lo-fi and indie at the time. I just thought we should record it on 4 track in my bedroom, and maybe we should have, certainly those versions exist of all these songs. We settled on Tony Doogan not so much because he's recorded Belle and Sebastian but because he'd in particular recorded 'Lazy Line Painter Jane'. It turned out that record was a bit of a fluke and he didn't really make records that sounded like that generally. He was an OK choice I think, I remember him being a bit indecisive and not really being too sure as to what we were about. I was extremely principled about the proceedings and had strict rules as to how the record should be made. IE. everything live, no second takes, no echos or delays. I don't know what I was thinking of. I think I was really worried that something about the band would go missing or unheard if we didn't  record it truthfully at the time, and that's what it sounds like; three folky white guys playing skiffle in a dry sounding wood room.

Its important to be clear about this, every song on that record is truly a first or on maybe on one occasion a second take, the vocal take is the one I'm doing whilst playing the guitar etc.etc. A lot of people say they do these things , but in this case it really is true.

I'm glad that the record is honest, but sometimes honesty is a conceit in itself and I know its sacrilege for some Hefner fans to hear this but I really can't stand to hear this album now. The singing is just too bad, having said that I know that a large percentage of people think this is us at our best so what can you do?

I have a theory that each of the four Hefner albums owes its character to a member of the band (despite the fact that I wrote all the songs), and the theory goes like this. Breaking is Ants record, Fidelity Wars is mine, City is Johns and Dead Media is Jacks.

Whilst making this record John was still the new guy and had still to make his mark on the production, essentially it was still me and Antony working through our folk fantasies. Ant plays loads of stuff on this record, including quite a lot of the guitar overdubs and vocals and stuff. I met Antony in 1990 at art college. My first words to him were 'So you like the Wooden Tops then?' because that's what he had written on his paint box. On the first day we had to paint a self portrait, Antony painted himself surrounded by potatoes, and when asked why he replied 'I like potatoes'. There's a refreshing simplicity to working with Antony, he never makes it hard work. One thing which not many people seem to notice or comment on with BGH is that apart from one song there is no kick drum on the album. This came about simply from the fact that Antony didn't have one, and we wanted to go to gigs on the tube. Soon after this album Antony relented and got his kick drum though I for one was disappointed as it made soundchecks twice as long .

The Sad Witch, is one of my oldest tunes, its more of that silly mythic metaphor mixed up with teenage stuff but it works well, and its dead catchy. That top line is played on a little 12 string electric mandolin that I bought for stupid money and only really used once, on this.

A Hymn for the Postal Service, I think was the first Hymn song I wrote, the idea was to write a whole series of songs about my favourite things, it was kind of a writing exercise for me to find stories to attach to all of these objects or themes, and it definitely produced some of best songs. That's John playing the feedback guitar. The girl singing is Gayl Harrison (though a different Gayl Harrison who recorded the first singles), I've lost contact with her now, she used to be in a band called Electroscope who we stayed with whilst recording this album up in Scotland.

The Librarian was one of my first 'story' or 'character' songs and perhaps for me the strongest song on this album. That's Antony's first lead vocal on a Hefner song.

God is on My Side is me trying to be sexy I think, god help us.

Another Better Friend, is just a re-recorded version of A Better Friend.

Love inside the Stud Farm is a sweet song, its the first love song I wrote about Helen, who I'm still with today. I first went out with her before BGH, and that period and our break up informs most of BGH and Fidelity Wars. Between Fidelity Wars and We Love the City, we got back together which is why that album is so happy in contrast to these.

Tactile; this though in contrast was written before I'd met Helen and had gone about 2 years without a shag, and boy does it show!

Eloping, this is such an odd song, I really love it but it just seems so unlike me , the rhythm and everything. I've never written anything like it again. We did some blistering live performances of this song which were sadly never captured.

When the album was released we did four gigs in one day at the two Rough Trade shops, the Beggars Banquet shop in Putney and the Monarch in Camden. The album got our best set of reviews, we got features in the music press and we even made a few end of year polls, none of which changes the fact that I think all of our other albums are better than this, sorry.

photos (from top); CaVa studio 2 control room (Hefner), BGH engineer Tony Doogan (D Hayman), Darren and John in Ca Va studios Glasgow recording BGH (A Harding), The to-do list (D Hayman), Darren pretending to work the desk (A Harding), Coffee, oranges, fags , paracetomol, throat lozenges, the BGH diet (D Hayman),Breakings heart promo photoshoot outtake , A very young Ant circa 1990 (D Hayman), 5 more BGH shots (Hefner), Hefner playing outside the Rough Trade shop in Notting Hill during the 4 gigs in one day thing (J.Denitto).