Getting Notions

The Birth of an Album

Reporter:
The Notions album is always remembered as an overnight sensation, but in reality, that was not the case. The 8-track record hit shelves on the 29 of May, 1970, but the album itself took over a year to record in full.

Raymond Silver:
Strangely enough, I loved those early days. It was simpler, you know? You didn't have to worry about paparazzi, or record execs jumping down your throat. Our contract was daylight robbery, but we were so happy to be signed to a label that we didn't care. We were only entitled to about 11% of our overall profits, and the cost it took to make the album came out of that. When Notions dropped, our first checks only came to about £15 each. Sandie never cashed hers, I think its still framed up in her house.

Sandie Stevens:
We were at a stage where we could only go forward, and it felt so great. All the movies told us that being the biggest was where things were good, but thats a load of bullshit. You've so much responsibility when you're topping charts, and selling out stadiums. Its kind of like climbing a tree, I suppose. About halfway up, you have a nice view, but you keep thinking it gets better the higher you go. Its only when you're up there when you realise that the top branches are very shaky, and you're so scared you're gonna fall that you forget to look at the view you climbed up there for in the first place.

Jay Selby:
We fell into a nice rhythm, writing Notions. Weavers was still one of the smallest signings at the time, so not much funding was coming our way. I lived in fear of needing to buy new strings, I took to boiling them to get a bit more life out of 'em! I had a second-hand Aria Pro, picked it up at a car boot sale. It was a decent enough bass, but I looked after it as if it were made of gold. Good equipment was hard come by, and you nearly had to sell your firstborn to afford it. I still have it, actually.

Raymond Silver:
Jay never liked anyone who abused their instruments on stage.

Jay Selby:
Its such a fuckin' waste. I don't care who you are, or how big you are, but there's no sense in ruining a perfectly good guitar for 'an image'. People forget what its like, having to choose between eating that day, or going to a shop to get a headstock fixed, or to buy a new lead. I have no respect for those people.

Sandie Stevens:
The only decent money a band makes is from touring. Ticket sales. And even then, we have no control over prices, and we'll only receive a fraction of that. Ticket companies like to inflate prices, mostly outside of the records, and our, knowledge. It wasn't so bad in the 70s, when you could buy a Zeppelin or a Stones ticket for about £15. But now? I wouldn't know. 2, £300?

Raymond Silver:
We all worked second jobs in those days. Or, the others did. I'm lucky enough to come from a wealthy enough family. I bought my Les Paul out of my inheritance from my uncle's will. The four of us stayed in his old house out in the suburbs. I took care of the needful back then. Everything the guys made went straight to getting the band up and running. I contributed too, of course, but as Eimear used to say, "We're all in the same shite, so we all best shovel it together."

Jay Selby:
I dont know how we would've managed in those days without Ray. He always looked after the girls, made sure they got the same as everyone else. When rumours started circulating, he was the first to shut them down. It often came off like he was an entitled prick, but in reality he couldn't have been more down to earth. I think he was much more clued in to what was going on than he let on. He was seen as the diva, always throwing a fit, but looking back, I don't think he was actually in the wrong. Like the time he got us thrown out of Glastonbury.

Sandie Stevens:
We were just about to drop the lead-off single for Notions. It was supposed to be our big debut. Mike (Wayne) managed to get us in the lineup. We had one of the  smaller setlists, like we were crammed in at the last minute, which was very like Mike. We were to go on at 1:30, right after [redacted] . Am I not supposed to name them? Sorry. You'll have to cut that out. The Lead singer was put out that we were playing. He had taken offence about me and Eimear playing the same stage as him. Said us girls were an offence to the music, that we slept our way to the top, or something. Before they went on, he turned to Eimear and called her a "Paddy whore". Ray must've heard. He grabbed [Lead Singer] by the collar, and told him to apologise. He didn't, so Silver swung at him.

Raymond Silver:
He was talking shit with his bandmates about the women the whole time we were backstage. I was pure sick of it. I'm not proud of how I went about it, or the problems it caused afterwards, but I think, if I could go back, I would've still done the same. The Industry's difficult enough without all that shit.

Jay Selby:
[Lead Singer] had to go on with a black eye. We were sent home. Mike was furious with us. He didn't speak to Silver for weeks. [Band] went to the press about the whole ordeal, and the tabloids portrayed Silver as a loose cannon.

Sandie Stevens:
I suppose, in a way, that article did give us some notoriety. It also ensured that every relationship Ray had was watched under a microscope, waiting for the next juicy scrap of gossip.

Mike Wayne:
Weavers was the first band I was fully in charge of. I needed everything to run smoothly. My career depended solely on their every move. Raymond didn't realize that, and was constantly trying to push back on every decision I made. Eimear wasn't easy to work with either. Singers never are. She was naive, but too stubborn to take criticism.

Sandie Stevens:
You have to remember that Eimear had never actually been in a proper band before. The rest of us had been in and out of a few. We had a good idea of what was going on. Writing music as a band is completely different from writing solo. Everyone has to have their say, even if their idea is stupid.

Jay Selby:
Bands fight all the time. Things go to shit. Ideas get lost in translation, amps don't work, someone trips on a lead, picks go missing, strings break, tempers get lost. Its a rite of passage, almost. Eimear was new to all of this, and hadn't learned to take it in stride. Most sessions would end with her throwing some sort of a fit, and walking out.

Raymond Silver:
It was such a pain, we were all walking on eggshells around her. I don't blame her, though. It's stressful, especially when you don't know what to expect. There was a lot more pressure to preform on her than there was for the rest of us.

Sandie Stevens:
I think that first album was a great learning experience for her. For us all, I suppose. We figured out how we sort of flowed together, and who worked best where. People always say following up a good debut record is the hardest thing a band can do, but I actually found the next few albums easier to write. We had our system that worked. All we had to do was stick to it, and let the magic happen.

-End Of Recording-