A Maximum High - Background and Recording

Background and Recording

Shed Seven held writing and rehearsal sessions at a local potato plant, RS Cockerill's of York, prior to recording the album. One of the first tracks recorded, with their new producer Chris Sheldon, was the lead single, "Where Have You Been Tonight?", written in late-1994 and debuting live at the band's Christmas show on 23 December. It was one of five tracks completed during a three week recording session at RAK Studios in February, 1995, before the band departed midway through the mixing process at Metropolis to embark on their first tour of Japan, satisfied with what they had achieved;

Along with the lead single, they completed a further four songs during their first stint in the recording studio; "This Day Was Ours", "Bully Boy", an untitled track, which was said to be the first Shed Seven song to feature drummer Alan Leach on lead vocals, and "Lies". This version of "Lies" was previewed on an NME compilation cassette given away free with their 6 May 1995 issue, almost a year before the album was released. Following gigs in Spain and Japan, the band headed back to the studio in May 1995 to begin work on further material for inclusion on the album, which, at that point, was titled In Colour. Numerous tracks recorded in this period feature the highly renowned session musicians, The Kick Horns and The Phantom Horns, adding a brassier undertone to the featured songs and marking a notable change in sound to that of the band's previous output.