Recording The Album
WEA gave Dury and Gallagher £70,000 for recording costs, according to Mickey Gallagher in Song By Song most of the recording was done for £25,000 with Ian Dury's vocals costing around £30,000 on their own, Dury was still drinking heavily at this time but following this session his behaviour would steadily improve. Recording took place at Liquidator and Westside Studios under the production of Ian Horne, who had been Dury's sound engineer on his Stiff Records releases Do It Yourself and Laughter, it was not made by the 'Apple Blossom Orchestra' that played on the stage shows (they were formed after the albums completion) though a number of players on the record were part of that band.
In addition to the show's leading lady Frances Ruffelle who sung vocals on "Looking For Harry", "Game On" and the humorous duet "Love Is All" Dury's long-time friend and former Stiff Records artist Wreckless Eric also appeared to perform nearly all of the vocals for "PC Honey"', a song reportedly inspired by a policewoman who came backstage after an argument between Dury and his then girlfriend while touring with The Music Students to promote 4,000 Weeks' Holiday his previous album five years earlier. Much of the band Kokomo also appear on backing vocals.
The final line of the album's credits is 'remembering Pete Rush' Pete Rush was Ian Dury's PA and minder for some years until he was forced to let him go because his antics were causing too many problems on tour, Rush had died before the album's recording, Dury would later write a song about him "The Ballad Of The Sulphate Strangler" which would eventually be included on the posthumous Ten More Turnips From The Tip album, Dury also mentions him in this album’s version of "England’s Glory".
Even though The Bus Driver's Prayer And Other Stories is named after the track, this is Dury's first recording of the song.
Read more about this topic: Apples (album)
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