TRACK: In The Army Now
ARTIST Status Quo
PRODUCER: Pip Williams
ENGINEERS: Tim Summerhayes, Simon Sullivan, Kevin Whyte (asst)
LABEL: Phonogram (Vertigo)
STUDIOS: Chipping Norton, Jacobs, Mayfair

Francis Rossi first heard the song 'In The Army Now' while in Ireland in November 1985. After recording it onto cassette and playing it back to Williams it was considered to be ideal material for Status Quo. It is now the band's latest single.

'Because of the way the song builds from a side stick into quite a large drum sound it obviously could not be recorded straight' Williams explained, 'certain effects had to be recorded, and we did not have the facilities at the studio at the time. There wasn't time to hire another machine to do it 48 track, and so we had to plan very carefully how we were going to proceed.

'It soon became very obvious that we weren't going to do it the normal Quo way; to routine the song and just get the whole band playing together, which is the way they like to record despite any problems with separation and spillage. On In The Army Now the drum sound would have to change throughout, and because of the way the thing would have to build it would be very difficult to try to envisage the size of the final product from what would be put down.

'The basic guitar tracks would also have to be very different from a lot of Quo tracks, in that there wouldn't be a lot of room for freedom in the rhythm. It had to be very tight.

'So the first thing that was recorded was a stereo cabassa, which was done in two passes on a Linn LN2; one with the accent on the on-beat and the other with the accent on the offbeat, in quavers — so the effect was going from left to right. I had written out a chordsheet so that I knew the duration of the song, and the cabassa was recorded for this duration.

'I then put down a guide track of guitar. At this stage we felt that for absolute tightness the best thing to go down as early as possible would be the drums for everyone to play along to. It would initially be just a guide track which, though if considered good enough, would finish up as the final drum track. Jeff Rich did this after going through dozens of different snares he chose a Black Beauty snare drum, which gave me a good side stick sound for the quieter first section and sounded big enough for the end. I deliberately did not want to go for something that was over-contrived. I wanted it to sound huge and ambient, but more along the lines of a John Bonham than a Phil Collins, and there is a subtle difference.

'The first section, which is all fairly low-key up until the key change, was recorded separately, with no long ambients but just a regular close miked kit. We used 201s on the tom-toms, an SM58 and a C414 on the snare with no underneath miking, and I got Jeff to experiment where to hold the stick to get the nicest 'klop' sound; I don't like a too thin cross stick sound.

'The first key-change in the song provided a natural break in recording, at Chipping Norton studios, after which the drum were reset 'with a couple of heavily compressed 87s and a Klark-Teknik reverb. He recorded that playing time, and missing out where there was to be a tom fill. We were very careful about where cymbal crashes were to be — I like cymbals, I think they can be quite exciting — and having done the basic heavy drum track to the end we then recorded the ambient toms. We experimented with a few different toms, and in the end we set up four of his Premier drums' double-headed toms of varying sizes. These ranged from a 12 inch to a fairly large floor tom. They were recorded entirely on two 87s, having blown out some close mics. They were quite heavily compressed. The toms sing a bit which was what I wanted; I didn't want them to be cut short and gated because I wanted something different from the regular Phil Collins sound.'

The two new members of the band — Jeff Rich on drums and John Edwards on bass — had already played numerous sessions together with other artists. Their tightness, born of playing regularly, enabled Pip to allow them to lead Rick and Francis, 'and provide a kick up the arse to them', rather than the other way around. Now, with the stereo cabassa, Pip's guide rhythm guitar, and a solid drum track laid down on tape — utilising a Trident 8 desk — a DI'd bass overdub was added. This track was later redone using a Status bass guitar.

Next, Pip's beloved Jupiter 8 was called upon to produce what he described as 'a damped guitar being chugged'. This again provided a guide for Rick and Francis to follow with their guitars. A code was triggered via the Linn LN2 into the external clock input of the Jupiter 8, and although this fitted in fairly well with the existing drum tracks there was still room for improvement. Therefore a 15 millisecond harmonised delay was added — alternating between slightly sharp and slightly flat — the tape was turned upside down and recorded back to front. In this way the 15 millisecond delay was not 15 milliseconds in front — the mean average providing the desired effect.

Francis Rossi next laid down a couple of tracks of his basic rhythm guitar, using the green 1959 maple necked Telecaster (he is often seen playing it on stage) bi-amped in to an AC30 and two Roland JC120s one with chorus and one without. The chugging sound of this guitar, bounced down from two tracks to one, slotted together coherently with the Jupiter 8 rhythm.

Rick Parfitt then followed suit, recorded two tracks of chugging rhythm guitar with a slightly different sound, utilising Pip Williams' Gibson Les Paul Pro with a Marshall amplifier. Again bounced down to one track the resultant effect was of Rick and Francis playing separately, left and right.

Finally, before the day's recording came to a close, a slightly funky rhythm was added when Rick picked up on a lick that Pip was playing on his own Gretsch Rock Jet. The two Roland JC120s were again used with this. As with all of the guitars the microphones consisted of 87s in the middle distance and SM58s nearby.

'The basic sounds of all the guitars — including the solo guitar,' continued Williams — 'which sounds very natural, were attained before an equalizer was touched. This does not lend itself to any purist reasons, but simply if you get the best possible sound before you touch an equalizer you've got that much further to go. In the end just a slight bit of brightening with the EQ and a bit of compression to hold them in was all that was needed on the rhythm guitars.' (See illustration for guitar amplifier setup).

When recording resumed the following day keyboard player Paul Wickens, affectionately known as 'Wix' lent his expertise to the work in progress.

'He's an ingenious keyboard player, and because he's a little bit of an oddball character anyway — which I'm sure he won't mind me saying, in the nicest possible way — I thought he could give us some good input in terms of sounds. He's also very quick. If I describe a certain type of sound he's able to come up with that straight away!

'There was a basic pad synth on the demo which I wanted there as it created atmosphere, something which this track really needed. He put down a basic pad which was a Super Jupiter and four DX7 sounds from the TX rack. The Super Jupiter does have some good pad sounds generally, and there was a 144 millisecond and a 288 millisecond spin added to those. In terms of the track, which was 104 beats per minute, 288 milliseconds was a quaver, and I like spins or whatever to be in time. Although you don't hear a basic spin on the track, it does give the effect of it being very spacey. That went down in a take with a couple of drop ins.

'Then we put down what is affectionately known as "Wix Brass": Wix has, without question, the best brass sounds of any synth player in the country! If you take a real brass sample, say on a Synclavier or a Fairlight or something, you've always got to do something to tailor it to your needs. Wix has got some unbelievable sounds; he has his own sounds in a PPG and varying brass sounds in the Yamaha TX module. Wix's own brass is a very, very realistic sound. We recorded a few tracks of this, and they were all mixed down into the same tracks as the tom toms... purely because there was a hole there!

'In addition to that, from the key change a Beach Boys type flute sound was also recorded from the Super Jupiter. We then wanted something with a bit of percussion to it, so Wix got something that was similar to an Ovation — again on the DX7 — along with two tracks of DX7 flute which were all then mixed down at a later date onto one track.

'There's a whistle that comes in on the second verse which was also on the demo. I revised it slightly to make it a bit more melodic, and that was done with the Super Jupiter.

'What we called the "syncopated verse" was to have been the last verse — the plot thickens later on — and I decided that I wanted a good old fashioned Hammond organ sound à la Mitch Rider and the Detroit Wheels. So we just dug out the Hammond that was in the studio, stuck one mic several feet away from it and a couple close, and turned it flat out. There was nothing that needed doing to it as it was recorded practically flat and sounded marvellous.

'We sped through all of these overdubs, and as the track was taking shape we were getting a bit of a buzz on it and getting all of these ideas. Nothing took more than a few hours.'

In order to smooth out the tom fill, in accordance with an idea of Rick's, some backwards piano and a Jupiter 8 preset sounding like backwards Telecaster were overdubbed. This was recorded onto quarter inch tape and flown in manually after turning the tape upside down.

Atmosphere was further created by the addition of some wind sounds out of the Jupiter 8 on the second verse, and, after some guitar licks had been recorded by Rick and Francis, Pip added some of his own, which included the lead in the last instrumental section of the song, designed to provide variety of style.

With a fairly comprehensive backing having been assigned to tape, Francis Rossi's lead vocal was recorded quickly using an AKG 414 microphone.

'I don't think the vocal took more than around a half to two hours at the most — which for Francis is long! Francis is, generally speaking, one of the quickest vocalists; his tracking is impeccable and very, very quick. He doesn't like to do a complete vocal — not that he can't — but he prefers to do a verse at a time, concentrate on it, do the same with the chorus and so on.'

Backing vocals were recorded on a slave tape (a wise choice as a 48 track facility was not being used) and flown in by hand. Consisting of Francis, Pip and a roadie named 'Nut Hatch' (!) these were done using the same AKG 414 that had been used on the lead vocal with a basic score being written down from the melody by Pip.

'At the time we recorded the song (September 1985) a part of the lyric said "Smiling faces on the way to Nam", referring to Vietnam. However, a year later after the album was complete it was felt in various circles — particularly America — that such a direct reference to Vietnam was either old hat or not the done thing. The lyric was therefore changed to "Smiling faces as you wait to land", which was re-recorded at a subsequent date.'

After a break recording resumed at Jacobs' Studio 1. This included the addition of a heavy guitar during the 'syncopated' verse — played on Pip's 1959 Les Paul Standard by Francis — and a DX7 bass synth sound.

As the track was now considered complete two days were spent mixing it on Jacobs' SSL desk with Urei monitors. Amongst the effects employed were a Lexicon 224 providing echoes on the guitars, a 224XL adding ambience to the bass and snare drums, while a Klark Teknik DN780 provided increased drum ambience.

The record company at the time, however, felt that the mix was good but 'slightly cool', and after the reference to 'Nam' had been replaced in order for the whole production to be a fairly ambiguous anti war song, a mutual decision was taken by both the record company and those working on the record. It was decided to insert an extra verse that had appeared on the original lyric sheet that Pip had received from the publisher.

'I opted to go to Mayfair Studios to do it; firstly because I'm superstitious and it's a bloody lucky studio, and also because I'd been meaning to work there for a long time but could never get in!'

A 24-24 copy was made of the original master, and a duplication of the first verse after the key change was inserted after the last bridge before the fade-out commenced. Pip had made some trial edits on quarter inch in order to ensure that they were musically feasible.

After cleaning up some guitar licks and vocals in this extra verse, Pip decided to record on 46 track in order to add extra echoes and effects. An end melody was also recorded, as well as the 'Main Melody Barrack Room Choir' consisting of producer, engineer and tape-op providing a rabble for the fade!

'We then went through and actually matched a lot of the sounds to our original mix because there were aspects of it that could not be bettered. So we went ahead and did the mix and that was it!'

During the sixties Pip Williams was in demand both on the road and in the studio as a soul guitarist. Consequently, he worked with many of the top artists of that era, including Al Green and Wilson Pickett in addition to spending a year acting as Musical Director to Jimmy Ruffin.

After studying music arranging at Leeds University Williams arranged numerous British soul records during the early Seventies, prior to moving into production in 1973. Amongst others he has produced the triple platinum Long Distance Voyager album for The Moody Blues, as well as numerous other successful singles and albums for artists such as Kiki Dee, Barclay James Harvest, Jim Diamond, Graham Bonnet, Barbara Dickson and Status Quo.

A working habit of Pip's is to keep his own hand-written records concerning the details of each and every studio session that he is involved in. Consequently, when asked about In The Army Now, (or any other of his productions for that matter), he is able to recall anything, ranging from recording dates to the equipment used. This, together with the manner in which he discusses the music, is a clear indication of the energy and enthusiasm that he puts into his work, and the enjoyment that he derives from it.