THE SECRETS
TEN THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THE SECRETS!
1. The Secrets – sometimes known as “The Pipeline Houseband” - were born out of an ad placed in Pipeline 34. Their first get-together on 6th January 1997 featured four guitar players (Jim Nugent, Paul Keyes, Nick ffrench and Ray Liffen), one bass player (Pete Walter) and two drummers called Dave (Harwood and Burke). Nick and Dave H. were already in the Evening Shadows. Paul was already recording under the name Surftrek. Dave Burke (co-editor of Pipeline magazine, of course) had long nursed an ambition to be a drummer. Jim had played played in many bands, both in his native Liverpool and in London. Pete had previous band experience. Ray had been playing in various bands since the sixties, but had also done 15 years semi-pro as a solo act around the pubs and clubs of South London and Surrey.
2. Over the next few months of rehearsal Paul, Nick and Dave H. dropped out while Jim, Pete, Ray and Dave B welcomed Trev Faull (noted writer and musician with bands going back to the eighteen-sixties) on keyboards to make the current Secrets lineup.
3. Their usual rehearsal room is the lounge in Ray's house in Carshalton, Surrey. Amazingly, no complaints about noise have been received over the years (even from Ray's long-suffering wife, Maureen).
4. This same room was the venue for the recording of The Secrets first CD (“Top Secret”) where 14 tracks were laid down in five frantic hours. With two weeks to go before Pipeline 2001 there was no time for a professional studio and multitrack recording - all numbers were recorded 'as live' and if a mistake was made the whole band had to start again!
5. This "1950's" recording technique was mirrored in the minimal number of mics used (six!) - one each for the guitars, bass and keyboard and just two (overhead and bass drum) for Dave's kit. There was nobody mixing - Ray just set the faders and turned the recorder on and off. All the mics were the dynamic type, including a couple of venerable Unidyne Ill's.
6. From his extensive collection of guitars, Jim used three for recording the CD. On twelve tracks he used a sunburst Fender Stratocaster, while El Cumbanchero features his Fender 6-string bass and Bird Rockers his Fender Electric XII.
7. Pete and Ray used one guitar each. Pete used his Fender Precision bass and Ray his Intec Ace guitar (a Shergold body and neck with DiMarzio pickups, custom stereo wiring and a Bigsby). The headstocks of all five guitars feature on the CD cover.
8. Jim plays lead guitar throughout (ignore those reviews that credit him as "guitare rhythmique"), although Ray plays the twangy Tiff on Peter Gunn and the 'tune' in Pipeline through a vibrato pedal.
9. The closing track on the CD (Theme 1) follows the George Martin arrangement but notice how Trev slips in a nod to the '1812 Overture'. This is a bit of a Trev speciality - on the occasions when Jim can be persuaded to play FBI, Trev slips in The Teddy Bears Picnic!
10. Who thought of the name 'The Secrets'? - it was Trev.
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