The first single from Thunder and Consolation which, uniquely for a New Model Army release, came out before the album. This track came from one of the final Sawmill sessions of 1988, and flew together quickly. It troubled the charts for a couple of weeks too. Nothing Touches had been kicking around for a while, and this version is probably the best we did. Betcha was recorded at the Bisquithalle in Bonn as part of a live radio show for WDR Rocknacht.

This one arrived at about the same time as the album, and charted in the lower reaches of the Top 40. A fairly run-of-the-mill song at first recording, Vagabonds was elevated by Robert's marching band approach to the drums, and the man from Jericho, Ed Alleyne Johnson. Ed dropped in to The Manor one afternoon to do a spot of violin, and stayed for a few years. Once we'd persuaded him to take all the effects off the violin and put some top end frequencies back into it, this was a goer. Multi tracking ensued for the big string intro once we'd floated the whole session back to the Sawmill original. White Coats comes from the Bisquithalle in Bonn as above. There's also a version with the extended mix of Lights Go Out on it. Free stickers too...nice.

This album deserves a section to itself, as it was a two year labour of love. I've often wanted to write about the mechanics of this project, so I will, but not here, and not yet. Later for that one. Thunder was widely regarded as the band's best album to date and received good critical notices to boot. I guess we grew up a lot as we recorded this one, and learned from our mistakes for a change. Tom Dowd wasn't the right man for the project, but luckily we realised in time and pulled our fat out of the very expensive fire that was The Manor. We returned to the roots of the project, the much loved Sawmill demos, as these captured the moments that the songs came together, moments that we couldn't replicate. This was the first album to get a CD release straight away, and featured the obligatory bonus tracks from the White Coats EP, plus 125mph and Nothing Touches.

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