Commercially produced 'backing-tracks' for use by solo singers, duos and the likes had been around for years. But, without exception, they were terrible and embarrassing. What I envisaged was in an entirely different league. The only item I required to transform my thoughts into reality was a decent multi-track to record and mix the different elements. My old Akai open-reel 'sound-on-sound' machine simply was not good enough, so, in 1985, I purchased a Yamaha MT1X, 4-track tape recorder. Around this time I stopped playing on stage and switched to sound engineering: Working with live bands and also in the many of the budget 'eight-track' and 'sixteen-track' studios that were springing to accommodate the needs of an army of aspiring young, penniless bands. I played keyboards on many 'demo' records, though none of the bands ever made a name for themselves.

My 'backing-tape' assisted duo never got off the ground. After four years playing the music of others, I figured that it was about time I started to experiment with a few of my own musical ideas: OrangeBox was born.

I do not recall where the name originated, but OrangeBox became the collective name for both my spare-bedroom, 4-track recording studio and the assorted friends and musicians who gathered there. Between 1985 and 1993, ideas for tunes, melodies and songs in every style from rock to classical were experimented with inside those four walls. At the start of 1993, the limitations of 4-track were crippling my musical ideas. I decided to move up to an 8-track system. This was not cheap to achieve. A decent mixing desk and eight-track recorder cost around £6,000, but could be purchased second-hand for around £2,000. Having an 8-track recording set-up offered the tempting potential for hiring it out to other bands. A small rented room could become an eight-track, semi-professional recording studio: Which could become a sixteen-track professional studio, one day...

Almost immediately I found an Allen & Heath, '16-8-2' mixing console being offered for sale by an aging guitarist whose wife had persuaded him it was time to retire from the club circuit. The big drawback was the machine was not working. I took a chance on there being nothing major wrong with it and paid the guy £85. A week later, the (blown) transformer was replaced (at a cost of £15) and the machine was given a full service. I now had a very serious eight-track mixing desk and was on the hunt for an equally nice eight-track-recorder to complete my set-up. And... that's when 'It' happened...

Ten years later.

I guess that 'It' certainly ranks somewhere in the top five of my list of 'Worst ever decisions'. The sudden extraction of music left a gigantic hole in my life. Between 1994 and 2002, I tried to plug this chasm with many ideas and activities: None ever came close. I lacked the funds to purchase any of the equipment I required to start again and the lack of music in my life became a constant, wailing ache. I began to feel like a ghost.

In 2003, my partner (Sarah), purchased a new computer and I purchased a C. D. filled with music recording and processing software. Suddenly, I had at my disposal, a recording system the likes of which I could not have dreamed of back in the late 1970s: Or even in the mid 1990s.

To come-to-terms with this new and completely alien technology, I decided to dig out all of my old 4-track master tapes and transfer these to a digital source. At best, these recordings were ten years old and at worst, twenty. Created on budget-priced equipment, the recordings were not of the highest sonic quality to begin with. I was horrified by the scale of the degradation. Much of the original signal strength was lost; random drop-outs and general weird bloops and other bizarre noises punctuated the rapidly disintegrating magnetic tape. But, enough remained to piece together and restore at least some of the tunes.

Originally, I estimated that the material in a fit enough state to salvage, would just about fill one C. D. (approximately 80 minutes of music). However, as I got better at manipulating the technology, I was able to rescue more of the material than I assumed was possible at the onset, and one C. D. became three (each took six months to complete). This collection became known as 'Ten Years Gone'. Volume I comprises the stuff I did on my own. Volumes II, and III contain examples of the songs I recorded with the two main members of OrangeBox, namely a singer / songwriter from South Elmsall, called Mark Hughes, and songwriter / singer from Ackworth, called Dale Ashman. A fourth volume of Ten Years Gone, called 'Orange Peel' is planned. This will contain other stuff salvaged from the old analogue master tapes, which does not relate to either Dale or Mark.

Having re-mastered and re-mixed all of the old recordings, it seemed a natural progression to create some new ones. The challenges of old-age must be overcome! So, in the spring of 2005, a batch of five new songs were written. These were based on ideas formed around 1993, but which had never been committed to tape. The fact that they had survived -in memory- for ten years was deemed a good omen. Three of the resulting songs were released on the single entitled 'Love Don't Wait', and all five can be found on the 'Wudgrubz - 2005' C. D. The single was issued under the old name, 'OrangeBox', which was subsequently changed to 'Wudgrubz', as a reflection of the project having metamorphosed into an entirely different organism.

The 'Wudgrubz - 2005' C. D., is a bridge between the past and the future. It incorporates ideas and sounds from both OrangeBox's analogue era and the fledgling digital sunrise. It also features contributions from the same two, original OrangeBox members.

'Give yourself to Love' is the latest release from Wudgrubz. It is the first entirely digital recording created by us and I'm rather please with the way it's turned-out. Being the first version of a new song, it is still very experimental in its construction and will require re-working from scratch at some point in the future. It does provide a glimpse into the direction Wudgrubz are heading as writing from the forthcoming C. D., 'Soulburn' continues.

Tracks marked with the MP3 icon (left) are available for you to listen to online.
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