Hefner | You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone | (John Peel session) 1998

“You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone” taken from the double single ‘John Peel session 13/10/98’ (Precious PRE 013) March 2022

Hefner | You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone | (John Peel session) 1998 | To record music is to make the impermanent permanent. When bands are young, chaotic and beautiful, moments are lost because we don’t know their value. We’re too busy learning how to do the thing to document it.

Debut albums are a conundrum in this sense. It’s the first time an artist is asked to commit fully to an idea. We are forced to consider legacy — this is how it will sound forever. Often, that’s where we fall down.

The recording studio red light makes us rabbits in the headlights and what was once bright, young and action-packed can become cautious and overthought.

I had these ideas very much in mind when Hefner made their first album. The band was born out of trying to make an English version of the American lo-fi scene; Daniel Johnston, Sebadoh and Guided By Voices were my benchmark for recording fidelity and I thought that being in a recording studio at all was a betrayal of my vision.

I failed to convince the record company that we should record the album at home on cassette. Hefner’s first album, therefore, is a curious thing. Recorded in a plush studio (Wet Wet Wet were next door) but with me constantly trying to self-sabotage and keep all of our awkward edges in.

Hefner | You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone | (John Peel session) 1998

I had a list of rules: no echo, no kick drum, no second takes, all live vocals. John Peel often liked bands at the beginning of their career; he enjoyed the unrefined and energetic.

Many bands recorded their debut Peel sessions before making their first album. We made ours just after and perhaps that was for the best. We were pleased with our first album but wanted to do better.

To be asked to do a session for him was to be told you mattered. This was being written down somewhere. “Hefner did a Peel Session.” I remember wanting to impress, but wanting to impress John Peel specifically.

Personally I wasn’t thinking about the listeners. I considered this might be my first and last Peel session. I had four songs in this job interview. It became something of a tradition with us to record exclusive songs for John Peel — we never re-recorded these songs elsewhere.

John himself told me this is what he liked about us and mentioned it on air. This is what the sessions were meant to be, he said. I believe he loved the idea that part of his show was new art being broadcast live and then disappearing.

Except now, something meant for the airwaves has been made solid. These songs were supposed to be transitory — fleeting, temporary, made for a radio session.

Now you can play them forever. Peel Sessions can often become the truest document of a band. They are high-fidelity photographs of beautiful, youthful awkwardness. There’s no time to do make up and pose. They are accidentally permanent. (Darren Hayman)

“It’s all about sex with Hefner, isn’t it?” – John Peel

Hefner | You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone | (John Peel session) 1998

Hefner’s unique brand of lo-fi indie folk made them a staple of John Peel’s show in the late 1990s, when they often took high rank in the annual Festive 50 chart voted for by the legendary broadcaster’s devoted listeners.

Released on vinyl for the first time, this is the group’s first Peel session, featuring a Beach Boys cover plus three early Hefner songs – and free downloads of the original BBC files and a set of postcards featuring early gig flyers designed by Darren.

I’ve got this double-single Hefner set by default. Over two years ago I ordered three records from Precious Recordings Of London; two by the Jasmine Minks and a David Jensen radio session Hurrah! recorded in 1982.

Imagine my disappointment when they sent me Hefner instead of Hurrah!

I’d already received the download pack of sleeves and FLAC files so let it go, but spat out some feathers for half-an-hour, and played the Jasmine Minks louder than I normally would.

So, fast-forward two-and-a-bit years later and I’m playing the Hefner records for the first time. Sadly, and just as I thought for 90s recordings, Hefner are just not my scene.

The music is way too modern for my tastes, especially the heavy hitting drum sound and the singer’s voice is more than annoying.

But I’ll create this blog post for anyone interested in hearing their Beach Boys cover version of “You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone,” an obscure number from their 1972 LP ‘Carl and the Passions, So Tough’.

Line-up

Darren Hayman (vocals / guitar / Hammond, synth)
John F Morrison (bass / piano)
Antony Harding (drums / vocals)

Other details

Produced for the BBC by Miti Adhikari
Recorded 27/09/98 at Maida Vale Studio 3
First broadcast 13/10/98
Released on Precious Recordings of London