Reuben - Very Fast Very Dangerous

Recorded as the original line up with Mark Lawton on drums in summer 2000 at Backline studios in Guildford with ex Redwood guitarist Rob Blackham, Pilot was the band's first release. The band had met Rob at Guildford festival, where he urged them to record a demo of some sort, so they set about recording five songs in four days. The EP was released (after much badgering) on the Badmusic label, then home to the fantastic Caretaker, in January 2001. The initial run was of 500 copies, which sold out pretty fast, but it is regularly repressed and is available at shows and by mail order. It was reviewed in Kerrang! by members of Taproot, and received a KKKK rating, despite being described as 'cheesey' by the singer. This from a man with 'taproot' in flames tattooed on his forearm.
The tracks:
Alpha Signal Seven This was the track that convinced Ric from Badmusic to put out the EP, and was played a couple of times by the lovely Steve Lamacq on his radio show.
Words From Reuben The song the band named themselves after, the first one to be written with Mark in the band. It also featured on the Farnborough Groove Ten compilation.
Crimson A failed attempt to sound like the Deftones, this is a big live favourite and was played a couple of times on XFM around the release.
Death Of A Star A relic from Angel days, this was an old song even in 2001, which was a favourite of the band's at the time. Used to be the standard set-opener from days at the Tumbledown.
Shambles A secret track available on only the first 500 copies of the EP, this was all that was written at the time of a much longer song.
The facts:
Unsure of whether or not they had enough money to record the EP, Reuben decided to go for it when they won £100 in a battle of the bands competition staged in Bookham barn hall in front of a panel of twelve year olds.
The band changed their name from 'Angel' to 'Reuben' just before the release, for fear that it might get overlooked if it was under a different name.
Reuben are named after the song 'Words From Reuben', whose title makes reference to receiving a letter from an old friend; Reuben having been the first friend that Jamie ever made. It was decided to shorten the band name to just 'Reuben', because the longer version was way too emo.
The funny phased guitar sounds on that song were originally just for fun but were left in when the band ran out of time to mix.
£100 of the fee for the last day of mixing was paid entirely in pound coins by Mark.