The Recreation try their hand at DIY

Photo: Paul Fox

The Recreation . . .DIY EP “Be Nice or Leave” is out on October 10.

MUSIC EXTRA: TO quote the Valentine Brothers - and more famously, Manchester’s own Simply Red - money can be too tight to mention when you’re an up and coming teenage band trying to make your mark.

That’s the case for Royton four-piece indie rockers The Recreation, who are preparing to release a new four-track DIY EP, “Be Nice or Leave”.

The EP, from October 10, will feature songs “Irrelevant”, “Blockade”, “Behind” and “Hindsight” and has been a bargain-basement effort from front-man Owen Baldwin, guitarist Tom Atkinson, drummer George Porter and bassist Sam Sumner. But tuneful quartet is happy with the result.

Baldwin said: “I just had a little microphone, plugged it in to my computer and we did it ourselves in a week. We got the drums down one day, guitar the next; bass, vocals, and while I won’t say I’ve produced it as such, I think we made it sound all right.

“It was done using some free software off the internet so it was nothing dead plush really, but we managed to fine tune the sounds we had and it’s good. We’re all very happy with it.

“It’s about getting ourselves out there between now and the end of 2015, and then see what happens next year. We’ve just got to keep pushing ourselves and keep gigging. The more the better.”

To promote the new EP the band have organised a six-date “tour” starting at Warrington’s Orford Hotel on the EP’s launch day.

Dates follow at the Liverpool Bumper on the 15th, Huddersfield’s Rock Cafe on the 18th, York’s Spread Eagle on the 22nd, The Shift in Burnley on the 26th and Manchester’s Gullivers on the 28th. The band wil also play support for N-Oasis on December 5 at Manchester’s Ruby Lounge.

Baldwin added: “We booked the list and that will set us up for the big one in December. That one should be really good. We didn’t want to release the EP and do nothing to go alongside it.”

As well as the EP and mini-tour, the band has put together a new website — www.therecreation.co.uk — and will release “Blockade” as a single on September 26 with a new video - yes, another home-made effort with clips from early 2015 gigs.


LISTEN to Simon Smedley’s exclusive audio interview with Owen Baldwin: