My Computer - The Squanderer

Half way through making No CV, I got sick and tired of the entourage that had surrounded my writing partner on the album. So, I headed down to London to see John Best and Dean'O'Conner from my PR company Big Dipper and record label 13 Amp.

Richard O'Donovan from Mercury, who we were now signed to and got the recording budget from, had been to see us at the studio. I asked John Best what Richard thought of the new My Computer album.

John Best said this "Richard isn't bothered about the new My Computer album, he is more interested in a solo Andrew Chester record".

As John Leckie had just arrived on the scene, I told John Best that I couldn't abandon the next My Computer album, for a solo album.

Six months later My Computer were dropped by Mercury for delivering the finished aalbum in 7.1 surround sound, not stereo. Lucien Grange went to the playback studio to listen to it and the engineer couldn't open the files.

This meant we lost the second half of the publishing advance from BMG as well as the second option advance from Mercury. After three years of working on the record and putting up with all kinds of shit, I banked a big fat nothing.

My next call to 13 Amp went like this "6 months ago, you could have been James Blunt, six months before he got famous".