Seventeen months on from the end of Shed Seven, singer Rick Witter talks about the band's last album, only now released, and tells CHARLES HUTCHINSON about his plans.

IT isn't the end of the world, but right now it feels like it.

With these words Rick Witter announced Shed Seven's split after 12 years and 15 hits on November 23, 2003. Seventeen months on, and Witter looks as whippet-slim as ever in green zip-up, sipping coffee in the Verandah caf on Ouse Bridge, with his children in tow.

He is both family man and music man, with a solo project in its early stages, and that doom and gloom at the time of the Sheds' final curtain has made way for a pride in their final recordings. Those demos, recorded at Studio 7, should have been transformed into Shed Seven's fifth studio album but Taste Music declined to give the album the go-ahead, adamant that none of the songs shouted "Hit Single".

Taste relinquished the demos back to the Sheds at the end of last year, and now those lost home-town and live recordings have been released as a limited-edition album, One Hand Clapping, The Unreleased Demos 2001-2003.

"The next step would have been to find a producer for those songs, but I now think there's something final about those recordings. I think we knew it was coming to its end and so maybe we put more into those demos than previous ones," Rick says.

"To be honest, the most frustrating thing about our career was how it ended. Why Can't I Be You was an OK song, which they insisted should be the comeback single because of the catchy chorus, and they got more involved than any other company in the making of a single, but they never did take it on from there, when they'd promised to see how it went."

It went to number 23. Not bad, but Rick is not alone in believing No One Wants To Know You When You're Down And Out would have done better. "That was one of the best things we'd ever done and the fans deserved the chance to hear it," Rick says.

"But for some reason Taste didn't see it like that and didn't give us the chance to prove it by recording it properly. We were introducing these new songs at our shows and the kids were enjoying them as much as the hits, and the irony now is that in the past year there's been a healthy new uptake of guitar bands. These songs would stand up to anything that's out there now - and they were written before this new scene came in, so we wouldn't have been trading on that."

Pressure from fans on the website has led to the release of One Hand Clapping, mixed by drummer Alan Leach and keyboards player Fraser Smith.

"We've pressed only 1,000 copies, and 40 of those have gone to America already and there have been orders from Russia and Poland. No doubt Taste will be keeping an eye on it to see what response it gets," says Rick. "Bands always say their new album is the best thing they've ever done but I believe it was rough justice with this album because there are two or three songs that would fit perfectly on the end of our chart singles."

Rick knows he has to move on, even if he sings "Sometimes it's even harder to let go" in Pages, a B-side among the lost songs. "This album completely closes the book," he says. "That's kinda sad though it does tie up the loose ends. Don't get me wrong, if we do reform in years to come, then this album will at least give us the chance to include these songs in the show."

Will Shed Seven reform? "It's something we've all thought about but you have to leave it for a for a few years, give it some space, and then come back with a bang, rather than just doing a few gigs for the sake of it."

Rick is now doing his celebrity DJ thing at clubs in York, Newcastle, Harrogate and beyond. "It's purely a monetary thing. I'd much rather be on stage with a microphone in my hand, swinging my ass, but with three kids, needs must. It's strange, people stand there staring at me DJing, and I end up drinking and smoking too much just to do something with my hands," he says.

More importantly Rick is working on a solo project, with "three or four really good songs" taking pleasing shape. "Things are coming together, it's been difficult to find people to play with but I've done that now, and I'm looking to push things on in the autumn," he says.

"I'm in quite a good position to book a tour and play small venues but I'm very aware that what you come back with has to be good 'cos you only get one chance."

Shed Seven's One Hand Clapping, The Unreleased Demos 2001-2003 is available exclusively from www.shedseven.com or from Track Records, York, at £10.99.

Updated: 16:27 Thursday, April 21, 2005