Listen to isolated audio of Paul McCartney chewing celery on Super Furry Animals album

It’s isolated audio like nothing you’ve ever heard before – the sound of Paul McCartney chewing celery! 

Two-decades on, Super Furry Animals have revealed the sound of the former Beatle’s contribution to their 2001 album ‘Rings Around The World’.

McCartney provided ‘carrot and celery’ percussion to the band’s 2001 single, Receptacle For The Respectable after meeting the band at the NME Awards.

As part of the Furries’ 20th anniversary reissue of their fifth album ‘Rings Around The World’, the sound of the former Beatle chewing vegetables to the beat is revealed in its original form.

McCartney’s playful addition is released on its own for the very first time as one of 75 curiosities from the vaults, including unreleased outtakes, remixes, hidden sounds and demos appearing across the multi-format release. 

The story of how a Beatle ended up crunching celery for a bunch of Welsh mad heads starts with a chance encounter at the NME Awards in 2000 and ends with McCartney’s enthusiastic chewing being delivered by post and then woven into the production of the Furries’ single, Receptacle For The Respectable. The ex-Beatle’s contribution being just one of the wild bends in the road of the expansive, Millennium-era, classic alt-pop album’s remarkable story.

Approached by artificially emboldened Furries keys player, Cian Ciarán at the ceremony at the Mermaid Theatre, London, initially to convince McCartney to let the band loose to remix The Beatles’ songs – a successful pitch as the Furries later received boxes of Beatles master tapes to contribute heavily to the Liverpool Sound Collage, McCartney agreed to appear on the band’s upcoming album.

Within weeks, McCartney had sent a tape of just what the band had requested. Having previously ‘played’ the celery on Beach Boys’ 1967 track ‘Vegetables’, McCartney took the chance to revive his penchant for percussion with roots. 

Ciarán says of the surreal addition to the Mercury Prize-nominated album: “He was going to come to the studio and then decided not to for some reason. So, we sent him stereo backing tracks so he could keep time, then he sent the tape back with a message that started with a really dodgy Welsh accent. Then he goes ‘I hope you like it’ – the next thing you know you just hear this chewing sound!”

In addition to McCartney’s appearance as carrot and celery cruncher-in-chief on ‘Receptacle For The Respectable’, Super Furry Animals added one more hero to the list of album credits as Velvet Underground’s John Cale took up the piano on Presidential Suite. 

So vast is the BMG reissue of Rings Around The World that the digital version will be split over two, separate release dates.  All physical versions and the first digital instalment will be released on Fri 3 September 2021, with a second digital collection being made available three weeks later on Fri 24 September 2021.  

Notably the first ever studio album to be produced in 5.1 Surround Sound, as a visual album and released on DVD allowing Playstation gamers to effortlessly switch to listening to the album, Super Furry Animals tested both the tolerances of modern technology and the purse strings of their record label at the time, Sony/Epic. Hiring four-time Grammy Award-winning, Run DMC and Public Enemy Producer, Chris Shaw and heading for a string of high-spec, residential studios, the band set out to reach for their furthest and wildest musical ambitions. 

Mercury Prize

The Rings Around The World adventure is notable for being central to the Furries’ American odyssey. They, Shaw and engineer Eric Tew completed the estimated, final third of the record at Bearsville Studios on the lip of Woodstock, New York State, sessions that began after the band were left at the roadside by an out-of-patience, conservative husband and wife driving team, following a nine-date club tour from Hoboken to Boston. The following weeks featured baby bears, fireflies and paranoid, Blair Witch Project-reminiscent forest walks.

The widespread, positive response to the record after release on Mon 23 July 2001, which also included the sunlit, countrified splendour of Run! Christian, Run! and third single, It’s Not The End Of The World, not only gained the band more ground and bigger shows in the US, but a 2001 Mercury Prize-nomination, putting the band onstage for the awards party on a notable Tuesday, 11 September 2001. The band returned to the States in 2002 for two, coast-to-coast US Tours following the critical and commercial success of the album across the Atlantic. 

With updated packaging featuring original artwork and sleeve notes by music journalist, Keith Cameron, the announced track listing for the 2021 remastered release of Super Furry Animals’ Rings Around The World is as follows: 

2 x 180g Vinyl 

A1. Alternate Route To Vulcan Street

A2. Sidewalk Serfer Girl

A3. (Drawing) Rings Around The World

B1. It’s Not The End Of The World?

B2. Receptacle For The Respectable

B3. Touch Sensitive

B4. Shoot Doris Day

C1. Miniature

C2. No Sympathy

C3. Juxtapozed With U

D1. Presidential Suite

D2. Run! Christian, Run!

D3. Fragile Happiness

1 x CD Edition 

Rings Around The World – Original Album, 2021 Remaster

3 x CD Edition 

Disc 1

1.           Alternate Route To Vulcan Street
2.           Sidewalk Serfer Girl
3.           (Drawing) Rings Around The World
4.           It’s Not The End Of The World?
5.           Receptacle For The Respectable
6.           Touch Sensitive
7.           Shoot Doris Day
8.           Miniature
9.           No Sympathy
10.         Juxtapozed With U
11.         Presidential Suite
12.         Run! Christian, Run!
13.         Fragile Happiness

B-Sides

14.         Tradewinds
15.         The Roman Road
16.         Happiness Is A Worn Pun
17.         Patience
18.         Edam Anchorman
19.         All The Shit U Do

Disc 2:

B-Sides Continued 

1. Gypsy Space Muffin

Unfinished Outtakes from LP Sessions

2.           John Spex*
3.           Miami Vice*
4.           Sanitised (Rough Mix)*
5.           Chihuahua (Unfinished, Rough Mix)*

Demos 1998 – 2000

6.           (Drawing) Rings Around The World #1*
7.           (Drawing) Rings Around The World #2*
8.           (Drawing) Rings Around The World #3*
9.           No Sympathy*
10.         Tradewinds*
11.         Receptacle For The Respectable #1*
12.         Receptacle For The Respectable #2*
13.         Happiness Is A Worn Pun*
14.         Sidewalk Serfer Girl*
15.         Presidential Suite*
16.         The Roman Road*
17.         Patience #2*
18.         Shoot Doris Day*
19.         Edam Anchorman*
20.         Sanitised*
21.         Fragile Happiness*

Disc 3: Remixes

1.           Alternate Route To Vulcan Street (Bench Remix)*
2.           Sidewalk Serfer Girl (Catatonia Remix)*
3.           (Drawing) Rings Around The World (Happy Chapel Remix)*
4.           It’s Not The End Of The World? (Force Unknown Remix)*
5.           Receptacle For The Respectable (Destructable Mix)*
6.           Touch Sensitive (Force Unknown Remix)*
7.           Shoot Doris Day (Wauvenfold Remix)*
8.           Miniature (Goem Remix)*
9.           No Sympathy (Kid 606 Remix)*
10.         Juxtapozed With U (SFA Remix)*
11.         Presidential Suite (High Llamas Remix)*
12.         Run! Christian, Run! (Massimo Remix)*
13.         Fragile Happiness (Brave Captain Remix)*

*Previously unreleased

All of the tracks for the 2021 reissue have been remastered by Donal Whelan at Hafod Mastering in the Vale of Glamorgan with Furries archivist, Kliph Scurlock taking a deep dive into the vaults once again to bring so many unheard tracks to light. 

The Super Furry Animals were and remain the multi-instrumental Huw Bunford, Cian Ciarán, Daf Ieuan, Guto Pryce and Gruff Rhys. 

Super Furry Animals: Rings Around The World (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)is released on Friday, 3 September 2021 

Formats: Heavyweight 180g 2 LP Vinyl / 1 Disc CD / 3 x Disc Expanded CD / Digital 

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