Over the years, many people have pondered the significance of the cherries. What symbolism was involved? Was it a sexual metaphor? Was it a non-sexual metaphor? Was it relevant that, though there were two cherries, the stalks weren’t joined? The answer, of course, is simple: they photocopied really cleanly, so could be reproduced in various sizes in various contexts without needing to be expensively scanned, and then printed using just one colour of ink. It’s also a lovely photo, of course – or the original is – but it was only ever used in that form on the cover of Air Balloon Road, our first CD compilation, which means only people who own a copy of that will have seen the thank you to Akiko, who took the photo and sent it to us from Nara in Japan. So, 25 years on, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank her again. She also took the photos on the sleeves of The Wake’s Crush The Flowers and Major John and Even As We Speak’s One Step Forward… and, in 1991, created the Sugarfrost label.

As for the metaphor of the broken bowl… well…