Ironically enough, The Shires are hard at work on theirthird album in Sony/ATV’s Nashville studio when Music Week rudely interrupts them to, er, find out how it’scoming along.

It doesn’t take long to register the rapportbetween the two - when Ben Earle insists he’s not “acontrol freak” in the studio, it takes but a nanosecondfor the banter to kick in as Crissie Rhodes whispers “he is” to us.

Judging from the smiles plastered on their faces, you can’t help but ...