It wasn't exactly what you'd call a completely, unambitious threesome that essentially had carved out at least two potential albums worth of material before they were even discovered. They’d barely "paid their dues" as a local live act, but the original incarnation of the Vines always maintained the aim of recording the classic album, or even a few of them. Generally the aim of any musician who puts their work down for posterity often does it for the ears of others, and the numbers of "others" tends to run alongside ambitions of straddling the globe like a colossus, hordes of audiophiles holding their collective breath for your next work of genius. For the Vines, it was always to record a great something and the rest would hopefully follow.

Following various forays into four-track and eight-track recordings (successful and not so successful collective and separately), it was the Vines sessions that they recorded themselves, and the now legendary A# Sessions - "In The Jungle" in particular - that landed them in cahoots with lvy League publishing and management, then Engine Room, and eventually Capitol Records. Their discovery is a rather simple and heartening tale of enthusiasm and taste triumphing.

After seeing a Vines show at the Iron Duke Hotel in 2000, a resident DJ at the fledgling and intermittent FBi Community Radio station requested a copy of their demo to play on the air, and even, lo and behold, for the band to come on the show and be interviewed.

Seeing as this was a clear and positive opportunity to perhaps break past their relative uknown status, Craig, David and Patrick fronted for the hilarious interview, followed by their debut airing of "In The Jungle.” Tuning into the broadcast, apart from friends, family members and FBi devotees, was Andrew Cassell of lvy League. Andy liked what he heard and keenly tried to track the band down.

Once a comprehensive slew of demos, particularly the A Sharp sessions, had been dispatched to Ivy League, managers Peter Lusty, Andy Kelly, as well as Cassell, began to pursue the band, setting up opportunities for the Vines to play and be seen.

At the Lansdowne show they played a very long set, probably an hour or so which was unusual for them at that point. Andy Kelly was speechless with love for them, and it was around that time that Craig started to turn on as a frontperson, playing the guitar behind his head and going through his full expression of onstage emotions.

The Sydney University Band Competition show was legendary for a couple of reasons. In the lead up to that gig, I had seen the band play two of their worst shows and told them that if they didn't smarten up for the final, (which meant Craig had to stop screaming all the time and occasionally sing in tune and even play guitar in tune) that they wouldn't win. David was indignant at such criticisms, but sure enough, as is their wont, they turned around and played a stunning, and brief set. David also managed to fall off the back of the stage injuring his back, but being the trooper that he is, climbed back up to finish the set.

The rent-a-crowd showiness of the other bands had nothing on the Vines power and beautiful songs (like Winning Days) and I remember turning to Peter Lusty upon the announcement of their victory and extolling the virtues of the band that was about to 'go nuts.’

After those two memorable shows, the lvy Leaguers put the deal forward, and the band, still barely known, moved one step closer to the classic album as they signed their first slab of rock and roll legal paper. The rest is history.