Hi Katy! My question's for Nick this time around. Yesterday, I finally got around to buying the "Classic Albums" DVD for RIO. And as I was watching some of it last night, something caught my ear when Simon and Nick were discussing "The Chauffeur." From what it sounded like, the version that ended up on the RIO album was something of a newer version, compared to one that they had tried recording beforehand. And I'm pretty sure Nick was the one who described the original version as being "acoustic" in origin. So my question for Nick is what came out of that earlier version of "The Chauffeur." Was it a complete song or just a runthrough of sorts? And, perhaps more importantly, was this the acoustic version of the song that was released as a b-side to the single for "Rio" (the song, not the album) all those years ago? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks again... Trevor from Minnesota.

"Simon’s original vision for “The Chauffeur” was certainly more acoustic. We had not recorded the song during the bulk of the RIO session but Nick really loved the lyric, so he wandered off in to a satellite studio and began to build an electronic track based upon what Simon already had. Once Nick had the basic structure mapped out with a sequencer, it was clear that it could be something quite unique.

Although it was a radical departure from the acoustic version, Simon embraced the new direction and we worked together to complete to track. The acoustic version on the B-Side of “Rio” is certainly closer to the original sketch for the song but still more harmonically developed. Simon and Nick"