Although Nucleus Agency had commenced setting up a tour for News, they decided to pull out and rebuild some solid support at home. Perhaps signifying an era of rapprochement, Premier gave News a few gig through April / May and the Ballroom was good for a few more over those months. The world seemed to be turning slightly, as gigs did come easier at this stage: "We had no trouble getting work" [Gavin]. There was also development on the recording front. UK label Albatross indicated strong interest in releasing ' Chop Chop Chop / Dirty Lies '. Unfortunately, they didn't carry it through. More significantly, Keith Glass offered to release a News 45 through Missing Link. Shelving ideas for a tour of South Australia and Tasmania, News agreed to stay home and cut three tracks, with a decent budget, in May. Keith was not a great fan of News, but they had accomplished so much and maintained interest so far, leading him to decide they must be worth a single. Sheer persistence in putting themselves forward was paying off for News: "We want people to be aware of us. We'll hopefully be pretty big one day. We keep banging our heads against a brick wall - and it works. The brick wall is falling over" [Gavin Juke 30.6.79].
News also took on a keyboard player in late April. Graham Lewis was on the loose at the time, but had recently been in Eric Gradman Man & Machine. While Lewis appreciated the worth of what News were doing, they weren't exactly his type of band. As a result, he never felt to attached to them, but he also stayed in to the end. For News, incorporating keyboards was part of the drive for more melodic strength in arrangements, but a more immediate possibility was having keyboards on the single. Lewis was worked in over intensive rehearsals and four track practice recordings through May. The band were usually rehearsing four or five days per week, often six hours a day. With this kind of schedule, News' live repertoire soon built to over fifty songs! There were still covers in the set, a different bunch including 'Union Man' (Strawbs), 'High Heel Sneakers, 'It's Not Unusual' (Tom Jones), and the Kinks' I'm Not Like Everybody Else'. "Gavin was still writing constantly. He was then assuming nearly complete control of composition and arrangement, delivering songs to the band complete. This even extended to making up some drum parts. There were still 'political' lyrics being written, but more songs that were pure pop - or topical, as in ' Cyanide Suicide', about Jim Jones and his Guyana 'Kool Aid Party'. Russell was the only other contributor. This was never a source of friction, the band were happy to take direction musically. The result was a more settled band that was better for it - "It was a more mature than I'd been in up to that point. There was not the same desperation" [Gavin].
As for business affairs, Gavin was also holding the reins there. He was letting agencies know that News was available, sending them propaganda and following up on the phone. This time around, Gavin was taping certain phone conversations about band business to establish verbal contracts. He was keen to see News in the fray, but not being taken down. News were ready to record by the end of May. They would record three of Gavin's songs, which he previewed for RAM [18.5.79]. "' I'm So Confused ' (was) the literal translation of Post Punk Pop; ' That Girl ' (was) a completely crazy state of the Art Punk song; (and also) ' I Told My Woman ', a ballad to show people we can do ballads". As the sessions at Richmond Recorders drew nigh, it was decided to ditch ' I Told My Woman '. It emerged as "an attempt to experiment musically, which didn't really work" [Gavin]. Another Quinn original was worked in, an appealing number called ' Andrea ': "dead simple, two chords, a key shift and lots of ooh's and aah's! An experiment in slow Punk Pop" [Gavin]. Irony again arises, as rumours circulated of strong interest in News at Mushroom (local record co). With sixteen tracks at their disposal, News took two eight hour sessions to cut ' Andrea ', ' That Girl ' and ' So Confused ' - to the satisfaction of all. Helping out on vocal harmonies for 'I'm So Confused' were Keith Glass and Ross Wilson - who had done the same thing for Jarryls' solo version of ' Sweet Dancer Au Go Go '. Tony Cohen engineered the session and Keith Glass produced ' So Confused'. He and Cohen were somewhat lost on ' That Girl ', so Gavin made his first foray into record production.
