Squarepusher
Jenkinson was offered a five album record contract with Warp Records in December 1995, which was duly signed, and this led him to defer his studies at Chelsea Art College.
Early in 1996 Richard D. James completed the compilation process for "Feed Me Weird Things" which was made from over 50 tracks that Tom had given him on DAT, which were recorded from late 1994 to 1995. Around the same time Richard and Tom recorded two tracks together, one of which was subsequently edited by Tom and released as "Freeman Hardy & Willis Acid" on the "We Are Reasonable People" compilation album in 1998. Tom's contribution to the other track was reinterpreted and released as "Happy Little Wilberforce" on the "Alt. Frequencies" compilation released on Worm Interface in 1996. 1996 saw Jenkinson starting to be offered gigs both in the UK and in continental Europe.
Tom Waits
It was at the Troubadour that Waits came to the attention of Herb Cohen, who signed him to a publishing contract; that Cohen did not give him a recording contract suggests that he was interested in Waits only as a songwriter rather than a performer. Quitting his job at Napoleone's to concentrate on his songwriting career, in early 1972 Waits moved to an apartment in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, a poor neighbourhood known for its Hispanic and bohemian communities.
He continued performing at the Troubadour and there met David Geffen, who gave Waits a recording contract with his Asylum Records. Jerry Yester was chosen to produce his first album, with the recording sessions taking place in Hollywood's Sunset Sound studios. The resulting album, "Closing Time", was released in March 1973, although attracted little attention and did not sell well. Biographer Barney Hoskyns noted that "Closing Time" was "broadly in step with the singer-songwriter school of the early 1970s"; Waits had wanted to create a piano-led jazz album although Yester had pushed its sound in a more folk-oriented direction. An Eagles cover of its opening track, "Ol' 55", on their album "On the Border", brought Waits further money and recognition, although he regarded their version as "a little antiseptic".