The addition of Graeme Robinson to the band was the start of a long relationship both with Robinson and his studio, GDR, based in Darlington Arts Centre. The studio had been used by Whirlpool Guest House for their first single, and by this time was a good-quality 16-track managed by Robinson, who engineered and produced for a range of North East bands. Jones and Moffat went there for the first time in March 1988, spending an evening recording Wanting, which was to wait until April 1990 to be included on the First Day Of Spring 12" single.

The whole band returned that summer to record the first album Let's Get Away From It All, the definitive representation of the Friend live sound of that time. The tracks chosen, largely taken from the live set, encompassed the range of summery optimism and introspective darkness that characterised the songs. An unusual feature of the music until recently was that Jones had noticed that the overused pop word 'love' didn't appear in any of the earlier songs, and continued this as a matter of policy, trying to find different ways of expressing pop romance. The back cover photograph was taken at the band's rehearsal room on the top floor of the Dovecot, with the front cover one of a continuous supply of slides which were projected behind the band at early gigs.

"The label's distributors Red Rhino recommended that we include material from It's Getting Louder and Far And Away on the album, both to market the back catalogue and to save on recording costs. Of course, we knew better and decided to re-record them, to improve particularly on the vocal sound. Inevitably we were mistaken: the vocals were better, but we failed to recapture the lush sound of Fairview in particular and ended up with what we felt were feeble-sounding versions of the originals. This was largely due to my inexperience as a producer, and partly due to the difference in studio."

Nevertheless the album was the first event to establish Friends on the fringes of indie stardom, gaining the first national review coverage, and selling fast, especially in Japan. The band continued to play all over the country, with the strains this placed on members' other commitments leading to the departure first of bassist Peter Maude in late 1988 then Jo Spayne in 1989. This left Jones and Moffat as the core of the band and, frustrated of the constant need to recruit new members and induct them into the band's material, they reverted to using a range of tried and trusted session musicians, eventually settling on guitarist Richard Buckton, keyboard player Jon Kirby, drummer Graeme Robinson and bassist John James, all part of a Teesside musical mafia who had worked together on various projects, often in Robinson's studio.

With the temporary involvement of Steve Benson on guitar, Jones and Moffat returned to GDR in summer 1989 to record the second album, Roads Leading Everywhere. This recording represented the peak of '80s Friends, with some of the band's best songs of that period given a more lush production treatment and fuller arrangement.

"Everything came together perfectly on this session. We knew exactly what we wanted, worked it out in detail before going into the studio, and put it down quickly and easily. It was a really enjoyable experience, and we recorded and mixed the whole thing in six days."

The album's release in September 1989 took Friends up to a higher level of recognition, with more music press coverage and better sales than the first album. Then, at the end of that year, William Jones left Teesside to work as manager of an arts centre in Nottinghamshire, and the first phase of the Friends story was over.