This year is getting a bit
productive... we have established a 'presence' on download.com
and myspace, and people have even been making
themselves known to us. So if you don't see movement here - have
a look there.This year is getting a bit
productive... we have established a 'presence' on download.com
and myspace, and people have even been making
themselves known to us. So if you don't see movement here - have
a look there.
In a fit of indiscipline, we a working on three new songs - one of which is a reworking of that old Hellfires Mark 1 chestnut Orderly Crocodile now called Luminous Crocodile - the retelling of a strange dream Andy once had. Mr Freud is already reaching for his notebook.
Plans are afoot for a further delve into the archives of the Mark 1 band. We have some great portastudio recordings of songs that never saw the light of day - they were demos for the legendary lost (and mostly unrecorded) album. Listening back, it's obvious we worked quite hard on this stuff - there's a storming version of Holy Joe with some great keyboard sounds (fond memories of trying to translate what was in Colin's head into reality - who knows if we made it, but the results were good), plus a much better version of Uncle Oliver than the one we had planned to release on Cock O'The Street. This is also the reason we were listening to Orderly Crocodile - a song that as far as I know we never completed. (Don't worry Col, you'll get a cut from the millions when it hits the charts)
And the picture on the right? It's the Belle Vue on Picton Road, Wavertree - the venue of the incident that inspired Not Nailed Down. It used to be the band local once - not the nicest pub in the world, but it's a shame to see it and a number of the pubs round there all boarded up.
Oh and LTM have reissued the two Benny Profane albums on a single CD - great!
I finally got round to posting Andy's Xmas CD listing.
Well the bald fact is there
for all to see, we're not much cop at keeping a web site up to
date, but to quote the Easybeats: "Hello, how are you, it's
good to see you here". Not the best song to quote as it
sounds like Tom Jones, but they were a great little band on the
whole.
The photo on the right was taken by our Andy to illustrate The Mystery Of Life. It has to be said things went a bit quiet last year, but things started to pick up again towards the end of it. A new (as yet title-less) song is being worked on, and tentative steps in recording are also being made.
Traditions are kept to in Hellfire life, so it's a pain when one has to go. Our pre practice watering hole, The Vernon on Dale Street, has gone under. A great shame - it served a nice pint and good food, but it never did seem to be that full.
Christmas CDs have been done once more - check them out here. It was a pretty good year for music last year I thought - cracking albums and gigs by Arcade Fire, Sleater Kinney and Clor spring to mind, also it was nice the have the Weddoes back.
I recently read Simon Price's Post Punk book - which it has to be said was pretty good. It's weird reading about something that was happening in my own life being appraised in such a way. All those Industrial bands that are given so much space were always just an irritation to me, New Pop was just a bit of fun (not a manifesto) and I suppose Postcard was a way of life. Mind you, when I dug out my Josef K CDs, I still felt that was right. Obviously you can't expect the guy to see it all from my point of view, but I was disappointed not to see XTC in there. I know other New Wave bands were avoided, but I do feel early XTC were pretty innovative, and coming from a place similar to Talking Heads who were included. I guess I just find it weird that XTC are always written out of it all - I was incredibly excited when I first heard them (on Magpie of all things).
It's a sad thing to be saying Happy New Year when it's Easter, but that's what you're getting. Real life eh? Who'd have it? It certainly gets in the way often enough.
We've managed one practice so far this year - which meant a crippling storage bill when it finally came about (it's these inane details you love), but it was a good one. Back to those five (not so) new songs mentioned last time. At least we could remember them - and better than that, they all sounded very good. So it will be worth the wait.
As I sit typing this on a Saturday night, Andy is hopefully out watching Dead Cowboys, and maybe we can squeeze a review out of him. The DCs feature Dave Jackson and Becky Stringer - the core of The Room and Benny Profane, so they should have a fighting chance. I see from their web site that they're playing again soon, so maybe I can get along myself next time.
Well it was that time of year not so long ago, and we have managed to produce our end of year compilations, check them out if you're interested.
Although we have been out and about, not a single review has been written, and all you're going to get is the sentence or so here.
First there was an acoustic master class featuring Brendan Benson. I can only remember one of the support bands (Peter & The Wolf), but both played uninspiring Simon & Garfunkel sets, that set my teeth on edge. I had only heard one track by Brendan Benson a week before this gig, but having heard Lapalco during that week, I was very happy to go along and see what it's all about. The Zanzibar was packed, and sweat really was dripping from the ceiling, even for the bands I felt were so uninspired (audiences can be wrong too!). Anyway, a gig without drums, but with a keyboard and acoustic guitar was really great. The albums are £6 on Amazon, go have a look.
I ought to mention at this point that 80s legends of Liverpool The Room have two CDs out. A best of CD, and a coupling of In Evil Hour and Clear! I have not heard the latter yet (hurry up Amazon!), but the former is great. If you like your indie to be hard and Fall influenced, but at the same time literate and tuneful, check them out.
No one will be surprised that Alan and I went to see the delgados and thought them fantastic. Universal Audio is terrific.The live version even better - in fact, I was a little disappointed with the LP at first because the live experience was so good.
We also took in the Kills (disappointing, but nice theatrics) and Franz Ferdinand at Manchester Apollo (a new experience for me). FF were everything you expect them to be, though not loud enough for me. They played at least two new songs, which both sounded great.
And so to our own selves... along with the three new songs we are working on (Halfway From Xmas, Fish Eye and Barry), we have, in a bit of indiscipline, started on two more. They are already well advanced, as they were started acoustically while I was ill. The first is I Eat Cat Food, which on analysis has a passing musical similarity to Quicksand of old, though I guess only the guitarists out there would spot it. This is a tight harmony belter, it seemed unpromising to me at first, but I'm always happy to be wrong about these things (and often am) and it has become a scorcher.
The other song is call It's Not Like I Swore. This seems to have all the ingredients for a good song, but at the moment the whole is less than the sum of its parts and I'm not quite sure why. Anyway, we aren't for dropping songs without a fight, and INLIS is not as bad as that sounds, so hopefully it'll get an outing soon.
A gig with five new songs isn't really on, so hopefully we will arrange more than one. We'll see.
The digital portastudio did happen (see, we keep some promises). So far it has been used to write the vocals for I Eat Cat Food. We have a pretty good recording of it even though it is so new. In the not too distant future we will get to know the device well enough to get some good results out of it.
As ever, watch this space (but not too often!).
Posted a review of the
recent of Charlotte Hatherley gig at the Manchester Academy 3.
- Neal
Blimey, I'm a busy bee. Here are two rants I just wrote: Modern Literature and Guilty
Pleasures. Discuss...
- Neal
Unintentionally, August turned into a bit of a month off. We are real people with real lives - so unfortunately this does not mean we hired a farmhouse in Provence to work on that difficult follow up to HAAM - instead I got ill (but not Betty Ford style - sorry again gossip fans), Andy visited Paris and Alan moved house.
The latter caused a lot of excitement for me too - as I had never been on the 75 bus before.
I thought I'd re-organise the site a small amount - we'll keep the news page, but make the current entry the homepage - so depending when you read this, that means you're looking at the current state of play, or a (hopefully) interesting intermitent blog.
Outings to see various bands out to impress the Uni freshers are planned, so hopefully we'll get our fingers out and write some reviews - but only if *you* promise to read them. Only recently, Andy has written of The Sound Of Leamington Spa - check it out.
Finally we are this close to getting a digital portastudio - this should lead to some good sounds (we made some decent recordings on my crappy old 4 track - why not write and ask for a copy - yes, you!) - so with this new equipment all songs can be captured forever and we can feel more comfortable in adding strength in depth to our song rotation system. - Neal
Hello there! We have a new release- The Sound Of Leamington Spa Volume 4 on Firestation is out now, and our The Best Laugh I Ever Had is on it. There's info about it here. Sadly, the title morphs to The Best Laugh I Ever Heard when you get there, which is a damn poor Chinese whisper - though the ten seconds I just spent trying to come up with a better one came up with nothing better.
Well, we've been working in our steady way on new songs Fish Eye and Barry, I would say both are gig ready. We also started work on another song Halfway From Christmas - this started out as a Pavement or maybe Joy Division jam, but a vocal session added a chorus and pulled the song in a poppier direction. I love it - but I would say that.
We're hoping to be gigging again in the Autumn, life permitting. A tour of shopping malls in Spain is in the pipeline, following the footsteps of heroine Debbie Gibson. This is in the tradition of our earlier Spanish sports centre tour where we wowed 'em on the basketball courts. Fuenlabrada, Alcorcón, Leganés, Sabadell and Elche are currently confirmed, but we are hoping to add more. Further news when we have it, maybe tour diaries and the like... - Neal
The gaps between entries here seem to be getting longer and longer, but it's no reflection on band activities, which are still progressing and developing! Work on the two new songs are at an advanced stage, though depending on when we play, they might not make it in time for inclusion in our next Barfly set.
We've been invited back to the Barfly on June 23rd, though we are unlikely to be able to do that, so a date in July is more viable. More details when there is something concrete to report.
I've been busy gig-going, and I've not seen a bad one this year. The Divine Comedy twice, Franz Ferdinand, Joy Zipper and Ash are the latest ones. Of those, Joy Zipper may even have been the pick, though the FF one is one that will stick in memory for years; it was the surprise element of Joy Zipper which was pleasing. The 'new' album is a real candidate for record of the year and I hope to write some words about it sometime soon. An account of the Divine Comedy shows is posted, though, in the reviews by us section. - Alan
Blimey, that was a bit of a gap... but never fear we're still here.
Life gets in the way, but your Hellfires are dilligently crafting tunes when we can. Two new ones are near fruition, both feel like they came out of the air. The first is tentatively called Barry (but Andy hasn't actually supplied a title yet, so who knows...) and is a punchy punk-pop number - it originally evolved out of what could only be called a Yeah Yeah Yeahs jam. We're now in the position where the original idea has been ousted from the song, and it's much better for it.
The second I think will be called Fish Eye (the others don't know that yet - is that exclusive enough for you!), it came from a rhythm Alan was playing with. Probably more open ended than normal, though I doubt it'll sound like that when it's fully arranged.
We recently heard from Firestation - The Sound Of Leamington Spa compilation volume 4 will come out in the summer, and The Best Laugh I Ever Had (the version from the single) will be on it.
Well that's it - I've put some stuff on Franz Ferdinand on the reviews page, and maybe I'll find time to write soething about the Jactars. Recently got some stuff by them transferred to CD - what a great band they were. - Neal
Well we played our two gigs at the Everyman and the Barfly - in honour of the achievement I've added a gigography - more for our benefit than yours, I expect!
The Everyman Third Room is a place of fond memories for us, we have hosted Emily and (I might be wrong here) The Claim there, and played some storming sets ourselves. There is a raised dais in the corner by the entrance, and just enough room for a band on it - plenty of room for a three piece. Alan's brother Andy helped out with the sound (for which, thanks) and it felt good (vocally, much better than previous occassions). There is no lighting as such, so it feels less like a show in some ways. It's nice to break down those barriers, but it's not so easy on the nerves.
We played our 'long' set (i.e. every song we have gig-ready at the moment!) - so this was a rare outing for Corporate Action and Journey End To End. Apparently a friend of the band said "you were good, but don't ever play Spud live again"!
Spud-u-Like made it untarnished into the Barfly set (it's a natural set closer). Four acts and a change of start time for us (again) - making people stay around longer to see us. There was Lizzy Nunnery - playing an acoustic guitar and friendly singer-songwriter stuff; followed by the Bazars - a bunch of likely lads from Leeds who were very infectious - they had a shot of Coral and Merseybeat about them, and anyone would have thought them to be Scousers. Can't say I loved them, but they had some charisma I enjoyed - parts of the audience were bowled over. Finally (after us) there was The Welcome - who were on a 70s Stones, Led Zep tip - not my kind of thing (where do people so young hear that stuff?).
For us, we were tighter again, though we had a few problems at the start when I couldn't get any sound out of the guitar (plugged into the wrong socket!). But it shows that we've made progress when that didn't phase us. The seven songs rushed by, with us not having remembered to write up a set list it - but apart from my insisting Pop Outing went third from last (because it would help me remember the lyrics!) this was not a problem. Once again it seemed Mystery Of Life went down best.
All this and Ian, our old 'manager', turned up unanounced from Glasgow. A great night.
Between our two gigs, Alan and I went over to see Death Cab in Manchester. Myself, I only recently got Transatlanticism - it's one of the best of last year, though I'm not sure it's as good as the Photo Album. After a shakey start (too much bass, not enough vocals) they really got it together for some of the new songs. Everything I heard from the new album sounded better than the record - Tiny Vessels was a high point. The older stuff didn't sound so strong - maybe the sound fitted the new stuff better. Also, how do so many people know of this band? I don't see full page spreads in the press, but the place was pretty full and people knew the material.
When the security passes were being doled out at the Barfly, when asked how many were in the band I said "four"! Seems like even I am not quite used to the way things are now! - Neal
Happy New Year!
Two Liverpool gigs coming up. The Everyman is free! (I just paid £18 to see Love, so I see this as a bonus). So we are rehearsing a-plenty. Been doing a bit of posting today: some new MP3s on the listen page from the Barfly gig (raw but good), the 2003 CD listings and a pretty lazy review of the Unicorns record.
After the two gigs we are going to take a short break from gigging. We will definitely be writing again (everyone is chomping at the bit), but also we are going to see what we can do about recording some stuff quickly and cheaply. The gigging is definitely making us a better band, so we'll be back to it soon.
I was reading the enthusiastic early postings the other day, which sadly we're not quite keeping up (though our site is still better than a lot of band sites). But my new year's resolution is to try to put a bit more into this. Anyway, we now meet in the Vernon on Dale St instead of The Grapes, and take pot luck from the ever changing selection of guest beers. And we haven't had our band Xmas night out yet!
If anyone wants us to play anywhere, get in touch! - Neal
Even by our own high standards, we have been particularly neglectful of our little site lately. I've got an excuse, I've just moved house and work; the combination of which has left me floundering in an offline situation for a large part of three weeks.
What's going on, then? Well, we've just played our first Liverpool show in more than six years. We were on at the Barfly, supported by Troubleman and Equatonic. It went well, aside from a pitiful stick-juggling act on my part which saw me drop a stick on average every seven minutes. No matter, we kept it rolling and I think won some friends among the meagre audience. Roll on January 22nd when we play the Everyman Bistro 3rd Room.
The new songs - 100 Flowers Bloom and Mystery Of Life - went down a treat, especially the latter with its looping bassline and pounding rhythm. Some of the vocal interplay between myself and Neal seemed to work quite well too, especially late on in the set when my confidence was up. It all bodes well for 2004 when hopefully we can record and maybe even release some of the new stuff.
In the meantime, the Firestation compilation seems to be a go-er, and we are in the process of deciding which old favourite to contribute.- Alan
Potentential energy is being converted to kinetic: we have two gigs lined up in the near future. The first is at the Barfly, The Masque Venue, Seel Street in Liverpool with Ogo and Troubleman. That's on Tuesday 16th December. Then on 22nd January we are playing the Everyman Bistro Third Room - we're looking to arrange some form of support act for this - we'll post more when we know more. Hopefully this will be the start of regular gigging.
The songs that we wrote with Lay are now there to hear on the listen page. Have a listen, let us know what you think. - Neal
Believe it or not, despite the fact that its more than six weeks since we wrote here, we have been quite busy in rehearsal, making progress on yet more new songs - 100 Flowers Bloom and Metrosexual being two of them.
We have been trying to arrange a few more gigs, so hopefully we'll have some positive news to report on that score soon. And, as ever, if you want to put us on somewhere, get in touch. To paraphrase Wayne's World 2, "book us and we will come".
Some good news about a possible upcoming release. The fine people at Firestation records have asked if we would like to contribute a track to a future release in their "Sound Of Leamington Spa" series of compilation albums and we've replied in the affirmative. More as it comes in. Maybe we'll even get to play live outside of the UK for the first time? - Alan
Forgive the tumbleweed blowing through these pages, things have been a little bit quiet on the band front lately largely due to holidays.
We have been practicing, however, when we can and I'm still trying to sing backing vocals on a few songs. I'm a bit hit and miss at the moment and it is very difficult to sing and play at the same time, but I am determined to perservere with it. We've started work on a couple of new songs too lately, so we'll keep you updated with progress on them. - Alan
Last week we all went to see Grandaddy instead of practising - and very good they were too, but why do they never play Miner At The Dial-A-View? Dunno if it's students or Mancs, but why do some people go to gigs to talk all the way through them - get to the bar!
This week we resumed practising - trying to improve those songs... we made a small amount of money from CD sales at the gig, and have immediately invested it in a headset mic for Alan. It's not the best (quite quiet), but it'll do for now. Positive steps were made with a couple of songs. Persevere with it Alan!
Lay may have left, but she has not forgotten us. She is doing a photography course at the moment, and came down to take a few pics of us. Alan and I took to it like cats to water.
Check out the MP3 page. We've posted a couple of songs from the gig. - Neal
Well that was the weekend that was. Our return to live action at Junktion 7 in Nottingham on June 21st wasn't without its nervy moments, but it went it off well in the end and we can't wait to do it all again, possibly closer to home, but wherever very soon. A brief account plus photos is here. Thanks are in order: To Sam, the dapper and generous organiser (and maker of the Tasty fanzine) of the gig who we gave kittens to by disappearing for something to eat when we should have been on stage - sorry Sam, but we were starving mate! To the Liberty Ship for loaning us some gear and to Fosca - good to meet all of you. And to Ian Watson for a great DJ set after the bands had finished - Suedehead is a great opener.
But most especially, thanks go to everyone who came along to support us as we dipped our toes back into the murky waters of live indie-dom, some of whom travelled unfeasibly long distances and paid out lots of hard-earned cash to do so. You know who you are, and you know how much it meant to me, Andy and Neal. Cheers, hope to see you next time! - Alan
One week to go before the Nottingham show and we're really looking forward to being back in action. I'm also looking forward to what should be a great night in general too with Stuart and Ian's DJ sets and the other two bands, of course.
This week we bid farewell to Lai, who left the band after just a few months feeling that we were better served with Neal singing the songs that we have. It is true to say that her style of singing took us in a bit of a different direction, but we enjoyed the journey while it lasted and we wish her all the best for the future. So we're a three-piece next week and for the foreseeable future - but if you're a vocalist and/or rhythm guitarist in the North West, drop us a line... you might be what we're looking for; and vice versa! - Alan
Difficult to know where to start this latest update - we've been rehearsing weekly for the gig on June 21st, but other than that things have been quiet; a couple of new reviews of Hymns.. were discovered and I'll post them to the 'Reviews Of Us' section as soon as possible. With regard the gig, thanks in advance to the Liberty Ship for consenting to lend us a few items of equipment for the evening so we've don't have to cart everything down to Nottm and back.
Looks like we'll be having shared lead vocal duties on June 21st, with Lai singing a couple, Neal still doing the bulk and if we get desperate I've had a go at bellowing the lead song from our next EP, but I'm not sure my confidence will be sufficient for a first ever live vocal performance! Finally, I wasted yet another wad of cash seeing Radiohead live on Thursday. A couple of the new songs they did sounded promising but generally I think the penny has finally dropped with me that they are self-important, over-rated toss... - Alan
Neal and I were back in Manchester last night to see our old favourites The Go-Betweens in action and we weren't disappointed. They mixed together songs from the latest album and from "... Rachel Worth" with a fair smattering of golden oldies to keep the Manchester crowd baying for more. And more. And more. And... Support was from Goldrush.
We're still committed to the Nottingham gig in June, but it looks like Fosca are now the headline act in place of Camera Obscura, who aren't playing at all now it seems. And after our latest rehearsal this week, internal confusion reigns in the Hellfire ranks as to who will take lead-vocal duties at the gig... will it be Lai, will it be Neal or will it be a combined effort? Who knows... - Alan
Due to public demand (a few people said they might come and see us!) we're now confirmed contributors to a Nottingham Anti-War Coalition benefit gig on June 21st. The gig takes place at Junktion 7, Ilkeston Road, Canning Circus, Nottingham (Tel: 0115 9116959). Also confirmed so far are Camera Obscura and The Liberty Ship, and there are DJ stints from Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch and Ian Watson (How Does it Feel). Doors open 7.30pm and admission is a mere fiver.
The gig will be our first with Lai, and without Colin, so promises to be something a bit different and we're working hard to get a set together. - Alan
Perhaps we seem a bit lax with keeping the site up to date? Well sort of, but we have a good excuse... we are now working with a singer by the name of Lay. She has a great voice and a style quite different from anyone I've ever worked with. Things are going very well - she has taken a jam we had called the Jesus Bunny and made it into an excellent song called Guilty Fool. We have also been working on our own Pop Outing with her.
The 'audience' to which Alan refers below was Lay and one of her friends, this was the start of the audition process. We didn't manage to put her off, and things are developing nicely. It'll be interesting to see where this leads us. - Neal
Last Thursday, Neal and I headed back to the entertainment mecca of Manchester again to see The Delgados. I'd recently seen them supporting Doves at the Apollo in Manchester and despite playing in front of an 'away' crowd there, impressed me no end, so was really looking forward to it. And they didn't disappoint on this occasion either - looking and playing in a far more relaxed fashion (probably helped by the Jack Daniels, Stella Artois and red wine that was being consumed throughout!) the band's joviality was in contrast to the darkness of their songs, but it worked. It was also good to make the discovery that if you try hard enough, you can find somewhere to stand and watch a gig in Manchester where you can avoid being near loud-mouthed, disinterested, irritating student types! Great cover version of "Mr Blue Sky" during the encore, too...
Last Monday was our latest rehearsal. It was only a short one, but notable for the fact that we played in front of an 'audience' for the first time in years! It was quite surreal, but eventually demonstrated what a difference playing to strangers can make to a song's development. The three new ones that we did sounded excellent with the added incentive of wanting to play it right so as not to look stupid! - Alan
A band trip to Liverpool Academy (it's the Mountford Hall at the University, but re-branded folks!) to see Arthur Lee and Love was the highlight of this week. I think we'd anticipated Arthur being good, but I think he took even us and the few friends who were with us by surprise at how good. The first thing that struck me was his voice - now in his late 50s, I think we could have forgiven him if his voice had changed, as opposed to have diminished in quality, down the years, but to me it had done neither.
Performing the whole of "Forever Changes" in order in the middle of the frankly over-long set, Arthur and his new boys were joined by a mini-orchestra and the whole cast set about recreating the 1967 classic with unerring attention to detail and no shortage of brilliance.
As I mentioned, it did get a bit much later on, especially during a few prog-rock noodlings and a disastriously shameful new song, but generally Arthur's energy and enthusiasm and love of performing ultimately meant you could forgive him anything and in the end there could only be one way to sum up the evening: "Go, 'ed!"
Last night we had a band trip over to Manchester to see the Flaming Lips. That's four or five times we've seen them, maybe it's wearing off... none of us was disappointed, but none of us were that excited either. They played a brilliant version of Lucifer Sam though.
We had a first practice of the year the previous week. Refreshed our memories of all the new songs, concentrating in particular on Pop Outing and Corporate Action. We were all surprised we remembered the songs so well. Neal had been playing about with his effects peddle over Xmas and was keen to use one of the sounds. For some reason that phasing noise so familiar from The Cure's Primary fits Corporate Action like a glove - everyone laughed, but everyone wanted to keep it.
Discoved an excellent review of H: A&M at In Love With These Times.
A band tradition of some 12 years continues as we unveil details of the latest "End-Of-Year Compilations" that we put together and then exchange.
I suppose it's fair to say that "Hymns: Ancient and Modern", our retrospective compilation CD of studio recordings, has hit the streets. Slowly but surely, as is always the case with such things, it's finding its way through the distribution channels, but if your local stockist is struggling, don't forget you can order direct from Bus Stop in the US and at a very competitive price, even with international shipping included. In the UK, Pennyblack Music now have copies available for £9.99, excluding postage.
And after that blatant sales pitch, it's also fair to say that all the band, past and present, are very proud bunnies to see and hold the finished product - much kudos should go to Brian Kirk, and all his contacts surrounding his Bus Stop Label, for making it happen.
A final rehearsal of 2002 took place on December 2nd and went very well. While not deserving of its own page like the two previous accounts (see below for details) it is worth pointing out that this practice saw significant progress made on the difficult tempo change in "Gone To Ground" as well as coming up with something bordering on a definitive arrangement. "Pop Outing" continued to develop apace too, with a new melody on the chorus that sounds great (even if Neal doesn't seem too happy with his accompanying lyrics!)
Finally for now, Andy, Neal and Alan - plus Roger, the previous drummer - are confirmed attendees for the annual Hellfire Christmas meal on December 9th! Monday night Liverpool revellers will rarely have seen the likes before...
Hymns: Ancient & Modern is due out on 15th November!! See the home page for details of UK stockists. See Bus Stop for international stockists. We haven't got our own copies yet, but we're assured they're on the way.
We rehearsed again this week (I know, it's a punishing schedule!) - see here for an account.
Work on new songs with the working titles "Gone To Ground" and "Pop Outing" was planned to form the large part of our latest rehearsal on Monday October 28 2002... (click here for details)
In the not too distant future a retrospective CD will be released on Bus Stop. Bryan of Bus Stop has created a flyer (view it here) - which includes the track listing. The CD itself is ready, but we've had problems with the artwork. That's now resolved, so things are starting to move again.
The CD includes all our singles and stuff from compilations/flexis- in fact almost everything we recorded in a studio.
This will be followed by a 5 track EP - not sure of when yet, but the track listing is finalised:
Cock O'The Street
Uncle Oliver
Love Spoons
Albino Boy
Doors To My Backyard
Albino Boy is what the hacks would call a 'blistering live track' - and obviously it's from a 'legendary gig'. Actually it's from Le Cav in Bristol from 1991 (I think) - and it was a great gig that the guys from Hope arranged.
Cock O'The Street and Uncle Oliver were originally slated as a single to come out on Dishy in 1996, but Guy had other fish to fry. It's nice for it to come out now.
The real news is that the band is active again. We are now down to a three piece (Colin left), and are writing a whole new set. Perhaps we should drop a syllable in the same way that Wire become Wir... but then again, weren't Wir crap?
We'll post some rehearsal versions of the new songs we are writing soon. New titles include Journey End To End (a song of fever based on a haiku by Andy), The Anglo Saxons (not such a bad bunch) and Snowdrop (a tale of life and death from the Welsh mountains). Everything is evolving nicely - probably at a pace not fast enough, but then again this is the most sustained commitment we have made to songwriting for years, so we're all very happy and you'll have to be patient.
