News

Happy to report that we’ve started to make the first tentative steps towards recording again. Having been propositioned to do an album under contract, we’ve decided ‘no’ we’re going to do it again ourselves. We laid down the bones of a song tentatively titled ‘Over the fence’…very much subject to change. Thus far it’s solo acoustic guitar (lots of fingerpicking) but d bass and twin vocals are ready to go on top. Am intrigued to see what Andy T manages to conjure up on keyboards to complement the autumnal/melancholic feel of the track.

So far, we’ve got 12 new finished tracks with more in the pipeline. I think the next few months will be spent fine tweaking and recording some songs as they’re finished. Will let you know how we get on.

We had our first photoshoot since Bob joined the band right in the middle of a major snowfall. So, as well as throwing some shapes in a studio, we went for a wander around Brighton’s winter wonderland.

We’re very happy to say that we have a new face on board in the shape of our good friend Bob Cooper. Following the departure of Martin, Bob has been persuaded to lend his vocal and guitar talents to the band.

Bob Cooper

We’re going to release Good Morning Mr. Magpie as a single on September 28. We’ve included an edited version (a fraction over four minutes) and the full length, eight minute string-fest on the CD we’ve sent out, so we can’t wait to see which (if any) DJs are brave enough to go for the full deal.

We played a session at BBC 6music for the charmingly friendly Mr Tom Robinson on friday. You can listen again until friday here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00kh4d1

Terry Staunton gave us a great review in this month’s Uncut magazine – check it out on the “reviews” page…

We piled into our luxury tourbus (ahem) yesterday and headed off for the hallowed corridors of BBC Maida Vale for a session with the sharp-suited Mark Lamarr. It will be broadcast on Radio 2 on Friday 29th May and will be available for a week after that on the BBC iPlayer.

We played a few new songs, an old song and (for download only from the Radio 2 website) a cover of Garnett Mimms’ Northern Soul classic “As Long As I Have You”. We also engaged in a “show and tell” session with Mr Lamarr, talking about a few of our favourite records. He then cajoled us into a impromptu jazz/fusion jam which we sincerely hope is edited out of the final programme for the good of the listening public.

Click on the thumbnails to see our snapshots:

We’re happy to say that the great Don Letts played Country Dance over the weekend (the b side to Watch Her Walk Away, out next week). We’ve been doing OK for airplay, but a play from Don was most unexpected and welcome. Everything else was bass heavy…but then here comes us….Excellent.

…..Radio 2 tomorrow, let’s hope it goes well!

If feels like we’ve been tucked away in for a while so it’s nice to have the prospect of some more gigs and ‘radio action’ again…not to mention some reviews.

We’ve got a bunch of live shows and radio sessions coming up (Radio 2, 6, etc) and we’re also happy to report we should have some ‘column inches’ soon. We’ve been reliably informed that Q and Uncut will be running reviews of the new album and Mojo are ‘interested’ in doing so.

Our video should be ready next week in time for the release of the single (Watch Her Walk Away) on 25 May. …needless to say we’ll post it here as soon as it’s ready.