Oh I haven't written since the trip to America. Shameful. But you wouldn't really have wanted to hear about what I've been up to, not the academic bits. The other bits have been fun. There are lots of radio sessions about to emerge for your listening pleasure, which are always something of a challenge for us because of the difficulty of finding time to practice. That's my excuse anyway. And we decided to complicate and embellish by approaching them all differently, so it will be well worth you paying attention to them all. I'm sure I came up with some brilliant metaphor for how it feels playing live on air but the bout of nerves afterwards must have cleared it from my brain. Your loss.

Another project of interest is our contribution to the next Qmagazine CD. So go and buy it. And have fun listening for the deliberate mistake we didn't do on purpose.

The most exciting thing for me about my freedom from adademic responsibility is the prospect of finding time to read the piles of books that have accumulated in my room over the last few years and then updating my page on the website. Ahem.

In Dr Who news, I saw Christohper Eccleston at the weekend...impressed Gav?

The album will be out so soon, we hope you enjoy it.

friends FOREVER!!!11!

Oh dear! Poor David Blaine. I tell you my heart just sank. Poor, poor David.
As a tribute I am going to cover my face in strawberry jam this August and have thousands of wasps and bees swarm all over my face for TWO whole weeks, I will then spend ten days inside a shark eating chum. All donations will be given to a charity of David's choice.

I remember a while ago when David spent a while in London hanging out in one of those "eye pods", I read an article where someone portrayed a feeling of nationalistic pride at the fact that so many people were pelting his bubble with all kinds of crap. Of course this could not happen in any other country, especially the United States.

I don't want to sound like a miserable bastard but I think if I had been in London then I too would have probably thrown an object in Mr Blaine's direction. I'm not really a REAL moaning faced Jock but the little things are starting to annoy me a little too much. Of course whenever I travel I get into the swing, I AM able to cast off that miserly British/Scottish greeting faced expression that I can become too attached to.

So please, don't let my face put you off when you're coming to see us on tour, right?
I only mention this because a certain female member of the band (who isn't the singer) has made a few wee comments regarding my temperament recently. Please remember that in my heart I LOVE YOU and YOU....ALL OF YOU PEOPLE, HUMANS, MUSIC LOVERS with your smiling faces with eyebrows and cheeks, your bodies with legs and arms all over the place.
Looking forward to it.
Lee (Your new BEST FRIEND)

Who in the what now?

The inner geek in me has awoken (again).

Spring is in the air, and the new season brings the return of Doctor Who. Its been a hard time since the end of the last series, when Ecclestone left the TARDIS in a hail of Daleks. Sure, there was the christmas special, and the box set, and i got a sonic screwdriver*, but it wasn't easy not having new Who to watch every week.

I'm loving the new series. I loved the last series. I loved the old series (yes, i too did hide behind the couch, thats not just a myth - there was one story, Meglos, when i was SOOO scared, i had to wait three weeks to watch it again when a new story started), i even had a Tom Baker Scarf (thanks mum). For some reason the thought of this eccentric old renegade Time Lord, careering round through time and space in a ship which happens to be stuck in the shape of an old battered Police Box caught my imagination when i was a kid, and i've never quite managed to shake the excitement of waiting every week to see what happens next. Those cliffhangers, eh!!

I can hardly move in my flat for Daleks (remote control, talking and even inflatable), cybermen, and an assortment of Doctors. I even have a k-9, but its only little. My dream is to have a life size remote control one, or better still a real one that can go into the kitchen and fetch mixers for me. There is even a TARDIS in the hall, but thats another matter entirely.

Anyhoo, i hope some of you have been enjoying the thrills and spills of the new Doctor. Tennent is shaping up to be really rather good, and i for one am looking forward to seeing what happens next.

I am also currently being scared by the new DVD of Genisis of the Daleks, one of the finest original Doctor Who stories, featuring Tom Baker as the Doctor. Terry Nation went back to tell the story of how the Daleks came about, and in a story that took heavy influence from the rise of Hitler and the Nazi's, introduced Davros, the Daleks meglomaniac creator, and portayed the Kaled's as SS/Gestapo-like vicious warmongers intent in creating the perfect race, a move which at the time stirred up an enourmous amount of complaints to the BBC and had Mary Whitehouse frothing at the mouth. Its a serious drama and one of those examples where even on a budget, the crew managed to create a serial which looks perfect and still stands up today.


check out www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho to see whats been happening and you too can revel in being a Dr Who geek.

Gav


*it REALLY works. Whilst travelling home from the pub last sunday night after more newcastle brown ale than was possibly wise, there was a taxi heading along Woodlands Road towards us, but its 'for hire' light was out. I pointed the sonic screwdriver at it, quick as a flash, the 'for hire' light came on and the taxi pulled over and stopped for me, amazing. I believe Tom Baker used to use the same trick in Soho.