Two and a half years since my last blog post. What happens in two and a half years?

The band I'm in toured. And then stopped touring to try and get a record together. It took a long time. Inspiration was slow in coming. We all felt some pressure to perform. Two and a half years is long enough to write things that you think are great and then you keep playing them until they feel too familiar and they or you lose the spark somehow. Our US record label released a compilation album of our singles and rare stuff which helped to take the pressure off a little bit.

It wasn't easy but we're almost there. It's all recorded. More surprisingly, we're all excited by what we finally managed to do. It'll probably be out early 2009.

We did play some shows this year, though only a handful. I had my favourite guitar stolen (a '73 Telecaster Deluxe I'd recorded everything we'd ever put to tape on) at a show in Camden. Another show was supporting The Cult and was especially surreal. We also got a new bass player called Tracy.



What else...? I decided to learn how to ride a motorbike. I now buzz freely around central London on a Triumph Bonneville rather than spend hours everyday waiting for over-crowded buses. Love it.



I took a proper holiday. Such a thing has been really rare as, up to this year, I've used all of my holidays for touring with the band. My baby sis and I took our Mum to Iceland for her 70th birthday. Beautiful country.



..Coffee - ah yes! I treated myself to a Rancilio Sylvia machine. I've never loved coffee more. The preparation ritual makes it even more worthwhile somehow.



Other than that, lots of working for a living. More working than playing. The company I work for has merged and changed names twice. We also moved offices down to a specially converted part of The Truman Brewery on Brick Lane.

Two and a half years since my last blog post. What happens in two and a half years?

The band I'm in toured. And then stopped touring to try and get a record together. It took a long time. Inspiration was slow in coming. We all felt some pressure to perform. Two and a half years is long enough to write things that you think are great and then you keep playing them until they feel too familiar and they or you lose the spark somehow. Our US record label released a compilation album of our singles and rare stuff which helped to take the pressure off a little bit.

It wasn't easy but we're almost there. It's all recorded. More surprisingly, we're all excited by what we finally managed to do. It'll probably be out early 2009.

We did play some shows this year, though only a handful. I had my favourite guitar stolen (a '73 Telecaster Deluxe I'd recorded everything we'd ever put to tape on) at a show in Camden. Another show was supporting The Cult and was especially surreal. We also got a new bass player called Tracy.



What else...? I decided to learn how to ride a motorbike. I now buzz freely around central London on a Triumph Bonneville rather than spend hours everyday waiting for over-crowded buses. Love it.



I took a proper holiday. Such a thing has been really rare as, up to this year, I've used all of my holidays for touring with the band. My baby sis and I took our Mum to Iceland for her 70th birthday. Beautiful country.



..Coffee - ah yes! I treated myself to a Rancilio Sylvia machine. I've never loved coffee more. The preparation ritual makes it even more worthwhile somehow.



Other than that, lots of working for a living. More working than playing. The company I work for has merged and changed names twice. We also moved offices down to a specially converted part of The Truman Brewery on Brick Lane.