Far Skies CD's

All pre-orders for the Far Skies EP received before the 25th October have been posted today (with the exception of signed copies - those will ship next week.)

We support our little rural Post Office by shipping all our sales through them and, as I suspected, we overwhelmed them a bit today. However, they worked hard to get all the packets stamped up and I think that they were all done in time for the last post.

Orders we received in the last couple of days will be sent tomorrow or Monday.

The International Prog Rock Show (BBT special)

On October 24th, The International Prog Rock Show broadcast a BBT special to celebrate the release of the Far Skies Deep Time EP. The show features an in depth interview with Andy Poole, a selection of songs from our back catalogue and a preview of all of the songs from Far Skies. The show is now available for download (there is a link to the download page for the show on the IPRS blog.)

Many thanks to Rick Blake and Frank Marceau for making this happen.

Busy week

We're busy packaging pre-orders for the Far Skies Deep Time EP at the moment. We are a little bit behind as we have also had to grab a couple of days in the studio this week to finally finish off the Goodbye to the Age of Steam remix and bonus tracks (that's me, above, recording Expecting Dragons last night.)

The reason for the untimely studio booking is that VAT is increasing again in January so we want to get Age of Steam pressed up before Christmas to save ourselves a bit of money.

We'll be finishing Age of Steam today and after a celebratory curry will get back to the packaging and shipping. All pre-orders should be on their way by Saturday at the latest.

Goodbye to the Age of Steam is NOT being re-issued on 18th October

It's been pointed out to me that Amazon are advertising a re-issue of our first album Age of Steam with availability from 18th October.

I'm assuming that this is just an error on Amazon's part, but if it's not, then I don't know who has taken it upon themselves to re-issue our music. The rights were given back to us by GEP a few years back and we have the master tapes in our possession.

Our re-issue is due in the spring next year. It's been completely re-mixed and re-mastered and has bonus tracks and new artwork. If this imposter re-issue is for real rather than a mirage, I do urge you to ignore it and wait for the official version.

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen

Today is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen.

When I was seven years old, our English teacher sat us down (legs crossed) on the tiled floor of our classroom. She read the first chapter of The Weirdstone of Brisingamen to the class. We were, to a boy and girl, spellbound. Then she shut the book up and told us to finish it for ourselves. I rushed straight off to the library and nabbed a copy; and that was the day I became a lover of books.

Hats off to you, Mr Garner.

Far Skies Deep Time EP pre-order

As some of you have noticed, we've started sending emails out to the mailing list with EP pre-order details.

Please be patient if you are expecting an email and haven't received one yet as we have several thousand to send and they are going in batches over the next few days. If you haven't heard from us within the next 10 days, then it will be worth checking by emailing us at:

bigbigtrain@hotmail.co.uk