So this is Christmas...

Left-to-right: Nick D'Virgilio, Dave Gregory, Greg Spawton, Rob Aubrey,
 David Longdon, Andy Poole. Photo by Neil Palfreyman

And what have we done?

Bloody loads, actually. In three days of work at Aubitt studios we recorded the drums for 15 songs (over 100 minutes of music). It's all good stuff too, no 'leftovers'. About an hour of music (perhaps slightly longer) will feature on the new album English Electric, which leaves lots of additional material for our forthcoming retrospective / introduction to... / 'best' of... / rarities collection, which will be called Station Masters.

We filmed some of the recordings so will try to post some video excerpts in the next few weeks. Nick was in fine form, as you will see.

After completing the sessions we had time for a band photo shoot in Winchester and also had a very nice curry with Mr Martin Orford who showed absolutely no signs of retreating from his musical retirement (it does seem that Martin's keyboard solos on Fat Billy will be his last recordings.)

Enjoy your New Year celebrations, wherever you are. We are looking forward to a very productive (and progressive) 2011.

Twelve Days of Progmas

Christmas is coming fast and, this year, we will be spending much of it at Aubitt, recording drums for our next album English Electric (plus some other tracks which we will be releasing on another CD in the next year or so). The reason for recording over the Christmas period is that Nick has a few days in England prior to the opening of Cirque du Soleil's Totem in London.

If we get the chance, we'll upload some dispatches from the studio, but, until then, I would just like to draw your attention to this rather fabulous video by Somewhere celebrating the twelve days of progmas (hat tip: Dave Gregory).

Jacques Brel

Jacques Brel is the subject of our song The Wide Open Sea from the Far Skies EP. For those who are not familiar with Brel, this astounding performance of Ne Me Quitte Pas is a good introduction:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za_6A0XnMyw&feature=related