Normality Bites

As the days float on I seem to be suspended in Slow Motion which is my favourite Man album though you need to well over the popular hill to remember...it's Jim’s funeral is on Friday, many thanks to those who sent in condolences, much appreciated. All I have to do now is help carry the coffin, never done that before am slightly trepidated if I’m honest which I have been accused of being occasionally and mostly to to my detriment. Craig also has the slow motion thing going on, our symptoms have syncopated into a kind of post recording fatigue as we load our gear back into the musty loft of our Salford Lads Club rehearsal space where they’ve changed the locks for all the usual reasons. Luckily Leon is on hand to let us in and it feels like we are returning home after operations overseas…Blackburn can have that effect but on another tack altogether…Some people might have seen a rather dubious posting on the internet last week concerning the new record and how it featured Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce playing together and how it was recorded in a college etc… complete tosh generated I think by the over enthusiastic juniors at BBC Radio Lancashire who have apologised, anyway, we issued a statement thus as all manner of sites were covering the extremely tall story…NME, 6Music, Morrissey solo etc. In short Andy hasn’t rejoined the band, Mike and Andy still DJ together and are on speaking terms no less. Sorted. On the subject of bass players we are still looking after a brief flirtation with Jules from Marion who unfortunately returned to Brighton for personal reasons before we really got going. So if you play the bass, live in Manchester and have all your own hair then please do get in touch. You never know. Seriously I’m joking about the hair…but I’m not sure Craig is. For the retrospective record our connection with Blackburn College involves their facilities, namely the filming of the DVD which comes with the new album, it’s one of those fly on the wall things where we all talk about the how’s and whys and wherefores of making the record. I look about 58 but don’t let that put you off. It’s a lighting thing I keep telling myself. The college were also involved in the albums artwork, again we were able to use their facilities, thanks to John and Emma for seeing the photography project through, despite the vanity of the older generation we got there in the end. The record looks great and Dingo [Ben’s dog] not only gate-crashed the photo shoot but made it onto the front sleeve. The release date will be in October sometime, we’re just waiting on the distributor to confirm. He’s in a band himself but if I told you which one you’d never believe me. More and less of this and that to follow…the summers nearly over thank god, VP x