So - here y'are:

It's all happening at Neck Towers - we've got a whole bunch of releases coming-out imminently on Golf Records:

first-off a download (& possible limited edition vinyl 7" single) "Tink" due out on August 18th,

followed by a brand new album 'Come out Fighting!' - available World-wide - due out on September 29th. 

They were recorded with ace producer Pat Collier (think anyone worth listening to from The Wonderstuff to Lars Friederikson!), so it sounds lean & muscular & right in yer face! And it's as Punk as Feck, but with all the diddly-aye audible & swirling away like a tall ship in a gale! Just what the banshee ordered!

- these should be followed-up by further releases later in the year & next year!

As the new pics show, we've got a new line-up (well - anyone that's seen us in the UK over the last year or so will be aware that's it's not emerged into the world blinking, as is - but, rather it's evolved alongside & out of the 'classic' line-up most of ye know) & it's till evolving, as we speak... (I think yer whistley wan's trying to actually grow wings...)

We'll be at Glastonbury again - our sixth year & we're playing at least three times! Anyone that saw us last year - & that'll be 5,000 of ye that saw us at left Field on the Thursday will recognise both Liam Maher & Mike Eccleshall from then (& the rest of the shed-loads of festival & tour dates we did last year).

As for Glastonbury, we're doing the Club DaDa Stage in the Shang RiLa Field (what was Lost Vagueness) @ 7pm, Thursday;

& Left Field @ 7pm Friday & Midnight on Sunday!

+ we're also going to be doing (as usual) the Acoustic Stage Back Stage Bar @ 1am Saturday night & we'll also be doing the Theatre / Circus Tent Backstage Bar at some point too!

+ we've other UK festivals & should be at the Dublin, Ohio Irish Festival in August & IrishFest in Altamont, NY in September - back in the USA!

As for 'the faithful departed' - Marion Gray's happily ensconced with René - who she met when we were on tour in Holland & is "doing rather well" designing mighty impressive buildings (she's got one on the South Bank - next to the GLA building!) - if it's a toss-up between that & sitting in the back of the 'Neck-mobile' for 14 hours listening to the 'Guido & Gara' show, & weathering the vagueries of Planet Neck, I don't think there's much contest... Marion's also playing on 3 tracks on the new album & I still play the odd Trad. session / acoustic gig with her.

Stephen Gara got married to Lindsay Clark, who he met in Galway when we played with Black 47 on their 'Irish Invasion' tour & they're re-locating from Hanwell ('the west coast of London') to The States. In the meantime, I regularly play Trad. sessions with him, usually with original Neckers Helen McGrath (who's also playing fiddle on the rest of the tracks on the new album - Mike was in Tokyo, the lucky bleeder!) & her 'worse-half', Pete Doherty (not THAT one - this one's from Strabane & wallops the goat-skin - plays the bodhrán - as well as actually having a singing voice...) they also met in Neck, as it goes - so it would appear the band should also have a dating agency side-line...

Marky-Mark's still playing, but has also gone into production & I last saw him (as well as Marion) at the last London Hayseed Dixie gig - & jeez, did we get langered! I blame those Southern boys! And they're fine fellas too: they liked us so much, that, not only did they get us to do a whole UK tour with them, but they even let me co-write one of the songs on their latest album 'No Covers'!

As for dear old Wispy 'Guido' McCracken - he ain't been well, the poor love, &, although he, therefore, missed playing on the album, he's on the mend now, thankfully, & will be returning to the stage for the U.S. dates we're doing (which'll be grand, so!) - we have missed the daft old bugger!

It's never easy when people leave a band - particularly people that are as talented Trad. players as Stephen & Marion & also when people leave that you're friends with, but people's lives change & people move on: we love 'em & wish 'em all all the very best (there's also the 'spontaneously-combusting-on-the-jacks' & 'bizarre-gardening-accident' scenarios, of course) & you have to acknowledge that & just re-group & carry-on doing what ya do. Besides, is wasn't like we were sitting at home with our thumbs up our collective hole - we had gigs to play & an album to record!

It's also probably worth pointing-out that we did a hell of a lot of shows last year after Marion & Stephen left &, to be fair to Mike & Liam - AND Sara-Lou Bowrey, who's now leading the Trad. section, we did really well - gave it the large one, as usual - & not one person in all those gigs made any negative comments about the band at all - a lot of people were seeing the band for the first time & just accepted the band for what it was: a kick-arse fun band with a message that also likes to jump in the crowd now & again & mosh with the best of them! (Hello Liam & Mike!)

- besides: this band's always been about spirit (well - it's an Irish thing, fer feck's sake!) &, as long as that's there, we're grand!

So - there ye have it: onwards & upwards!

We'll up-date you on the Golf releases & any new live shows that come in.

And thanks to all at Golf for their understanding & support & also to everyone that's come to the gigs & supported us through thick & thin, sang along, bought us drinks & made it all worth while!

We luv ya!

Leeson & the gang X