another quick update

which will probably turn into war and peace as it usually does. i promise to try and keep it brief... honest!

so, how is everyone out there? at least i can look out of the window today and not be confronted with rain and water lapping at my front door (yes, i am in england right now). we've had far too much weather here recently...but, thankfully it seems to have calmed down a bit this week. i have just woken up the lads who travel to florida today to play at the very worthy music of the rivers festival. good luck with it all casey and pam and pixie and anyone else whos involved. i SOOOOO wish i was going with them, but i will have to be content with watching it live on the web. im copying the information that i received from motr below, so that any of you who want to go there - can in spirit:

The Music of the Rivers Festival (www.musicoftherivers.org) will be held November 16th-19th in Jacksonville, FL. This event will feature over 45 Celtic bands rom around the world and will be the largest gathering of Celtic bands EVER to assemble here in the USA. This whole event will be webcast "LIVE" on the internet at CelticTV.com - see (www.celtictv.com/motr.htm) for details. This will be a FREE webcast and feature all the acts attending this geat event as well as interviews and more! CelticTV.com will be webcasting this event at multiple speeds (28k, 56k, 100k & 300k) for broadband users as well as standard dialups! It is VERY IMPORTANT to make sure that you have the NEW Windows Media Player installed to watch this webcast. Instructions can also be found at CelticTV.com/Motr.htm
so - there!

its been a very busy couple of months since i last wrote. i think i was just off to the EAR studio in chicago when i last sat down and did the last stream of consciousness type newsletter. sufice to say, the band got on extemely well with steve albini and all the other lads that work out there - they are all gentlemen and it would be extremely hard not to get on with them. they also recorded some really rather amazing tunes together too, which they packed in their small holdall and bought back to ireland. all they need to do now for this album is finish some of the tracks that they were working on in ventry/dingle with craig and start splicing the record together made up of the choicest cuts from the various sessions. now, that sounded very simple and easy in that last sentance didnt it - unfortuantly in the real world getting the time to actually do it is a little more difficult. since returning from chicago they have been either on the road or busy with other commitments or ill (in glens case) - so - we STILL have not finished this record, BUT we are SOOOOOOOOO close... beleive me!

we are still aiming for an end of feb release date - this isnt written in stone however, and will depend on whether they can get it together to really finish it before the end of the year... please all say a small prayer that this will happen... thanks.

as i mentioned above, they are now in florida, glen goes to chicago and boston from there and meets back up with the band on his return in early dec. david odlum comes back early from florida to finish the production on a lunasa album that he's been doing and is then working with gemma hayes as an engineer/guitarist (gemma produces herself) on an e.p. in late nov, early december, then we hope to finish the frames record, then david goes to france to produce nina hynes new record til the 22nd december. i know that the hing and joseph doyle will undoubtedly be involved with those external projects too in one way or another... then we do this thing called christmas... and all relax for five minutes... ahhhhh!

i am looking at various options for new years eve. im sure we will be playing in dublin... the lads are making a decision as to where whilst they are in florida this week. will obviously mail as soon as somewhere is decided upon.

what other business is there? the gigs that theyve done over the last while have been great - especially the limerick su one - amazing apparently - great audience and a really good vibe. roisin dubhs was also a goody - theyve surprisingly never played there before but i guess theyll be going back. vicar street - well what can i say? i personally love it there. the accoustics in that room are beautiful, especially at a seated gig. twas interesting for them to play a standing show there, and i think it worked - just was more of a rock out night (not as much as the waterford gig - i know :0) ) but rok all the same. sorry to the girl who got glens arse and foot in her face when a bit of stage diving overcame him and he just HAD to lay back into the crowd... i know he broke your glasses and i hope the reimbursement was enough to buy some new ones!! let me know if not or let me know if you want to go to any other gig as i think we owe you a guest list pass for being so sporting about it all. ive asked them to write something about the amsterdam festival cause that was a cool place to play too by the sounds of it. they got a slot pre tindersticks in the end which of course went down very well with the lads... as it would... so ill post that on the board when ive got the insiders story from the band.

other sites that i beleive have frames related stuff on em:

http://www.independentsounds.net/bands/framesinterview.htm - interview from limerick if i remember correctly
http://www.geocities.com/chloe_dancer.geo/the_frames_dc/ - interview and stuff
http://www.theblackrag.com - nothing of ours on this site yet, but could be in the near future and worth checking out
gunthers info for those in chicago: http://yp.yahoo.com/py/ypMap.py?Pyt=Typ&tab=B2C&tuid=6588188&city=Chicago&state=IL&country=us&slt=41.849998&sln=-87.650002&cs=4

also, i dont know if any of you got the cd rom magazine enter with glen on it a while back? if not you missed something very interesting AND he does a version of plateau accousticly so its worth checking out if you can get hold of one - its volume 2.
otherwise the text of the Glen interview can be found on the website under "guests" www.enter.ie

the xfm site and the live ireland site should also be running the gig that they recorded at vicar street at some stage over the next wee while but i think theyre having problems getting something up or together or something... anyways, worth looking into if you want to spot the back of your head at the sit down function that we did there on the 28th october.

also theres a company called doneanddusted.com who i beleive had some bits up from the witnness festival. i cant find their exact address anywhere but thats what the companies called so may be worth trying to get onto that one.

i think the only other thing to say is sorry to anyone in england about the pulling of all the gigs that were happenning from the 5th to the 13th november. it really was a situation that was beyond anyones control with glen coming down with a flooring type of bug on top of general physical exhaustion. hes a whole lot better now and is looking forward to seeing the sun in florida which will be good for them all. thanks for all your kind messages along the 'get well soon' type - much appreciated by glen i know. we will be resheduling gigs in england in the new year but apart from trying to nail this album down and a very few gigs as a band, they need to rest up a while and prepare for the full-on promotional schedule that im hatching for this album come february... ha ha ha ha (laughed in an evil dick dasterdly kind of a way...).

gigs then:

november
16th florida music of the rivers festival. www.musicoftherivers.org
22nd glen solo at gunther murphys in chicago with mark dignam and nick kelly
25th glen solo at the druid with martin finke
december 31st watch this space.
im sure there will be other glen solo gigs going on in december, but til he comes back nothings written in stone at this stage. wow! that was a quick gig list wasnt it... im more used to writing at least a page or two. anyways, the rest will do them all good.

right then, id better be off and check that they are at the airport now. its one of those days for lighting a fire, curling up with a cup of milky coffee and a pack of camel lights and looking out at this cold, bright november day and listening to steve fanagans ep - perfect soundtrack for this kind of day methinks.

be well and wrap up warm. cx
(there - that wasnt too long was it??)

ps. in answer to some q's on the board - if glen did get married he never bloody sent me an invitation and i soooo want an excuse to buy a big hat and dress up. i think the answer is 'no' to that one.
pps. talking of weddings - zoran and leah in chicago are getting hitched at the end of the month - so good luck to them in their new life together. i dont know if youve all seen the amazing photos that zoran took in the studio in chicago, but if not-they are well worth checking out at the plateau.
ppps. i will post about the new york glen hansard cd soon when i have discussed it with the woman who put it all together. she had run out but is considering making a few more. will let you know.
pppps. i really will shut up now...