Just come to the gig tomorrow.

There are glitches on some video games that have gained relative internetty fame where the characters appear not with faces and freshly rendered, plump fake flesh, but merely as eyes on stalks, sometimes with wide, toothy, lipless grins.

"I do."

Cheery elements of facial features suspended in mid-air.

That's pretty much how we are right now.

It's been a ring-around-the-rosie of various illnesses and viruses in the band, culminating in my laying on my stomach in the middle of the practice room yesterday trying not to sing a symphony onto the floor while Sez handled his sneezed out snot like the sands of time; forever trickling through hands, flowing like Italian dough, the others looking on through braeburn apple eyes regretting every decision they'd ever made.

We've all had something or other over the last few weeks. I can only hope we're over it, now. I certainly feel better. I give it an hour. I found a pecan slice under the fridge but I'm being sensible and trying not to eat it too fast.

So, after how-many-days?-I-have-forgotten of wall-to-wall rehearsals, we're on the last day of them today. We are getting it together, of course, for this show at Cargo...tomorrow. New material, and all that. Always worth a mention. Album songs that you wouldn't have heard before. Just a couple. Just a couple of newbies thrown in there being heard for the first time tomorrow night. With a string quartet. Just a couple of new songs. From the album. Just a couple.

Shit. Is it tomorrow? It totally is.

Don't worry – we're ready – it's just that it's been so long since we played in the UK that the whole idea of playing has become a little alien. 

It's too early.

But then 

Tim

I'll try not to mention the van.

We're in the van, again. When I was younger, dreaming of playing music for a living, I didn't anticipate 'the van'. I will be sat in this cold, hard seat for about 6 hours today. I will be onstage (too hot) for about 45 minutes. I'm more passenger than musician, it seems. That's not a reference to me playing bass.

Yesterday, we were supposed to be practicing at Brighton Electric studios for 6 hours, to make up for missed practice during Jeb and Trewin's Berlin jaunt (the final mixes from which should soon be with us, pending judgement). However, with delays of faulty backing tracks, broken down vans (again), Seryn forgetting something right when we thought we'd sorted everything (again), and the band next door to us playing so loud that we could actually forgive them on the assumption that they'd deafened themselves, it didn't really end up as productively as we'd hoped. The phrase 'one of those days' comes to mind. What could go wrong, did go wrong.

STILL, I for one am glad we got a day like that out of the way, considering what we're up to now. Hopefully whoever's in charge of the 'Phoria luck computer' has called the helpdesk and been told to turn it off and turn it on again, to see if that solves the problem.

Hopefully.

So, 'Get to the point, Tim.'

Well, we're on our way to visit the grand Metropolis studios in West London. 'Oh, that sounds nice!', you think to yourself. We're going to have a nice cup of Bovril and a chat (like a conversation, but with more liquid beef) with Grammy award winning producer Dom Morley. 'Oh, that sounds nice!', you think to yourself again, showing a slight lack of imagination.

Then, it's everything time. Big gig tonight! EP preview @ The Queen of Hoxton. We're going to play all the new tracks, and lots of exciting people will be there (including you, I hope). Come. Come. It will be, as your favourite celebrities so often say: 'as good as a ride on the best ship ever made.'

Only come in a van if you absolutely have to, though. That's my advice.

Tim

(EP PREVIEW! EP PREVIEW! TONIGHT AT QUEEN OF HOXTON, IN HOXTON! DON'T MAKE ME SAY IT AGAIN!)