Modesty Blaise

We're back. Actually back a long time. New York was fantastic, Burt Bacharach played the same night as me, he was at Carnegie Hall, I was at Arlene's Grocery, I know where I would rather have been. Anyway, we understand that some of you doubt whether we went all the way to another continent to play for 30 minutes on a borrowed guitar. The pictures are here. You doubters.

03/11/03 We're off!

I know it seems a long way off but Dave and I are now beginning to regret our decision to travel to our next show in luxury. We board our ocean-going liner tomorrow morning on the way to New York, so we've got an entire week to get there. Whilst in NY we shall be doing the normal rock & roll things, up to Lexington/125, feeling sick and dirty more dead than alive. That sort of thing. See you on Tuesday at Arlene's! Bring your requests.

16/10/03 Back from The Cavern

Well that was fun wasn't it? Surprisingly competent set from us at The Cavern, a mixture of singles, stuff from Melancholia and new songs. We had a great time cracking Beatle jokes and meeting folks and getting caught in football traffic, both ways. Pictures already here, mail us if you were confused and we'll explain it all to you. Thanks for coming.

13/10/03 Cavern here we come

We've been rehearsing, no really, and we're ready to take on all-comers at the IPO at The Cavern Club on Wednesday. So come along and see us play, it's a rare opportunity. Allegedly onstage at 20:15 so be early because I have a feeling that it just may run to time, we intend to comb our hair forward and wear suits in appreciation of one of the groups that made the cavern famous, The Swinging Blue Jeans. Also, I found another box of Blue & Beautiful singles under a bed this week so we intend to give them away, isn't that nice of us? Come and get one, you have to approach David W.Brown and exclaim "You are David W.Brown of Modesty Blaise and you are very tall and uncannily like Gregory Peck" and he will give you a single. Couldn't be simpler. See you there.

02/08/03 Actually playing live!

Wednesday October 15th sees a return to the live arena when the 'Blaise will play at The Cavern Club in Liverpool. That's enough tabloid-speak. We're going to play the International Pop Overthrow festival, a week long thing, have a look at the website. Isn't that exciting?! Supposedly we'll be onstage at 20:15 so arrive early or you'll miss it. See you there.

08/07/03 Radio Radio

If you happen to be in the Bristol area, and so few of you are, you can hear me on KuteFM (87.7 frequency fans) which is a radio station, this Thursday (10/07) evening between 20:30-21:00. What's that all about then? Well, it's a radio show hosted by my old friend Al Read who knows me well enough to goad me into slagging off every band you can think of. Oh dear. If I can find a disc, may even give him Architect to play.

29/05/03 Lyrics available

Further to that stuff about the new song, The Architect of My Own Downfall, I've discovered a lyric sheet written and illustrated contemporaneously by David W.Brown. You may often have wondered to yourself "What do bass players do to while away the hours of boredom in a recording studio, when they only have 4 strings to play anyway?", or you may not. Well, this is what Dave does, and splendidly so too. He then produces them years later when I say "Hey, do you remember that song about the architect, how does that go and what were the words?" thus proving himself invaluable. Check it out, as the young people say.

28/05/03 New record

It appears we have a new record out! That song we recorded whilst in Germany, The Architect of My Own Downfall, has been released on a 4-track Apricot Records EP available with PNG a German publication. We knew this was happening as we did the mastering at Zentralstudio in Mainz, just that we didn't know when it was coming out. Anyway, it's available now and those lovely people at Apricot have got some to sell for only 3.5 euro, well worth it no matter what the exchange rate is. Architect (as we call it in the 'Blaise) is an acoustic thing which I managed to use 23 tracks recording, it was something of a challenge but when confronted with the ability to use 256 tracks I didn't shirk the responsibility despite the essentially simple nature of the song. I suggest you get it now on this link, because you never know when you'll get the next new stuff from us!

12/05/03 Pictures

Well, I've been beaten to it, what a surprise! Tobias from Zentralstudio has put some photos on his site so here's a link. There we all are, with 2 of the Apricot fuhrers and David W.Brown really is that much taller than me and we hope to preview his new modern dance work soon.

29/03/03 Germany

We've been in Germany this week discussing the next album. We recorded one track for The Modesty Blaise entitled "The Architect of My Own Downfall" at Zentralstudio in Mainz on Wednesday and mixed it on the Thursday, so it's started. Also did some backing vocals for Rockformation Diskokugel on Friday, IN GERMAN!. I think they actually wanted it to sound like somebody English was doing it. We'll edit the photos and put them on the site soon.

23/02/03 Next Album

The Apricot triumvirate has been in town and we've been discussing the logistics of recording the third MB album The Modesty Blaise. It appears that we may even begin recording soon, time to get excited but we will keep you posted. Also mentioned recently, a possible collaboration between the 'Blaise and some erstwhile members of one of our fave bands Rockformation Diskokugel. Nothing concrete yet but we'll let you know.

News 2003

17/12/03 NYC