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GLD Latest News.....

05-02-02    GLD Press Release

I can now confirm the split of Grey Lady Down, Martin and Mark have officially left the band citing irreconcilable differences, the split is however amicable. 

 

 This is a recent development, and up until the end of last year the band was looking forward to great year in 2002.   So, all future plans are now null and void, and we would like to thank the promoters who took the time to speak to us seriously and who worked with us to create some memorable nights.

 

Martin is now looking at a new project, of which details will be released soon, as for the rest of the band, news will follow I hope.

 

Regarding Star-Crossed, this album will still be available through the PO box and Cyclops/GFT until we run out as will other releases, however the earlier albums - The Crime, Forces, Fear and Time Of Our Lives will soon be out of stock.

 

GLD would like to thank ALL of you for the kind words and support over the years.

 

And most of all the people who bought our albums and supported us through thick and thin.

 

And Finally.........There will be no "Final gig", I guess GLD have dived for the last time.

Thanks again.

 

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PS: Martin will still be dealing with the distribution orders for Star-Crossed as and when required, usual terms.

 

If the "press release" could be broadcast, and added to the news section of your mag or site that would be fantastic.

 

 

I will be in contact soon with more news..

 

Thanks again

 

Martin/GLD

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02-12-01    Zak's Date Change

Just a short update to let you know that the gig at Zak's has been moved to Saturday 22nd December (was the 15th).  Thanks to those who came to see us recently.  The Belgium trip was great fun, shame there weren't more there (perhaps the fact that Marillion were playing in Holland on the same night had something to do with it) but, as ever, we were treated to wonderful hospitality over there, and we hope to be invited to play there again.  Also, judging from the recent reviews and band emails, Rotherham Rocks was a success, and it was a pleasure for us to open the festival.  Some pics can be found HERE.  Expect to see us back there again next year...

30-09-01    Plans for 2002

We've spent the last few weekends rehearsing 2 hours of material for the forthcoming shows which we're looking forward to, especially the trip over to Belgium.  The gig should be lots of fun, and there will inevitably be moments of mayhem which trips across to Europe always seem to provide (like running out of petrol, being stopped by police, having the van searched, driving aimlessly round the Brussels ring road...and that was just one of the trips! - Ed).  Once the October gigs are out of the way, we will have some time in which to start planning the next CD.  We have laid out plans for next year, when we intend to spend the first five months writing but doing the odd gig here and there (a few gigs are already being confirmed, including The Limelight, Crewe in February).  June to August will be set aside for touring, and October onwards we should be recording the next CD.  The direction the next CD will take has not yet been decided.  We have recently unearthed tapes of unfinished songs dating back to 1998/99 when Martin Wright was in the band, however these may be kept separate and recorded as a special project (funds and time allowing of course!).

01-09-01    New Reviews and Distributors

Hi there, and apologies for not updating the site sooner, those day jobs just keep getting in the way!  Recent reviews of Star-Crossed, to be found on the Discography page, confirm that the album on the whole has been very well received, with most of the reviewers concluding that it's our best effort so far.  We have also secured a number of distributors as well as GFT-Cyclops, a list of which can be found here.

All has been relatively quiet on the gig front this year, the recent Whitchurch festival was a success however.  We got rather lucky with the weather as when the heavens opened everyone outside had no choice but to come in and listen to our set!  It also meant that, due to the main hall not yet being open (and it still bucketing down outside), we were forced into doing numerous 'unrehearsed' encores, which was slightly embarrassing!  The set went down well, shame about the lights though - fluourescent lighting is not particularly atmospheric for a prog band unless you happen to be watching Genesis circa 1972!  The evening show was excellent, particularly Sphere3 (that's cubed, not three - say it wrong and they'll rip off your gonads) and The Flower Kings, albeit without the mighty Mellotron sounds.  Martin Orford was also good, however he did decide (IMHO - Ed) to play the worst IQ songs in history, and also did anyone else cringe at their version of KC's Red?!

The rest of the year will see GLD play their 1st gig in Belgium at The Spirit of '66, which is a decent-sized venue, and also a return to Rotherham as part of their Autumn festival.  Unfortunately we're on first on the Friday evening, so set off extra early if you want to see us in action (rather than at the bar after we've finished!).  On a more serious note, these will almost certainly be the only gigs we play this year, as Martin's son Joshua is currently undergoing chemotherapy for retinal cancer.  This is obviously taking up the majority of Martin's spare time at the moment and we all have our fingers crossed that the treatment will be successful.

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24-03-01    Star-Crossed Release Date 23rd April

We are now taking orders for Star-Crossed - go to the Merchandise section for details of how to order.  As stated above, the worldwide release date is 23-04-2001 but we should have copies available by Easter so if you want your copy first pre-order it now.  As an added incentive, all orders received before 30th April will get £1 off the new CD!

Please note that the prices for our merchandise have changed slightly for customers outside the UK and Europe.  All our prices still include postage and packing though, and we will continue to provide a completely free news service to everyone on the mailing list.

A summer UK tour has still yet to be finalised but we do have a couple of warm-up gigs in the near future - see Gigs.  We are in the running to appear at this year's Whitchurch festival, and a 1-week tour of Europe is in the pipeline for later in the year.

02-03-01    Star-Crossed Arrival Imminent!

We are pleased to report that we have almost finished recording the new GLD studio album, Star-Crossed!  Recording began early February at Audiolab in Buckingham, and come Sunday evening we'll have all the tracks down to tape (or rather disk!).  Mixing will take place in a couple of weeks back at Audiolab, and so we're looking at a release date sometime in April.

The track listing will be as follows:

Fading Faith : Shattered : As The Brakes Fail : Fallen : New Age Tyranny : Sands Of Time : Truth : Crossfire

There will be many 'firsts' associated with this CD - 8 songs, not 7 :-), use of real Mellotron (at last!), some wah-wah bass (go for it Sean!!), a guest flautist, and, last but not least, a special guest providing the guitar solo on "Crossfire"!  And before you jump to the obvious conclusion that it's Steve Anderson, you're wrong!!  Some of you know already, but we won't spoil the surprise just yet...Talking of Steve, he has designed for us some rather sumptuous-looking CD artwork which you are sure to like.  We're also collaborating with him on revamping this site, which we hope to upload in the next couple of weeks.

Star-Crossed will be released on our own record label, Perfect Pop Records, and initially will only be available mail-order either through us or via selected distributors.  On that note we would like to thank Malcolm Parker of Cyclops Records for his support in the past, and we will be continuing to work with him through GFT Records.

All in all, the creation of this CD has been immensely enjoyable so far, and we hope this will come across in the final product.  In the wake of a recent resurgence in progressive rock, with the likes of Transatlantic and Spock's Beard currently doing well, we hope to appeal to like-minded fans, and we're here to show that us Brits are not that far behind when it comes to producing quality progressive music.  We hope you will agree!

New Material Looming...

The GLD writing department have been busy bunnies recently, oh yes, coming up with some amazing large-scale progressive masterpieces full of emotion and grandeur incorporating numerous time, tempo and key changes.  Unfortunately all was forgotten in an alcohol & drug-induced binge (or was it all just a dream??).  Nevertheless we have managed to come up with a couple of new ideas that haven't been forgotten which will eventually turn into songs (or "things" in Martin's case - anyone who's heard the live album will know what I'm talking about!).  We have a 10-minute epic with the working title of "Fading Faith", and a 7-minute piece with the working title of "No Title".  Lyrics have not yet materialised for the latter, Martin's comments being "I can't sing to that!" when we played him the chorus.  Admittedly, 17/8 isn't the easiest of time signatures to get to grips with... :-)  We have also re-worked the song formerly known as "New Age Tyranny", giving it a fresh lick of paint.  It's now known as "New New Age Tyranny"...

Talking of new stuff, we made a 3-track demo a couple of weeks ago during one afternoon at Zak's, which will hopefully aid us towards securing a record deal.  The songs we recorded were "Crossfire", "Sands of Time" and "Fallen" (edit).  Snippets of these will hopefully find their way onto the site very soon!

PS We could give you a perfectly feasible explanation for the reason for the edited version of Fallen such as "the tape ran out", but the truth is we fluffed badly towards the end and subsequently ran out of time - doh!

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Future Plans...

Hello all.  First of all I'd like to say thanks to all of you who came along to our recent live shows.  The Woughton Centre gig in particular, plus the two festival appearances in MK, were very well attended, and have put us in good stead for return visits next year.  As you know we have been previewing some of the songs which will appear on our forthcoming CD ("when will this be out?" I hear you ask - more on this later!).  The general consensus has been very favourable, with two of the newies, namely "Fallen" and "Crossfire", already established as set favourites.

Now, about that album!  :-)  The philosophy of GLD has been, and still is, to pay for the production of a new CD from funds which have been earned via gigs and merchandising.  Unfortunately the split in 1998 effectively wiped out the band account, so since then we have had to start almost as a new band.  Also the thousands of pounds we forked out for Phill to take drum lessons to learn those funny time signatures took its toll!  ;-)  Anyway, we are not yet in a position to pay for the entire recording costs, which is why we are doing another pre-album tour! (see the Gigs section).  This will also give us the chance to "road-test" some more new material.  Also we currently do not have a recording contract (although there are a few possibilities in the pipeline), so if there are any A&R people out there reading this, get in touch!

All being well, we aim to hit the studio in January 2001, mix the album in February, and then hopefully be able to release it sometime in March.  I strongly believe that this will be GLD's best effort by some way, so it will be well worth the wait!

So there you go!  (I just felt I needed to explain why it seems like we've been such lazy gits over the past year!!!)

Best wishes, and hope to see/hear from you soon.

Mark (on behalf of GLD)

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GLD On Internet Radio Website

The chaps at ProgRadio.net have kindly set up a Grey Lady Down page which contains a band biography and RealAudio samples from TOOL.  The URL is www.progradio.net/prog2k/greyladydown.

DPRP Interview With Martin

Check out the Dutch Progressive Rock Page to find an interview Martin did with them recently regarding the truth behind the split and why we reformed...the link is http://www.dprp.vuurwerk.nl/specials/gld/index.html. 

 

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Competition - win a copy of the new CD!

Congratulations go to Ashley York of Northamptonshire who wins a copy of Star-Crossed for being the lucky person out of the hat, and what a big hat it was - we now have well over 300 email addresses alone on our database (currently at around 1200!).  Thanks to all of you who have recently given us your email address - it really does help to cut the postage costs for our newsletter...

Another competition will appear here soon.

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GLD Gig Page

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The Official Grey Lady Down Newsletter Spring 2001

Issue 22

Hi Folks

It’s newsletter time again.  Not much to report in GLD-land this time round, I’m afraid.  A few gigs to review from the end of last year, Martin’s purchase of a new nightshirt, the release of a new album, a few shows to let you know about this year and that’s about it.  So, without furth…  Oh!  Sorry!  There is an important piece of news?  What was that again, “the release of a new album”?  So the cat’s out of the bag then.  Finally, after months of writing, rehearsing and gigging on 10 February we locked ourselves away in Audiolab Studios in Buckingham for a month and produced what we think is without doubt our finest album to date and we’re sure you’ll agree with us when you hear it.

The recording process went really well, especially for Sparky who sat at home for two weeks recording his keyboard parts on his portable hard-disk recorder, the idle git!  He did manage to get off his backside for long enough to pay a visit to our compadre and top bloke Neil Durant (out of Sphere³) and record some real Mellotron.  This was not without its amusing moments apparently but we won’t bore you with accounts of them as only keyboard players would understand and they’re a bunch of weirdoes anyway (ouch! – Ed).  However one big surprise did come about when we asked Bernie Marsden, he of Whitesnake fame, if he could pop into the studio (he only lives just round the corner) and put a guitar solo down for us.  To our delight he said “yes” and turned up with the tattiest guitar case you could imagine from which he produced an original 1960 Gibson ES 335 which used to belong to Peter Green.  Jules’ chin hit the floor.  He then proceeded to rattle off the solo (Jules’ chin hit the floor again), regale us with some amusing anecdotes and bugger off.  The results of Bernie’s efforts can be found on “Crossfire”.

If you are interested Bernie is currently out and about with his new band “The Company of Snakes”, featuring ex-Whitesnake cohorts Micky Moody (guitar) and Neil Murray (bass), erstwhile Rainbow keyboardist Don Airey, John Lingwood on drums and Stefan Berggren on vocals.  They play a mixture of old Whitesnake numbers and self-penned material and are well worth a look if they’re gigging in your neighbourhood.  To find out more info you can check out their website at www.companyofsnakes.com.

A special thanks here to Marc Michalski and Nigel Neill for putting up with us in the studio and twiddling knobs so well - the ones on the mixing desk that is.

Sneak preview of the cover of “Star-Crossed”

 Back to GLD stuff now. We’re calling our latest CD “Star-Crossed” (isn’t that something to do with plovers or something? - Ed) and it contains eight tracks (not seven like our other studio albums have been), which are:

Fading Faith; Shattered; As the Brakes Fail; Fallen; New Age Tyranny; Sands of Time; Truth; Crossfire

Most of the songs have received airings on the road last year, so those of you who came to see us will be vaguely familiar with the material.  In fact, all the feedback for the new songs that we got from audiences was very positive.  We have also given brief details of most of the songs in previous newsletters (if you don’t have these for any reason you can catch up on them on our website very soon!).  Only “As the Brakes Fail” hasn’t been played live or previewed, although “New Age Tyranny” has been altered somewhat since it was last given the live outing.  Snippets of some of the songs should be available to download from the website in the near future so you can have a little taster of the new stuff before the album is released.  We are sure you will not be disappointed.

After his outstanding efforts on the “Time of Our Lives” CD artwork we invited our old mate and erstwhile GLD guitarist Steve Anderson to do the biz again for Star-Crossed.  And what a superb job he’s done as you can see from the cover inset above.  The inner pages are a bit good too and thanks to Martin and Gill’s photos the three of them have even managed to make the band members of GLD look cool.  Now that takes some doing.

A further development is that, after a wonderful relationship with Cyclops Records over the past eight years, we are going it alone this time releasing Star-Crossed on our own label, Perfect Pop Records.  We would like to thank Malcolm Parker for all his efforts during our time with his label and we will still be working with Malcolm through his GFT mail order business.  He has on-line ordering facilities so if you want to buy a copy of Star-Crossed with a credit card Malcolm’s yer man.  To order a CD with your credit card you can go to www.gft-cyclops.co.uk and use their secure order form, or you can order by phone on +44 (0)20 8339 9965.

Star-Crossed will be released worldwide on 23 April 2001 and, as well as GFT, you will be able to buy copies direct from us from the address on the back page or at gigs at a cost of £12 Sterling (UK & Europe) & £13 (Rest of World).  However, as an introductory offer, any orders received before 30 April 2001 will be only charged £11 (UK & Europe) and £12 (Rest of World)! All prices include P & P. All payments must be in Pounds Sterling and we can accept British bank cheques, Eurocheques and International Money Orders.  Oh yes, please allow 14 days for delivery and make all cheques payable to “Martin Wilson”

♫

Okay, now the big sell is over, lets move onto other stuff.  Since the last newsletter, apart from preparing for the album GLD have been dragging themselves up and down the country to try out some of the new material, and some old faves, in front of a live audience.  We played seven shows leading up to Christmas kicking off at Zak’s in Wolverton followed by our first visit to The King Billy in Northampton, which was nice.  After eventually finding the place (apparently Jules drove round the Derngate Theatre a dozen times before getting there – DOH!) we had a great time with a largely new audience fully appreciating our efforts.  We’re looking forward to a return visit (more on that later).  A certain ex-drummer was also there with the bassist from his new band.  What a happy family the prog world is.  Our next outing involved a trip down to The Big Smoke to shake a leg at the renowned Borderline in the West End.  It was good to see some familiar faces there to witness our best performance of the tour.  Considering the amount of new material played everyone seemed suitably impressed.

Our next visit to the nation’s capital involved Phill, Sean and Gill embarking on a two-hour unguided tour of the Croydon one-way system before eventually arriving at Cartoon2 Club, much to the amusement of the rest of the band.  A most rapid of sound checks allowed our esteemed friends Sphere³ to warm the audience up for us.  Steve, Neil, Bill and Jamie put on superb performance of their blend of progressive rock/jazz (or something like that) after which we can certainly recommend you check them out.  Who knows you may eventually be able to buy one of their CDs one day?  :)   Our shows at Twyford, Bletchley and Buckingham as well as a return to The Railway Inn at Winchester were good fun too, so all in all GLD ended the year on a high.  Thanks to everyone who turned up to see us.  Apologies to those of you who went to the Seven Stars, Twyford in Berkshire, by the way, rather than Buckinghamshire.  We’ll make sure we are clearer with our information in future – oops!

We also want to say sorry to all our friends on the mailing list who live outside the UK who haven’t received a newsletter for, well, ages actually.  Since we reformed back in 1999 GLD has been concentrating on the UK trying to get re-established over here and as we were starting from scratch, i.e. no money in the band account, we couldn’t afford a worldwide mail shot.  Those of you on our e-mail list have been receiving GLD info as it is impossible in most cases to tell where you are, so you’ve been lucky.  On this point, would anyone on our e-mail list please drop us a line and say which country you are from, as it will help us set our database properly.  Also, if you are not on our e-mail list but want to be please let us know as this does help to keep our costs down.

As far as gigs are concerned we are trying to put together a tour for the early summer, although nothing has been finalised as yet.  However we have arranged a few gigs for the spring, just to blow away the cobwebs after the studio session, so if you are in the Milton Keynes, Northampton or Leamington areas please try to get along.  Details of these gigs are listed on the gigs page.

So that’s about it for now.  Get your orders in for Star-Crossed as soon as possible, try to get along to see us at a gig if you can and look forward to a new newsletter in the summer.

TTFN!

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