cover stars!!

shock horror!! guess whos going to be staring out at you from a newstand tommorrow, gracing the front cover of the hot press - well - it aint westlife, and it aint u2 and it aint even josh ritter (though im sure his day will come soon...) - its those handsome and talented chaps - THE FRAMES - !!! i beleive that it will also have a large editorial peice in there too, so well worth a few punts or pounds or dollars or schekles or whatever the currency is where you live. big thank you to those gals and guys at hp - splendid news to end a splendid week.

as the bumf from hp goes - "......could you say that Hot Press is available in all newsagents, record shops nationwide in Ireland, in selected newsagents in the UK and ALL Virgin outlets and HMV outlets all over UK..."

i also know that hot press are putting pressure on the virgin stores in the uk to take some stock of the record, so you never know your luck - it could be in a local store soon. if not, it is still available from www.roadrecs.com and dave there needs for me to say that when ordering - please bear in mind if you are say, in america, if you chose the economy mail route then you could be waiting up to 6 weeks, though the usual turn around is about 2... he also wants me to pass on any apologies to those who are waiting on their records... they have all gone out but the postal services in countries various is really out of his control, so bear with it...

so there - now you know.

fantastic weekend of shows in limerick and galway...all sold out again which seems to be the way its going right now. thanks to all who have sent birthday wishes to glen and meself for the 21st april - very nice too to get all the kind messages... joe and colm next up for the birthday celebrations - we're just a big bunch of stubborn taurean bulls you see (for any spooks out there who like to know that kind of stuff... and i bet theres a few of you... :0)

i am still working on the freebie gig - so please bear with me on that one too. i will announce via an email when ive sorted it and ill post on the board too.

talking of the board i know that some of you are rather anxious to get some more pages on the message board and we are looking into that end of it. the pheonominal amount of hits has taken us all a bit by storm and when i went away last weekend for 2 days and came back there was 3 whole pages of new posts - but - we had 6444 hits in 7 days last week and the traffic there is pretty high right now (which is great), but i guess you need to just dip in a bit more regular if youre in a thread and needing an answer on something cause some of them will slide before you get a chance to read.

also talking of the board we have now finally secured the following site address WWW.THEFRAMES.IE which is a little easier to remember than plateau's and dots and forward slashes etc - so that should take you rather sharpish to the plateau site and if it aint working for you please let me know. i think there have been some teething problems recently, but it SHOULD all be sorted by now...

ive added a couple of new dates - first one up is in the jean monet lecture hall in limerick on the 25th may. this is open to all and sundry you dont have to be a student. we are making this one only a fiver in cause the last gig we played in the UL was a bit of a bizzare one with the change of venue and all and i got the feeling that people maybe didnt get their moneys worth last time.....thats being organised by the beautiful dave o'donovan (ul ents type person and all round good guy - different from dave donovan from dublin), the next one up is in debarras in clonakilty on the 29th may, and one in the savoy in cork (standing this time due to the amazing response last time) on the 30th may. there will of course be very special guests at all new shows but im still finalising details. we are also doing an instore at tower records in dublin on the 8th may at 6pm - signing and singing and stuff for anyone who happens to be around.....oh, and the gig on the 3rd may in the stables in mullingar is nearly sold out, so if any of you HAVE to go to it, i suggest you get yer tickets real soon.

i think josh ritter would like to pass on to anyone that has seen him recently on our tour (now say this in the dulcet and silky idaho tones of josh please) "thank you so much for the amazing warmth and truely inspiring response" he's had on this tour...and it aint over yet. i reckon we might be dragging him back for some more fun and frolix soon enough cause he's just such a gentleman and horribly talented with it.

and not forgetting a huge big up to the very honourable mic 'the king' christopher who has played some amazing sets (and continues to do so) on this particular tour. any mic ep's can usually be purchased at road records or via mics site at http://homepage.eircom.net/~micchristopher

right - the rest of the dates on the tour are as follows

april
26th morrisons belfast (only a few tix left so be swift)
27th instore at 1pm in virgin megastore in belfast
27th mcgarrigles in sligo sold out
28th instore in cool discs at 3pm
28th derry nerve centre (this is not a ticketed show so i guess first come first served)
29th dundalk spirit store (nearly sold out if not so already)
30th cd world instore at carol village time tbc but very likely to be 4pm
30th dundalk spirit store (again nearly all tix gone so be quick)

may
3rd the stables mullingar (likewise with tix nearly all gone)
5th with divine comedy on the heineken green energy festival at dub castle
new dates above and then we shoot off to england/a bit of a reckie round europe, back to england then away to ameriky, so probably the last time you'll get your frames headline gig type fix for a few months...

midweek today is still 14 and we are only a few sales off gold record status in ireland!!! now thats funny!!

best love and all good things to you all and hello to all our new babes in the woods. cxxxxx

oh ps. lay me down will be released as a single to coincide (hopefully) with the gigs at the end of may. there will be a couple of non album new tracks on there and i'm trying to get together some brittness footage from the beach gig last year to put on in a cd-rom fashion too... so there.