Into the first few dates of the Wishbone Ash UK tour ( ette ) and believe me, I’ve been driven to a kind of tourette - like behavior a few times already, due to malfunctioning transportation and musical equipment. This is largely as a result of things being kept in storage and little used for months on end while we are working overseas in other territories. Brakes on vans get sticky, guitar necks warp, electronics fail. So for the next couple of days we get to fine tune and service several items both mechanical and electrical, while holed up at our studio.

In addition today, we’ll be overseeing the final updates to the mixes of the 11 songs to be featured on the new Elegant Stealth disc from the band. Perhaps someone can clue me in as to which number this release will represent in the catalogue of studio releases that we’ve put out over the years? I’m not talking about live albums or compilations, but discs containing all new material. It’s a lot. This disc is, like all of them, a labour of love and even has seasoned band members waxing lyrical about ‘great chorus lines’ and ‘nice long guitar solos’ which I know many of you have bemoaned the lack of in the past.

Due the the wonders of the internet, these mixes can be accessed online ( at this point, only by us I’m afraid ) from whence they emanate in New York actually. Only today, I was listening aided by some good quality headphones, to the latest song mixes on my IPhone. Our engineer, Tom Greenwood has been working round the clock and we are getting close. That’s good because mastering will take place and then promo copies will be needed to be sent out to various magazines and so on.

Our shows are going well and there will be a couple of events to shake things up a little on this tour. Ireland’s Pat McManus, will sit in with the band on the Buxton Opera House show. As many of you know, he is a manic guitar player but also plays a mean fiddle and it’s on this instrument that we will hear his special talents this night. Also, Mervyn Spence will hopefully sit in on a tune or two at another venue to be decided. I’ll make sure to announce that, if and when it happens. He has actually been lobbying hard to get a couple of back catalogue Wishbone Ash gems rereleased - Raw to the Bone and Twin Barrels Burning. This way some of our younger fans can get an idea of what it was like for us in back in the 1980s when these were originally released. You get to hear a much heavier version of Wishbone Ash from this era. These will hopefully see the light of day on Germany’s excellent Repertoire Records label.

~ A.P.

Next post: Buy The New Album...
Previous post: Get One While You Still Can.