Happy birthday to us...

So. 365 days have passed since The Gresham Flyers first got up on the stage as a nervous, inexperienced sextet, and Martin struck the first open E string that beings 'Theme From The Gresham Flyers'. Since then, we've had 15 gigs, eight completed recordings (including three officially-released songs), one lineup change and a welter of congratulatory words from our friends, converted fans, other band members, record label owners and proud parents (not to mention the turned-up noses and 'this is shit, Thom' faces of my younger siblings). As a celebration, I've spent the evening copying all our blogs from the homepage onto our myspace page, to make it a more interesting read instead of the rather businesslike fount of information it is now.

It's been one absolute cracker of a year, and it only really feels now that we're getting into our stride. The single has been out for two months, and we've sold about 100 copies. Rough Trade, Sister Ray and HMV Oxford Circus are all stocking it, and sales have gone surprisingly well. Rough Trade were startled at the speed with which it sold out, so much so they had seven people waiting for it when we brought the next batch in!! We've also managed to get practicing with our autographs;, which feels both immensely gratifying and a bit silly at the same time.

If you haven't bought our single yet, you can buy it from our homepage- just type in www.thegreshamflyers.co.uk and follow the instructions- you can get it on 7inch or mp3 as you wish...

We're keeping the momentum up this weekend with another visit to the recording studio to put down the bones of four songs; if we manage it, that puts us up to 12 properly recorded songs, but only eight for the album (about 2/3's then I suppose).

And still we roll on; the end of September's return to Edinburgh will be a most welcome gig, as last year's Lucky Luke support slot was one of the highlights of our live show (and the photos from that gig are among our best). We're still looking for a place to play on Saturday 30th September in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham...anywhere between Edinburgh and London, so if you know of anywhere we can play, let us know!

That's all for now, other than to say we're still putting together the new tunes; two are nearly finished, two are in need of lyrics, and another is yet to be rehearsed. We're also entertaining the idea of a couple of cover versions...you never know what you'll hear!

Thom