Okay. So the plan was to release our first digital record last Saturday. Production problems have lead to delays. These include the decision of the band to re-record the entire electric EP as an acoustic EP, and the fact that their lead vocalist has been struck down with a case of "swine flu" and has lost his voice entirely. Well, maybe it isn’t swine flu, but he aint feeling too good, thats for sure. Apparently he came out in rashers. Ahem.

When asked to comment on a new release date, the enigmatic lead singer said he believed the record would drop "when pigs fly." The record will actually be out for real by Saturday 9th May 2009. We promise this time.

I’d also like to take the opportunity to plug a show at Independant, Sunderland on 6th May. The lineup includes the Canadian "This is a Standoff" (including ex-Belvedere members), Beasts, Tripdash and many more. Some collective members will be playing their first gig at this show. Exciting. Arrive early to catch that.

You know, its probably just a co-incidence that 1,000,000 pigs are raised intensively at the epicentre of a global swine flu crisis. From the Guardian:

"Dr Michael Greger, director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States, has pointed out, this is not the first time a triple hybrid human/bird/pig flu virus has been uncovered. The first was found in a North Carolina industrial pig farm in 1998, and within a year it had spread across the United States."

"Dr Greger has highlighted how some experts blamed the emergence of the original 1998 virus on intensive farming practices in the US, where pigs and poultry are raised in extremely cramped conditions, in adjacent sheds – and tended to by the same staff."

"According to these reports, in Veracruz – where the outbreak originated, a Smithfield subsidiary called Granjas Carrol raises 950,000 hogs per year in intensive conditions."

Now, back to your regularly scheduled, human-caused global pandemic….
www.veganoutreach.org