Kate Jackson's named, if not ready to release, her album

From the Bury Free Press:

Kate Jackson, former lead singer of The Long Blondes, has revealed the title of her long-awaited solo album – British Road Movies.

Kate, from Bury St Edmunds, began working on the project with Suede’s main songwriter Bernard Butler back in 2009.

The album was completed in December and Kate is hoping to release it at the end of the summer.

On Saturday, Kate is performing a hometown gig at the Hunter Club in Bury St Edmunds.

Decade Null: 2006 - The Long Blondes

And you talk of your great lost acts. The speed things move at these days, we're probably only a few months from bands springing up namechecking The Long Blondes as their inspiration. If illness hadn't cut them short, what might they have done? Someone To Drive You Home was outstanding, and this was the most outstanding moment of all:



[Part of Decade Null 2006]

The Long Blondes: Dorian's robohand

Dorian from the Long Blondes is in today's Telegraph, which reports on the treatment he's getting following his stroke:

[T]he musician is now undergoing neurological physiotherapy – including training sessions with a "revolutionary" mechanical glove – and is optimistic about regaining movement in his right hand.

The device, called a SaeboFlex, can benefit patients by supporting their wrists and helping them grasp and release objects.

"It's a fantastic service, it's helping tremendously and I think it can work wonders for me and others – it's almost like a gym for my hand," Mr Cox, from York, said.

The Telegraph call the glove a "bionic hand", although it's not a robotic prosthetic - what it does do, though, is offer a hope that Dorian might get the use of his actual hand back. Nice to have a positive-sounding story to start the week with.

Jackson continues alone

Following the Long Blondes split, Kate Jackson has announced she's going solo:

"It's the first time I've talked about it but that's my plan," she said. "I'm just beginning but I think it will reflect my personal music taste a bit more than the Long Blondes, which was a collaborative thing.

"I've only just started and a lot of the influences will overlap so hopefully fans of the Long Blondes will like what I do."

She's also told 6Music about Dorian's stroke and its effect on him abnd the band:

"It was actually two days after we got back from our American tour and we have no idea what caused that," Jackson told 6 Music.

"Obviously, it was a complete shock for all of us, something that we've had a bit of time now to come to terms with.

"It does mean that he's unable to play the guitar at the moment and we don't really know when he'll be able to do that again. Unfortunately we've had to take the decision to split up."

The quintet have released two albums and were critically praised for their latest offering, the Erol Alkan-produced Couples.

Jackson said that Cox, who wrote a lot of the music, was having daily physiotherapy and was is making "vast improvements".

The band might, apparently, reunite if Cox recovers enough to pick up guitar duties again.

... and never again

The Long Blondes have split, following Dorian's stroke earlier this year.

He posted farewell blog on MySpace;

We have decided to call it a day.

The main reason for this is that I suffered from a stroke in June and unfortunately I do not know when / if I will be well enough to play guitar again.

On behalf of the band I'd like to say a big thank you to anyone who ever came to one of our shows, bought one of our records or danced to one of our songs in a club. Thank you, if it wasn't for you the whole thing would have been pointless.

Finally on a personal note, thanks for all your well wishing messages.

Sadly - and perhaps selfishly - this is another band I'm going to have forever on my 'bugger, I never saw them live'. It's truly sad news, and the loss of one of our greatest and consistently most interesting acts.

[Singles, by the Long Blondes, is released today]

Would you like to meet young Blonde singles?

Putting a slight dent in the collectors market, The Long Blondes have rounded up their early 7" singles and are releasing them on a single record (or a single-click-to-buy-from-the-download-store-collection if you'd rather.)

Unlike Michael Jackson, they didn't poll people on the tracklist and have just bunged everything on there.

Glastonbury: Weekend without Weekend Without Make-Up

Who won't be going to Glastonbury, then? (Besides 'as many people as Michael Eavis had hoped for'?)

Not The Long Blondes: Dorian Cox has fallen seriously ill and they've cancelled their festival dates - including Glastonbury - and Duran Duran support slots.

Long Blondes return

Some more news coming through about next year's Long Blondes album: It's due April 7th, and going to be travelling under the name Couples.

Oh, yes, and a tour, too:

London, Amersham Arms – March 11
York, Fibbers – 18
Edinburgh, Cabaret Voltaire – 19
Hull, The Lamp – 20
Sunderland, The Independent – 21
Wakefield, Escobar – 22
Leeds, Faversham – 24
Exeter, The Cavern – 25
Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach - 26

Blondes prepping

While we're looking forward to the things that might delight us next year, the Long Blondes are in the studio, too. Long overdue, too.

Filthy lucre

In a bid to raise funds to keep releasing new records, Filthy Little Angels are flogging off some of their rarities, including The Long Blondes' Christmas Is Canceled and first ep, and a Vichy Government demo. It's first come, first served, apparently.

Gossip axe live dates to push 'live' DVD

The Gossip's planned November US tour - which was to have had Long Blondes support - has been pulled to allow the band to sync it with the release of their 'live' DVD. The upside? With a couple of months free, the Long Blondes are going to be recording a new album this side of Christmas.

They must find the songwriting process easier than Beth and the boys. According to Rick Rubin, the live record is to fill a gap caused by writer's block:

'I saw [the Gossip] at the Troubadour, and they blew my mind'," [Rick Rubin] said. 'It was the best show I've seen in five years. Afterward, I met with the band. They felt stressed, and they were having trouble writing songs. The energy in the room when they were performing was so intense, and I'm not even sure how we'd get it to feel like that in the studio. So we decided to record a live show during their European tour, and we're going to release a DVD of the live album as their first release.'

How surprising that Beth Ditto - who has so much to say - is so dry of ideas they're lobbing out the same songs again in lieu of a proper new record.

Australia suffers

The legion of Australian indie-kids are nursing disappointment so bitter as to make a heart bleed, with New Young Pony Club and The Long Blondes both blowing them out - NYPC in order to attend the prestigious Mercury Music Prize ceremony, and The Long Blondes citing vague-sounding "recording commitments" to account for sweating off southern hemisphere dates.

First night: The Long Blondes

The Long Blondes started their UK tour on Friday night. Popstarz was full of indie kids wearing berets (we bet), the odd journo and a smattering of bloggers.

The NME was there on expenses, and went to the effort of compiling a set list:

'Lust In The Movies'
'Weekend without Makeup'
'Once And Never Again'
'Giddy Stratospheres'
'Five Ways To End It'
'Separated By Motorways'

Obviously not the full set, as this was one of those halfway-through-a-clubnight jobs.

Dave AP got a little skin-on-skin action:

stood at the very front,
was literally 2ft away from the band
an directly in front of kate jackson
an she sang to me
an held my hand while she was singing motorways!
it was great

Mind you, that was nothing compared to what Lubey's mate got at the first night proper in Brighton:

Wow tonight was just wow! Me and Vix went to see The Long Blondes at the Old Market and we were highly impressed, Brilliant live!!! was so so random though seeing as Vick interupted a butt sniffing junkie in the toilets haha getting a whole eye full.

That's the sort of thing you seldom get in a Daily Telegraph review, isn't it? But considering nothing's meant to happen in the world without it being blogged from sixteen different angles, it's slightly disappointing that there's barely a word about their twin opening nights.

Luckily, Flickr doesn't let us down: Stephen Burch supplies some gorgeous shots of the band on stage at the Brighton Old Market. And, if you're really keen, there's some cameraphone footage, too - although, erm, with no sound.