“It pains me to live in a world where no-one has ever heard of Spearmint” says Joseph Gordon-Levitt in “(500) Days Of Summer”. Well you can help relieve Joseph’s discomfort as tickets are still available for Spearmint’s one-off show at the ICA in London on Wednesday 30th September.where they will play debut album “A Week Away” live in full for the first time,  The Junipers are also playing and they are fabulous. It should be a really special evening, and only costs £8.50. Tickets are available here direct from the ICA. Spearmint will also  play the following shows in Germany in September: Thurs 17 Sept, Freiburg, Swamp Fri 18 Sept, Dresden, Ostpol Sat 19 Sept, Berlin, Privatclub (Karrera Klub) Sun 20 Sept, Hamburg, Hörsaal The new special edition of “A Week Away” is now in production. It is fully remastered featuring some different versions of some tracks, 24 songs, 7 of which are brand new, and a 24 page lyric booklet and is due for release on Monday 19th October. See you somewhere soon!  Neil  xx

A Week Away – Live At The ICA Tickets are selling briskly for this one-off event. We are going to do our best to sell it out, so get your tickets now if you fancy it! Spearmint will play “A Week Away” live in full for the first time at the ICA in London on Wednesday 30th September. The Junipers are also playing and they are fabulous. It should be a really special evening, and only costs £8.50. Tickets are available here direct from the ICA. How Does It Feel To Be Loved On Friday 4th September, Spearmint will be DJing at the excellent “How Does It Feel To Be Loved” club-night in London. Full details here. The Book “This Is A Souvenir” is a collection of graphice novellas inspired by 19 of the songs of Spearmint and Shirley Lee. It is available now direct from us for the bargain price of £14.99! Spearmint Shows In Germany Spearmint will play the folloiwng shows in Germany in September: Thurs 17 Sept, Freiburg, Swamp Fri 18 Sept, Dresden, Ostpol Sat 19 Sept, Berlin, Privatclub (Karrera Klub) Sun 20 Sept, Hamburg, Kukuun Shirley Lee Single A 3 track single is now available for just 99p! It features “Dissolving Time”, “Spiralina Girl” and “Restless Soul”; the latter is a new song exclusive to this release. Click here to buy it from our online store. Telley The debut album by Spearmint Jim’s band Telley is out now and it is great! Click here to get hold of this fresh, upbeat, angular treat. 500 Days Of Summer This new Indie Romance movie opens on Friday 4th September. By all accounts it is a lovely, funny film, and during it the characters bemoan the fact that no-one has even heard of Spearmint (but you have). “A Week Away” Special Edition Finishing touches are currently being made to the artwork. The new version is fully remastered featuring some different versions of some tracks, 24 songs, 7 of which are brand new, and a 24 page lyric booklet. It is due for release in October.

“A Week Away” Live At The ICA To celebrate the tenth anniversary of their debut album, Spearmint will play “A Week Away” live in full for the first time, at the ICA in London on Wednesday 30th September. The Junipers are also playing and they are fabulous. It should be a really special evening, and only costs £8.50. Tickets are available here direct from the ICA. Shirley Lee Single A 3 track single is now available for just 99p! It features “Dissolving Time”, “Spiralina Girl” and “Restless Soul”; the latter is a new song exclusive to this release.Click here to buy it from our online store… Spearmint Shows In Germany Spearmint will play the folloiwng shows in Germany in September: Thurs 17 Sept, Freiburg, Swamp Fri 18 Sept, Dresden, Ostpol Sat 19 Sept, Berlin, Privatclub (Karrera Klub) Sun 20 Sept, Hamburg, Kukuun

As everyone in the world should know, JiM, axeman extraordinaire with Spearmint and Shirley Lee, has his own super band.  They’re called tELLEY.  We all love them to pieces and are delighted to announce that the debut album is shorlty to be unleashed into our ears… here’s further details: “Now I’m The Big Sister” is the debut album from tELLEY it will put you in mind of classic xtc, sparks, The flaming Lips. In some ways it is the solo project of Jim from Spearmint as a showcase for his song-writing talent it also features the idiosyncratic drum style of longtime collaborator James Agnew. The album includes live favourite, a cover of sparks, “get in the swing”  it is testament to the quality of song writing that the other tracks rub shoulders so happily with it. After the first single Rene and Silvi left and James and Jim nearly gave up, that was half the band gone. Jim carried on making the album at times feeling like a solo artist but then gradually by the end of recording the second line-up was complete, one band falling apart and becoming another as Sharon and eventually, Thom from the Gresham Flyers joined the line up. The band wanted to keep Rene on the cover, In many ways his role in the band remains the same. He never showed his face live because of his incredible stage fright yet he was ever present on a backing track. During the recording many tracks were built up around those backing tracks so he’s there yet not there at all. “In my head this is what albums should sound like, It’s the album I should have made ten years ago but couldn’t have done without the last ten years of my life. I’ve worked towards this vision being in bands with prolific songwriters staying in the comfort of their ability all the time writing and planning. Now the time is right and I’m not giving myself a hard time or comparing myself to anyone else. I’m standing along side them and I’m giving you the tELLEY debut album, I hope you enjoy it” Jim album tracklisting: 1.     Bad Boy, Good Girl 2.    All of the girls want to love you 3.     Red is my key 4.     Get in the swing 5.     Good at what you do 6.     Settle Down 7.     This is what you can’t have 8.     We are not like you 9.     The external fixator 10.   Over the Sea www.telley.co.uk www.myspace.com/telleyuk tELLEY will be promoting the new album starting Friday 24 July at The Water Rats Kings Cross Looking forward to seeing you all there… seriously, they’re ace!!!  Neil

A reminder of the excursions for some live shows over the next few weeks… surprises are promised! Saturday 16 May – Leytonstone, London What’s Cookin Upstairs At The Sheep Walk, 692 High Road, Leytonstone, London, E11 Admission free (a hat goes round!) Doors 8.30pm www.whatscookin.co.uk Thursday 21 May – Leeds Milo, 10-12 Call Lane  Leeds LS1 6DN Admission – £5 Doors – 8pm Hopefully Paul from The Scaramanga Six will also do an acoustic set plusindiepop disco with DJs from With Whom to Dance between the bands and after the show. Friday 22 May – Liverpool The International Pop Overthrow Festival The Cavern Pub at 5.30 pm & The Cavern Club Front Stage at 10:15pm Admission free !!ALSO FEATURES ANDY LEWIS PLAYING 2 SETS!!! www.internationalpopoverthrow.com www.myspace.com/internationalpopoverthrow Saturday 30 May – Scunthorpe With Mark Morris and The Red Stops The Priory, Ashby Road, Scunthorpe Admission £5 advance or £7 on the door Tickets Venue 01724 270077 or Daz 07828440478 Doors 7 pm www.myspace.com/tachelesspromotions Then a 3 track download will be available from 15th June featuring “Dissolving Time”, “Spiralina Girl” and “Restless Soul” (unreleased live fave)!! And, after a little delay, “This Is A Souvenir” the Spearmint/Shirley Lee songbook is being released by Image Comics Inc. It will be available from 20th May, can’t wait for that one!!! See you all Saturday,  Neil

Some rare regional gigs have now been finalised, here are the full details: Saturday 16 May What’s Cookin, upstairs @ The Sheep Walk 692 High Road Leytonstone, London, E11 Admission: free (a hat goes round!) Doors: 8.30pm www.whatscookin.co.uk Thursday 21 May Milo 10-12 Call Lane  Leeds LS1 6DN Admission: £5 Doors: 8pm Hopefully Paul from The Scaramanga Six will also do an acoustic set, plus indiepop disco with DJs from With Whom to Dance Friday 22 May Liverpool: The International Pop Overthrow Festival The Cavern Pub at 5.30 pm & The Cavern Club Front Stage at 10:15pm Admission: free www.internationalpopoverthrow.com www.myspace.com/internationalpopoverthrow Saturday 30 May The Priory Ashby Road Scunthorpe Admission £5 advance or £7 on the door Tickets Venue 01724 270077 or Daz 07828440478 Doors 7 pm www.myspace.com/tachelesspromotions Possibility of a second single from the album to tie in with the gigs… watch this space, Neil

With the new album now available everywhere through this link here (amongst other places) I was wondering what we think of it all, and what’s our favourite track on it, come to that?   For me it’s “The Lights Change”, indeed from the first hearing it was and a couple of hundred listens to the whole album now, it still is!!  Now, I know I’m a fraction biased but the whole album hits all my most sensitive spots all the way through… that’s obviously why I love the boys so very much, everything appeals all the time. For me it’s great to hear recorded versions of “Spiralina Girl”, “Come on Feel the Lemonheads” and “The Smack of Pavement in Your Face” after numerous live outings, especially from the last Germany/Austria tour, wunderbar!  And all the new songs fit perfectly inside my head, another album that just repeats and repeats for as long as I have time to listen.  And finally, just to scare her, my fave lyric has to be… “there is a Bridie shaped, space within my arms…” except I change it to “Cheryl, Basti & Josie-shaped” of course. more news shortly,  Neil H

Following on from a cracking Valentine’s evening Shirley Lee, the band, will be taking the new album on to the Lexington in just a couple of weeks time.   Fortuna POP! is starting a new venture with the Track & Field label promoting shows under the name Secret Knowledge –  first Secret Knowledge show which takes place at The Lexington on Thursday 5th March features our old friend Darren Hayman and his band The Secondary Modern, Shirley Lee, and the excellent Esiotrot. A fine way to start I think. Tickets are here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/44472 And just to harp back to the last gig… the boys were all very nervous, not having played live for a wee while, new material etc… but what a treat…. the whole of the new album minus only one song… plus a gorgeous reworking of “the beautiful things” and 2 completely new songs… an andy lewis/shirley song “36 Reasons Why”, and “Restless Soul” packed full of your favourite Spearmint swear word, great track too.  Was a very good night out with the Bitter Springs playing a blinding set too, fingers crossed there’ll be some more gigs with them this year.  See Shirley’s diary page for further details. A good number of copies of the album also ventured out into the world that evening, be interesting to hear what you all think of it.  There’ll be more on sale at the Lexington of course, and you can now pre-order your very own copy here, release sate the 9th March.  You get a free download of the single!  Wow… exciting times!  all the best, Neil H

Well, it’s been quite some time since Spearmint’s last gig, almost 20 months in fact! The very first Shirley Lee gig is less than a week away… this coming Saturday on Valentine’s evening at The Wilmington Arms, 69 Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 4RL. Doors 8pm. Entrance: £7.00 on the door. It’s a co-headline show with the Bitter Springs, and looking likely that Shirl and the boys will play first. The Short Stories from Bristol are also supporting and Johny Brown from Resonance FM will be DJing. Hopefully I’m allowed to add Shirley Lee gigs to my total of Spearmint gigs witnessed?? And talking of that the band would love to get out of london and do some regional gigs during May. Which is where you might be able to help… where would you like to see Shirley play? Do you have any contacts with venues… do you run a venue or club night? Let us know! There’s been a slight delay to the album release whilst new distribution was sorted out after Pinnacle went under; it’ll now be available from 9th March. Having lived with it now for a couple of months already I’m certain it will appeal to one and all. The wonderful components of perfect harmonies, moving keyboards, wandering bass lines, strong and tight drumming, and those guitars gently duelling at times, working beautifully alone at others, all underneath Shirl’s detailed stories – it’s all there, and although I am undoubtedly biased I equally am excited as ever by these songs… We’ve already had some other great reviews too – just so that you don’t only have to take my word for it! - “softly curdled sugar laced and shy eyed 60’s kissed slice of purring power pop laced with oodles of effervescence and swoon attacking melodic thrills… makes you quietly glow and stick two fingers up to the everyday crud” – Losing Today “a timely reminder of how unpretentious and uncomplicated indie music used to be” – Tasty “a steam locomotive rolling along rhythmically while Lee conjures a range of emotions through some impressive wordplay” – Culture Deluxe “timeless” – Artrock “lovely… a doctrine on love and life without it” – AU magazine Looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible on Saturday! Neil H / Site Admin

Shirley’s diary page is now up and running; he’ll be posting at least one entry per week during 2009. The first single from the album is released on 26 January. It is called “The Smack Of Pavement In Your Face” – details soon on how to download the track. The album follows on 16 February. All of Spearmint play on the album – you’ll see the photo here of Si looking chirpy during recording. You can read more about it here. Also on 16 February, Image Comics (not the University Of California as previously stated) publishes “This Is A Souvenir”, a book celebrating the lyrics of Shirley Lee. Different artists have created graphic stories inspired by the 24 songs below and these are presented in a beautiful 12″ by 12″, 200+ page book. You can read a bit more about the project here, and you can pre-order the book from Forbidden Planet for £17.99. Tracklisting as follows: Julie Christie! | A Different Lifetime | Sweeping the Nation | I Invented Someone | Meet Mr. Marsden | A Trip into Space | The Last Bus Home | Start Again | Say Something Else | Psycho Magnet | Left Alone Among the Living | My Girlfriend is a Killer | It Won’t Be Long Now | A Leopard | Song for the Colour Yellow | The Moment in My Mind | Isn’t it Great to Be Alive | This is a Souvenir | Wednesday Night | When I Get Out of Here | The Reservoir | The First Time You Saw Snow | I Went Away | Oklahoma! The very first Shirley Lee gig is on Saturday 14 February at The Wilmington Arms in Clerkenwell, London. It is a co-headline show with The Bitter Springs and it will probably be decided on the night who goes on first. The Short Stories are also playing and Johny Brown from Resonance fm will be DJing. Wilmington Arms, 69 Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 4RL. Doors 8pm. Entrance: £7.00 on the door.

Hello and welcome to the new website. This is the place you can find out everything you wish to know about the forthcoming single and album, the book of graphic novellas, the first live shows, as well as reading the diary page on which Shirley will try to convey what 2009 is really like for a Shirley Lee in London… The first single from the album is released on 26 January. It’s called “The Smack Of Pavement In Your Face”, and we’ll post the links for pre-ordering it as soon as we have them. That’s followed by the eponymous debut album on 16 February. The songs featured on the album are mainly personal love songs, hence the decision for this to be solo, rather than Spearmint. The tracklisting: 1 Upside Down On Brighton Beach 2 Dissolving Time 3 Spiralina Girl 4 The Lights Change 5 Come On Feel The Lemonheads 6 The Smack Of Pavement In Your Face 7 London Ghost Stories 8 Walked Away 9 Smitten 10 The First Time You Saw Snow 11 The Traffic In The Street 12 The Reservoir 13 The Last Song All of Spearmint play on the album, and the artwork and photos in the 16-page lyrics booklet are by Jim as usual. And in honor of this being a debut album, it will be released on a new label called “Missing Page”, distributed via Weatherbox and Pinnacle. Also on 16 February, the University Of California publishes a book celebrating the lyrics of Shirley Lee. 24 songs, including tracks from the new album as well as Spearmint classics have been interpreted by different artists as graphic novellas, and are presented in a 12″ by 12″ book. More news about this soon… Gigs Shirley and the band will be playing live shows from February onwards – details will be published here as they are confirmed. The first will be with The Bittersprings at The Rhythm Factory in London on Saturday 14 February, One last thing: we’re looking for someone to help us… Somebody who would like to gain experience of this sort of thing, is prepared to help for little or no cash, and can have a go at badgering the music business on behalf of Shirley and Spearmint to confirm gigs – perhaps create opportunities for the songs to be featured in films etc. If this sounds appealing then please send an email to us. Oh, and Spearmint? They’ll be back with new material in September to celebrate 10 years since the release of debut album “A Week Away”.

I would say that we are now halfway through making the new album, probably over halfway in fact… More rehearsals this month, and then another batch of recording with Brian at Bark in March… I am also finishing a few of the sparser tunes at home, so we should then have a decent batch to choose from for the album. So far we have steered clear of the temptation of over-arching concepts , although a couple of “recurring threads” are certainly becoming apparent… It is satisfying to be recording as a band in a studio again, as the last couple of albums have been made in different ways in different places. I like both manners of working, but it is nice to be playing together in a traditional studio environment again – I especially enjoy doing the guitars this way, as you can crank up the amps and make a racket… Brian is really fast to work with so it all seems quite immediate… So far so good! So I shall tempt fate and say that the album will definitely be out this year. It still seems likely that it will be a Shirley Lee album, but it is actually a real band project – all of Spearmint play on it, and there are no guests so far.

I write this on a cold clear night in London – a bright crescent moon in the sky and it is definitely time to dig out the scarf and winter coat. I like it. I am about to have a quiet evening in catching up on a few chores: doing the washing, arranging rehearsals, updating the accounts… or more likely putting off tackling the accounts… Am intending to watching Evil Dead 2 later… I have no idea what this will be like as I have never seen any of them. I have been catching up on some classic horror recently under the close supervision of my girl Bridie – Wolf Creek (fantastic), Dead End (very good), Jeepers Creepers (great start, rotten end), Halloween (dated but still great), Cabin Fever (rubbish) and The Descent (unwatchably bad). I can heartily recommend some films from this year, as it is turning out to be a golden year at the movies, yes? It seems to me that these are all classics: Science Of Sleep, After The Wedding, Simpsons, Kenny, Conversations With Other Women, Hairspray, Michael Clayton, Two Days In Paris, Bourne Ultimatum, Half Nelson, The Bothersome Man, Zodiac, Dark Horse, Orchestra Seats and Last King Of Scotland… Spearmint-wise, we went into Bark Studios in Walthamstow earlier this month and recorded a couple of songs with Brian O’Shaughnessy, really just to see how we liked it. It turned out to be thoroughly enjoyable; both tunes came out well, though one needs a new mix… Hence we are going to return there to do the bulk of the album. People are busy the next few weeks, so we are rehearsing in December, then recording in January. As ever, that seems like ages away, but I know it will fly round… The way the writing is going, it looks like being quite a personal album, so we have had conversations about it being a Shirley Lee album, rather than Spearmint. Not sure whether it will end up like that or not – either way, all the guys will be involved in making it as usual. I am looking forward to us doing some more songs with Brian! Jim has started work on the artwork for the Best Of – he showed me some good sketches the other night… Not sure whether it will come out before or after the new album.