News Updates

OCTOBER 2003

Many many years ago in the dim distant past William Shakespeare once referred to 'the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune'.Who knows perhaps he had Cold Flame in mind when he wrote these telling oft quoted immortal words.

Following a highly successful and really enjoyable Jethro Tull tribute tour,mastering of a new studio album and a months rest in splendid locations around the U.K and northern Europe,the band reconvened last week to the shock news that after a four and a half year stint with the band,singer/flautist/multi-instrumentalist Peter Cheetham has decided to quit for pastures new. Whilst wishing Pete well in his new endeavours ,the band has been left in somewhat of a predicament not least as the bands gigging itinery stretched to January 2004 and of course there is the new studio album.

Right then having taken a deep breath and after heavy discussions within band circles, this is what we have decided to do.Regretfully all the band's public performances for September and October have been cancelled at short notice and venues informed though some press releases advertising band performances have already appeared in the local media.This is not
something we have been able to control and the band deeply regret any disappointments and hassles that may have resulted following our enforced decisions.A small number of pre booked private engagements will however be honoured by Patrick,Simon and Dave over the course of the next few weeks.These gigs will also feature original guitarist Dave Conner.

Meanwhile,the band have decided to advertise for a replacement for Peter - an extremely hard act to follow and you will find an advert elsewhere on our website just in case you fancy giving it a go.You never know...might be fun.A decision on gigs
pre-booked for November through to January has not yet been made but clearly will be affected by the band's ability to find a suitable replacement in the meantime.However there is a committment from the band that we will certainly be doing some live work with the current line up during this time so keep on checking our gig guide.

Cold Flame's new studio album will be released towards the end of October.The album was recorded at Shipwreck Studios in Glossop over a nine month period and is entitled 'The Seven Seas'.There are sixteen brand new original pieces on the album most of them written by Patrick.Peter has three of his tunes included and there is a further track co-written by Patrick and Peter.Musically the album is a faithful rendition of how the band has sounded over the last two years and there is a very strong Tull-like feel to many of the tracks which range from folky acoustic pieces to mainstream blues and outright heavy
rockers.There will be additional information on the album coming next month but collectively we feel that the new album is the strongest musically,lyrically and production wise that Cold Flame has ever released. In other words....you will love it,buy it and keep playing it!Even our mothers are impressed! For some time now, we have been thinking about recording a more acoustic based album and current thinking is that a number of original acoustic tracks and possibly a couple of blues tracks will be recorded for CD release early next year.

The feedback from our summer Jethro Tull tribute tour was really fantastic.We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves making loads of new friends along the way and a number of high profile venues/promoters had already booked the band for a similar tour at the end of theyear.Inevitably ,this has now been put on hold pending our success in finding Peter's replacement.Recordings
were made of some of these shows however and we will be checking out this material in the dark confines of
Shipwreck Studios in the very near future.Watch this space for future developments.

Regular visitors to the band website will have realised that recently we changed our webmeister.Paul from Shipwreck Studios has now taken over the web site from Buxton's Will Hoyle who was with us for eighteen months..we wish Will well with future projects.Paul is being kept very busy slowly but surely enhancing and overhauling the site in bringing everything right up
to date even as we speak.You can reach Paul by checking out his email address on our Contact page.

Well maybe not the news you all expected [not reallythe news we expected either] but life is full of suprises and usually things somehow work out for the best.Peter was a dynamic,popular and essential part of Cold Flame and will be greatly missed both by the bandand no doubt our audiences. We are determined to carry on however and as you will have read already, we have plenty of things to work on.See you soon...hopefully really soon on stage in avenue somewhere in your home town.

C.F. OCT 2003

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