Looking forward to Ringleader...I think that after such a protracted hiatus (with Quarry) Morrissey had so much to get out of his system. He also used the surrounding hoo-ha to thank and pay tribute to some of his formative influences, such as bringing back the New York Dolls, recording Patti Smith and helping out James Maker. With those longings out of the way, I think we can look forward to a more settled and complete album than Quarry. The omens look good, with all the right signals coming from Tony Visconti and Boz. And Moz himself via Julia, of course.

On a personal note, I'm living the lyrics of Frankly Mr. Shankly at the moment. Hey ho. Getting fit again after the recent illness, and a long bike ride on Saturday shattered me. Maybe it's the cold air bursting my lungs, or the fact that my muscles were not used to the exertion, but I was out for the count on Saturday, when I should have been out with the kids enjoying the fireworks.

Re-stringed the guitar yesterday, and, it's a funny thing, the first thing I always do after this is to slam the capo on the 4th fret and play Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself - one of the best, in my view. Ended up bringing the guitar into the kitchen and saying to the kids "Look, I can play the break from Dream Brother!". They didn't care, and frankly I don't blame them. I can dream.

Sk./Peter