BMX Bandits News
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Small Update
From what I've been told by Francis and a few of you who have e-mailed me. The Bandits are recording new material this year but that's as far as I know. Apart from that I've found a good site that lists all that is going on in Scotland called Gig Guide. You can find out when the next Beat Room is being recorded and pop along yourself. You might even get to meet Duglas... Thanks to the people who have left a message in the guestbook. Your names are now on the Thanks page

Shoeshine Records, Francis' record label has a new URL at http://www.shoeshine.co.uk/, including info on the new Country/Folk/Roots divison Spit & Polish Records. Releases so far include The Radio Sweethearts and the brilliant Laura Cantrell. Well worth the listen... Also watch out for new stuff from Michael Shelley(fantastic songs and a great performer who I got to meet in New York) and if you're in Spain go and see Cheeky Monkey play.

Compilations and recommendations
Older followers of this site will have noticed that a couple of years ago I had a sounds page, containing special delights from Duglas. Somehow due to the number of site moves I had, it got lost along the way. Well I'm about the bring it back from the dead, but all in a nice Realaudio format. So be prepared for it. The Bandits are on the Montecarlo compilation released by Elefant Records of Spain, the track being 'Your Class'. This as well the follow up Casablanca are both brilliant featuring bands like Damon and Naomi, The Autumn Leaves, The Pastels, Le Mans, The Melons, Stereototal. The Bandits also make an appearance on the Vinyl Japan compilation Our Floating Images Of Youth with 'Do You Really Love Me?'. This also features a track off Duglas' solo LP Frankinstein. For those of you who are fans of Speedboat, they did a exclusive track for the March Records compilation Moshi Moshi - Pop International Style, the followup to the fabulous Pop American Style. 'Truckin' Back To You', is the last track you'll hear from Speedboat for now unless they reform(let's keep our fingers crossed). Other things you might like to hear are:-

• The Relationships - Trends LP
• The Aluminium Group - Introducing... LP
• Sigur Ros - the two ep's
• Radar Bros. - The Singing Hatchet LP
• Mazarin - Watch It Happen LP
• Chappaquidick Skyline LP feat. Joe Pernice and John Crooke
• Helen Love - a new single at last

Okay the sounds page is now up and running, you can find it here.

More Compilations and Stuff
There's more compilations featuring the Bandits released... Avalanche Records have released a second compilation of the 53rd and 3rd Records rarities entitled AGARR Retro(ONLYCD016). You should also be able to get the first compilation Fun While It Lasted(ONLYCD006) and the Bandits '53rd and 3rd Years' Compilation (ONLYCD015) for cheap as they've been re-released. This second compilation features the Bandits tunes - 'The Day Before Tommorrow' and 'In Her Hair' also included are the likes of The Vaselines, Talulah Gosh, Househunters plus The Groovy Little Numbers and the brilliant Shop Assistants with 'Somewhere In China'.

Caroline Now! A Tribute To Brian Wilson & The Beach Boys is a tribute to Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys, well that's pretty obivious from the title to be released by Marina Records in Germany. Should be good as it will 'concentrate on unknown and lesser known Brian Wilson/Beach Boys songs'. Current artists making the contributions include...
Norman Blake, The Pearlfishers, Stevie Jackson, Alex Chilton, Katrina Mitchell (The Pastels), St. Etienne, Eugene Kelly, Kim Fowley, Duglas Stewart, The Secret Goldfish, The Aluminum Group and Eric Matthews among others. What a line up, this should be a brilliant record when it's released. Keep a look out at the Marina Records website for the latest news.

Finally
I have now got round to adding the Bellshill Beat Documentary onto the site. You can access it here. You will need the Real Player and it is quite big at more than 3Mb, but it is well worth it. As usual the copyright goes to the BBC. Also the Caroline Now! compilation is out now, haven't had a chance to hear it yet though.

You views required
Apparently BBC Radio Scotland is designing a fab new music programme for the under-25s and we'd like to know what the public want to hear. If you want to add your view to the forum go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/talkscotland. Also I've received a lovely mini fanzine from Ayako Inagaki called Groundwhich features a letter from Duglas and a few other things. I shall be adding a few things from it to this site in a while. Thanks again Ayako.

Any comments, reviews, gig dates can be sent to bmxbandits[at]onoffonoff[dot]org
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