I had a great time in Zurich this week courtesy of Die Toten Hosen. (It's German, it means The Dead Trousers). The Hosen are Germany's top punk band, probably Germany's top band full stop. This gig was a warm-up for some festival dates so it took place in a very small club with four hundred fans in it. Some of the Hosen's most diehard fans are quite young, little more than teenyboppers really, and some of the young girls at the front looked quite sulky when I went on. I can see it from their point of view - they were probably wondering what a slightly overweight middle-aged man was doing on the stage. It seemed to go alright though and I was very amused when they all started clapping along. It didn't last - I soon lost them and started Continuity Girl against a chant of 'Hosen, Hosen, Hosen...' I had them back by the end of the number and we launched into If It Makes You Happy (from The Donovan Of Trash) with one accord, but minus the clapping along thankfully. I even fancied that I could see a couple of front row chicklets thrilling to my virility as I launched into the guitar strumming bit in the middle, but I think that was just the male menopause talking to me. I'd started the set with Same which got a confused but enthusiastic response (they didn't quite get where it started and finished so they interrupted the middle with lots of applause which made me feel a bit like a stadium act). Local confused them nearly as much but I think some of them were beginning to realise that I was the genuine neolithic punk item. I introduced Whole Wide World as a Toten Hosen number and I think they believed me so once that was over I left the stage to great applause. It was very hot and I had to change my shirt afterwards, even though I only played for thirty seven minutes.

It was great to see the Hosen - they played for two and a half hours under heat conditions that had their crew fainting on the sidelines. A lot of bands in their position would have just given the fans a token one hour gesture but they were obviously having a good time putting in all sorts of odd cover versions - Rockaway Beach, Song 2, Hang On Sloopy, You'll Never Walk Alone... I think they even did a bit of Auld Lang Syne. And in the middle of all that they got me up for a high speed rendition of Whole Wide World.

The travelling was pretty awful - economy class Swiss airbus full of twats - people used to travel for pleasure but surely not anymore. It took four hours to drive to Heathrow and another forty minutes to get from the car park to the terminal. And after the check-in the interminable wait for boarding with nothing to do but wander round shopping wonderland... When it finally came to getting on the plane people kept pushing in front of me, jumping the queue, getting ahead, getting on the aeroplane early. They felt special about themselves because they were going on holiday, no one else existed. And they were probably nervous too. In the check-in queue at Zurich there was a sudden roar from some men up ahead - it was a sort of male bonding war cry in accompaniament to the downing of little miniatures of Jagermeister... Swiss holidaymakers.

But it was all worthwhile for the jetsetting glamour-glow I got out of it, and on the way back I stopped off to see Primal Scream at the Shepherds Bush Empire. They were devestating.

So quite a few people have bought the album now through the Southern Domestic Factory Shop and some of them have emailed telling me how great it is. I know it isn't what some people have been expecting and there have been a couple of complaints - somebody said it was anal which amused me because I found it the most un-anal recording experience I've ever had. It took ages to do but I never really got hung up about it, just kept moving on through it. The guitar tracks are mostly one take - all the loud feedback bits are because I didn't dare do them twice for fear of alerting the neighbours to what was going on. I've never lived next door to someone that did guitar feedback but I can imagine it would be a harrowing and sometimes chilling experience. But definitely not anal. I don't actually see what toilet training's got to do with it. The other complaint came in an email from someone called Alan headed 'Eric - are you happy?' Alan says:

Hello Eric,
I hope you don't mind me emailing you. I've greatly enjoyed your music for a number of years since seeing you at the Doncaster Jug... What hooked me was the great music (obviously) ,the honesty and the emotion (both happy and sad). On the last 2 times I’ve seen you (and on the new album) that balance isn’t there to my ears. That makes it a more difficult listen.(this may be your purpose I suppose). However I hope you haven’t lost optimism for the future. If you haven’t ..can you express it more in the music!

Hope you are happy!

Alan

Well Alan, I'm as happy as a pig in shit. It seems to me that optimism for the future is beside the point considering we've got a power-crazed nutter running the country who's in league with possibly the most war-mongering president the United States has ever had. But for myself I'm really happy because everyone else likes my album and it's come out sounding exactly as I intended it to do.

I saw Bo Diddley on Monday night. He's seventy five years old and has to play sitting on a chair. He was terrific though, still trying new things - he even did a rap number without it being embarrassing. He had a great all-American band too, lead by a middle-aged female bass player. She was scary, not someone you'd like to tangle with. And when the cooling fan by the drum kit riffled her black leisure trousers she looked positively terrifying. Fucking good though.

I hope I'm still playing at the age of seventy five.

Anyone who looks at Ebay on a regular basis my have noticed copies of Bungalow Hi being sold very cheaply. They're actually pirate copies, in that they haven't come from me (as in me, the record company). The MCPS have put a block on them selling anymore copies pending an investigation. The only place you can legitimately buy it from at the moment is the Southern Domestic site, www.southerndomestic.co.uk or at my gigs. The official release date is October 4th. I'd appreciate it if anyone who sees copies for sale anywhere else would let me know about it. Please don't buy it from them. If you get a copy with the booklet printed on naff looking recycled paper it'll be a bootleg. I started selling them like that but I wasn't happy so I did a deal with the pressing plant which involved getting money off the bill and spent it getting the covers reprinted. Anyone who bought one before I did this should have got the new artwork through the post by now.

I'd like to say thanks for all the kind emails about the album - I'll get round to answering them all in time.