IMPENDING TOUR!!!

So we're off to Jo'burg, Tswane, Bloem, Pietermaritzburg and Durban in February. If you have family, friends or enemies up country, let them know where we are. We're getting briefed on all our dates tomorrow, so we'll let you know where we are at all times. At the moment, we'll be playing Hatfield's famous Tings and Times on Thursday the 4th of Feb with musical cousins, Isochronous... and we're playing the following night at The Bohemian. We can finally meet all those cool peeps who we've been chatting to over the internets all these years! Hurrah!

We'll be leaving the Cape of Good Hope on the 1st, giving us about a day to settle and give me time to warm up the pipes. And then we'll arrive back home about two weeks later. kief!

And just watch us get lost without the mountain... and especially with those new crazy intersections. I'm talking to you JOZI!!!

A Crucible Remakes

like a crow's waiting cry
spiralling over highways
between the reeds
one stony eye
venerates the turmoil
within your soul
a deeper heat
encircles your dreams there
but purity is what we seek
one crucible remakes me

these times are trying
we're walking through fire

senseless everyday the wasted time
the baptist's body is tired
i'm a philistine one stupid fool
please cleanse me with fire
as a floating leaf
as a razor's plea
cleanse me with fire
but purity is what we seek
one crucible remakes me

these times are trying
we're walking through fire
we will find release here tonight
as we're walking through fire

held up my hands cupped the wind
one step to another leads
one blur of time burnt within
and all is beautiful

with our feet on fire
we are gold
with our feet on fire
we are
we are gold
all is all

all is all
is now remade
is purified
we'll find release tonight we will find release

Jordi

With a heavy heart we would like to announce the departure of Jordi
Reddy from The Sleepers.

Jordi has been studying towards his Masters degree in Biomedical
Engineering, working on artificial artery design and testing. This is
something that obviously requires a tremendous amount of focus and
dedication.

His decision to leave the band comes with the realisation of the
pressure that awaits him next year, when he will be doing his PhD,
which involves the development of synthetic heart valves. He says
that, although he’d like to carry on, he feels it’s better to bow out
now than be unable to give the attention he feels the band deserves.

Though we are deeply saddened to lose him, we fully support him and
wish him the best of luck with his studies.

Jordi has been a member of The Sleepers for four years. After original
member Carly Phillips suddenly passed away due to complications with
leukaemia, he respectfully joined full-time. His contributions to the
band have been vital and we are eternally grateful to him.

But all is not lost! Although Jordi will no longer be with us we will
be carrying on. As yet no plans for a replacement have been made
(these are big shoes to fill, after all) In the meantime, our dear and
talented friend, Chris Truter of the band Fezray, has kindly been
filling in for Jordi when deadlines were looming.

Jordi will play his last show with the band at the Synergy Live
festival. The festival runs on the last weekend of November - 27 -29 at Boschendal Wine Estate.

The Sleepers would like to thank Jordi for his strong character,
musical brilliance, powerful stage presence and continuing friendship.

Pandora

heaven send a helper
she's tied to iron
too weak to move it
pandora find it

your face
your smile
the noose you love and hold
the key behind
the way out of this hole
your knees in the dirt
too young to know the mold
in the eyes
your wrists
twisted tight as screws

the box
it's maw
yawns in the dark and dust
those things let out
were shaking at our heads
and blood we drew
to keep the devils out
see this tonight
the hope you crave to hold
is behind you

feather your nest girl
with your barbed wire white cotton dress
and all those pretty little things
that your lover used to bring last summer
black and brown feathers girl
are you'll have to sleep on in winter
even linen's blushing to keep you from the cold 'til now
after your penance

look behind
the box's maw yawns

here we see the order
one quiet murder the weapon's inside her
pandora find it

Protection

a wave of bliss
engulfed my thoughts
pleasure pounding down the door
here i soar to new heights
now knowing this
all my words floating out into the world
won't change our frail existence

voices call
come inside
is that vitriol that you hide
the cycles of self destruction

imagine this
no more walls
no more seeking for a door
to lead you to paradise

seek inside

my hands on the pavement
push up slow
my knees scraped open
here we are fighting slow
i will line up empty bottles on the outside wall
i will beg the wind to blow and call out your smoke
lift up my fists it's my turn to strike now

this is the world spinning round
eclipsed with certainties, breaking grounds
between the poles there's no real distance
outside the moths fan our wounds
dirty hot swollen wounds
you drew the line
you drew the line

inside the urgency might burn me hollow

The Waning Tide

this is one last stone to the waves
and you'll have our love

november was yours not mine
as we trail over all the details
november was yours not mine
a split second that won't be erased

through the waning tide
a lifetime wide
we sent our beggar's prayers
but they all washed up on shore

oh that was the day
when god had to fall away
if you couldn't stay
he knew he had to give up the game

all our clay is given to break
now watch through the swells
the waning tide
and you'll have our love
you'll have our love

Bye Bye Miss American Pie

I don't know if you've been watching television lately. If you have I'm sure you've seen it, but basically it's Chris De Burgh releasing a tepid album of covers. It makes me shudder every time I see it. Plus it sounds like Mr De Burgh and his ocular caterpillars took the midi to a bunch of overplayed "hits" and sang over them. The "studio shots" included in the insert looks a bit like someone's bedroom.

I used to be quite a fan before Chris went off on a strangled path about the whole healing hands business. But "Spanish Train" is still one of my favourite albums of all time, and looking back now the sci-fi Christianity in "Poor Boy" was not as fantastic to Chris as he made it out to be. A few too many glasses of red wine poring over "Chariots of the Gods" methinks.

But this led me on to thinking about our careers and what senility has in store for us. What would we do to keep our slice of the limelight? These are obviously things we can't predict. I might one day be draped over some piano somewhere, varicose veins a-pumping, doing my helling best to murder some Streisand cover. Who knows.

Losing favour with a previously loving audience is hard (and you will lose them, you cannot please everyone) but you should never bring that bitterness from being cast aside into what you do. Crowds are strange and stranger still are "scenes". They are fickle grey undefined masses. Tastes change. People change. Sometimes they don't. You can't predict.

But,

I don't think I will ever think that releasing my own little vapid version of "American Pie" will ever seem like a good idea.

EVER.