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news
words by elina nuutinen and bettina
photographs by elina nuutinen

alex will be playing with ex-strangelove bandmate patrick duff at this year's australia and new zealand womad festivals on march 4-6 and 11-13, respectively. check out www.womad.org for additional info. alex has also been busy at work co-producing patrick's first solo album and on a strangelove compilation, both of which are due to be released soon. more info can be found on patrick's official web site, http://www.glam-ou-rama.co.uk/patrick/intro.asp.

recently, alex popped in to suede.net to say hello and to let everyone know that he and patrick are going to play a short set at the tsunami appeal gig at the bristol carling academy on the 19th of februaury. the sold-out gig will be available via webcast at a pay-per view cost of £4.50. visitors will also be able to return to the show streams without further charge for one month after the event. details can be found at http://www.crisisinasia.com/. as alex was actually in SE Asia at the time of the tsunami, he feels especially compelled to do as much as he can to help out with the relief effort.

simon is making an asian tour film for a thai artist. he was not in thailand when the tsunami struck, but has now returned there. he's temporarily suspended work on the suede film, but is keeping himself busy with other pursuits. check out suede.net in the coming weeks. you never know when someone might pop in.

richard is still trying to move house.

finally some news of mat! he's doing studio work with the band mista brown. for more info, check out their web site http://www.mistabrown.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/mistabrown.htm.

brett is, of course, getting all tearful with his new band the tears. other members include nathan fisher, mako sakamoto and bernard butler. the band played several inaugural gigs in december and february, with more scheduled for april and may. their debut album is tipped to be released in early may on the independiente label, with the first single due out in mid april. while fan reviews of the initial gigs were slightly mixed, optimism and anticipation are at all-time highs. and the journalists have reacted quite favorably for the most part. despite brett's announcement at the recent astoria gig that "apollo 13" would be the first single, bernard stated recently on the tears' forum that it will be "refugees". but then he also said, "what are you crazy? you calling me crazy? i'm just busting your balls" in a vaguely taxi driver moment.

neil has been playing live again. he played the spitz in london on december 12th as part of an ensemble. neil played acoustic guitar and keyboards. he also had long hair, facial hair and is rumored to have smelled good that night.

pete sissons, former suede guitar technician, is working for graham coxon.

david barnett is busy with the boyfriends and with answering all our annoying fanzine questions.

ben lurie returned home to his native australia in 2004. we've heard that he's involved in a program aimed at helping the troubled animals of the outback, discouraging them from getting involved with crime and drugs. it's a music therapy program that involves blasting jesus and mary chain songs out the windows of a beat-up land rover while driving through the arid terrain. the program is called didgeri-don't.*

*he gave us permission to lie extravagantly about what he's been doing. he's doing very well, though.