The crunch is beginning to bite it seems. Our gig at The Arkle in Morley fell through last week. Apparently some band nights have run at a loss there which is helping nobody, a shame but not a surprise.

My 2 solo gigs did take place, although The Wardrobe on Wednesday was as quiet as I'd ever known it. My set passed off without incident and that's about all there is to say. Last night (Sunday) I was back at the New Inn (Barwick) for the umpteenth time. Scouse Andy provided a really good support act and we did a few duets at the end of the night on 'No Other Baby', 'Saw Her Standing There' and 'Hey Jude'. I played one set straight through and managed to throw in a healthy number of originals. Not a night to set the world on fire but as the saying goes, 'a gig's a gig'.

CYBER PR

I've taken the plunge and joined up with Ariel Publicity for a spot of online PR. This will take full effect over the coming months and should see my internet profile raised considerably. Who knows, I may become something of an internet cult, and also maybe I'll find even more people reading this column. We're hoping for double figures.

You can view my nifty Virtual Press Kit (VPK) and this gives a good overview of where I'm at (sort of). The whole idea is that whereas I can merely keep the wheels moving online they should be able to get things really moving. It's not about looking for a spike in CD sales (althought this would be nice!). It's more about raising my web presence and bringing my music to a wider audience. After all, whereas there's a finite number of people watching live music in pubs (about 10 these days) there's a virtually infinite number of folk online worldwide. And I want everyone's attention.

We shall see in the next few weeks just how things develop. Meanwhile, this week I'll be at Bacup on Tuesday followed by Verve in Leeds on Thursday night.

Have a good week.