4th August 2013 I know I haven't posted anything here in a while but big changes have been happening behind the scenes. Half the band quit on me to pursue other musical ventures and at the time I was feeling a bit depressed about it nursing a one step forward 3 steps back attitude. I also injured my back and an MRI scan showed that I've fractured a disc in my that's pressing on a nerve which has lead to quite a bit of pain & down time. I'm on painkillers and I'm due at Northampton Hospital's Fracture Clinic on the 29th August 2013 and I'll find out if I'm gonna' be needing an operation to put it right. Anyway despite everything threatening to be flushed down the toilet things have turned out amazingly well. I had a reply to the band ad from a guy named Mark Innocent, he sent me links to his old bands material and long story short they needed a drummer and guitarist and we needed a guitarist singer and bassist. And 2 incomplete bands have become one. We've had a tryout jam and it went really well. They're decent determined people and we got along well socially and musically. Paul felt more relaxed with the new members in the band and as a result we all jammed well together last Sunday and it was a fun relaxed atmosphere, How it should be. It's gonna' be a mad scramble for us all to learn each others tracks but we'll have a decent catalog of material to bash you around the head with real soon. We're dabbling in a heavier sound played in drop C tuning something I've not felt the need to do before and even though the sound is heavier it's a bit of work for me re writing the same riffs & solo's to Flashpoint tracks so that they are played in the same key as the recordings but in Drop C tuning. I've considered buying another guitar so that I can switch guitars between tracks without having to re tune or work out my songs again in Drop C but I'm warming to the idea of playing them in drop C but played higher up the fretboard to match the recordings key, I'm still buying another guitar though I've had my eye on a Jackson soloist for a while now and I want it :). Mark had some interesting harmonizing ideas we tried out on existing Flashpoint tracks the sound is bigger and played the way it should have been played all along. We've had a big problem in the past previous guitarists not being able to play the material to a satisfactory standard but I'm pleased to say this wasn't a problem for Mark, I'm really pleased he had no trouble at all getting to grips with the riffs and changes. Scott Litster our vocalist has already began writing new lyrics for So Far To Hell & Back, I'm looking forward to hearing what he's come up with, Judging by the tracks brought over from their previous band I'm sure it'll be great. His vocals are impressive and are far better than any previous vocalist we have had in the band. At our first meet up/Jam we played through a track called "To The Last Man" A track Paul & me really liked and enjoyed playing, I'm looking forward to our next Jam where Paul & me will be meeting Jack Richardson, our new bassist who was also in the previous band with Mark & Scott so is already familiar with their material. We are learning from each other at the moment it's still early days working together but at the minute it's looking good. I'm eager to get things rolling and so are the rest of the band.