Shirley’s diary page is now up and running; he’ll be posting at least one entry per week during 2009.

The first single from the album is released on 26 January. It is called “The Smack Of Pavement In Your Face” – details soon on how to download the track. The album follows on 16 February. All of Spearmint play on the album – you’ll see the photo here of Si looking chirpy during recording. You can read more about it here.

Also on 16 February, Image Comics (not the University Of California as previously stated) publishes “This Is A Souvenir”, a book celebrating the lyrics of Shirley Lee. Different artists have created graphic stories inspired by the 24 songs below and these are presented in a beautiful 12″ by 12″, 200+ page book. You can read a bit more about the project here, and you can pre-order the book from Forbidden Planet for £17.99. Tracklisting as follows:

Julie Christie! | A Different Lifetime | Sweeping the Nation | I Invented Someone | Meet Mr. Marsden | A Trip into Space | The Last Bus Home | Start Again | Say Something Else | Psycho Magnet | Left Alone Among the Living | My Girlfriend is a Killer | It Won’t Be Long Now | A Leopard | Song for the Colour Yellow | The Moment in My Mind | Isn’t it Great to Be Alive | This is a Souvenir | Wednesday Night | When I Get Out of Here | The Reservoir | The First Time You Saw Snow | I Went Away | Oklahoma!

The very first Shirley Lee gig is on Saturday 14 February at The Wilmington Arms in Clerkenwell, London. It is a co-headline show with The Bitter Springs and it will probably be decided on the night who goes on first. The Short Stories are also playing and Johny Brown from Resonance fm will be DJing.

Wilmington Arms, 69 Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 4RL. Doors 8pm. Entrance: £7.00 on the door.