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.

Hello and welcome to the new website. This is the place you can find out everything you wish to know about the forthcoming single and album, the book of graphic novellas, the first live shows, as well as reading the diary page on which Shirley will try to convey what 2009 is really like for a Shirley Lee in London…

The first single from the album is released on 26 January. It’s called “The Smack Of Pavement In Your Face”, and we’ll post the links for pre-ordering it as soon as we have them.

That’s followed by the eponymous debut album on 16 February. The songs featured on the album are mainly personal love songs, hence the decision for this to be solo, rather than Spearmint. The tracklisting:

1 Upside Down On Brighton Beach
2 Dissolving Time
3 Spiralina Girl
4 The Lights Change
5 Come On Feel The Lemonheads
6 The Smack Of Pavement In Your Face
7 London Ghost Stories
8 Walked Away
9 Smitten
10 The First Time You Saw Snow
11 The Traffic In The Street
12 The Reservoir
13 The Last Song

All of Spearmint play on the album, and the artwork and photos in the 16-page lyrics booklet are by Jim as usual. And in honor of this being a debut album, it will be released on a new label called “Missing Page”, distributed via Weatherbox and Pinnacle.

Also on 16 February, the University Of California publishes a book celebrating the lyrics of Shirley Lee. 24 songs, including tracks from the new album as well as Spearmint classics have been interpreted by different artists as graphic novellas, and are presented in a 12″ by 12″ book. More news about this soon…

Gigs

Shirley and the band will be playing live shows from February onwards – details will be published here as they are confirmed. The first will be with The Bittersprings at The Rhythm Factory in London on Saturday 14 February,

One last thing: we’re looking for someone to help us… Somebody who would like to gain experience of this sort of thing, is prepared to help for little or no cash, and can have a go at badgering the music business on behalf of Shirley and Spearmint to confirm gigs – perhaps create opportunities for the songs to be featured in films etc. If this sounds appealing then please send an email to us.

Oh, and Spearmint? They’ll be back with new material in September to celebrate 10 years since the release of debut album “A Week Away”.