Sphere³ Diary

Oct 11 2006

Sources close to Sphere³ headquarters indicate the surprising news that a number of Sphere³ gigs have been scheduled. These rumours have been confirmed by seismograph readings on four (as yet undisclosed) continents, and backed up by satellite imagery showing suspicious movements of musical equipment between Sphere³ headquarters and (as yet undisclosed) rehearsal premises in west London. Furthermore, a small dog of the spaniel variety was seen looking concerned in the Croydon area. Initial intelligence reports indicate what appear to be two London gigs, detailed here.

Aug 15 2006

Latest news - preparation on Bill's new composition "Melt" progressing well:

May 7 2005

For the general interest of the reader, here is a transcript of a recent conversation amongst Sphere³ members relating to an important measuerment of Spher³icalness known as bobularity. For the latest bobularity rating, please see our main page.

Jamie	How are we calculating mean bobularity these days?
Neil	It's just the sum of all bobularities divided by the total number of bobularities. Each bobularity is calculated using equation 1.: Bobularity = ( chocnes2 + lozenge2 + nifty2 + tarty2 ) dt (1) Note that nifty and tarty can both be imaginary. Hence: Mean Bobularity = 1 n Bobularity (2) You can also of course estimate mean bobularity by noting that bobularity follows a Whelk distribution (not unlike the Poisson distribution). This is left as an exercise to the reader.
Jamie	Note that: squirt( Flakiness x Sauciness ) + Novelty + Scotchiness Reward (3) can follow a Pudding distribution.
Neil	Insightful! I notice that comeuppance is achieved when reward = 0.

May 1 2005

Album recording is forging ahead at a blistering^* pace. Recording of new songs Horizontigo and The Beanbag Song is progressing well, and we are currently rehearsing a new song penned by Mr Burnett entitled Melt, aledgedly inspired by one of the key properties of chocolate.

*  Sphere³ reserve the right to use inappropriate adjectives whenever and indeed wherever possible.

May 30 2004

R.I.P. Steve's hair. 1991 - 2004. ~long but not forgotten~

May 24 2004

Bill's new tune, "The Beanbag Song" has now been finished, and rehearsals have begun in order to confirm whether or not we'll ever be able to play it. The word on the street is that the smart money is on "no"^*.

May 1 2004

The recording of our first new tune for the next album, "Horizontigo" (a fear of widths) is almost complete. See below for a photo taken at one of the recording sessions, featuring Jamie's drums and air vortex blaster:

April 21 2004

Microphone count has now been completed: We still have three. Album recording will now commence.

^* Fortunately Sphere³ have neither smart nor money

November 28 2003

Work on recording Sphere³'s second album has now begun. Well, having said that, we haven't actually officially recorded anything yet, but we have spent several weeks attempting to count our microphones, in preparation. We plan to start recording our latest tune, "Horizontigo" in January.

January 26 2003

Rehearsals for some big gigs due to be announced soon are proceeding well. See fig. 1 for details.

fig. 1

August 28 2002

Sphere³ have just taken the battle of comeuppance directly to Johnny foreigner with their first ever European concerts.

First of all, we laid siege to the Spirit of 66 in Belgium. We'd like to thank Francis for a fantastic welcome, wonderful sound, and, most importantly, fine quality food. We must also thank the collective fanatical beards of Prog Résiste magazine who joined the battle on our behalf.

After ransoming the town for all the chocolate they could muster, it was on to Europe's favourite smoking jacket, Holland. Sleeping peacefully, and unaware of the prog noodling onslaught that was to come, we thought we had the land of dyke, windmill and munchies all sewn up. But we had been in town no'but a few minutes before being tempted into a nearby café, and stuffed with all the pancakes that they could offer until we could barely move, the sneaky blighters. Rock, and mostly roll, indeed.

A big hand to Melbourne who always bravely took the first charge while we observed conditions from the safety of a nearby hill. Their presence on this expedition mixed just the right amount of cool into our overflowing mug of spod.

August 5 2002

SPHERE³ IN ALBUM LAUNCH SHOCK!

It's true! Our debut album "Comeuppance" is now available. Don't want to waste another second of your life without it? Then go here right now. Go on, what are you waiting for you dirty rascal you. If you're still in some doubt, find out more about the album here.

Meanwhile, we have survived our first gig of 2002 at the venerable Whitchurch Music Festival, where, by all accounts we went down a storm (instead of the predicted, we went down in a storm). mucho noodling was had by all, with our thanks to the lovely people of Whitchurch and the fine fellows of "Henry Fool" and "Focus" for a top evening. The album was well and truly launched as planned (to the delight of spaniels the world over), and a fair few people had indeed been sighted sailing in her.

June 25 2002
According to a recent survey, 94% of the public believed that Sphere³ would not release an album this side of 2040AD. The remaining 6% could not answer the question owing to seemingly unstoppable fits of laughter.

The recording and mixing of the album ("Comeuppance") is now complete, and will be released at this year's Whitchurch Music Festival, to coincide with our gig there on Sunday August 4th.

We have now also confirmed two gigs outside of the UK, in Belgium at Holland. More gigs in and out of the UK will follow. For more details, check out our gigs page.

March 28 2002
Exactly a year to the day since Sphere³ last trod the boards at Hampshire's most prestigious of progressive rock events, we can now confirm that Sphere³ have now been confirmed to play again, at this year's Whitchurch Music Festival, supporting '70s yodelling prog legends Focus. We are also planning to announce a substantial flurry of other gigs around the same time soonish, and what have you.

February 26 2002
After a recording schedule spanning two centuries, Sphere³ are proud to report that the forthcoming album Comeuppance, will be available this summer (yes, 2002).

October 23 2001
We have finally completed construction of our new 32 track digital recording studio facility, which allow us to forge ahead with the Sphere³ album, Comeuppance, at an even greater pace! Stay tuned for some pictures...

August 9 2001
Sphere³'s first appearance at the UK's leading progressive rock shindig, The Whitchurch Music Festival, appears to have gone down a treat. We'd like to thank the organisers, artists, and most of all the audient for making it such a wonderful evening.^* For those who missed it, one can approximate the effect by bobbing up and down in an aircraft hanger, while five hundred of your mates stand around, stroking their collective beards, imparting sage observations along the lines of "mmmm... I feel that 17/8 hi-hat pattern subtly juxtaposes the pathos of the Mellotron's inherent pitch instability."

This event also marked the launch of Sphere³'s new single Paralysis, featuring tracks from our forthcoming^** album Comeuppance, and the release of our summer collection of T-shirts for the fashionable spod about town. But before you gasp "Egad, I've missed out on these fine examples of Sphere³ical merchandise, how will I ever be able to show my face at the rotary club again?", click here to be ushered directly to Sphere³'s latest waxings (and/or stitchings), and witness the extraordinary power of our bank-account-siphonatron.

This concludes our recent unexpected outbreak of touring. We shall now return you to your regular program "Waiting For The Album". In this weeks episode, Steve gets a shiny new axe, and Neil learns the truth about Bill.

April 30 2001
We are pleased to confirm a flurry of new gigs for the summer, culminating in an appearance at the prestigious Whitchurch Festival. See our gigs page for more details.

January 24 2001
So, we survived the last gig of 2000 back at our spiritual home (in the alcoholic sense at least) The Cartoon, and what a fine evening of spodacious munificence it was. We made some fine new friends, were reacquainted with some long lost ones, and had the pleasure of entertaining two of the most stupendously inebriated fellows in all of Christendom. Meanwhile Jamie had the pleasure of taking his new TD8 Bobular crumbly-brutha on it's first live Sphere outing (not that it's sexuality was in any way in question) and against all previous experience of the words "Roland" and "Midi" used in close proximity it behaved itself impeccably. Many thanks to Grey Lady Down and the fine citizens of Croydon for a top evening.

But, as the nights draw in, a young Sphere³'s thoughts inevitably turn to That Album^TM, and so we must momentarily^*** withdraw from the hurley-burley of the live arena while in order to worship at the alter of ADAT, slaughter sacrifices at the feet of word clock, and dance heathen rituals around a burning pyre of screens, knobs, and lovely, lovely LED's. However, we promise^**** to be disconcertingly present once again throughout 2001.

November 9 2000
Top Sphere³ percussulator Jamie Fisher has purchased some dandy new electronic drums, going by the name "Roland TD-8". We gather he's quite pleased with his purchase, and must apologize if any of you bump into him on the street and are faced with enduring a several-hour ad-hoc rundown of its features and full description of it's aesthetic nature:

Jamie has also set up a new website of his very own, which you can find if you go here.