I have unfortunately had to let a few staff go recently, the PR man, the entire marketing department, the agent, my p.a. and the masseuse. So regretfully I have to blow my own trumpet yet again. Harbourtown Records have reissued by old 1978 LP on CD:"The Beggar Boy of the North" Greg Stephens and Crookfinger Jack(Harbourtown HARCD051). For thise interested in the traditional tunes of the north-west of England, I would say this is a must. For those not so inclined, I would say this is probably best given a miss to, as that's all there is on it. Except for asome pretty interesting sleeve notes(or perhaps they are called liner notes now), and there is also a picture of the band in 1978, which is always fairly amusing for haircuts and trousers.
    Now, if I had a computer, I would be abel to ditrect you to reviews in Musical Traditions and the Living Tradition, but I'm afraid I can't.
I have, actually, just been given a computer by a friend(?), so I excitedly rung up ntl(which has confusingly turned into VirginMedia) and a man came round and put in a box and a blue lead and everything for Broadband. He also drilled some holes in pretty stupid place round my house, but that's by the by. So I have just put in the special CD into a little box thing, to connect it all up, and a little message came up on the creen saying "You pathetic twat, this old computer has Windows 98 and any fule knows it should have been thrown on the rubbish tip years ago, whatever led you to suppose you could get interweb broadband thingy on it?".
    So, instead of setting up websites and designing leaflets and illegally downloading music and stuff,which was how I had planned to spend my afternoon, I find myself trying to drum up sales of the very widely acclaimed "Beggar Boy of the North"; in the hope of raising enough money to buy a new(or new-er) computer.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Yours etc
Greg Stephens ("greg stephens" is just my street name)