"Stay High" A track I wrote and produced featuring an Austrailian based singer , Ali Towers has been signed by the Marbella based record label, Beats4life. You can hear a couple of versions of the track on their myspace page.

I think the intention is to update the track and I intend to do a remix myself in the next couple of weeks. No release date as of yet but hopefully sometime over the summer.

I went to see Ben Dlugokecki supporting David Gray last night at Southampton Guildhall. Unfortunately I arrived just after Ben had finished . Apparently he was excellent and won alot of new friends which is all good.

I stayed to watch Mr Gray who gave an absolutely stunning performance. One of the best live gigs I've been to in ages. I haven't seen him live since Glastonbury 2000 when he was just breaking through with "Babylon". It was good to see that he still seems to enjoy performing as much now as he did back then.

With a really tight backing band I thought the best tracks were from the last album "Life in Slow Motion". In particular the track "Lately" was even better than the recorded version.

The crowd singing along to the Acoustic version of "Babylon" was another highlight. David Gray seemed genuinely moved by the audience reaction to that fantastic song. The final song, an epic version of "Meet me on the other side" was a fitting finale to brilliant show.

Big thanks to Ben's Manager, Smutz for blagging me a pass.

Southampton based band and Cherrywood Studios clients Dlugokecki will be supporting David Gray on his World Tour for one night only at Southampton Guildhall on Friday 14th March 2008.

In the past, David Gray famously, did not use support bands, choosing instead to play 2 sets himself. The first set acoustic, (to warm the crowd up) the second with his full band playing all the hits that have helped him to be one of the biggest selling artists around the Globe in the last 10 years.

Dlugokecki’s record label ‘AND Records’ and his management company ‘C’ Management have been chasing Gray’s manager, Saints fanatic, Rob Holden, for the past year to try and get Dlugokecki closer to David Gray.

Dlugokecki's current album, 'Before the Storm' (Recorded and mixed at Cherrywood) was sent to Holden, who loved the quality of the material. David Gray heard the album and asked for more tracks of the forthcoming album 'How do you do' and became a fan!

In November last year, Holden invited Dlugokecki as a guest at one of Gray's sell out shows at the Roundhouse Camden. At the ‘aftershow party’ Ben chatted to lots of stars including the legendary Betty Boo [a.k.a Alison Clarkson]. The thrill of the night was when he got to have his picture taken and have a chat with his songwriting hero David Gray.

4 months on and Dlugokecki gets a call from Rob Holden. How would you like to open the show at the Guildhall in your adopted home town of Southampton?............

A Dlugokecki gig on the 29th February. It only happens every 4 years!

Ben and the full band will be playing at Storm, Leicester Square, London. Tickets £5. Onstage 9 pm.

A rare chance to see the full band (including cellist Marie) in London.

Take a look at the video for

"Spaced out refugee"

. Recorded at various locations and mixed at Cherrywood by me It's a great single that's already had considerable airplay. Release date is planned for April 7th.

Spaced Out Refugee Link