to photoshop me as Dolph Lundgren in Masters of the Universe. I wish! Msannieannie, ITS NOT REAL!!! Chill your boots! I'm still the old pudgy me.
yeah, though the blonde hair is real. I was thinking more along the lines of Patrick Swayze-Point Break.
Its so cool that this blog reaches people all across the globe, makes the world a small place doesn't it? Lee's hair is its natural colour, suits him. I'm afraid we don't have any plans to to visit Sweden this summer. Thanks to Angie for your kind comments on my mural I did up at the Rhondda Heritage park. It was an interesting period of my life. I was pretty broke and had long, long hours on a scaffolding in the freezing cold painting that Mural. It was also hard because the viewer has to be so close to the painting so it had to cater for that. I'm not overly pleased with how it turned out, and neither was the Park I don't think. Basically, I think they were hoping for some bright uplifting image like the rest of my work, but I was so moved by the mining disaster it portrayed, that I was forced to express the pain and loss that it caused. The irony is that, my own village suffered one of the worst mining disasters in Britain on the 23 June 1894 which killed 281 men and boys. The Albion Colliery disaster in Cilfynydd. A young man named Timothy Jones who was 26 when he died in the accident lived at the very house I was born in. My village was a little pissed that I painted a mural about another disaster at Tynewydd where 5 men died, but I stand by it because of the heroism of the rescue involved needed to be recognised. Had I been asked to paint about the Albion I would have.
History lesson over...back to hair........not.
I hope we will come to Australia on this next touring cycle. I'm determined to surf in Brisbane, some of the sharkiest water in the world. The first time I ever surfed was in Australia, little known and pointless fact. Me, Mike and Stu if my memory serves me.
Thomas, yes I have been to Cork many times. I am an avid fly fisherman (catch and release whenever possible) and have fished the South West of Ireland on a number of occasions. For your information the air speed velocity of a swallow, a European swallow (since I am Welsh) I have determined to be in the region of roughly 16 meters per second (15 beats per second * 1.1 meters per beat). The cruising speed, that is. Come over to England cos I don't know when we are going to be back in Ireland as a band and normal toast.
If it were down to me to book lostprophets shows, I'd for sure want to tour Argentina and Mexico. In fact, there's very few places I wouldn't want to visit and play. I hear the weather is good in Afghanistan and Somalia this time of year. And our cd's are flying of the shelves in the western region of Darfur (Sudan). Scary!
Juditta, I haven't forgot Italy. I love Italy. Probably my favourite place on earth that I have visited is Venice. Of course, My love for Venetian art draws me back there time and time again.
Thank you Jessica, Its awesome that you lean on our art to help you through Grad school. It always makes me smile to hear that our music can influence people in a positive way.
I am making an effort to reply to comments now and again, since you guys thought it was cool that I did it in the last blog. I'm sorry in advance if I don't reply to all of your comments. My excuse is that if I did, there wouldn't be enough room for me to talk my usual non cohesive nonsense talk, which is why I started doing this in the first place.
(IDEA!) what I may do is different types of blogs...ones that respond to comments and others that are just me talking balls....Nah, that's way too organised. Lets just keep it fun.
Note to self.."Today is a good day".
Tracks are shaping up nicely here in the studio. Very nicely indeed. today so far has been a day of unkempt excitement and enthusiasm. and a flurry of inspiration and creativity. A brilliant ray of sunshine in and overcast few months. (no storms or rain, just a bit dull). Hopefully more sunshine and warm weather on its way......
That was by far one of the shittiest metaphors I have come up with. And that's saying something from a guy renowned for shit ass metaphors. For those that know me, I'm the king of crap metaphors...Yeah..I know....stick to the day job!
out.

Long over due and no real point putting them up now since it was last weeks news but hey, a promise is a promise. I should take this opportunity to address some of the question some of you guys have posted as comments. In order of comments, top to bottom... "thanks, drunk is good..I agree. I thought Ironman was awesome but have yet to decide if it is better than Batman begins. As for exams..I'm afraid I've already done my fair share of exams so no real sympathy, in fact I am on permanent hiatus with my Masters degree so I've still got exams to look forward too. Ciao. I truly doubt your beans on toast could top mine, I've made it at every given opportunity for the past 25 years, at times more than once a day. I tried to change Donington to Derbyshire on myspace, but the powers that be over ruled, not seeing the fun in it. ah well. Your welcome to Ilan where ever whenever. It is a real machine gun. Ilan discovery of radiohead is a recent thing and in his usual obsessive compulsive way, he bought and listened to the whole back catalogue religiously. so gay. Thanks for the tips on adjusting the border..I'm over it already though. but cheers nevertheless. My camera is a Canon rebel xti, and a variety of lenses depending." Thank you all for commenting, a big shout out to my new friends in Chile, Argentina, Derbyshire, Scotland, Japan. I love reading your comments, and I will promise to respond accordingly.
Thanks Guys.

In the studio right now battling with technological issues. Lots of waiting around. Not the start I had hoped. 1 single cable brings the whole ship to a grinding halt. What was going to be a day to remember is swiftly working its way into one to forget. Ilan has played every radio head song to death for the past 8 hours....my brain is fried, and the conversation is into its 3 phase of repeat. Our biggest mission right now is finding tickets to Ironman.....that's as good as it gets.
well here's a couple of pictures of what a today looks like. Add to this, the smell of dust, constant tinkering of 30 second clips of every song by Ilan, and Ian talking in his sleep....wowzers!
roll on school bell and straight to the pub me thinks. zzzzzzzzzzzzz!


(4 hours later)
typical.....the photo's i sent to myself from my phone, as described about, never arrived...balls. I'll put them up when they do.

this qualifies as the worlds most boring and pointless blog.

shit aSS!

p.s. does it piss anyone else off as it does me...the photo of me with a big machine gun doesn't fit within the thin grey lined border. obsessive compulsive...maybe..but its just fricking annoying. grumpy having a knobend of a day. arse off!

I edited the last blog so that I could link to the Grenade website, but didn't for some reason, bother to publish it. "waa waa waa!"
So as you can see its back up now.
I was reading some amazing stuff last night about Entropy (It is a measure of the randomness of molecules in a system and is central to the second law of thermodynamics), and the arrow of time and that in theory an egg can not only splatter but given the exact right circumstances it can Un-splatter! How cool is that? the chances are so low that its not even worth considering but by the laws of Physics it is theoretically possible. For the most part, I struggle to get my head around such grand concepts..and when I do manage a moment of amazing insight...I am so blown away by what I learn, that I immediately forget it. Or try and tell someone and fuck it up completely and look like a dithering stuttering knob. So, these days I resign myself to just enjoying those moments of amazement and leave the explaining to the pro's. People generally take me for some try hard wannabe spoff who regurgitates nonsense that I read...and that's ok. I just want to share my amazement with them and fail more often than not. But one day maybe I'll pick the right words and the way to share my newly acquired (or adopted) perspectives, and bring a little light to someone else for a brief moment, before we both crash back to the grind of everyday social reality and its bullshit pointless jostling, though I doubt it.
I had hoped that I would be able to inspire Ian. but he just thinks I'm a hippy ponce. I have also tried writing lyrics about this kinda stuff, but I think I sound like a hippy ponce too, so best leave it to the experts ha ha. Well, enough of this drivel, I'm boring myself. off to try and draw out some T-shirt designs for Download. If I leave it all up to Ian to do we'd all be looking like Kings of Leon. THAT of course is not a bad thing! Just kidding bro..you've got a rad sense of design that I fall short on every time. That's why we are a team!..I'll draw the crazy space egg shit and you make it look good by sprinkling your design magic..sweet.
Actually..you guys got any ideas what sort of T-Designs I/we should do for Download and the next few months? don't need art or nothing just rad ideas and inspiration. post links to stuff and I'll check it out. And of course I won't publish the posts for the whole world to see where I ripped of the ideas from, so if there's anything you want to comment on...chuck it into a separate post.
Tidy, see you later!

Scorcher! shorts weather.
I can't remember if I mentioned anything about the Grenade games that I went to last weekend. Well I did, and it was amazing. Getting wasted on the slopes with half pipe contests, free beer and bands. The sun was out, the snow was cold, and we had a blast riding big park benches all the way down the mountain. Good times.Its the 4th year they've done it. Hell of an experience, only wish I had worn appropriate clothing..I looked like a doosh on the snow in a pair of dunks and jeans. Ah well, live and learn eh?. In case your wondering, Grenadegloves is a snowboard company by Danny Kass, and The Dingo is involved too...youtube 'em. Dingo's awesome..complete nutter of course but a sound aussie fella. I went up with a few friends and Tal who's one of the faces of DCMA clothing company, which has finally got up and running. Used to hang out with Tal loads when we were writing Start Something, now he's become a celeb in his own right. Tal did a little vid
We are back in the studio jamming on some new stuff and re-arranging. It's cool to be all back together in one place. There's something that feels right about spending our days laughing and making music, its like as though its what we are suppose to do. duh!
I have finally gotten ridden of that silly car of mine in the UK. You can see it featured in the Burn Burn video at the end. A white Japanese rocket that is totally impractical. Well, someone taken it away to sell it for me. I did put alot of love into that car back in the day when I was crazy, but its been sitting doing nothing for years now and a shame to let something like that go to waste. If anyone in the UK is looking for a super crazy sports car, lemme know, and I let the dude know. I'm happy with my scoot and my old mini. less strain on the environment and all that.
I need to get back in shape too. was feeling quite fit when I was training with me wife for the LA marathon which she completed. I got a dodgy knee from boarding so I held off on running and did a Cycle marathon instead. But my routine is all out because of all the times I've gone away to the mountains, so I'm all pudgy again. And I haven't been in the sea surfing for like 3 weeks..! how bad am i?
I got a bit tired of all the Dave Grohl comments I was getting recently so I opted for a little change, shaved off me moustache and popped a little dye in my hair. well alot of bleach I should say. ALOT of bleach!, burned the shit out of my scalp...all in the name of vanity. What an arse I am. Ian says I look like Andy Warhol, can't tell if that was a compliment or not, but I was ok with it.
Gotta ride my pushbike to and from the studio this week, from the beach up into Hollywood. Probably take me and hour each way, at least I'll get a workout. Best go now get some beauty sleep and rest my napalmed skull. I'll try and keep you posted on the studio stuff.
Pester the rest of the guys to write some blogs. Just hammer into them on the myspace page. Its always fun to see Ian lose his shit over something unimportant and cause a shit storm with the fans. haha.
later

Hey, hi, hoo.
I just been having a meeting with the lads in the band. It's nice to see them, haven't in a while. I couldn't go home to Wales with them last time because of troubles I have had with immigration here in the States. It seems that the US frowns upon murder these days...what can you do eh? Nah, just kidding. Simple things I have to iron out that took way longer than it needed to but its getting sorted now. Back to the Guys....Yeah, nice to see them. We had a very productive chat and spirits are high. Everything is on track, and we are all gonna be jamming and writing and recording next week. Ians hair is long. My hair is cleaner than his.
Went to Canada last week. It was really cool. My friends from Wales were going there for a Snowboarding holiday, and the previous week I was up at Mammoth with mikey for the week, so I was not planning on going to Banff. But as it turned out, I couldn't bear the thought of my Welsh freinds being kinda close and on the slopes, so the night before I decided to go. It was only supposed to take 3 hours but I connected in Seattle and by the time I had got to Calgary the airline had decided not to bother putting my board on the plane. Nice! In fact I had a sleeping bag and all my clothes in the same case, and since I didn't know where I was gonna be sleeping I was pretty much screwed. 8 hours later, my bag waltz's in all nonchalant and stuff, and following some rental car nonsense I was on my way. The Canadian Rockies were beautiful, the runs were awesome and on Monday we had a bunch of snow and fresh powder. It was great until my friend Phil took a pretty hard tumble trying a jump at about 30mph down a black in 10ft visability...yikes! He caught a front edge, sprung off his face, did a full flikflak and landed again on his face. Oh, how I laughed until he didn't get up. I went down to find most of his face bleeding and smashed up. At first I thought he'd bust his nose but his goggles had skinned it, and the medics had to glue his lip back on. Fair dues though, he wouldn't ride down on a stretcher and was back out the next day, haha Trooper! He's very sensitive and cares alot about his looks and conditioning so if you've a heart, wish Phil Clarke all the best.

I have been thinking alot about painting and drawing recently. Went to a superb exhibition about toys at "1988" on Melrose in Hollywood today. I'm quite please that a gallery called La Luz De Jesus selected one of my new paintings for a group exhibition last month "everything but the kitchen sync", and have asked to hold on to the painting for a permanent showing in the office space. It's one of my first shows here in LA. I need to get some more pieces painted. Finding time to paint and write songs and plan for tour and all these bloody action sports is tricky, haha.
I'm trying to find the energy to go up to Mammoth again on Sunday for the Grenade Games 4. A bunch of mates are going up and I'm trying to drag Mikey up with me. I pooped though. Mike and I are gonna go to watch Galaxy play Football tomorrow, "Beckham! Beckham! Beckham!"...actually, I don't much like football, or soccer (pronounced saaaa-ckrrrrrrr) as they call it here, but the missus loves Becks cos he's from up her end of the woods in Essex. Urrm..what else...I built a front light rack quadrophenia style for me scooter. 8 lights, 6 mirrors and an AA badge...I'm such a doosh! but I can't help it. My 1963 Lambretta has just been painted all original colours and is being souped up to a 190cc, so it deserves a few new accessories. I'm such a big kid with my bloody cars and bike and toys!!! when will I grow up? ha.
I'm getting younger and younger in my head as the days go on. I suppose the more I learn and read, the more I realise I know so little, which reintroduces a sense of wonder in the world. And in turn, I rediscover the child in me... I suppose.
"excuse me, mr. freud...." I'm off for some dinner....mmm some nice fake chicken curry me thinks!! see you later...all the best Phil! hope your face heals nice and doesn't scar too bad.
(if you wanna send him best wishes do it here)
p.p.s check out the half naked picture on his photos page......I mean? who does that these days? cummon! what a ponce! bring on Thunder from down Under!!

I totally forgot about doing this blog. Actually, I haven't done anything that justifies writing home about, that's the reason I haven't written in a long while. Every time I came here to write something I thought to myself..."what a load of bollocks, nobody is gonna care about that". And so it went. But I'm here now and still have not alot to say.
Ok, so what is new?
I bought a corn pipe and smoked it while out camping a few weeks ago..that was interesting. Found out quickly that there's and art to smoking a pipe, and just as quickly I gave up. I got a whole new respect for Popeye...(the animated one not the shitty Robin Williams remake. William.....thats a very Norman form of an Old French personal name composed of the Germanic elements wil will, desire + helm helmet, protection,hmmmm I did just write 'desire helmet protection' in a sentance didn't I?).
Bought and watched Point Break with all the special features. Which I must add are amazing and moving at the same time. It's been over 20 years since it was made and wipes the floor with so many new movies. The actors have all aged and and it made me sad to see Patrick Swayze looking amazing in the movie and now being so ill. Very sad.
What else is new? Been snowboarding all winter in my own time. Just came back from my first time in Mammoth. I seem to have a thing for boardsports all over again. Either that or I'm having a midlife crisis a few years early. Its loads of fun. Even if everyone and their mums are doing it now. I guess Skiing is the new cool again. I'm not doing it to be trendy, I just haven't ever had the opportunity before, and since the slopes are only 2 hours away from me, I thought....why not.
Oh, yeah...been working on the record too. on and off. There's been some breaks in between while we redefine who we are and what we want to say. Swings and roundabouts as they say. Time can become an enemy when working on one thing for so long...something that you thought was amazing and fresh can for no reason turn stale and bland over time. So we have continuously kept writing more and more songs to compensate for this. It's difficult to keep track at times because songs have changed and then changed again and new songs have come and gone. The last time I counted we have easily 40 songs in the pipeline. That's not to say all of them were good...haha. We have such high expectations of ourselves and such a high standard for this record that it has really pushed us to the edge to get the greatest songs we can write. No cutting corners and no filler, which is why we are still working on it. It'll be out as soon as it is up and over our raised bar.
It's pretty lame of me and the other guys not to find a few minutes to write down what we are doing and what going on in our heads. But it's not through laziness or arrogance that we don't blog more often. I guess we just feel like we should or could be talking about this or that party we were at and what famous people that we've been hanging out with. Maybe, its just feels odd that anyone would or could give a shit about what I've been up to.
Nah, fuck it, we are just lazy bastards, too busy getting wasted and throwing tv's at old people and shagging sheep to write blogs!!
excuses excuses! tut.
Well, I'll keep it short, so that I have something to write in 2009 or whenever.
Ta ta.
oops, shit I forgot to mention that I got married recently. yikes! t'wifes gonna kill me. yeah that too. And I been painting again, in what little spare time I've had. cool there's some posted up on my flickr site...link at bottom of this page.
byeeee

Just been talking to Ilan about how shitty it is that people 'have a go' (attack for all those not welsh), at airports. I mean I can see how effective it is, and how there's alot of valuable things and multi national people, and also a great deal of damage to be cause by both fear/terror and inconvenience....but its still SHIT. I'm sitting here in an airport, my 13 hour flight to Heathrow has been delayed, which has caused me to reschedule my connecting flight (which happens to be to Glasgow of all bloody places). Not to say that my arse is going anyway because its the 4th of July and a prime day for an attack. Thanks! THANKS a fucking bunch. All due to the fact that Heathrow had to be evacuated yesterday because of a scare, and of course becuse some dickhead fancied trying to fit their Range Rover through the main doors whilst balancing milk bottles full of flaming petrol. Nice huh? A small inconvenience some may say, yes....but a pain in the arse anyhow, (thankfully there wasn't any fatalities).
Just a bit scary to be honest. But at least its given me a little time to write a blog. Makes me wonder how things would be if we weren't so dependant upon religious belief and Oil.
Some movies I been watching and mean to watch..."An Inconvenient truth" also "A Crude Awakening". Worth checking out to those who give a shit about life beyond the next few years.
Shouldn't be on a rant but I find that my fear gets translated into anger. It's a habit that i have been working to understand and change in myself. Maybe I should also address 'giving out too much pointless info about myself' while I am at it. So I have another 2 hours of time to kill so I am off to people watch for some of it instead of wasting it here in cyberspace. Ta ta for now.

...talking about my mate who jumped off the speakers at the scala show the other night. I been told to give him a telling off...but ah. Boys will be boys eh? Soooooo...Hello! I have been away doing stuff, I wanted to write but I been a bit busy shitting my pants about doing these fricking arena shows. I hoped I would take it all in my stride, but nope. weird dreams started happening again days before I left for Europe. Its always the same, dreams of playing shows and not knowing any of the songs, or playing on a stage that is so big I can't see the rest of the boys...or going up to my gear to find it all smashed up. Now I apologise if I am taking the mystic away for some of you that I don't get a little nervous. But, these were our biggest headline shows to date and I, personally, can never be prepared enough. I do have to say, that everyone else in the band does take it in their stride, and have the confidence and prowess to rise to the occasion, it takes me a little longer.
But....the shows went really well and I was well stoked after Wembley that there were no...how can I say...real disasters.
Did a few shows after which were a little less stressful and more about just fun and playing and getting drunk...and flew back to LA yesterday. Good Times!
Was in the dressing room after the Wembley show and there was a really nice atmosphere and I had one of those moments where you stop and take it all in. It reminded me of something from an old metallica video, and something an old friend of mine once told me popped into my head "these are the good old days". I have never forgotten that. Its like taking a snap shot. I know not to try to hold onto these moments as they pass, but I shall not forget them. Everything comes to an end, I know, but I want to try to fill my cup with memories that help my walk my path, and not ones that poison me and drag me down, and lose direction.....
Pretence alert! ALERT! ALERT! ha. didn't know where I was going with that anyhow. so, yes.
Most people I meet accuse me of over thinking. It's not like I have a daily allowance of thoughts and "...opps, shit I've just gone over my limit...better stop thinking now". I, personally, would prefer to over think something than be ignorant to it. True, when you waste time thinking when you should be acting, or spend too much time thinking about unimportant things. I get it...I'm not dumb.
....and turn (completely off subject again), ironic that if my second paragraph were lyrics to a song they may be considered as.."oooh deep and ooooh moving" but in context of a blog...they just read as pretentious. Just an observation.
I do feel a little all thunked out right now, so I'll leave you with this...........

HOW GOOD WERE THE BATTLESTAR GALACTICA END OF SERIES 3 EPISODES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?

SPOILER WARNING! SPOILER WARNING!

..and yes it did need to be shouted. For all those who are in the know....wow, Lee Adama, here's to you! for those that don't....plug in, download and start watching! MEGA LOLZ!!!!!!
out.

...for taking the time to bother reading this, and for your comments. I guess Lee hasn't quite got round to setting his blog up. I am about trying to make time to do things rather than looking or trying to find time. I also think its cool when I see bands that I enjoy, put a little effort into communicating with the people that give them the chance to be in a band in the first place, and in all fairness, its no skin off my nose to type a few lines everynow and again right? I'd love to know what James Hetfield is up to these days and where his head is at, for instance. Not that I consider myself on a par with James Hetfield..Hell No...but the comments you guys wrote all pretty much say how cool you think it is that I'm writing, so Ima keep on writing.
And on that note, I've run outta things to say.....haha. No not really, for anyone who knows me, I can talk the ass off of a donkey. Talking of ass...I stuck to my words in my last blog...and did actually get my ass handed to me in the water today. Mikey shit out of surfing today (kidding bro!) so I went it alone. It was grey and a little cold, and to start I had a ball, but it got bigger and I got shitter and took a handful of hammering before sulking back to shore and to my bed. Man, for as much as I love doing it...I suck. guess its true about teaching old dogs new tricks. Mike on the other hand is c c c crazy. For what he lacks in ability, he makes up for with balls. The dudes a deathwish surfer...and regularly has runnings with other surfers in the water. The number of times I have seen mikey smash into some guy, or gal, or take out an entire family with his board... he's just plain mental. I love that about him. The rest of the guys in the band get pissy when mike and I pipe on about surfing. Labelling us as "surfer bum chums" and what not. Fuck 'em. Jealous they are. Haha.
We, pack up the studio in a few days, our work in San Diego is done my friends. We've done some great songs, and for the first time, had fun doing them. They'll probably change alot between now and putting them down on record, but if we made a record of what we have done at this point, I would be stoked. It feels and sounds way more like how we want to be seen and heard. Lets hope we manage to keep that attitude right through the process. Anyhooooo...I got shit to do, and people to see so loves ya and leaves ya. Be good to each other. Look after yourselves, its a dangerous world out there. (i don't quite know where I'm going with this...always found it hard to put the phone down and say bye.)...and....oh..fuck it.


*revised extention - No no no, dont get me wrong, its not that mike is better than me, we are both pretty shit (shit is a relative term), Its just he's crazier than I. Which at times works to his advantage and other times...boy oh boy...its painful to watch the trouble he puts himself into...haha. Plus when I said "what he lacks in ability..he was hurt that I was suggesting he didnt have any. He can surf. In fact for the length of time we been at it, we are RAD! I meant it as a compliment to the size of his balls. ha.
I can't believe I am actually writing this shit out..haha. Can you tell I've had a few beers!! Off out now, Mikes DJing down at the Beauty Bar in San Diego...come along if you can, we'll all be there tearing up the dance floor. OUT.