MissBlackAmerica
UnGraded HateMail
24th November 2005
www.missblackamerica.net

Good evening, children.

After a busy few weeks gigging, plotting, scheming, trying to get the album out on time and pretty much succeeding in the end, we're now taking a month or so off to write lots of new songs for the next album (because, frankly, bollocksed if we're going to spend another 3 years between records ever again). I've already been in the studio doing some acoustic stuff which'll surface one way or another over the next few months, and we've put one song ('Leatherhead') up on our MySpace account - www.myspace.com/missblackamerica - which is nice. In the meantime, Richard's "other" (and, of course, inferior, far less stylish) band The Khe Sanh Approach have also been recording stuff, and the fruits of their labour can be found at www.myspace.com/thekhesanhapproach - I particularly recommend new tune, 'The New Plymouth Sound' - it's ace.

***GIIIIIIIIIIGS! And stuff.***

We're currently planning our first European tour for early next year, and it looks like 'Terminal' will be released in Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg sometime in the Spring - we hope to have more news on that soon. In the meantime, there's two gigs in the UK before the year is out:

Wednesday 14th December
Ruby Slippers Records presents
THE JAMES BLUNT MEMORIAL FANCY DRESS PARTY
RIOT @ G-LOUNGE, CAMDEN, LONDON
with Djevara, The Khe Sanh Approach & The Siamese Sluts
Visuals by Punkvert, plus DJ Pie, DJs Schmid & Weez & Riot DJs
* fancy dress * party games * mince pies * sweeties * Wagon Wheels for all! *
Compere: Father Christmas
8pm-2am, £5, all proceeds to Cancer Research UK

Thursday 22nd December
CAMBRIDGE PORTLAND ARMS
R*E*P*E*A*T Christmas Party
with The Visions & Tommy Twist and The Jive
Doors 8pm, £5

Also, I'm doing an acoustic set with Greg from The Visions (as The Charm Offensive) at the R*E*P*E*A*T Anti-Christmas Party on 27th Dec - more details at www.repeatfanzine.co.uk

***RICHARD'S ACE BLOG***

In October, we went to London and visited XFM and the BBC in the same day. I was going to write about it, but instead I went to sleep for a week, but that's okay, 'cause our sexy guitarist Richard wrote all about it instead:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=4434046&blogID=54819457

(NB - you'll need to be logged in to MySpace to read this)#

***NEW BAND E-MAIL ADDRESSES***

We've now got our own individual missblackamerica.co.uk e-mail addresses, so you can FINALLY send Mat that love letter you've been crying over without the rest of us laughing at you:

Mat Anthony: mat@missblackamerica.co.uk
Simon Chapple: chapple@missblackamerica.co.uk
Seymour Glass: seymour@missblackamerica.co.uk
Richard Phillips III: richard@missblackamerica.co.uk
Mike Smith: mike@missblackamerica.co.uk

That's it for now, but please come and say hello on our guestbook, or on MySpace, or by e-mail - I've been a bit rubbish at mailing people back recently, so sorry if you've been waiting for a reply for ages, I'm going to have a big catch up over the next week or two (sleep is for HIPPIES).

In the meantime, if you want any stickers to slap about the place, or flyers to hand out or would like us to send you our underwear (soiled or clean), or anyone else's underwear for that matter, please e-mail us on the band account: mba@rubyslippersrecords.com

And that's that.

Cheers!

love from Seymour xxx

Seymour Glass - vocals/guitar
Mat Anthony - lead guitar
Richard Phillips - guitar
Mike Smith - bass/vocals
Simon Chapple - drums

www.missblackamerica.net
www.myspace.com/missblackamerica

* * * * *

DISPATCHES: KIDNAP AND TORTURE AMERICAN STYLE

Last night (Weds 23rd Nov), Channel 4 aired a documentary by controversial presenter Andrew Gilligan who, as a presenter on BBC Radio 4's The Today Programme, shot to infamy in 2003 when his criticism of the Government's "45 minute" claim (ie, that Saddam Hussein not only possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction but could deploy them within 45 minutes if he felt so inclined), on which shaky foundations the case for war was built, caused the Government to react with unprecedented anger (not to mention naked threats) towards the BBC, sparked a high-profile public enquiry as to the validity of the Government's claims (and, therefore, the legality of the war) and the eventual shaming and resignation of Gilligan himself (though some might say quite unfairly).

Far from spending 2 years licking his wounds, it seems Gilligan's pursuit of Truth, Justice and the unAmerican way has, if anything, intensified, and the documentary, "Kidnap And Torture, American Style", was well-researched, brilliantly edited and brutally, unflinchingly shocking. Concerning itself with the American-led, British-backed process of "rendering" terrorist suspects (whereby the British intelligence services help the CIA to effectively kidnap suspects, often on the flimsiest evidence, and ship them to countries where human rights and Geneva Conventions aren't much of a priority and torture is a perfectly acceptable means of extracting information from easily-broken human beings), the programme outlined the uncomfortable fact that our Government is knowingly and willingly complicit in torture of suspects in the name of National Security. Often those being tortured are British Citizens; often there is only the bare minimum or evidence, or the most tenuous link between that person and a known or suspected terrorist; often those "rendered" never find out what they're being accused of, let alone face a trial; and, of course, people in pain have a tendency to say anything to make the pain stop, rendering the entire process useless in the first place. But this process is happening, right now, in our "safe" and "democratic" World.

"Dispatches: Kidnap and Torture American Style" is repeated tonight/tomorrow morning, Thursday 25th November at 3.35am - please take the time to set the video, or at least take a look at the links below.

Cheers!
love from Seymour xxx

Dispatches Microsite (2005): http://www.channel4.com/news/microsites/K/kidnap_torture_american_style/index.html

Andrew Gilligan's Resignation Statement (2003): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3446443.stm

Amnesty International - Working to protect Human Rights Worldwide:
http://www.amnesty.org/