Keep Your Eyes On The Road - A very late, but proper thank you!

Hi everyone.

Rather than hitting you with the 2nd half of the tour blog so soon, i thought that on the eve of the first TV broadcast of the video for 'Keep Your Eyes On The Road' on MTV Rocks, i really need to dish out some serious thank you's to the people involved who travelled from all over to come and help out. Ash (Director) knows how much i appreciate his endless hours of work and what he has achieved with this video.

But it's so easy to get caught up in your own little world when making a video like this. It's safe to say that after my 45th hour of being pixelated i was more than ready to commit suicide if i had to spend to any more time on set. So my head was definitely spinning.

So i think it's time i properly thank every single extra. I don't even know if there has been a cast list released with all the extras' names, some of which were of my best friends, some i actually don't know! Im sure if Ash (the director) is reading this he may be able to comment if i have forgotten anyone.

So it's time i thank you all properly for your amazing work and let everyone else know who you are.

So the first extra is the pretty lady in the bed next to me in the 'bed' scene. This is no other than my wonderful other half Sofi Lundgren. For the record, after she slips out of shot it was actually her turning the cone and replacing all the glasses on the bedside table. That was by far my favourite scene to shoot becasue i basically had to lie down in my bed next to my lady for two hours. Now that was much nicer than sitting in a chair at an awkward angle for 6 hours!

We then have the three people who devoted 6 hours of thier time to film just 6 seconds of footage in the labyrinth style 'helping hands' scene. They were:

Soozy Creamcheese - That really is the only way i know her. I didn't wan't to put her real name as i like to think this one is! I dont really see her that often and so thats why it was particularly special she came and helped out on what has become one of my favourite scenes.

Jen Burdess - I speak more about later
Keith Smith - Ditto
The next set of extras you see are the people kindly hammering the nails into my coffin, and then mourning my death!

The first is Ali Aaron. A good pal of mine who i used to work with.
The second is none other than director Ashley Dean, followed by Marcus who owns the space we used to shoot this scene and maker of my coffin. He was wearing some awesome shades with his black suit and as he was shooting the scene we realised his head was out of shot and so the shades wouldnt get seen. So thats why if you look carefully, his head pops into shot for about 4 frames just so you can see the shades!

Next my upmost thanks goes out to my 8 humble backing dancers. Some of which travelled from as far as London just to come and be in this scene. They are the following:

Rob Wills - My best friend in the world for the past 16 years. He's the guy in the turquoise jumper. He suffered hours on the stinky megabus from London to come and shoot this scene and i can't thank him enough.

Lins Wilson - A lovely friend and bassist/cellist/synth player in the Lone Wolf live set up and also cellist in Grammatics. She's the red head in the plain dress (provided by Ash im sure she'll want me to say!)

Kelly Taft - Another highly cherished pal and girlfriend of my friend Wu who is going to be playing Bass for the next couple of Lone Wolf dates. Shes wearing a yellowish dress and has long blonde hair/glasses.

Danny North - Well what is there i can't say about this ace gent. Simply a top top man. If you have seen any photographs of me over the past few years, chances are they will have been taken by Danny. He's wearing the brownish striped shirt.

Chris Leeds & Jen Burdess - I met these two wonderful people randomly at a gig about 5 years ago and we became very good friends. They are sadly moving back to the USA for good in a couple of weeks, so it meant a lot to me they they were in this video. Going to miss them dearly. Chris is in the grey trousers and Jen is the red head with black rimmed glasses.

Keith Smith - An old friend who kindly drove me all over the country for pretty much nothing when i was first starting out. He is a man who i keep reminding i owe him about a thousand favours, but he never seems to cash them in. So here's another reminder Keith you GEM! Keith is the handsome dude in the blue shirt.

Elly Oracle - The way we met is about as bizarre as it gets. She provided me with a cage for my cat Lupin when she had a knee operation! ha ha. But Elly writes for a few different sites about gigs and happenings in the Leeds music scene and is one of the brightest and bubbly people i know. Elly is wearing a reddish dress with short dark hair.

After the 'dancing' part there are a few more people that pop up for the odd frame spinning around in a chair. One of them is Ash's Dad who was always helping out throughout the whole process, making nice food and generally being awesome. There was also one of Ash's friends called Rachel who makes an appearance.

Then for the final section where a sea of people seem to appear from my body there is a veritable banquet of Leeds faces there, but you may need to pause the vid and skip frames to catch them all! But they are everyone from the previous scene with added:

Jon Foulger - Ace friend and also a member of the Lone Wolf live troop.
Fran Rodgers - Another old friend who i love dearly. Phenomenal musician also.
Dan Howard - One of my best mates. was frontman of the now defunct Wintermute along with Dave Hemmings who is also in this scene, and also one of my best mates! Leeds is going to be a sad place when Dan moves away :(
Wu - who i mentioned earlier. He arrived in time to shoot this scene. Diamond geezer stangely a big fan of Darius Danesh.
Sofi Lundgren - The other half i mentioned earlier.

And i think that's it. I know it's a cliche, but i think it is quite obviously the truth when i say that without all of your help and patience this video could not have been completed to look the way it does. It's also a great document of all the ace people i know at this point in my life.

So basically - I thank you all!

Now if you weren't in the video, next time you watch it you need to try and spot everyone!

have fun!

http://vimeo.com/10001188