Not for THE TREAT, is the term ‘Rock’ a lazy bi-word for Heavy Metal, in all it’s extreme current forms. If you are looking for spitting capsules of blood, cliched anvil shaped logos, cartoon drawings of motorbikes & men with impossibly shaped torsos, songs about King Arthur/the Devil/Women as sex objects etc. YOU WON’T FIND THEM HERE. Similarly, if you get a tingle listening to perpetually unimaginative guitar arrangements featuring a detuned chord stolen off a Black Sabbath record, chugging along relentlessly throughout the course of an album, with a ‘singer’, sounding like he’s got a day job doing sound effects for horror films, writing about death/suicide/killing your parents/guns/violence/killing anyone/sodomy/child abuse/misery in general, then MOVE ON, NOW. THE TREAT are NOT the band for you.

No stone is unturned with THE TREAT. Apart from their eclectic musical style, they sing about what they believe in. Much of what they cover lyrically are universal themes that a wide range of listeners from different backgrounds and cultural hues can appreciate and feel a part of. THE TREAT have no desire to wilfully be lyrically obtuse for the sake of it. The guitarist, who leads the band, works on building thoughtful, imaginative guitar parts that incorporate both electric and acoustic styles, where rhythm playing is as important as any lead flourishes or solos, and above all, where the guitar, together with the arrangements of other instruments enhance THE SONG. Way too many current records are sonically unsatisfying to listen to . Too much low end (dance/hip-hop), too much high end (pop). THE TREAT like to produce albums which give the listener the complete sonic experience. Apart from the colours produced by a variety of tones in the guitar parts, THE TREAT often experiment with instruments, not normally associated with rock these days, such as flute, bass clarinet, African percussion etc. THE TREAT are not into ‘American Mixes’. You know the type. The vocal and drums way too high; 7 or 8 guitars with the same tone playing the same part, reducing the guitar to the sound of a ‘pad’; tinny, pinging bass buried in the mix. Probably great to listen to, when heavily compressed, blaring out of a car radio on a highway in L.A. Unsatisfying for the rest of us.

By now, those of you that have followed the band’s progress over two albums and have witnessed the group’s electric and acoustic shows will know THE TREAT are here for the long haul. No one in THE TREAT has been to stage school; had a part in Eastenders; won a television talent show; had a modelling career, or looks at music as another stepping stone to keeping their name in the papers for the sake of it. Music is way too precious to THE TREAT. They have grown up listening to rock music’s rich heritage and legacy and are doing their best to add to it. THE TREAT are not interested in being a ‘flash in the pan’. Surely, you know what we mean ? The type of band that gets 2 NME front covers, glossy pics showing off high cheekbones & pouting lips, two hit singles, one halfway decent album and gets jettisoned to the dustbin of oblivion 18 months after the NME ‘discovered’ them as the next big thing. Tragic.

So, if you are looking for a band that have their roots in classic rock, but have their own unique, eclectic spin and are not afraid to experiment or take chances then you should be adding THE TREAT to your CD collection. By turns passionate, exhilarating, fun, dark, melodic and joyous, one of the best bands to emerge in recent years on the music scene in the UK. THE TREAT are indeed just that.

The Treat played another set at The Wheatsheaf on Wednesday November the 3rd. This was a short acoustic set, well received with a good response. 

SET LIST :

Agent 555/The Hunger/Roaming/Lepers & Deities

BBC Oxford Radio played a song from the brand new TREAT album, PHONOGRAPHY,  on 22nd September. 

The Download Team played 'Haitian Mourning Dress' and gave the series of concerts the band are playing a mention, in addition to giving Rockular Recordings a plug. Result.

'Haitian' has already been played on radio at least once before, when I gave an interview to Richard Allen on the Magazine Show and played him monitor mixes of some of the album cuts we were working on at the time.

So far three shows have been performed, since PHONOGRAPHY has been released.

THE WHEATSHEAF (25/9/07)

Acoustic Show

ROAMING/LEPERS & DEITIES/THE DEATHDAY PARTIES/HAITIAN MOURNING DRESS/Medley:AGENT 555/I CAN'T EXPLAIN/THE HUNGER

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THE THIRST LODGE (28/9/07)

Acoustic Show

ROAMING/LEPERS & DEITIES/THE DEATHDAY PARTIES/EFFERVESCENCE/MEADOWLAND/AGENT 555/I CAN'T EXPLAIN/THE HUNGER

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OXFORD & CHERWELL COLLEGE (30/9/07)

Electric Show

AGENT 555/TOO LATE/ROAMING/I CAN'T EXPLAIN/MAKE YOU CRAWL/THE HUNGER/EFFERVESCENCE/FANFARE FOR THE KING

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To Celebrate the release of their new album PHONOGRAPHY,

The Treat will be playing FOUR shows during the next two weeks in their hometown of Oxford (UK).

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Wheatsheaf, High st. Oxford

Tue 25th Sept after 9 30pm

Magazine Launch for 'Ox On' in which THE TREAT will be featured.

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Oxford Arts Festival

Fri 28th Sept @ Thirst Lodge

9.15-9.45pm

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Oxford Arts Festival

Sun 30th Sept @ Oxford & Cherwell College

6.15-6.45pm

The Arts festival is raising money for Dr. Bernardo's Children Charity and Age Concern for the elderly.

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Watch out for reviews/news on THE TREAT in the Oxford Mail & Oxford Courier in the next couple of weeks.

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We have just been informed that a significant number of emails that have been posted to us from this site have NOT been forwarded on to us, thanks to our  providers at Demon Internet.

Consequently, we now have hundreds (literally!!!) of back logged emails to go through.

If you are among the people who have sent us an email from this site and not had a response, it's because your email has not got through. Please repost you message/request/enquiry to us and we will get back to you .a.s.a.p.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Available to purchase exclusively from www.thetreat.co.uk for the first few weeks, before it's distributed for sale in specialist shops.

See homepage and merchandising page for details.

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Here we are in the third week of August and still no new Treat album. It is a matter of days now. As a taster, we have put up the artwork of the album cover for you to enjoy. Please remember though, all the art work is copyrighted and its copying or reproduction without our consent is strictly prohibited.

Here we were in the first week of July, expecting copies of the new Treat album 'Phonography' to be available to the public by the end of the month. Not so.

Without going into unnecessary details, the release has been held up at the manufacturing stage due to a lack of a barcode, which we thought we had already dealt with.

It's all been sorted out now and we are happy to say, fingers crossed, the album will be available to buy from this site within the next couple of weeks. National distribution will take a little longer.

A happy bi-product of these events is that Rockular Recordings Ltd. is now a member of the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) and is recognised as a small independent British label, and has access to the benefits enjoyed by other British labels, be it EMI, Virgin or whoever.

Our star shines brighter with every turn.

Watch this space!!

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Another satisfying performance by The Treat took place on Saturday July 7th, to raise awareness of climate change.

The concert, held at the East Oxford Community Centre in Cowley, Oxford, was a benefit show, raising money and awareness for projects dealing with the effects of climate change and global warming.

The Treat duly picked an appropriate set, playing songs like 'Falcon And The Iron Rain' and 'The Deathday Parties', which was specially dedicated to Bush & Blair.

The complete set list for the gig was :

AGENT 555/FOR A REASON/LEPERS & DEITIES/THE DEATHDAY PARTIES/FALCON AND THE IRON RAIN/THE HUNGER

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 The Treat will be performing an acoustic show on Saturday July 7th at the East Oxford Community Centre on Cowley Road. This is a fund raising event to raise awareness of climate change. The Treat are scheduled to take the stage, sometime between 9.30pm and 10pm, to perform a 30 minute set. Some new songs are expected to be performed.

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Brand new Treat song premiered to enthusiastic response.

The Treat were one of some 14 acts, booked to play  at The Delicious Music Festival held on Sat 16th June in Arncott, near Bicester.

Playing a 30 minute acoustic set, the band performed a brand new song to an enthusiastic response. The track, called 'Lepers & Deities', was written by Mike, especially to be performed on 12-string acoustic guitar and is slightly influenced by Jeff Buckley & Peter Hammill, with a good dose of Led Zep IV era Jimmy Page thrown in for good measure. Dave plays a doombek (African drum), to enhance the song's wonderful trance like quality.

The set list played :

AGENT 555/FOR A REASON/THE DEATHDAY PARTIES/LEPERS & DEITIES/FALCON AND THE IRON RAIN/THE HUNGER

The gigs just keep getting better!!

 Following hot on the heels of The Treat's recent well received performance at The Market Tavern, the band have been re-booked to perform at an all day festival in Oxfordshire.

The Treat will be performing at The Delicious Music Festival on Saturday June 16th, held at The Plough Pub in Arncott, near Bicester, Oxfordshire.

The Treat will be performing a 30 minute acoustic set at 8pm, mixing new songs from the soon to be released new Treat album, with established live favourites.

Another memorable recording session took place for us, during the last week of this month. Our friend Jeff popped down for a few hours from his busy schedule working in West End musicals for Andrew Lloyd Webber, and laid down some tasteful Hammond Organ playing on a number of Treat tracks, two of which will appear on the new Treat album.

We have been holding up the release of the album, specifically for the Hammond  and electric piano parts. There have been times when I thought  we might let it out without them, but I'm glad I stuck to my guns as the tracks now sound FABULOUS (They were pretty good before, by the way-Ed.)

Through this entire recording period, which began in June 2005 and still continues, I feel I've enhanced my knowledge and skills as a Producer, nursing and coaxing the very best performances out of Dom and David and other musicians who have done sessions for us.

As an experienced songwriter, I am constantly aware of how crucial arrangements are to a song, and the colour and texture of the instruments used to play them,  not to mention the players performing with the right feel, groove, vibe, tightness & studio discipline necessary for the song to come alive the way I intended it in my head. 

In Dom and Dave, I have two musicians who understand my song writing and know how to play tastefully with the right level of restraint, to help make good songs sound great. As Dave often says, 'Mike bakes the cake and the rest of us add the icing'.

It's great to play with musicians who work out parts and embellishments which are appropriate for the song, rather than use a good song as a vehicle to fly an ego-ship and show off ( In the increasingly distant past, I've worked with a few people like that and they have been shown the door very quickly!).

The Treat, and if I do say so, myself as Producer/Bandleader, are beginning to acquire a reputation  for setting high standards of performance, recording and musicianship, especially locally. Every musician who has done a session for us since June 2005 has delivered and done a great job.

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Saturday 14th April saw The Treat perform their first full electric show in nearly two years. It was our first gig with Dave Hart playing acoustic drums and I'm pleased to say, it was a great success. This is, without question, the best line up of The Treat to date. The three of us have proved to ourselves and audiences that we can play 'hard and heavy' and 'light and quiet', not only in the studio, but live as well.

As audience response grows with each gig, we are now on a mission to play as frequently as possible, especially with the completion of the new album imminent. The Treat will be performing again in May at a venue in Oxford. Check back at this site for details soon.

SET LIST FOR APRIL 14th GIG:

Make You Crawl/Too Late/On The Waterfront/For A Reason/The Hunger/Agent 555/Roaming/Fanfare For The King

The Treat played their first show of 2007 at The Jericho Tavern, last Thursday (22nd March) to a supportive and enthusiastic crowd. The Treat performed an acoustic set, mixing new songs with live favourites from the 'In Technicolor' album. 

SET LIST for the show :

 Agent 555/For A Reason/Falcon & The Iron Rain/Citizen Of The World/On The Waterfront/The Hunger

The band enjoyed performing at the Jericho Tavern and will return to play there on Saturday 14th 2007.

The Treat will be performing on Thursday 22nd March 2007 at The Jericho Tavern, Walton Street, Oxford, on the 'Crosstown Traffic' night. 

The Treat will return to the Jericho Tavern to perform again on Saturday 14th April, on the 'Music Box' night. On this occasion The Treat will headline, performing a 40 minute set. Tickets £5.00 (£4.00 with a flyer). 8 pm - 12 midnight. 

2006 was by far the most productive and creative year for The Treat. We would be fortunate indeed to be as productive this year. However, everything comes at a price, and I'm afraid I paid for it by crashing and burning over the Xmas/New year period. Exhaustion, stress, overwork, all lead to a prolonged period of ill health, from which I'm now recovering, fitter and stronger. Soon, to be fully recovered and focusing on the release of the new Treat album and a series of gigs for the spring. Watch this space.

The Treat played an acoustic show to a packed crowd at The Port Mahon on Thursday 7th December.

Our first 'proper' gig in 6 months, we premiered a number of new songs in front of a responsive and appreciative audience. After many months of recording sessions in the studio, it was good to get out in front of an audience again.

Yet more marathon studio sessions before Xmas. Dom was in this last weekend (9th December) to lay down the bass parts for a number of new Treat tracks, including 3 that he has written himself. I have been recording acoustic and electric guitar parts for several songs, along with lead and backing vocals.

At a moment's notice, Dave and I decided to give an impromptu performance of a new acoustic number at the Catweazle Club in Oxford, last Thursday (Nov 30th), as a warm up for our acoustic show next week at Port Mahon. We played 'Falcon And The Iron Rain' to an enthusiastic audience, that gave us a huge round of applause. Many thanks.

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We have decided to play an all acoustic set for our Port Mahon appearance and will be playing songs from the forthcoming album, some old favourites and some new songs never played in concert before.

We are currently organising some live concert appearances in Oxford and elsewhere, which should take place over the next couple of months.

In the meantime, recording continues. November 12th saw the recording of drum parts for 5 new songs (!).

The mastering process has begun for the new album. Artwork is currently under review.

Due to massive 'studio tan' & also numerous people asking us when we are next performing live, we have arranged a small club performance at the Port Mahon in St. Clements, near The Plain in Oxford (UK).  Doors open at 7.30pm. Check with venue for prices.

We intend to perform some songs from the forthcoming Treat album, plus some old favourites from the 'In Technicolor' CD. We have played a number of electric shows in the past and recently some acoustic ones. On this occasion we will attempt to mix both together during the concert.

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 Another mind blowing recording session for The Treat took place over the first weekend of this month. We are working on a sound collage and much experimenting took place using finger cymbals, a Chinese gong and orchestral tympani. The Tymps were used on IN MY OWN TIME & SILENT VOICES and all over the epic MURDERS INTERNATIONAL. This last track started off being 4 and a half minutes long, then 9 minutes then 18. I wrote and added further sections and the track ballooned to 28 minutes and is currently at 32 minutes. It's the longest, most ambitious work I have ever undertaken as a songwriter.  

We also had time to tweak mixes for MAKE YOU CRAWL, THE DEATHDAY PARTIES & BLACK CAT WHITES, all of which sound STUNNING!!.

I have been approached by several promoters regarding gigs and we are currently organising some gigs in Oxford and possibly London.

Thank you for your continued interest and support.

As we are getting closer to a release date for the second Treat album, we have started sending out a few mixes of some tracks. 'Fanfare For The King' has received a great response from people in the industry, some going as far as saying that the album is going to be 'huge'.

I've also written a few new songs. This level of creativity has been unprecedented in my life. It's like a tap I can't turn off.

So far the songwriting has veered from hard rock, blues, folk, country, dadaist, eastern/african world music to electronic/experimental, spanish & progressive rock.

This, all in the space of 15 months. Rock On!

HEAD SPINNING RECORDING SESSIONS

 More intense recording has taken place since I last blogged on here. Two marathon sessions recording glockenspiel and flute and another recording various acoustic guitar parts. This has been my first opportunity to record with a lovely Martin I have had for some time, but never recorded with. The tone and colour of the recorded instrument is really quite satisfying.

We have some keyboard parts to complete and that will wrap up the recording of the next album, the release of which has now been set back to October.

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THE TREAT IN 'LED ZEP/ALEISTER CROWLEY VIBE' SHOCK!!!

The last two weeks have seen some intense rehearsing of new songs I have written for The Treat. One of which is a section of a much longer piece, called 'Murders International'. Essentially a socio-political take on current world affairs and then some. One section refers to the bombings of july 2005 in London. We were recording the track on the night of August the 9th. Little did we know 20 miles away police were raiding houses looking for suspects allegedly planning a repeat campaign of bombings!. How's that for a Page/Crowley vibe. 

David has been playing Glockenspiel and flute on the new tracks and I'm using my 12 string acoustic guitar to add to the armoury of guitar sounds and effects I already have. Dom has been busy sketching out some parts for a piece he's been working on.

At some stage we MUST gig again soon. However we are on such a roll creatively, I'm loathe to stop it, just in case the 'connection' breaks and we can't get it back. So far we are up to about 40 songs.

The mixes for 'Meadowland' and 'Fanfare For The King' sound awesome!!! Just a few more tweaks on 'Haitian Mourning Dress' and 'The Deathday Parties'. Perhaps a slight tweak on 'Erased'.  We are about halfway there with the mixes. The album is definitely a 10 stage progression from 'In Technicolor'.

JULY 2006

Completed a new mix for 'The Deathday Parties' which sounds awesome. Can't wait for you all to hear it on the new record.

We've been mixing some more tracks for the forthcoming album. 'Fanfare For The King', which is a little 'Foo Fighters' meets Ronnie James Dio era 'Rainbow'.

A second track 'Make You Crawl' is ear marked to be  the next single. My 'Superunknown' era 'Soundgarden' influences helped to shape that track. Dom is right on the money with his bass playing on that one.   

We also mixed a third track 'The Deathday Parties' which is an anti-war/political song, which I was prompted to write when USA/British foreign policies gave themselves licence to walk into Iraq and bomb many civilians to smithereens to get at the oil....ooops...I mean search for weapons of mass destruction (still haven't found them, have we lads....!!!???). With the recent bombings of Lebanon by Israel, the song has more relevance than ever before.

A forth track 'Clutching At Jagged Glass' has quite a bit of experimentation on it, particularly with the vocals and microphone placement. Its a little 'Heroes' era Bowie meets 'Red' period King Crimson.

We will probably need to tweak these mixes before they get released, but at least we are two-thirds of the way to completion.

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Gave a 15 minute live radio broadcast interview from the festival to Richard Allen, on the Magazine Programme, updating him on all things The Treat. He played 'Agent 555'.

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A fourth track, 'ERASED',  has been mixed and is sounding good. I asked Dom, our bassist, to add some Wurlitzer electric piano onto the track. He played very tastefully and the results have been mixed into the final master.

I have finally recorded a lead vocal take for 'FANFARE FOR THE KING' which I am extremely pleased with. Think Ronnie James Dio meets Dave Grohl meets Mike Hyder of The Treat!.

In addition lead vocals and percussion have been added to 'TOO LATE', to give it that Black Crowes/Faces vibe.

Work continues on our world music track, 'CYCLES', which will appear on the album we have scheduled for next year.

A third song called 'Black Cat Whites' has been mixed. It is a song I wrote about my beautiful cat 'Blackie'.

Writing songs about cats/dogs is totally acceptable, in my opinion. Think of Paul McCartney : In 1968 he wrote 'Martha My Dear' about his sheep dog Martha, for the Beatles White Album. Robert Plant wrote 'Bron-yr-Stomp' for Led Zeppelin III,  about walking with his dog (strider) along country lanes in Wales. Freddie Mercury dedicated his first solo album 'Mr Bad Guy' after his cat Jerry.

The song could have been called 'Black Cat Blues'. The 'blues' has been replaced by 'whites' as an affectionate homage to Vivian  Stanshall of the Bonzo Dog Dooh-dah band. In response to several small minded critics suggesting that 'white' men couldn't play the 'blues', Vivian suggested that 'blue' men couldn't play the 'whites'.

On a technical note, I'm particularly happy with my clean tone rhythm guitar playing on the verses. Reminds me of Barrett era Floyd -  even though I played the parts on a Les Paul-not a fender Tele. Dom's Fender precision bass was played through the usual Ampeg rig, but using some of my guitar effects pedals to add colour to the sound. John, who deps for us throughout this album, did a good job with the drum parts.

 And yes, it's really turned out quite nicely.

 We began mixing songs we selected for the forthcoming Treat album this week. The results are nothing short of FANTASTIC!!

We spent many months recording, getting the sounds right, bringing in vintage valve compressors, using an array of instruments, top of the range mics, amps and backline, working on arrangements and sounds. It's all paid off.

So far, two tracks have been mixed.

One is an acoustic blues number called 'Haitian Mourning Dress' which I wrote in Hawaii, which is part Robert johnson, part classic late sixties Stones and of course lashings of The Treat. Eat your heart out Jack White!!! You wish you could sound this good and this authentic mutha f**ka!

Hello again! Having taken a break away from the studio, I'm bracing myself for the unenviable task of mixing some 30 songs (!). This is in addition to 10 brand new songs that are ready to be recorded. When will it all end??? I have no idea. Just take it that the last 12 months have been THE MOST CREATIVE musical period in my life BAR NONE. The closest parallel I can think of is the string of great songs/albums The Stones put out starting with Beggar's Banquet and ending with Exile on main St.

I have been experimenting with all manner of guitars and effects. Pushing my voice in all directions. Broadening my songwriting style. Dom has been playing a great deal of Double Bass and also electric Bass as well as some keyboards. David has so far contributed Bass Clarinet, Djembi, Didgeridoo, Melodica and Tablas.

We now have about a 1000 new friends on my space. Add your name if you wish.

We will be playing some gigs, but the music that is being recorded takes priority, as I feel we are really capturing a moment in the band's history.

Another 6 new songs written, waiting to be recorded with the band. This past year (June 2005-May2006) has been one of the most fertile and creative times of my life. At the risk of sounding big-headed, I'm having my Paul McCartney 'Revolver' moment.

In Dom Lash (Treat Bassist) and David Hart (Treat Multi-Instrumentalist/Percussionist), along with John Halliday (Depping on drums), I have found musicians of equal strength to me, and crucially, people who can interpret my songwriting in an appropriate manner. Add to that, occasional guests we have on our sessions to embellish the songs and the results fit the criteria 'the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts'. 

So far, we have about 30 or so songs recorded and more are pouring out. Some are at an advanced mixing stage and some have to be mixed from scratch. 

The much delayed follow up to 'In Technicolor' is shaping up extremely well and we have now settled on a track listing and a running order to the songs. This album will be at least as good as 'In Technicolor'. First signs from the feedback I have received from a select group of people that have heard some of the rough mixes are that it is a ten stage progression up from 'In Technicolor'.

 Speaking of 'In Technicolor' - the album that started all this off - expect a few more reviews for it in forthcoming weeks. This album was built to last and it still has legs!!. Reviews will be up on the reviews page in due course.

With all this studio activity and preparation for the new Treat album, we have had very little time to organise any gigs. This will be rectified soon. Please be patient.

Having worked my socks off since May 2005 on the new Treat albums, I've been on a short break overseas. I've just returned from sunny Florida, with a few more songs written and a few further music biz contacts. I'm heading back into the studio to start mixing about a dozen tracks which should be out on the next album in the next couple of months. The remaining tracks should be out by the end of the year.  And yes, we will start gigging again soon. 

A big thank you to all our supporters who came along to see our acoustic show at The Barfly in London on April 2nd. We really appreciated it. It was our first gig in London for over a year, our first full gig with our new multi-instrumentalist David Hart and our third ever acoustic show. Not a band to make things easy for ourselves, we played some brand new songs which have never been performed live before.

SET LIST

The Hunger/For A Reason/Haitian Mourning Dress/Meadowland/On The Waterfront/Citizen Of The World/Agent 555

Dom has been in the studio recently, as I mentioned he would be, and added some very tasteful Wurlitzer electric piano sounds to three of tracks which will be on the new record. He also added some organ parts to another track which will be on the album due out at the end of the year (we're working on two at the same time, you know!)

Various members of the Treat family are still busy in the studio. Personally, I've had permanent studio tan since last summer. Our newest recruit, multi- intrumentalist David Hart has done us proud by adding some melodica, bass clarinet and Djembe to some of the songs. I've been no slouch either, composing a further 3 tracks for the group, bringing the total up to 26 (!) new tracks. Oh, and I played bongos on one track. Dom will be flexing his Keyboard chops on several songs.

Yes, we know we've been saying that for months, but we are getting closer to a finished album.

Recording for the follow up to 'In Technicolor' began in June 2005 and is still in progress (!) . So far we have recorded 23 songs, of which 12 should appear on the next album, due out, hopefully, within the next 3 months. We will continue recording further tracks to put to the 11 outstanding tracks and have another  album ready by the end of the year. Nearly all the songs have been 'road tested' (performed) in front of audiences, to good effect.

We have retained our neo-classic rock roots, but also extended our palette to incorporate other styles as well.

Dom is playing electric, as well as double bass and bowed bass. He's also having a go at keyboards.

I am handling all the lead vocals, most of the backing vocals and, of course, all the guitars (Electric lead and rhythm guitars, 6 and 12 string acoustic guitars & dobro slide guitar). In addition I'm playing a bit of Mandolin, Banjo, Sitar, Harmonium and Theramin.

Our friend John is once again, handling drum duties, as he did on 'In Technicolor'.

The newest recruit to The Treat family is Purple Dave. He has already contributed a Tabla performance to one of the new songs and is about to add Bass Clarinet, African drums and possibly Melodica to some of the new tracks. He may well be playing drums for The Treat in the near future.

We feel the new material is a 10 stage progression on what has been before. The Treat will be performing some new songs plus some faves from 'In Technicolor' at our next gig in London. It will also be Purple Dave's first 'full' gig with The Treat.

See you there.

ACOUSTIC HALLOWEEN GIG

OCTOBER 30TH 2005

Thank you!, everyone who attended The Treat's gig at the Beard Museum (Purple Turtle) in Oxford. The gig was one of the best we have played, with a great vibe. Thanks to Jamie for booking us and doing a good job with the promotion. Thanks to everyone for listening to us in this intimate setting, playing acoustically. We managed to premier FIVE new songs. 'Purple' Dave, a tabla player and percussionist we have been working with recently, jammed onstage with us. Cool.

SET LIST

   For A Reason/The Hunger/Too Late/Haitian Mourning Dress/Meadowland/The Dragon Den/Citizen Of The World/Agent555

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Founder member, band leader and songwriter/guitarist, Mike Hyder gave  an interview to Richard Allen, which was  broadcast on Wednesday 19th October 2005. Rough mixes of 2 new tracks, 'Haitian Mourning Dress' & 'For A Reason' were aired on the show.

The Treat have a number of guests lined up to appear on their forthcoming albums. Some of these guests may join them on stage in Oxford and London. WATCH THIS SPACE.

Treat band leader and guitarist/songwriter, Mike Hyder was featured on Wed 31st August edition of the Magazine show at skywaveradio.com. DJ Richard Allen played the song 'All This And More' from his solo album 'Dark Glamour' 

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HMV, Oxford have a new stock of The Treat's 'in Technicolor' CD available, having recently sold out of copies of the album. PLACE YOUR ORDER NOW!!

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The Treat are celebrating their single 'Agent 555' s 10th week at number 1 in the Magazine listener's chart on Skywave radio. The single is off  their 'in Technicolor' album, itself playlisted as album of the week for 8 weeks on the Magazine show.

For those of you interested in details on such matters, the song's progress on the chart has been as follows.

February 2nd 2005 : DJ Richard Allen plays The Treat for the first time on his Magazine show. The song featured is 'Agent 555'.

February 9th - March 30th 2005 : The Treat's debut album 'In Technicolor' is the featured album on Richard Allen's Magazine show. One track a week is played off the album in the following order.

Don't Think Twice/Let's Get Beautiful/Hypertonic/Rock You/24/7/Nightclubbing/The Hunger

April 27th 2005 : 'Agent 555' enters The Magazine show listener's chart at no.4., where it stays for 2 weeks

May 11th 2005 : 'Agent 555' moves up to no. 3 for 1 week.

May 18th 2005 : 'Agent 555' moves to no. 2 where it stays for 3 weeks.

June 8th 2005 : 'Agent 555' finally reaches no. 1 where it stays for 6 weeks.

July 20th 2005 : 'Agent 555' drops to no.2 for 1 week.

July 27th 2005 : 'Agent 555' moves back to no. 1. Richard Allen interviews Mike Hyder about the success of the song with listener's of the Magazine show.

August 24th 2005: 'Agent 555' drops to number 2.  In subsequent weeks it stays at no. 2, then falls to number 3 for two weeks.

September 28st 2005: 'Agent 555' drops to no. 5. 

October 12th 2005: 'Agent 555' drops out of the top 5 after 24 weeks spent on the chart, 10 of which were at number 1!.  

The recent Treat Tour Of Oxford has been an interesting, and at times joyous, frustrating, exciting, disappointing, and fun period for us.

The gigs were organised to give us a break from rehearsals and recording for the new Treat album.

 The Elm Tree gig was particularly memorable, with a good turnout and enthusiastic support for the band. We also played extremely well and the sound, for a pub venue, was good. The promoter insisted we play there again, and we will. We sold a number of CD's to people who witnessed us on the night. 

The organisation at Port Mahon is 'loose' to say the least, with band members having to collect the ticket money themselves on the door, without prior notice. However, the turnout and response was good, the sound reasonable and our performance better than average.

The Kiss Bar gig was easily the worst of the whole tour. In fact, as a founder member of the band, I can say it was probably the worst gig the band has played since it formed four years ago. The turnout was abysmal. The response lacklustre. Our performance, dreadful.

In complete contrast, our support slot at the Who's Next gig in Wantage, was one of the best gigs and very satisfying. The headliners were generous enough to share their PA with us. We played extremely well, in front of a large, enthusiastic and responsive crowd and won over many new supporters. I personally spent half an hour chatting to various people, answering questions about the band and adding people to our growing Treat mailing list. Long may gigs of this kind continue!.

The Zodiac is a funny old venue. For all it's reputation, we have yet to have a thoroughly satisfying evening there. The sound has always veered between average and dreadful. Most of the punters we get to play in front of are clearly not into the type of music we play and respond accordingly, hardly inspiring us to give a particularly good performance. Most of our regular crowd witnessed us at the first two gigs and were away at Glastonbury, the weekend of this show. The promoters, who were very nice to us, on reflection, were a tad over ambitious in putting together such a varied show. We were on after a folky minstrel and a drum and bass act (!). It’s hardly likely that all three acts were going to appeal to the crowd on the night and we drew the short straw. Sod’s law being what it is, our performance from this gig has been reviewed badly, by a local rag, which at the best of times serves as nothing more than a flea bitten repository for a small, smug group of self styled, second rate taste makers, all of whom clearly over 30 and trying to be ‘quite punk actually’ by attempting (and failing) to give bands like us a hard time. You know the kind, who hear bad guitar playing and poorly crafted songs and describe them in reviews as ‘angular’ and ‘left of centre’; and an out of tune singer as ‘challenging’, or, deary me, ‘original’. These individuals are mildly amusing, but ultimately tragic. At least our performance wasn’t dire enough to warrant a rave review by these types of twits. Still, we sold CD’s on the night and won over new fans. So, kiss my ass!

Which brings us to the final show at the Exeter Hall. For me personally, it was a very satisfying gig and a great night to end the tour on. The band played well, the sound was excellent, the punters, although small in number, enthusiastic and responsive. More supporters names added to our Treat database.

To summarise, this tour achieved what we had set out to do. Keep The Treat name in the public eye, raise our profile, win over more supporters, sell more records- HMV, Oxford has currently sold out of copies of 'In Technicolor'.

Members of The Treat will be playing a few acoustic Treat shows in the near future, to road test some new material for possible inclusion on the next album. A full line up will be back on the stages of Oxford and the UK very soon. Watch this space.