and all eyes are on danny’s broken 2nd right metatarsal (that’s the bone connected to your middle toe, for all of you who haven’t poured over the doctor’s findings). the result of a nasty tangle with a moreton bay fig, somewhere in the domain, sometime after homebake. the break looks but a shallow ditch on the x-ray, although the it’s situation right behind the ball of his foot lead to a canyon of discontent in the camp – well, let’s just say there ain’t much kick drum action going on. much to their chagrin, youth group had to pull out of the mess hall’s christmas show at the annandale hotel. danny could be found excitedly waving his cane around at the back of the room, but sadly couldn’t be on stage. and the darned metatarsal was supposed to be all better by the beginning of January (a clean break, a fresh start) but come the first week of the new year and dan was still limping like a pup. which was a problem considering youth group were booked into the studio to record ‘Skeleton Jar’ – a late addition to the new album – on Jan 5th. and so – in what will be written down alongside other great moments in the history of recorded sound, such as when Edison decided to recycle some old candles, or when Ralph Peer set up his mobile recording studio and paid folk to sing into a can – dan played his kick drum without kicking it. rather, he thumped it with a mallet. as an overdub. what started as a joke (”wouldn’t it be funny if we had a full-time bass drum player. ha ha ha.”) quickly became deeply serious. and, my friends, it is seamless. i am sure that in a blindfold test you could not tell the difference. no sirree. what is even better news is that the track sounds great. it has earnt its rightful place on the album. speaking of which, it is coming out MARCH 22nd. the band are currently fighting over what to call it (Toby still likes ‘Don’t Go There’, but Johnno is favouring ‘24-7′. Danny’s stubbornly clinging to ‘Thriller 2′) and excitedly receiving the first instalments of Biddy’s drawings for the cover art. they master it tomorrow, off it goes to the factory – and so it begins. look out for launch dates and a tour in March/April, all things (particularly dan’s right foot) being equal. with the power of positive thinking we and anthony robbins are going mend this metatarsal and keep on rocking! (youth group that is, not anthony robbins. he’s always been rocking.)