Happy New Year! Oh - we already did that...well Happy February! We know we've been quiet so far this year but there is lots going on behind the scenes.

We've just come back from another successful week at Real World Studios. It's a fantastic place to work with a great atmosphere. Most studios (including the Racket Club) consist of a Studio room, where the band set up and play and a Control Room where the recording equipment and mixing desk are situated. This is normally where the producer is located too. Real world has such a big Control Room that there is plenty of space for the whole band and the producer to set up without the need for a separate live room. The drum kit can get a bit loud at times, spilling over into the guitar and vocal mics but it's worth it for the improved working environment, especially when we need to talk a lot about what we are doing.

Last week we spent the first 3 days finalising the arrangement for just one song. One longish song. This is the first time that it felt like we were coming to the end of the writing and arranging. In the past there was always a point where we would stop writing and start recording. These days we are recording all the time so any performance that's captured while trying out arrangements could end up on the finished album. We have 8 songs that all deserve to be on the album. Usually one or two don't quite live up to expectations but we will record all 8 as you can never tell until they are nearly finished which ones, if any, won't make it.

In other news - Towards the end of this month, we will be launching our new website - it's a new, wider, all singing, all dancing, interactive piece of technology and we hope you'll enjoy exploring.. it's as deep as ever so wear your diving gear..

Lucy's been working hard fixing more tour dates for the rest of the year - the first bunch including North and South America, Scandinavia, Germany and Holland are already announced at www.marillion.com/tour with more dates being added soon (including the UK and Europe). Keep checking the website for updates and follow us on Facebook for day to day updates. www.facebook.com/MarillionOfficial. Rest assured we are trying to visit as many of you as we can - if we don't make it this year then we will try our best for 2013 - please bear with us!

We know a lot of you are already asking about our bi-annual Marillion weekends (www.marillionweekend.com) - well, we can tell you there will be three taking place in early 2013 and we will be announcing the dates and venues in April this year.

We hope that within the next few weeks we will be able to tell you the name of our new album and also release details of a special pre-order initiative we have been working on. We know that you're dying to hear the new music but we won't share it with you until we're absolutely ready. But know this - it's different, and it's killer.

Soon, the winter will be over..

H, Ian, Steve, Mark and Pete