Sleeper Cell was the brainchild, if it can be called such, of Nick Harper with a few pints inside him. Nick has a long association with The Levellers, and was made an offer he couldn't refuse for Beautiful Days 2005: he had to do it, and he had to do it with a band. Not being one to refuse an offer you can't refuse, Harpic obliged. The few pints persuaded him that the band should be former Lurkers and Pants drummer Dan Tozer, and me. The shouted and slurred phone call from the pub was enough to convince me that this was a carefully planned and considered option, so I agreed to hop aboard the Harpic Express. Three warm up dates were added at fairly short notice, and some rehearsing was done, but not nearly enough, as we really needed a couple of months, not a few days. We didn't have a couple of months, but we did have a few days. Steve Marshall provided us with a room, Tank Cripps stepped in as tour manager, and Taffy Doormat stuttered around before surrendering to his indecision, pulling the plug on his involvement as sound engineer the day before we were due to start. Regardless, we did the dates with house engineers, and reaped the benefit of their superior knowledge of their own systems, if not the songs. In all, we probably rehearsed about twenty-one songs, narrowing it down to eighteen that worked, and then picking the best of these to suit the set each night. The main proviso from Nick was to play five brand spanking new songs from the forthcoming album, Treasure Island, which we just about managed to pull off. The third show was recorded, and video was shot, but unfortunately this never emerged, otherwise I would include it here. I have added some photos from the dates:

Tues 16th August 2005 - Academy 3, Manchester
Wed 17th August 2005 - The Fleece, Bristol
Thurs 18th August 2005 - West End Centre, Aldershot
Friday 19th August 2005 - Beautiful Days Festival, Escot Park, Exeter

...and added Nick's own blog ramblings here.

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