Back in '98 I was doing a European solo tour and happened to play a gig in Brussels, Belgium, in a theater called "Ancienne Belgique." It's a rather formal sit-down space, a bit like a small cinema, with good acoustics and a fine sound system. It also boasts (or at least did at that time) a professional recording studio upstairs. Some time before arriving there, the engineer forwarded the idea of recording the show. I agreed. I've had the results of the project locked up in my customized, de-humidified temperature controlled tape storage facility ever since (OK, a closet full of kids' toys and shit), waiting for the correct moment to launch this monkey into the world.

Please let me make it abundantly clear: "Bastard" is not a bootleg and was not recorded by some shifty individual with a microphone sticking out of his underwear (how can I get that point across...OK, try this: THIS IS NOT A BOOTLEG!!).

It is in fact a very high-class recording of what turns out to be a real corker of a show. It is not part of our "bootleg series" but more akin to a new release. It's of sufficiently high quality that it could be on a proper record label and distributed in the normal fashion, but I'd prefer something that isn't a band recording to be released in this more niche-oriented style, for the people who are really interested, yourselves. It will also come in a smart digi-pak and will consequently cost more than our previous onsite release, "Live Cuts From Somewhere," which was most definitely a bootleg and was packaged in a single envelope.

However, like our first release, "!Live Alone: The Bastard Of Belgium" will be manufactured in very limited quantity.     -- Graham Parker