Mansun's Only Festival Appearances...

Mansun have been announced as second stage headliners for this year's Reading Festival on Sunday 29th August and Leeds Festival on Monday 30th August, guaranteed to be one of the most essential live sets of the weekend.

This is the only chance to see Mansun at a major music festival this year, and already their alter ego, Dark Mavis and the Mansun website have been deluged with requests from fans who are travelling from all over the world to catch this event.

Mansun will also be doing a couple of warm up shows for these festival appearances. One will include the sell-out Oxford Brookes Show which has been rescheduled from January. Due to booking commitments, the venue has now had to be changed to Oxford Zodiac. Any fans that still have a ticket from Oxford Brookes University will be able to use them as valid admission for the new date. The other date will be at the Ross On Wye International Festival. Fuller info nearer the time...

Mansun started 1999 with their eleventh consecutive Top 40 single, "Six", a sweep of accolades world-wide in the end of year critics and readers polls, (including many prestigious best band, best album, best video, best international song awards in Hong Kong and Japan where they are viewed with Radiohead/U2-like respect) and voted "Best Live Band of 1998" and "Best Video of 1998" (Legacy) by Melody Maker readers.

Mansun also played their last UK tour for some time in January. Since then they have been writing and demo-ing new songs in Southern Spain and are about to go into the studio to start recording the follow-up to their two gold albums "Attack Of The Grey Lantern" and last's year's stunning "Six" album which sparked off Mansun OBSESSION amongst music fans. New Mansun websites and fanzines are still constantly appearing. Mansun's album "Six" will be released in the USA this year. The band already have a healthy following in the States.

Insiders who have heard their new, song-based, material are said to be stunned at the "huge classics" _ which the ever prolific Mansun have created. Having exorcised near insanity on the 70 minute opus that is "Six" the third album will take' a different direction.

Mansun are also compiling film material for a long form video to be released in the Summer. It will contain exclusive videos, the acclaimed promo videos, unseen footage from live gigs and candid/off stage film. Grant Gee, who made Radiohead's "Meeting People Is Easy" film and Mansun's own "Six" video spent a couple of months with the band, his footage will also be included.

In the absence of Mansun releases and gigs, their fans are currently meeting up in a UK city nearly every week via the internet and are organising a summer Mansun convention in their home town of' Chester this Summer. (Date and venue to be confirmed in the near future). For all the latest information on Mansun fan activities (including a chance to name the long form video) fans can write to Dark Mavis, P. 0. Box 72, Liverpool, L69 1YG or visit their website at http://www.mansun.co.uk