It's been a good few years since we last heard from Lost Weekend, that great, over-looked little band from the North of England with its never give up, never say die attitude. Against the odds, 2006 should see the release of their new studio album, 'Forever Moving On', and as Bruce Mee found out while chatting with guitarist Dave Thompson, they guys have certainly been doing anything but standing still…

It's been a while now since your last album 'New Religion', so what have Lost Weekend been doing for the past 4 years?

"Good question. Basically, just what we've always done… going out, playing shows. Obviously, with having to write both the majority of Bob Catley's new album and also write the new Lost Weekend album, there's been a great deal of time spent in pre-production, writing a lot of songs for both projects. I've written for the last four years constantly."

So would you say the new Lost Weekend album, 'Forever Moving On', is a collection of the best tracks written since 'New Religion'?

"From a personal point of view, I think there's some very mature moments in there that you won't get on the other Lost Weekend albums. But also for people who are fans of Lost Weekend, there are also things in there that they will probably enjoy that we have done before. But I think there is definitely an edge of maturity to the record which I particularly enjoy, certainly with some of the songs I've written with Irvin, which are very, very good."

This new album has been recorded at Vince O'Regan's studio, so how did that come about?

"It came about basically because we were doing Bob's album there, and we liked what was done with Bob's album. Originally we were going to do it at Mastertone, but in the end, it was all down to finance, because obviously we were paying for it ourselves. I would have loved to have done it at Mastertone as the produce some fantastic stuff, but Vince came in with a much better price, and when you're using your own money, that extra few thousand pounds makes a lot of difference. The other advantage was that at Mastertone, we would have had a month block booked where we had to complete the album, whereas with Vince we could record it over a longer period of time, and relax a little bit with it. That made it easier to record."

With Bob's album, how did you find it writing for another artist in a different style?

"Originally we found it quite disturbing. We did a lot of research… listened to his previous solo albums, listened to the Magnum albums. Obviously when you are writing for someone specifically you have to get into what the individual artist is about, and come up with the material accordingly. It was difficult writing for Bob, because obviously he's worked with Gary Hughes who is a tremendous writer, and then the Paul Hodson album which was also a great record. So we were put in a very difficult position to have to write a very hard fifth album. It was never going to be easy to choose the matrial, to write the material was never going to be easy. It was a tough project to work on. We probably wrote about 35 songs for Bob's album. Some ended up being Lost Weekend songs, some were songs we could use for Bob or ourselves, but they're all songs that can be used at some point, on someone else's project."

The songs on the Bob Catley song are very varied, and don't sound like Lost Weekend songs. So will there also be a greater variation on the Lost Weekend album?

"You won't get the heavier, more powerful, structured songs that you got on Bob's album. For the people who love Lost Weekend you will get a great Lost Weekend album. I think it's the best record we've done. I think it's varied, but at the end of the day, it's nothing like Bob Catley's album."

Do you hope the acclaim from writing Bob's album will help widen the appeal and recognition of your own band?

"That would be great if that happened. It's very difficult, as the AOR market is a tight one, it's tough, and it's not a massively appealing market at the moment. All I can hope for is that it will enhance what we do, and will enable us to sell a few more albums. However, I listen to the songs on the Bob Catley album, and I don't hear anything that makes me think it's been written by Lost Weekend, and I don't know if that's a good thing, or not. They are both two very different albums."

You're back out on tour again with Bob later this year.

"In April yeah. It's always nice to go out and play. Unfortunately, a lot of bands signed to the smaller labels these days are projects, and not bands as such. For Lost Weekend, we're a working band and it's great to go out and play. That's what we enjoy and probably where we are at out best."

You are currently without a record deal for the new album. So what's the game plan for Lost Weekend?

"Well we've had a listen to a bunch of mixes, and we're going to do some more, but currently we're just shopping the album around. It's pretty much an open book at the moment, and hopefully we can get a good deal for it pretty soon. It would be great to get it out for the tour in April, but I think realistically that's not going to happen, but will hopefully be available early summer. But there's also a Best Of available which you can get hold of through the website, and will be available on the tour."

The 'Best Of' is the perfect chance to catch up on this great little UK band, their second album 'Peace of Mind' being one of my personal favourite British hard rock albums! With Bob Catley's album being a magnificent return to 'Wings of Heaven' style splendour, this will be a great opportunity to catch two wonderful UK bands doing what they do best. Don't miss it!