Gail Greenwood (most recent of three bassists, and the one with the most tenure) is now a full-fledged member of L7, who have a new album out, which is being completely ignored by everyone.

Tanya went on to have a solo career and released a new LP in September 1997 - "Lovesongs for Underdogs" on 4AD, which was reasonably successful. As of January 1999, she is still signed to 4AD and Reprise and will have a new album out sometime towards the end of 1999.

Unfortunately, Cargo went belly up soon after this announcement but Darla Records seem to list it in their mail order section, so it is available.

Report from November 1997 AP magazine said that "Liz has moved to Bristol and is working with Massive Attack. Robin is producing Guy Chadwick from House of Love fame and Simon is overseeing posthumous release from Billy Mackenzie of Associates". Indeed, Liz Fraser has been guest vocal on a number of songs since. She has sung songs on recent LP's by Craig Armstrong and Massive Attack, and a song on the closing credits to the film Winter's Guest. Tracks from her first solo LP have been heard, and it's probable that it will be publically available sometime in 1999. Robin and Simon are concentrating on producing albums and on their record label.

Ivo-Watts Russell is currently editing a "best-of" compilation for release sometime in 1999. According to Simon Raymonde, "latest from 4AD is that the compilation will take the form of a 20-or-so track cd, plus a limited edition with a bonus cd of other unreleased stuff, like live tracks, like some TV performances, radio stuff etc. There will most likely be a single release of Carolyn's Fingers."

It's hardly suprising that this split occurred; the last album Spiritchaser was created through the postal service without Lisa and Brendan having much contact (it showed) and in the past few years, amongst the cancelled tours, they have started to forge their own careers. Lisa Gerrard has had two mildly successful albums, The Mirror Pool and Duality (the latter with a different percussionist, Pieter Bourke) whilst Brendan Parry has supposedly been working on a solo album for a number of years now.

As for the material which was supposed to emerge on the scheduled Dead Can Dance album, that is most likely to end up on the Brendan Parry album which should be released sometime in 1999. Given that his solo work so far (on the fantastic Toward The Within Video/CD) has been very folky, expect it to be chock full of acoustic guitars and songs about lost acquaintances. According to 4AD, Brendan is somewhat a perfectionist, so expect to hear something more towards the end of 1999.

Dif Juz's non-4AD output was limited to a mini-album Who Says So and a chaotic tape of demos Time Clock Turn Back from the Pleasantly Surprised series. An album of unreleased stuff was planned by Independent Project Records, but it never came to pass.

Dif Juz's hard-to-find EP's are going to be re-released in the US as an album called Soundpool in March 1999, and will include the extra track No Motion which comes from the Lonely as an Eyesore compilation. More information here.

On Sept 22 1997, Erikas Napjas said: "Both the single and the album are utterly terrible. While there was some character to Frazier Chorus before, now it's pure elevator music." Alternatively, Matthew Thomson said on October 1998 that "Wide awake isn't that bad for God's sake. Tim Freeman's laid back, jazzy style might not be to everyone's taste, but as mellow late-evening mood-setting stuff it's really jolly good."

" I wrote to Lisa's management a couple of weeks ago and got a reply, (from Lisa herself, praise the Lord) that wasn't very uplifting. She said she was done in the business, and no longer on 4AD. "

Possibly bad experiences with the Smashing Pumpkins, and a rather bad tour with the Eels (see archives), probably contributed to her decision to quit the music business completely. She is an archeologist by trade.

Lush lead singer Miki Berenyi is also working on solo material. Phil King joined the Jesus And Mary Chain as bassist on their last tour.

Other members of Pale Saints went onto other bands after they split. Colleen Browne said in April 1998: "I can tell you that Graeme Naysmith and Chris Cooper are still in Leeds and are currently in a band called Lorimer with their friend Phil Pettler, who was once in Leeds-based band The Edsel Auctioneer. I had stints in London-based bands Rialto (eastwest) and Warm Jets (Island) and am currently in an unsigned band called White Hotel with drummer Jean-Marc Butty, who played with PJ Harvey for 3 years during the To Bring You My Love period and singer/songwriter/guitarist Ken Low who has played on some Barry Adamson (once of The Bad Seeds) albums."

Kim Deal left for The Breeders, and then formed a garage band called "The Amps" and released an album on 4AD called Pacer. Is subsequently recording under "The Breeders" again. The Breeders line-up is substantially different now - No Tanya, Jim, Kelly or Josephine. The new Breeders line-up has spent much time in the studio and an album is due sometime during 1999.

Joey Santiago has his own band called Martini's now - a locally-based LA band who have recently released an album. Michael Scholtz sain in November 1998: "The band features ex-pixie joey santiago on guitar, joining Linda Mallari (vocals, gtr, piano, co-wrote the songs with mr. s), Rachel Haden (b, b. vox), and Dawn Richardson (d). Sorry to report that three listens haven't revealed anything particularly thrilling in the cd's contents. Female-led american alternarock, nothing too distinctive in the writing or arrangement that i can detect."

David Lovering drummed for the band "Cracker" whist touring for a while, but has since been replaced by Johnny Hott (ex-House of Freaks).

A Pixies retrospective album called Death to the Pixies came out October 1997 in a variety of formats, some of them including a live recording, followed by a mid-price album of BBC sessions on July 6th 1998 - see here for more information. This will probably be the last Pixies release, ever.

Mark Kozelek has recently been getting a John Denver tribute album together, and Red House Painters will be contributing a song to that. More details here. They also have an unreleased song called Midnight in the Bay on a tribute album for Harvey Milk which was released April 22 1998 to raise money for the Harvey Milk Institute in San Francisco: a limited edition of 1000. This song was from the Songs for a Blue Guitar sessions.

The new Red House Painters album will be called Old Ramon on Supreme Recordings, an off-shoot of Island. Unfortunately, Island Records has been sucked into the Universal conglomerate recently and although Mark Kozelek was kept on the roster, the release date is somewhat elastic. The first part was due for release in January 1999 and the second part was to follow shortly afterwards. Who knows when it will be released now.

4AD will also have a RHP retrospective out sometime in the second quarter of 1999.

Scheer's feelings were made known to 4AD around January 1998 and their departure was finalized in August. They then started their own record label called Schism Records (see http://www.schismrecords.com/) and were supposed to "have lots of material for the new album". However, I've heard that Scheer split up sometime during January 1999 and their website hasn't been updated for a long long time.

Paula Frazer has since worked with a group called The Czars at the September Sound studios, so expect an album from them on Bella Union records sometime soon.

Tanya Donnely left after The Real Ramona. The reason she left (according to either the Melody Maker or NME) is that she and Kristin "loved each other too much". Presumably that meant difference of opinion. Tanya went on to form Belly (see above) and took the bass player, Fred Abong, with her.

Kristin went on with Throwing Muses with new bass player and released new albums Red Heaven (which she thinks was one of the best, but her fans disagree) University (much improved) and finally Limbo (ditto). But everyone agreed that they never again reached the lofty heights they used to, and Throwing Muses broke up for financial reasons mid-1997.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Kristin released an absolutely startling solo record called Hips and Makers in 1994 and released her second Strange Angels on 2nd February 1998. A Throwing Muses retrospective called In a Doghouse was released in September 1998 through Rykodisc and 4AD. It's the first time that the first self-titled LP has been available domestically in the US, and includes the elusive Chains Changed EP and demos from before their days at 4AD, plus a video for Fish which you can view on your friendly PC or Macintosh computer. Check the archives for more information.

Kristin Hersh's third solo LP, Murder, Misery and then Goodnight consists of Appalachian folk songs and was released through mail order in November 1998. Jeremy Orr says "Sounds like a career-killer to me" but I wonder if Kristin had anything but a hobby in the first place. In addition, she's just finished recording another album called sky hotel. It's not likely that we'll hear this anytime soon however as lots of licensing arrangements have to be made first (her deal with Rykodisc recently came to a close). More details when they are hot off the press! She is also planning on putting together a band to record, possibly called "low eye." It will include Bernard Georges, Trina Shoemaker, and Martin McCarrick. David Narcizo was performing on Tanya Donelly's Lovesongs for Underdogs tour, and is now working on a project called Lakuna (meaning: "a space where something has been omitted or has come out; missing part; gap; hiatus...any of the very small cavities in bone that are filled with bone cells") which will be mostly a studio thing with electronics and loops and so forth. He's just send the tapes off to 4AD and so Something will probably be released sometime in 1999 on 4AD, although nothing else is known yet.

In March of 1998 a small item appeared in Alternative Press: "Kurt Ralske, whose Ultra Vivid Scene records in the late '80s and early '90s fused 4AD-style swirl-pop with a deeply hypnotic groove, has taken a leap into the deep waters of electronica. And as far as Ralske is concerned, he'll be happy to remain floating there forever. 'I'm not really so interested in pop music these days,' he said". Indeed, his new project is called Cathars. The Alternative Press wabsite says that he will be releasing music on the Miau Miau Record Label: more information from miaumiau@earthlink.net.

It possible he's more interested in producing than recording now; He's been mentioned as producing a number of albums the last couple of years, for people like Mistle Thrush and Richard Davies. There's a full list of engineering and production credits in the archive.

Air Miami's World Cup Fever was posthumously released as a 7'' single on Teenbeat records on June 15th to co-incide with [you've guessed it] the soccer world cup. Flin Flon's debut album came out in September 1998, but apparently doesn't sound like either Air Miami or Unrest.

More rumours have it that they might be signed to Trent Reznor's [Nine Inch Nails] record label, Nothing records. That rumour is now looking more unsubstantiated these days. It's probable that the Wolfgang Press no longer exist.