GOODBYE & HELLO - PANIC ROOM ANNOUNCEMENT

Dear Friends, Fans & all Panic Roomies…

Hi!!!
We hope you’re all having a great summer, and that the sun is shining where you are! We’ve been busy promoting and sending out orders of our latest album ‘Satellite’, with copies flying out to new fans all over the world; and also getting all the plans sorted for our forthcoming major tour in September.

SEPTEMBER
9th - O2 ABC 2, Glasgow
10th - O2 Academy 2, Sheffield
11th - The Met, Bury
12th - The Wharf, Tavistock
15th - The Stables, Milton Keynes
16th - Mr Kyps, Poole
17th - O2 Academy 2, Islington
18th - The Duchess, York
19th - Robin 2, Bilston, Wolverhampton
(See www.panicroom.org.uk / www.myspace.com/panicroomuk for details)

But before that, we hope to see you all at the Cambridge Rock Festival in August, where we’ll be playing the main stage on Sunday 8th, at 12.15pm – the Sunday Lunch Rock Set! ;o)
We have approx an hour’s set, and are the second band on that day.
(You can also see Gav and Anne-Marie playing with Mostly Autumn right at the other end of the day, being the last band to play on Sunday night).

We do also have some news to announce to you, though, as we feel you deserve to be included on this latest development within our Panic Room.

It is with great sadness that we wave goodbye to our dear friend and bassist, Mr Alun Vaughan, as he has decided to leave the band.
He has been such an integral part of our musical family and our journey from feldgling beginnings until now; and his incredible gift and virtuoso talent has helped to shape the sound of Panic Room in so many ways, as well as being one of our best friends. One of the brightest, wittiest and warmest people you could meet, Alun has always been brilliant to work and hang out with, and there are so many things we will miss about him!

But his musical talents have always been very much in demand, unsurprisingly, and as things continue to get ever busier for him, Alun has been stretched further and further until he has so much work to do, and not enough time to do it in.
He is a prolific writer himself and is often in demand for solo bass recitals, as well as recordings, production, and special guest appearances at seminars and workshops across the UK. We can foresee that he will be flying back and forth internationally soon with these solo talents, too, as his profile as a virtuoso bassist grows ever wider and he will get continuing opportunities to perform, teach and collaborate around the world.
As well as this branch of his work, he also plays regularly as a session player with many other bands too, as well as house bassist for a jazz club, and so you can see… this is one very busy man!

We know that Alun’s choice to leave Panic Room has been very deeply thought-out, and tough to make, and it saddens both him and us.
But his time is ever more precious and scarce, and we want him to be happy, fulfilled and not stretched to breaking point like an overstretched rubber band!
Alun feels that he won’t have enough time to devote to Panic Room as well as all the other musical projects he is involved in, now and in future; so he has decided that, to be fair to both the band and himself, the time is right for him to reluctantly step down and leave the band.

It goes without saying that we will miss Alun deeply, and will be making sure that we still all hang out as friends, as we have too much fun together not to! And we feel strongly that Alun is part of our Panic Room family - he was and always will be – and so he will still always be in our thoughts and memories and will continue to be a part of the extended family as we move on with our future. He is one of us, he is always welcome; and we hope we might play together again in future too, maybe for special occasions!

But all is well; and we just wish him all the best for an amazing, dazzling future, both musically and in every area of his life. He truly deserves it, and to be incredibly successful in whatever he pursues.
He is already a big success in our eyes.

And we want to thank him for all he has done for us – for the incredible musicianship he has brought to the band, with his dazzling technical ability and heartfelt playing and improvising; for helping us to make both ‘Visionary Position’ and ‘Satellite’ the great albums that they are, with his exceptional contributions to the music; for his excellent songwriting, which we were proud to present to the world with his tracks ‘Black Noise’ and ‘The Great Divide’; for his wonderful company both on the road and in rehearsals, where his razor-sharp wit has always had us in stitches! …And for all the love, time and care that he has poured into Panic Room over the last 3 (?) years, from writing & rehearsals to website work and promotion, and of course the times we have spent on the road.
Alun is a true friend and a true musician, and one of the most talented people we have ever met.

Here are some words from the esteemed Mr Vaughan himself:

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“This wasn't an easy decision to make, and one that I only made after exhausting every other possibility ( short of inventing a time machine, or getting the EU to agree to 48 hour days - both of which I toyed with!), but there is only so much I can do in a day and I was finding it increasingly difficult to dedicate Panic Room the amount of time and energy it rightly deserves. As a result, the time has come for me to step down.

The last couple of years have been an amazing experience, and I have met a lot of fantastic people along the way. Panic Room fans are an amazingly dedicated bunch and I've been frequently amazed by people's generosity and warmth, especially as the "outsider" coming into a familiar lineup when the band started. Thank you everyone who has taken the time to come to the gigs, listened to the music and interacted online.

And a big huge thank you to my Panic Roomates. I'm very proud of the music we've created and the work we've done over the last few years. I will still be in touch with everyone and who knows what the future may hold? Maybe I'll pop up somewhere when you least expect it ) “



Keep track of Alun’s work, gigs and adventures online:

www.alunvaughan.com
www.myspace.com/alunvaughan

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So! What do we do now?

Well, with much careful thought and some time to mull over what we needed, we are now in a position to share with you what is happening!

We knew that it would take someone very special to step into Mr Vaughan’s shoes, and to bring something truly awesome, yet unique and new to our Panic Room bass section…
And we have found just that person.

We are delighted to announce that we will be joined at Cambridge Rock Festival by Mr Yatim Halimi, bassist extraordinaire and an old friend of our drummer Gavin’s, who has played with him for many years in a variety of other bands, and in all kinds of styles! A superb player with a great improvisational flair, the years of experience he has shared with Gavin also make him an ideal choice for Panic Room, as they has an intuitive connection which is so important for a rock-strong rhythm section.

Yatim will be joining us on stage at the Cambridge Rock Festival, and has also agreed to join us for the September tour dates – so, we look forward to welcoming him onto the stage with us, and on the tour bus, and we hope that you will give him the warmest of welcomes too!

He is a lovely guy, and we are really excited about playing with him on this next stage of our adventure; and about working with him to take the Panic Room sound and spirit even further into the future!

We really appreciate all your support and love, and hope that you will continue to support us through this transitional time in our band; we want to bring you the very best music we can, played with the true passion and fire which we all carry within us, and we will not dip for a second in this mission, we will only get stronger!

So we look forward to seeing you at Cambridge… and, welcoming you, Yatim, and all the music-loving world into our Panic Room!


Thank you so much for your time and understanding in reading this; we hope you are ok and we are really looking forward to seeing you soon. )

Love, light, songs and satellitesl
From
Anne-Marie, Jon, Paul and Gavin. xxx