Erin Patrick, a deputy medical examiner in Multnomah County, says Mitchell was found dead a little after 3 a.m. today in his room at the Benson Hotel in downtown Portland, Oregon. She says Mitchell apparently died of natural causes at 62.

Mitchell was touring with the Experience Hendrix Tour, which performed Friday at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland. It was the last stop on the West Coast portion of the tour. Mitchell performed with other tour members last Thursday at Seattle's Paramount Theater. Seattle Times music critic Patrick MacDonald described Mitchell as looking frail but in good spirits.

Francis Dunnery announced a return to his prog-rock roots in a recent website missive that alludes to a "new progressives" CD and film project project slated to commence in early 2009. His recent collaborations with The Syn and members of Echolyn are likely catalysts.

Dunnery has just completed filming his current tour in Seattle with a band featuring Echolyn's Brett Kull and Paul Ramsey.

Number Seven is now finished. All 60 something minutes... And all we have to do is mix it! Of course, that is the hardest part, trying to ensure that all the ingredients add up to souffle and not leftover stew!

And so, regard our crafty new advert to get a hint of Number Seven - the story of life's never ending battle between the land and sea. We came from the oceans onto land -- have we been trying to go back ever since? Are we in danger of being overtaken by a legion of crafty crayfish? Is there, in fact, more earth than sea?

All this and more will be answered in our thrilling new dose of Phideaux music. Carefully constructed with the help of computer simulations and scientific research, this album has been formulated to resemble as closely as possible all your favourites. We have utilized the finest style consultants to ensure that our NEW SOUND will blend in thoroughly with the rest of the top acts in our field. And soon, you the listener, can bask in the fruits of our labour.

We can now reveal the song titles, and the approximate running times:

1. Dormouse - a theme (1:05) 2. Waiting For The Axe To Fall (19:20) 3. Darkness At Noon (4:00) 4. Gift Of The Flame (6:00) 5. Thermonuclear Cheese (2:30) 6. The Search For Terrestrial Life (8:30) 7. Love Theme from "Number Seven" (14:20) 8. Infinite Supply (5:05) 9. Dormouse - an end (2:00)

As promised, no animals (surf or turf) were harmed in this production. We also maintained a strict adherence to using only the musicians in the ten member band Phideaux. You will find NO PESKY ORCHESTRA here. And the best news of all is that this album contains NO 20 MINUTE EPICS. The only thing we ask is that you consider whether you would vote for the Shrew or the Crayfish. It is a battle to the death, and you will want to be on the winning side.

Let us all hope and prey that this album can be mixed and mastered before the end of 2008. We don't want to break our run of an album every year!

With the second edition of the Symforce festival behind us, we can look back at a very educational yet great (first!) gig. Due to some technical problems, which sometimes lead to a not so consequent performance, we're very satisfied with our maiden-gig and we're already looking forward to dec. 6th for our gig at the Classic Rock society in Rotherham (UK), with Heidi Jo Hines and the band Dreaming Tree supporting us!

In the mean time we've started with our first attempts recording of our existing songs with our brand-new (hi-spec's) Apple computer and other new equipment plus software, such as Protools. Which brings up new technology and possibilities, so our first concern is get to know the programs and stuff and all of it's countless possibilities ... but already the first simple attempts were recorded and they sound very promising! We've also started writing new songs, which in combination with the new studio equipment works very nice, so hopefully we'll come up with new material soon.

Of course we'll let you know about any progress and other interesting stuff.

One of our most anticipated Anniversary products is this unique 2GB Martian Fighting Machine USB memory stick! The eyes light up when plugged in, and it comes with a green extension cable to plug into any awkward USB port.

This blank USB 2.0 is fully functional and compatible with any PC or Mac computer.

It is packaged in a beautiful luxury Anniversary box printed with the 30th Anniversary Logo and The Red Weed crawling, crawling...