A Message From HOSSI!

Dear Good People,

You know the first thing that I have to do is thank you all from the very bottom of my heart for the support that you gave to our band. I’m going to quote a drummer that I used to play with by saying that without you all, the band would have been nothing more than a group of glorified beer salesmen.

I have played in a lot of bands. I mean A LOT of bands. Really. And some of my most cherished memories are from the two-and-a-bit years that I spent entertaining you good folk. It was meeting many of you, seeing familiar and friendly faces and playing tunes for you that you seemed to dig, that provided me with these feelings. So thanks again to all of you for that.

So what now? Ev and myself will continue working together. I made a record with Ev in 1992 in sleepy Perth, Western Australia, and we both had a feeling then that somehow we would hook up together again. Nine years later we did a WB show in Poland when we supported Marillion. As we were just about to go onstage (and these were quite big gigs), Ev turned to me laughing. We laugh a lot. He said “Who are WE and where do WE come from?” I said “Well, you’re Blonkins and I’m Hossi – you’re from Wellington, and I’m from Kalgoorlie.” This made us laugh some more and then we had to rock Poland. This kind of friendship and musical simpatico is something that we both see as too precious to ditch. There is no deadline for what we are trying to achieve and so I’m writing away here, putting the beginnings of a set together.

Aside from that I keep myself busy working musically in the community. I run music workshops and groups for people with learning disabilities, I go into prisons and do the same. In May I’ll be carrying on this work with homeless folks, asylum seekers, refugees, people in re-hab and ex-offenders. I believe that music is essential to the very fabric of society and am doing my best to see that no one misses out.

I’m sad that our band split up. I WAS more sad – well, I kinda knew it was coming. Any of you who saw those last few gigs probably had a little inkling that something was going on too. But now I’ll tell you the happy things. The split happened just as we finished V8. I’m proud of that record, and there was only one tune in the set that was not recorded at the time of the split. I’m so pleased that there is a contemporary document of our band, that represents where we had got to.

So for now the website will live on as a focus point of what was WB and if you people don’t mind I would like to use the existing mailing list to keep you abreast of what I get up to musically in the future. I have to give the biggest up to W Kercher who spent so much of his free time building and maintaining it. Bill – thank you sir, what you made and its effect on the band and those associated with it is inestimable.

Here is the last bit. In the time I played with WB we were surrounded by people who gave of not only their expertise, but themselves in a most selfless way. Jill Furmanovsky, Susan Hall and Stu Nicholls took photos of us. Matt Howe recorded us and mixed us at Metropolis Studios. Titch Turner gave us gigs, Stephanie and Andreas wrote about us in German mags, Sarah, Chris, Paul, Andrew, Toby and a whole load of lovely folk filmed us for our Obsession video, Mariusz lent me his eight track recorder and I used it to discover the techniques that made V8 possible, Fletch gave us the funds that kept us afloat, and these folk are just off the top of my head! I know I’ve left a whole load of people out. Thanks and sorry – erk.

OK this is long enough, my last big up goes to Jockey and Mitch who worked so hard to manage us and got us to where we got. You are amongst my dearest friends and occupy a special place in my heart.

Thank you all so much everybody – I hope that I can see you all again before too long,

Big Love

Hossi x

Phil Campbell Leaves ...

It is with great sadness that I have to tell you I have decided to leave White Buffalo to pursue a solo career. This has not been an easy decision to make and one that I have struggled with for a long time. I want to say thank you to everyone who has ever come to a White Buffalo gig or bought an album. Thank you for all the support and encouragement you have given to us especially over the last two years.

Obviously it is strange that I do this now at the release of the "V8" album, but it would be wrong of me to go on any longer feeling the way I do. I will be happy to reply to any emails about this. I have no plans to play any gigs right now, I'm probably going to disappear for a while and do some writing and figure out what I want to do.

Phil

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More news will follow, as well as further reaction from the band and details of what the future may hold.

'Not Invisble' hits THE STORM!
Devoted to rock and an active lifestyle, The Storm is one of the UK's premier digital radio stations. No surprise then that this week they have jumped on board with White Buffalo by playing 'Not Invisble' as part of their Rock Revolution programme! We will be played daily, on average every four hours from today until February 8th. To get playlisted after this date depends on the listeners so we need your vote! You can support us by texting WHITE BUFFALO to 07870 150151 as many times as you feel necessary, texts are billed at standard rate so it costs next to nothing.