News : Stagger Lee Are Dead!
Dead, buried, gone, cleared out, packed-up, a trail of dust on life’s lonely highway, Stagger Lee - aptly named after the murdered billyboy of New Orleans - are dead. But haud yer whist! Don’t cry just yet, leave your soggy hankies in your pocket for the fe/male four-piece are not quite finished. They erupt from the ghostly chysalis of that Staggering incarnation into a new world of light…as the Dagger Lees!
Remember this? I couldn’t tell you then but the band chose to abandon the old moniker waaay back and the call for artists was a search for new identity in the form of a logo, artwork and creative vision for the new handle.
Big plans are afoot in the Lee camp. This summer is spent writing and preparing new material, including a download-only single available from MySpace next month. Their song Scarlet Fever appears on a forthcoming American film release by punk rock film company Vivid Alt, while September sees the band make a return to the Spiegeltent celebrations.
However big daddy of all this news is the early 2009 trip to the US to record their debut album with the legendary Jim Diamond of White Stripes, Von Bondies and Electric Six fame. With so much activity and a strengthening reputation, it was time to dump the old skin of success and move into new threads. The Stagger Lee name is well-known in America - just try searching MySpace - continuance under the same name would have invited a helluva headache. So instead, Stagger Lee is dead…long live the Dagger Lees!