Come see us and the other bands tonight in the final. Kick off time is around 11 pm at Club CIXI, On Hong Bld, opposite the California Gym on Wyndham St (up the stairs). See you there.

Well, looks like we are now through to the Hong Kong finals of the Global Battle of The Bands after we won our heat on Friday night. Thanks to all our friends who turned up and supported Uranus on the night. It was a great party. Some really cool bands entertained a crowd of about 200, including a great band called the Rice Magnets. Very "Brian Ferry". Uranus played last and our vocalist William Pfeiffer really fired up the crowd. I'm glad we played last. The crowd was reasonably lubricated by the time we hit the stage. The final will be held this coming Friday, again at Club CIXI. See the pics from the event in the albums folder. Rock On!

The nerves are building for Friday night's (tonight's) Global Battle of The Bands, to be held at Club CIXI, On Hong Bld, Central. Uranus! is playing its first public gig at GBOB. The five members in Uranus!  are William Pfeiffer (vocals), Ed Bean (guitar and piano), Ryan Poppi (drums), Jasper Donat (bass) and myself (lead guitar). We've managed about three practice sessions in the past three weeks, although Ed, William and I have spent several days working on the original songs (Alive Again and Asia Rocks)  for our 8 minutes of fame on Friday night. So, come along and support us. Audience vote counts for 50 p.c. of the score. The bands kick off around 9 pm. If you miss us there, catch us post gig at my bar, Dish, at No. 2 LKF, opposite California Club. See you there.

OK, for those of you interested in volunteering, donating, or helping out with Operation Smile I have a contact for you. The man who administers the charity in Hong Kong is Steven Tam. His email contact is steven@opsmile.org.hk. I will post a rough cut of the film here when it is finished. C.

One of the great upsides of working in this industry is that every now and then a project comes along that moves you so much it alters your perceptions, changes the way you think and improves you personally as a human being. I am lucky enough to have the privilege to work on such a project at the moment. Ocean Vista Films is producing two films for Operation Smile. Operation Smile is a world-wide charity that raises funds to put teams of volunteer surgeons and nurses into medical missions which fix cleft palates and cleft lips on children and adults, largely in third world countries and remote areas where people cannot afford such operations. The OVF team spent a week in Urumqi (capital of Xinjiang province, in the far North-West of China) filming volunteer doctors and nurses from around the world operating on patients - mostly children - afflicted by the condition. These children and their families came from hundreds of miles away, travelling for weeks on end, many on donkey and horse back, across mountains and deserts, to reach the mission in Urumqi. The volunteers then screened them, tested their blood and prepped them for operation. What happened next just blew me away. Four operating theatres with two tables in each theatre worked constantly for four days from 8 am until 7 pm restoring the smiles on hundreds of children. To see these children before with such disfigurement and to hear their parents and relatives tell stories of abandonment and persecution by others because of this disfigurement would make you weep. And then to watch these world-class surgeons perform amazing surgery to correct these problems was an absolute privilege. The ultimate however, was seeing these children post operation with new lips, new smiles and new hope in their lives. Watching the parents see their children for the first time post op was heart wrenching. Many broke down in tears and couldn't offer enough thanks to these wonderful volunteers for their work. We are editing the films in the next seven days and I hope to have a rough cut to put on this site soon. The film will be used to raise funds for the charity and an event in Hong Kong called Fight Night (white collar lads engaging in a bit of biffo!) will kick off the fundraising effort in October. We will be heading to London early October to film James Blunt who is putting his support behind the Hong Kong chapter of the charity. If you'd like more info on this event or the charity, let me know.