They'll be taking you over...

April 25th promises to be a red-letter day for Suede fans - not to mention a world exclusive for Hot Press - as the band give their new single its premiere at the 2002 Hot Press Irish Music Awards, at the BBC's Blackstaff Studios in Belfast.

It will be the band's first reappearance on the live circuit since a 2000 festival headliner in Reykjavik - and their first show to herald their latest album, due out this autumn.

Provisionally titled Subject To Nicotine Stains and currently being wrapped at London's Townhouse Studios, bassist Matt Osman describes it as "a very heartfelt record. It's much warmer and simpler than the last one. The songwriting is classic Suede but the sentiment is much more up than anything we've done for a long time."

"Brett and the boys are [at this stage] working away on a sequence for the songs," a spokesman tells hotpress.com. "All that's left to do is a few nips, tucks and edits. Mastering is scheduled for May 1st and the record is expected to be in the shops in September."

As for the unceremonious departure of keyboard-player Neil Codling: "The whole thing with Neil leaving was horrible. We've cleaned up our act and sorted ourselves out a little bit."

The Hot Press irish Music Awards will be televised on BBC1 on Friday, April 26th at 10.35pm, and again on BBC Choice on saturday, April 27. Stay tuned for detals of how you can win Awards tickets.