Simplifires brave swine flu in Mexico

Writing from Mexico, the band's lead singer, Irishman daveO, is eager to assure us everything's okay there, despite the media scaremongering to the contrary.

The band have been making the most of their hugely positive review in a recent Hot Press, with recent trips to SXSW and Canadian Music Week, although they've had to cancel upcoming gigs in their hometown cause of the health scare.

Staying in touch with HP via email, daveO and the band have sent us a little health update, complete with helpful pictorial evidence (above):

"We thought we’d send you a couple of photos of the band reading our Hot Press and sporting our current and highly fashionable facial wear!" he says. "They’re all the rage here in Mexico city at the moment! Surely you all know the news!"

But the news teams may be getting carried away, he adds: "Don’t worry though, it’s rather blown out of proportion. It is a bit of a laugh walking around at the moment with the face masks on... It’s incredibly bizarre, and while the comedy value is never lost on a Mexican, the inconveniences are starting to rise, if slowly... empty dairy shelves, shortages of tortillas and fresh cactus leaves to be specific!!!"

The supposed death toll has been greatly exaggerated, daveO says, with just 20 cases confirmed as swine flu, and only 7 deaths positively attributed to the flu so far:

"The numbers you might be hearing are definitely exaggerated for the moment, the 159 deaths you've heard about, what you probably haven’t heard it that 7 of these are attributed to the actual strain of flu... the rest are so far being attributed to regular flu or pneumonia – a rather seasonal average. Here, of the 2000 contracted cases reported, 20 odd are confirmed as the strain."

The lads hope to stop by Ireland soon, travel restrictions permitting! We'll let you know when to expect them.