So few people have asked us about the origins of the band that we went to the trouble of composing this Brief tale.

Armed with these simple funk-tinged, soul-stained, fusion-fettered, drum&bass dripping, jazz-jittering grooves this group of misfits continued to rehearse intermittently in the bowels of Southampton University's music department.

Rehearsing in the days when Southampton Uni's music department was home from home

It was still late 2003 when one trumpet-armed cheeky-man by the name of David Bacon set eyes on the band. (The eyes were later returned wrapped in ice-cool lettuce leaves). Cunningly, David disguised himself as a Masters and the boys Brief (sans Uncle Tony who was otherwise engaged having a piss just outside Bournemouth) were coerced into backing his drumpet for nearly a whole arduous hour one Friday in a quaint village known as Turner Sims.

Cured by the art of Bacon, this new drumpet-expanded line-up took to the studio to record a clutch of new material, and came up with 'Ball Your Eyes Out' in the process.

Soon after, the band (minus Uncle Tony who decided after taking a very satisfying piss, that such enjoyment could only be surpassed by curling one out in the same location) went mainstream(!) and were lucky enough to play played at Southampton Uni's very own union bar - although many bar-goers were most distressed to find actual drums on stage. We were pleased to equip ourselves with further gadgetry in our quest for audience bamboozlement although Stevie B had some CRACKLE issues on the POP tune Really Toxicy (an unlikely drum and bass rearrangement of the Britney Spears classic track) but sorted them out in a SNAP in time for the chorus so the crowd didn't give a Kellogs. Hal also ventured into the realms of technological otherworldliness but couldn't find the volume pedal so it all went a bit Cage.

And the Brief became clearer ...

Following the end of the Zounds barbeque around Summer 2004, and after recovering from post-band food-poisoning, said band's tenor sax collosus Joe Browne was pilfered and added to the now-not-so-Brief lineup. And Summer 2004 was a good time to be aboard the good ship HMS Briefs. Various incarnations of the band played some genuine trouser in the south of France, the middle of the Netherlands and even Wales.

A night of jazz at Le Reveillon in France

The band have been back to Le Reveillon jazz café in Normandy on several occasions since. But that was mainly for the baguettes and farty Brie.

In September 2004, we retuned to the small town of Turner Sims (now a sprawling metropolis with the smell of Sam coming from its Rivers) where we unveiled, amidst kovs and splutters of consternation, a live Scherezade, still wriggling having been caught only the previous month and preserved since in fennel leaves for reasons best left unknown. It had been Dave's idea to rearrange Rimsky-Korsakov's symphony as he put it "as a bit of a joke". Side-splitting humour we're all agreed.

The band's first studio recording was completed soon afterwards - The Posthumous EP - featuring four original tracks from the band, including a tune penned in France entitled Ears For Your Eyes, a funky-house look at the ethics of cosmetics and double embouchures. We dedicate the record (and hope this also explains the EP's title) to our Uncle Tony Reeves who is sorely missed... oh, it's not that he's dead, it's just that we hadn't seen him for ages and promised we'd mail him some humus to fuel his Greek dip-addiction.

Dave Bacon's fusion arrangement of Scheherezade

being performed at Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton

Six graduates later, the Brief was preached in France at the Vienne Jazz Festival, July 2005 to really French crowds.

The band has now shed its funk skin and is wriggling into its adolescence with a new raft of material due for recording and touring when da boot comes in.

In the meantime, check out the Briefs at myspace.com.

Weeeeeell, caramel is quite rich but it does taste rather good.