Crowded House's intrigue

"It's nearly 20 bloody years ago?" laughs a surprised Nick Seymour when I remind him that Crowded House last visited South Africa in 1993. ugg 1873

"I haven't been there since, so I'm expecting some changes," reasons the affable bass player on the line from his home in Ireland. "Last time I was in Cape Town I did hook up with some of the locals and went surfing, so when I get back there I'm definitely going to want to get a wave or two. One of the things is being able to say you've surfed in South Africa when talking to South Africans here in Ireland or Australia. And one of the benefits of touring is being able to surf internationally."

But expect to see Seymour out of the water too.

"I have these little routines that I do while touring that takes in things like cycling and visiting galleries," says the man who painted each of Crowded House's album covers.

'Good sign of dynamic culture'

"I always want to look in the national galleries to see what they have in their collections and see how much money the public purse is able to throw at art. That's always a good sign of a dynamic culture.

"And the quality of their bread," he deadpans in his still-thick Australian accent. "As long as there's no sugar in the bread I think they're alright. South Africa probably has some really good bread.

"Actually, the last time I was there I copped onto Rooibos tea - I'd never had it before and it's been in my kitchen ever since."

Bread and tea? Shouldn't we be talking sex and drugs?ugg boots for cheap

"Tea and toast are a very big part of Crowded House," laughs the man who co-founded the band with singer Neil Finn and drummer Paul Hester in 1985.

"In Johannesburg we'll be playing in what I'm led to believe is a fairly impersonal theatre attached to a casino. So perhaps we might actually fill the arena with the smell of toast before we play to make people feel a little more comfortable," he grins.

"As a band we'd always make the time for tea breaks and have a little ritual surrounding our tea drinking. And drinking tea is another find of a good culture. It's my only criticism of the United States - I think all their problems would be washed away with a nice cup of tea," he laughs.

Tea, no doubt, played a part in Crowded House's reunion three years ago - a move that seemed unlikely when Finn binned the band in 1995.

'I was pretty pissed off'

"I thought breaking up the band was a mistake," says Seymour. "I thought at the time we were poised to be one of the biggest bands in the world and that was something I'd always wanted to be in. It was a huge motivation for me, growing up in regional Australia, wanting to be in a band that could take on the world and I felt at the time that we hadn't reached our nadir or had in fact realised my childhood ambition. So I was pretty pissed off, as it turns out," he admits.

Still, he was pleasantly surprised when Finn invited him to work on his solo album - which ultimately morphed into the Crowded House reunion album, Time On Earth.

"We had maintained a friendship based around the enduring legacy of having toured so much together and lived so closely together," explains Seymour. "I think we rediscovered our friendship and then when he rang me and asked me to come down to New Zealand and he'd pay me to play on his new record, I said: 'Fine, how much?'. And it was great negotiating with him actually because I kept saying: 'No, no, don't be silly, ooh that's too much Neil, you cant afford that' and he kept suggesting these amounts of money that I'd never received as a session musician, which was fantastic.

"So I got a lovely cheque from him to play on his record and next thing you know he asks me to start the band again and I've stopped being paid," he laughs."That's possibly the only downside to getting the band back together," he keeps laughing.

'Enigma of Paul'

And unfortunately the reunion came too late to incorporate Hester, who committed suicide in 2005. ugg boots on sale

"We really do miss Paul as a friend," says Seymour. "It's the enigma of Paul that we either loved or loathed while he was around, but we certainly miss him."

His absence is not the only change in the reunited Crowded House.

"We're probably a lot more gastronomic than we ever were," Seymour offers. "That's not to say Neil has learned to cook particularly but he really does enjoy the repartee and fine wine. He really does enjoy it. He's a different guy in the sense that he will actually sit comfortably in a restaurant and patiently wait for the main course and eat it, and drink the wine with you, and imbibe good storytelling. Back in the day he never had time for that - the band was an agenda that sadly was keeping him from his own family and he was always really impatient to get things forward moving, constantly.

"The band has a little more time now to enjoy our privilege and good fortune. That's not to say we're all about to get gout and struggle to get in the tour bus," he laughs again, "but we do enjoy the incredible privilege that we have and allowed us a global audience.

"We're all natural show offs so we enjoy it."

Aid trickles in for Indonesia

Bambang Suharjo, an official at the provincial Disaster Management Agency put the official death toll from Monday's 7.7-magnitude earthquake at 311, while 379 people were listed as missing and around 400 were injured.
As many as 4, 000 villagers were homeless and staying at temporary shelters or had sought refuge on higher ground after the tsunami swept away their houses, he said.
He added that more food and other aid was expected. "More assistance is on its way. But to reach there will take some time," Suharjo said.
Other officials explained that reaching the quake-ravaged islands by ferry would take up to 10 hours from the provincial capital of Padang.
Nelis Zuliasri, a spokeswoman for the National Disaster Management Agency, said aid from Jakarta arrived at around midnight Wednesday.
Around 2, 400 displaced people in Pagai Selatan district had not received any assistance, she said, due to difficult road access to the area.
A shortage of fuel had also prevented vehicles from distributing aid, she added.
Medical supplies at the public health centres were running low, Mentawai disaster relief agency official Joskamtir was quoted as sayin by the state-run Antara news agency.
"We also desperately need hundreds more body bags, face masks for the survivors because the stench began to sting, especially at night," he said. More bodies had been discovered but rescue workers did not have enough body bags and he said he feared the onset of diseases.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was scheduled to fly to Mentawai on Thursday monitor the conditions there. Yudhoyono cut short a visit to Vietnam after the country was hit by the quake and tsunami, as well as a volcanic eruption in Central Java.

Agliotti trial judge will not allow new delays

THE South Gauteng High Court said yesterday that it will not grant any further postponements in the trial of Brett Kebble murder accused Glenn Agliotti.

The prosecution wanted a further postponement to allow Mr Kebble’s father, Roger Kebble , to appear. In August, the court postponed the trial until yesterday because Mr Kebble was supposed to have undergone a knee operation on September 2 and needed eight weeks to recuperate.buy cheap toys

Agliotti was charged with the murder nearly four years ago.

Yesterday, the prosecution said Mr Kebble had a heart condition which would require him to rest for a couple of months before he could testify.

It also emerged that Mr Kebble did not undergo the knee operation last month .

The prosecution said it wanted Mr Kebble to testify and clarify some points that came up during the trial.

One of the state witnesses claimed Mr Kebble knew that his son wanted to kill himself.

In a radio interview in July, Mr Kebble denied the testimony by his son’s former security chief, Clinton Nassif. In that interview, Mr Kebble described the case as a mess and said the defence was “having a bloody ball” because there was no opposition. moncler 2011

Before Judge Frans Kgomo refused the request for a postponement, Agliotti’s advocate, Laurance Hodes SC, said every time Mr Kebble was requested to testify, there was an excuse.

Abbas rebuffs Syria call to continue Palestinian 'resistance'

The Palestinians must continue their "resistance" against Israel, Syrian President Bashar Assad said during the recent meeting of the Arab League monitoring committee in Libya.
Assad clashed with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the meeting when the Syrian leader argued that it is not the Arab League's role to grant the Palestinians permission to negotiate with Israel. It is an issue for the Palestinians to decide, he said.
Abbas responded by saying that "the Palestinian problem is an Arab problem, and if the Arab League does not make a decision, it means it is washing its hands of the Palestinian problem."
Assad called on the Palestinians to continue the resistance against Israel instead of discussing the settlement freeze, but was rebuffed by Abbas who said that if he did not insist on a settlement freeze there will be no land left on which to build a Palestinian state.
Friction between leaders
The friction between the two leaders began a day before the summit, over the agreements reached by Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshal with Egyptian Intelligence Minister Omar Suleiman and with representatives of Syria and Saudi Arabia.
Meshal, who met with Suleiman last month in Saudi Arabia, announced that he agreed to sign the reconciliation agreement with Fatah that had been proposed by Egypt, and with no reservations.
He also suggested that the signing of the agreement be done in Damascus, as that would rally support for the reconciliation between the two Palestinian factions.
While Abbas was quick to express his support for the initiative, Palestinian Authority security forces continued arresting Hamas activists in the West Bank, thus stirring opposition to the deal from Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas sources contend that the arrests were carried out to foil the reconciliation agreement and to enable Abbas to continue the direct talks with Israel without having to take Hamas' view into consideration.
Meshal then proposed that Syria urge the Arab League to invite him to the summit in Libya, to help foster Palestinian reconciliation.
Syria pressed the Arab states to agree but Abbas refused, saying that unless Meshal signed the Egyptian reconciliation proposal, he should not be allowed to participate in the summit.
The Syrian attempt to elevate Meshal's standing to that of Abbas clearly upset the PA president.

'One year' to clean toxic spill in Hungary

Emergency workers are trying to stop the spill, from an alumina plant, from flowing into major waterways, including the River Danube

A state of emergency has been declared in three western counties after the chemical waste burst from a reservoir.
Four people are known to have died, and 120 were injured. Six more are missing.
At least seven villages and towns are affected including Devecser, where the torrent was 2m (6.5ft) deep.
The flood swept cars from roads and damaged bridges and houses, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents.
The sludge - a mixture of water and mining waste containing heavy metals - is considered hazardous, according to Hungary's National Directorate General for Disaster Management (NDGDM).
While the cause of the deaths has not yet been officially established, the victims are thought to have drowned.
'Desperate effort' Some 600,000-700,000 cubic metres (21m-24m cubic feet) of sludge escaped from the plant, 160km (100 miles) from the capital, Budapest, affecting an area of 40 sq km (15.4 sq miles).
Environment Minister Zoltan Illes told the BBC the clean-up would take at least one year and probably require technical and financial assistance from the European Union.
He described the spill as Hungary's worst chemical accident.
"The area is very big, very heavy contamination, lots of human resources are needed, definitely machinery is needed," he said.
Mr Illes said a layer of soil 2cm deep (0.8 inches) would need to be removed from the whole of the contaminated region.
With 7,000 people affected directly by the disaster, a state of emergency was declared in the county of Veszprem where the spill occurred, and Gyor-Moson-Sopron and Vas, where the sludge appeared to be heading.
At least 390 residents have been relocated and 110 rescued from flooded areas, the NDGDM said.
Nearly 500 police officers and soldiers, including six emergency detection teams, have been deployed. Plaster has been poured into the Marcal river in a bid to bind the sludge and stop further flooding.
An alert has been declared for the Marcal and Torna rivers, and Mr Illes said workers were "desperately" trying to stop contamination of the Raba and Danube rivers.
The BBC's Nick Thorpe is in the village of Kolontar, the first and worst affected of the settlements just downstream from the burst containment pond.
The dark red colour pervades everything, he says: the streets, the sides of the damaged houses and the forbidden zone beyond.
The army hopes to install a pontoon bridge to reach the part of the village cut off since the old bridge was swept away by the mud on Monday.
That is where the damage is biggest and where several people lost their lives, our correspondent says.
Dr Attila Nyikos, of the NDGDM, told the BBC News website that a police investigation had been opened and tests were still being carried out to determine the environmental impact of the leak.
The sludge escaped from a reservoir at the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant in the town of Ajka. Police say they have confiscated documents from the company's headquarters.
The plant produces alumina, a synthetically produced aluminium oxide. It is a white or nearly colourless crystalline substance that is used as a starting material for the smelting of aluminium metal.
Weeks of heavy rain are likely to have played a role in the accident, the BBC's Nick Thorpe reports from Budapest.
MAL Rt, the Hungarian company which owns the plant, earlier said that by EU standards the sludge had not been considered hazardous.
There had been no sign of the impending disaster and the last examination of the reservoir pond on Monday had shown nothing untoward, it added.