An interview in Kerrang! confirms the real quote, and also reveals that Grant couldn't beleive it when he read the articles. It then gets confirmed again in an interview on the Teletext pages "Planet Sound" before announcing on the news pages that one of the 6 new songs he's working on is called "Step By Step".
By now Grant is already a father to his Daughter Hanna Sky for four months :-).
Feeder before then make their b-side from "Tumble and Fall" by the name of "Shatter" after a fans petition, a single on the 10th of October, the DVD includes a fans petition of 2.500 fans, and also includes "Tender" from the PTS album. The two tracks are on the biggest Russian film of all time by the name of "Nightwatch".
It gets met with bad reviews again, but the fans were having none of it!. Kerrang! and Planet Sound liked it though.
Soon later the single charts at #11 in the UK, and #9 in Scotland!!!, this is a brilliant result on both sides of the border as the guys had so much competition from some of the best selling acts worldwide, it also gives them yet another TOTP appearance and also their first one on the new BBC 2 format shown at 7:25 on Sundays after the previous one flopped and lost viewers!.
Feeder then confimed their tour, which started in Doncaster in 28th Nov, and was supposed to end on the 6th December at the Hammersmith Apollo.
However, during the Brighton gig on the 2nd December, Grant had to stop performing after what was thought at the time, losing his voice.
It was a very sad end to a happy occasion in which new song "Burn The Bridges" got an airing to a top reception (it never was played at Brighton tho), and also a very sad end to a top year for the band :-(. It was soon revealed Grant had bleeds on his vocal chords. The week wasn't totally bad though- they won "Best Album" at The Pop Factory Awards a day later :-).
The other gigs got rescheduled, and the dates were announced as 21st and 22nd March for the two London dates, and also 24th and 25th for the Brighton and Birmingham dates.
The year ended with Feeder's fans wishing Grant a speedy recovery :-).
2006: Feeder's best chart year yet. The year begins with a confirmed headline slot at Welsh festival The Full Ponty, and then after that the guys finish their 2005 winter tour over a whole week in late March. Before this new single "Lost and Found" was already played on XFM and got a huge reception. The setlists were changed from the original ones that were planned for the original gigs, but every one was hugely received.
The order of the gigs went Hammersmith (21st and then 22nd), Brighton Centre (24th), and then on the final night at Birmingham (25th), this was originally going to be after Brighton two days later and then the two Hammersmith nights straight afters.
The tour ended on an emotional note, with the guys doing one last standing ovation to the crowd before leaving the stage. I myself and all my friends who went on the rescheduled tour all felt a huge bout of emotion over the end of the tour, but kept on saying "Roll on Amsterdam!". The NEC in Birmingham was packed, 9,500 was the capacity that night and 8,000 people turned up, an amazing feat that will be talked about by Feeder fans for a very long time to come.
The week "Lost and Found" is released, Feeder come back to play at HMV and sign copies of the single. An amazing gig with quality not quantity written all over it. The single than charts at #12 and becomes the bands 18th top 40 hit single, with also their top 20 download chart breakthrough thanks to a series of downloads of the song from the rescheduled tour.
Then after that the guys go on a European tour, premiering next single "Save Us" from the singles album. After the Munich gig Grant tells my friends and myself the singles album is in the midweeks at #3 and then stays there at the end of the week on the night of the the Amsterdam gig. He tells my friends and myself after the gig that the album also is Feeder's best-selling opening week record at 50,000 copies. He also says a TV advert for the album costed EMI �50,000 per slot!!!!!.
A week later the album moves up to #2 and stays in the top 10 for 2 more weeks, before going platinum after it's 10th week. At this point new single "Save Us" is released on the 24th July, and charts at a disapointing #34 and don't make any appearance on the setlist of their festival slot at the Rip Curl event in Newquay, which was their first gig in the town in 10 years, and they came back with a bang with an amazing virtually full-length set. They already played another surf festival in North Wales, and played for just over an hour, and was another well worth the wait performance, after sitting though tons of obscure bands. (Automatic were good tho). "Save Us" however, made a return at Pukkelpop in Belgium, but seemed it wouldn't make another return.