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Last week The Dividing Line Broadcast Network - the station though which the inestimable Gr8 Gonzo and I present our shows, and the inspiration for the title of the rather splendid Frost* ditty of that name - came under malicious attack. As a result Shawn Bishop, the Station Manager, had to pull the site down temporarily - and indeed, he may have to do so again in order to fully diagnose what happened, and to fix it.

The biggest immediate problem is that as a result of the attack the station exceeded it's monthly download limit by a staggering amount, incurring very high excess charges.

As you know, DLBN is a free-to-listen service, and Shawn is reliant on the goodwill of listeners and indeed his own pocket to keep things going. On this occasion, however, we're asking all you good folk to help out in whatever way you can by going to the donations page and contributing a bit of cash via PayPal. We estimate that if everyone who listens to the station contributes one dollar the debt would be cleared.

This is a subject that's very close to my own heart. While I was out of work being able to keep on doing The European Perspective was a lifeline, and it was mainly through Shawn's support that I was able to make the show and broadcast.

Please - do what you can. Thanks, everyone.

Voting for The European Perspective album of the year is now open - http://tinyurl.com/38qs2hp

This poll is run in conjunction with the Electric Garden festival. The results of the poll, announcing the top five British and European albums of 2010, will be given in the European Perspective that goes live over the Christmas weekend, which I'll be co-presenting with Ken Foster, the promoter of the festival.

Ken has very kindly donated a ticket for the festival - featuring a great line-up including The Tangent, The Watch and Godsticks - as first prize in a draw that will take place during the show. All you have to do is vote - I'm hoping to include some more prizes too.

Votes need to be in by 12th December - you need to vote for five albums, with a proportional representation style points system deciding the eventual top five.

So get voting!

Quite an interesting new band from Spain, this - and they've made their album available as a free download. It's sort of minor-chordy, guitar-led, girly-vocal sort of stuff. I'll be playing a bit on this weekend's TEP, but it's worth checking out the whole thing, very pleasant.

The singer is a big Magenta fan, which comes as no surprise

Harvest's website

Would Mr. Godfrey care to comment on a rumour being put about by one of his family members about the nature of the new song currently being written:

It'll be himself, naked in the toilet, strumming a badly tuned banjo...

Enquiring minds, etc...

Hello everyone, by the way