At the start of the recording sessions for the album I’d decided there would be no love songs on this album, or any Mansun album. This song leaves you with the sentiment of not taking the whole thing too seriously, it’s just a bit of a joke.

Mansun are regarded as one of the most innovative British bands of the late 1990s and released three classic albums - Attack Of The Grey Lantern (1997), Six (1998), Little Kix (2000) - a retrospective compilation Kleptomania and a popular series of EPs during its existence.

In the US, Mansun enjoyed their only chart success with "Wide Open Space" reaching the modest position of No. Here at NME, we deemed it the 44th best album of 1997 in our end of year list (and there was stiff competition that year, believe us).

Although this song sat neatly with the narrative of the plot, I thought I’d challenge my own rule on this song, I remember the chorus being really emotional, and it still feels like that now.The final single released from the album was "Taxloss" which followed the album in April 1997 and made No. This was going to be the big single after the album was released to turn us into a huge pop group, but for some reason or another (everyone has a different story) it wasn’t released and ‘Taxloss’ was put out instead. The amount of times I’ve sat in pubs trying to explain to people what it’s all about is mind boggling, and in the mists of time, I’m not sure I can even remember myself.

Can someone create a new listing for this one please as I care not interfere in official Discogs entries, sorry ?Panopticon is definitely their best album in my opinion, but the rest of their discography is worth a listen (in particular the almost equally fantastic Oceanic album). To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of ‘Attack Of The Grey Lantern’, a very limited number of this beautiful vinyl picture disc featuring the iconic roses design, are now available signed by Paul Draper. Originally this song was entitled ‘Desperate Icons’, a song I’d began writing quite a few years as a teenager before the album’s release. Created in May 2008 to provide a home for the growing post-progressive genre and an evolving, flexible and adventurous style of music without boundaries. I remember being off my tits in Ibiza when Paul Oakenfold’s ‘Wide Open Space’ remix came on in Pacha and it blew me away.

Written in the form of a letter from the transvestite vicar to his daughter, it sort of deepens the plot of the album’s narrative a bit before it’s all resolved on the final track, Dark Mavis. I was 15 when I wrote it as I recollect and kept it tucked away and always thought it would make a nice album track, and it did. Due to fan-driven popular demand, Paul then played an ambitious second solo tour in early 2018, performing Spooky Action as well as Attack of the Grey Lantern.Attack of the Grey Lantern is the debut album by English alternative rock band Mansun released on 17 February 1997 via Parlophone. After we added the strings to the beginning of the track it started to sound like a James Bond theme, so we changed its title to something slightly more humorous. There aren't that many metal artists or albums that I care for that much, but ISIS is certainly a band that I do enjoy a lot. They released four classic albums – Attack of the Grey Lantern (1997), Six (1998), Little Kix (2000) and the compilation Kleptomania following the band’s split – as well as a popular and now rare series of EPs. It's Kscope 1175 and is the usual 12 songs ( 11 standard tracks with 6 on side one and the usual 5 plus the " hidden track" making a total of 6) but only on one 12" record.