Drummer Andy Green has now officially left Pagan Altar, the geographical and financial issues being a deciding factor. Andy has a young family to think of now and of course this takes priority over all things and quite rightly so.

Anyone lucky enough to see him play with Pagan Altar will know what a loss his departure will be to the band. Andy had offered to honour the forthcoming gigs that were in the pipeline before parting company but as this was the only clear period we had before the Finnish tour and the full catalogue of gigs that follow the band decided to get someone up and running ASAP. To leave it any longer would have been even more detrimental as more gigs would have to be cancelled later whilst we got someone new up to speed. Even so, the Finnish tour at the beginning of April was certainly in doubt for a time and I thought for the first time in its chequered history Pagan Altar would have to cancel!

A rare stroke of luck, well certainly for this band anyway, presented itself in the form of a chance meeting with Ian (The bear) Winters, a drummer we have known from way back and whom we had completely lost contact with prior to this. Ian has been playing drums for some thirty-two years now and if anyone can put together a Pagan Altar set in the time available it would be Ian. Al played in the band XYZ with Ian after the first demise of Pagan Altar and spent some two years in Wales playing and recording material so no strangers there!

The rehearsals have gone even better than expected and things are coming together nicely! Watch out for some really powerful drumming from that department, as they don't call him the Bear for nothing! Anyway, we are really looking forward to the Finnish tour with Isole as I have heard a lot of good things about the audiences there and its healthy Metal scene in general.

Source:	paganaltar.co.uk
Band profile:	Pagan Altar