:00:00. > :00:00.let-up. Thank you. That is all from the BBC News at Six. Goodbye. Now
:00:00. > :00:07.Hello and welcome to Look East. In the programme tonight.
:00:08. > :00:11.His hospital is in special measures. It's being investigated by the
:00:12. > :00:13.police. And its death rates are too high. Tonight, after months of
:00:14. > :00:18.pressure, the chief executive at Colchester steps down.
:00:19. > :00:22.The Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls on the day he handed over the keys to
:00:23. > :00:26.new council houses in Ipswich. A massive cut in the jobless
:00:27. > :00:28.figures. This defence company has seen its workforce double in three
:00:29. > :00:30.years. And in Lowestoft.. Let there be
:00:31. > :00:46.Darkness. First tonight. They say he left "by
:00:47. > :00:49.mutual consent". Dr Gordon Coutts, the chief executive of one of the
:00:50. > :00:52.worst hospitals in the country, has finally carried the can after a
:00:53. > :00:57.string of revelations about Colchester General. Dr Coutts has
:00:58. > :01:01.been in the spotlight for months, since Colchester was named as one of
:01:02. > :01:04.14 hospitals in the UK where death rates were too high. Then, last
:01:05. > :01:07.month, hospital inspectors called in the police, after they found that
:01:08. > :01:12.cancer waiting times had been fiddled. Since then, a steady stream
:01:13. > :01:20.of revelations, resignations and inquiries. Tonight, the hospital is
:01:21. > :01:29.still in special measures. Simon Newton is there now, Simon. This
:01:30. > :01:34.evening, the man in charge of this hospital has gone and the problems
:01:35. > :01:39.seem as deep as ever. We are expecting tomorrow as a brittle
:01:40. > :01:42.interim report by NHS England on the goings`on here, one which will make
:01:43. > :01:48.a pleasant reading for the 4000 staff. This report from our
:01:49. > :01:54.colleague. This was a cheeky executive determined to ride out a
:01:55. > :01:59.crisis `` chief. There were apologies but no personal ad
:02:00. > :02:04.mission. This is an abhorrent behaviour. We will not behave this
:02:05. > :02:09.behaviour. Is more revelations were exposed, he found himself drawn into
:02:10. > :02:15.the allegations and the police began a criminal investigation under
:02:16. > :02:19.increased pressure. Local MP says it takes us to the heart of the
:02:20. > :02:25.organisation. The buck has to start somewhere. Does not buck stops with
:02:26. > :02:29.you? I am responsible for everything that happens, and I take that
:02:30. > :02:34.accountability very seriously. Over the last free market years we have
:02:35. > :02:38.made changes. At the time of us must board meeting he knew his finance
:02:39. > :02:43.director had resigned but chose not to reveal it. All changed last week,
:02:44. > :02:48.when we carry this letter written by Dr Coutts two and a half years ago.
:02:49. > :02:54.If you would like to provide me with any names of evidence, I will
:02:55. > :02:58.investigate this matter. It was approved that he personally had
:02:59. > :03:02.failed to act. In Colchester town centre, people who use the hospital
:03:03. > :03:08.have mixed views on his resignation. I think people lost confidence. I
:03:09. > :03:12.think if they can instil some confidence with a new chief
:03:13. > :03:17.executive that would be good. Everybody who uses that department
:03:18. > :03:22.speaks very highly of him. You have to take the spot the deep so I am
:03:23. > :03:25.not surprised he has. If he knew he was going on and he did not do
:03:26. > :03:33.anything about it, then it might been better. There are still high
:03:34. > :03:37.profile supporters as well. I don't think the Colchester Hospital is a
:03:38. > :03:41.sinking ship. Therefore, it is wrong the captain of the chief executive
:03:42. > :03:48.to leave in the manner he has. He should've stayed put. What will this
:03:49. > :03:51.do to morale of the staff? Head of cooperation is temporarily in charge
:03:52. > :04:02.while the trust six for a replacement. She is my manager to
:04:03. > :04:06.some of those being investigated. Sue Barnett is expected to take temp
:04:07. > :04:10.recharger this hospital and she will face questions, because she was in
:04:11. > :04:13.charge of some of the managers who are now being investigated. Most
:04:14. > :04:19.worrying is not managerial movements, it is the continual slide
:04:20. > :04:23.of this performance and hospital. It remains in special measures. It
:04:24. > :04:29.remains around ?1 million in debt. Of course, there are these free
:04:30. > :04:33.enquiry is going on, including a police and criminal investigation.
:04:34. > :04:36.Tim Roberts is the regional organiser for the Unison trade
:04:37. > :04:39.union. It was his members who first alerted the authorities that waiting
:04:40. > :04:42.times were being fiddled. Earlier this afternoon he told me Dr Coutts
:04:43. > :04:45.should have gone weeks ago. What is clear from our perspective, within
:04:46. > :04:48.Unison, is there is some extremely inappropriate things happen within
:04:49. > :04:53.cancer services over the last couple of years. Mr Coutts, as chief
:04:54. > :04:57.executive, was ultimately responsible for that. However, we
:04:58. > :05:00.are also aware he made some individual personal mistakes. He
:05:01. > :05:03.appointed an investigation team, which messed up the first
:05:04. > :05:06.investigation last year, and we also know he was informed by worried
:05:07. > :05:15.members of staff directly, earlier this year, and he failed to act
:05:16. > :05:18.appropriately. NHS England is publishing its first report
:05:19. > :05:22.tomorrow. What do you expect to be in that? We expect there to be
:05:23. > :05:24.confirmation that a number of senior managers deliberately and
:05:25. > :05:28.consciously conspired to falsify data, and the result of that was
:05:29. > :05:41.that some patients did not receive the treatment, which they needed at
:05:42. > :05:45.the time that they deserved it. How many senior managers do you think
:05:46. > :05:49.will have to go at the end of this? We know already that some of the
:05:50. > :05:53.senior managers that we are aware were involved have already left the
:05:54. > :05:57.Trust. There are some managers, I would say less than five, that we
:05:58. > :06:03.know were involved that are still employed, and we feel they have to
:06:04. > :06:07.be held to account. Also, there are a number of senior managers at board
:06:08. > :06:14.level, who knew what was going on and did not take appropriate action.
:06:15. > :06:17.The hospital is under extreme pressure at the moment. How are
:06:18. > :06:22.staff there feeling about the future? Morale is low in this
:06:23. > :06:26.hospital at the moment, because the vast majority of staff know they do
:06:27. > :06:30.a good job, and the patients know they do a good job, and many of them
:06:31. > :06:34.are feeling they are being unfairly tarnished with the same brush as a
:06:35. > :06:42.very small minority of senior managers within cancer services. Tim
:06:43. > :06:45.Roberts, thank you a much. The Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has
:06:46. > :06:49.been in Ipswich this afternoon, unveiling the first new council
:06:50. > :06:51.houses in the town in a generation. Labour says the Conservatives have
:06:52. > :06:56.concentrated on boosting demand for housing, rather than supply. In
:06:57. > :07:08.other words, they claim that not enough new homes are being built.
:07:09. > :07:13.He lays the carpet in his new home. He and his wife were struggling to
:07:14. > :07:17.pay ?550 a month privately and bringing up three children. There
:07:18. > :07:21.are now paying a third less. We are happy with the house because
:07:22. > :07:28.everything is new, and I never had any places like this before in the
:07:29. > :07:32.flat. I have plenty of gardens which are nice. Social housing is a key
:07:33. > :07:36.policy for Labour, which is why Ed Balls made a final visit from
:07:37. > :07:44.London. Today, he handed over a key to lock men and his family. This
:07:45. > :07:48.aspect a lot? Back in the 1980s Margaret Thatcher gave people the
:07:49. > :07:53.right to buy council homes. Decade on, the tenants can still exercise
:07:54. > :07:57.that right. These council houses are among seven which it is being built
:07:58. > :08:02.locally. Ipswich Borough Council is at least an informal council homes
:08:03. > :08:07.than is actually building. That is because their hands are tied by
:08:08. > :08:11.government. The Goodman gives huge discount the people to buy council
:08:12. > :08:16.houses, an odyssey that has attracted more people ``
:08:17. > :08:20.government. We need to build as fast as we can. But it will be top to
:08:21. > :08:25.build another, and we might not be able to building up once they have
:08:26. > :08:29.been sold off. If which has 8000 council homes but plans were hundred
:08:30. > :08:34.and ten more. Norwich has the highest council housing is in the
:08:35. > :08:39.region, with 250 in the pipeline. Chelmsford has non`and not in the
:08:40. > :08:45.way. It relies on social houses. What Ed Balls is doing in this
:08:46. > :08:49.speech in our region is to draw attention to that, and to claim that
:08:50. > :08:55.Labour will be able to do more than the current government has in
:08:56. > :09:02.dealing with this issue. We'll never see a return to the 1950s when then
:09:03. > :09:06.housing minister sought construction of 300,000 council homes every year.
:09:07. > :09:10.Ed Balls knows that, but is convinced council housing is a
:09:11. > :09:25.popular policy and will stand out come the next election. I spoke the
:09:26. > :09:28.shallow councillor. That's rather a shadow. I am less bothered than
:09:29. > :09:32.saying it was one way of doing it, more bothered than saying it is
:09:33. > :09:36.affordable, so people can get on the housing ladder, for their rent, you
:09:37. > :09:41.get the housing benefit bill down, because that is a real challenge the
:09:42. > :09:45.government. It is changing policy brought in by the coalition which
:09:46. > :09:50.has enabled Ipswich to go ahead and build the council houses, social and
:09:51. > :09:54.labour have done something like the coalition have done? When we were in
:09:55. > :09:59.power after 1997, we made a decision to try and deal with the really
:10:00. > :10:03.dilapidated and outdated stock of our all housing. Summary people
:10:04. > :10:09.living in homes about a bathroom, or decent hot water was I think we
:10:10. > :10:13.moved too slowly to build the homes we need. We got a bit behind the
:10:14. > :10:17.curve, and accelerated in the second half of the Labour government. That
:10:18. > :10:21.is carried on in part, although the government has cut the expenditure.
:10:22. > :10:24.There would not have been able to build those houses unless there was
:10:25. > :10:31.a change of policy from the coalition? The coalition has cut the
:10:32. > :10:36.government's support. They have allowed a council to keep the
:10:37. > :10:43.Romani, why did you not do that? I wish we could go further than that.
:10:44. > :10:48.Cutting the government 's, what you end up is is the lowest housing
:10:49. > :10:53.building. That is not good enough. The last government was low. You
:10:54. > :11:00.have lots of policies but not many houses. Now it is at its lowest
:11:01. > :11:04.level since the 1920s. Let's put party politics aside, let's have a
:11:05. > :11:08.consensus in our country, Labour and Conservative, that in the next 20
:11:09. > :11:14.years we will build more homes. We need to new towns. We need to use
:11:15. > :11:17.that Brownfield site. It will require some government investment
:11:18. > :11:21.make that happen. We can get a cross`party consensus on that,
:11:22. > :11:26.fine. I've been speaking to businesses in our region when I knew
:11:27. > :11:32.I was come to talk to you. What are the questions that came up was, Tony
:11:33. > :11:36.Blair said, education, education. Visitors still can't get people with
:11:37. > :11:40.the right qualifications for the right training. Education,
:11:41. > :11:46.education, education did not work. It is a huge challenge. I understand
:11:47. > :11:49.the frustration, because you need qualifications which actually
:11:50. > :11:54.deliver the skills businesses need. We make big progress on improving
:11:55. > :12:01.literacy and numerous leads, . We have 13 years of the Labour
:12:02. > :12:06.government. We are no further forward. Businesses are saying they
:12:07. > :12:12.can't get the right people. When they came to commit in 1997, and
:12:13. > :12:17.there were over 1500 secondary schools, we did not have even a
:12:18. > :12:23.third of young people getting GCSEs in massive English. We reduce that
:12:24. > :12:27.number from 1500 down to about a and was more to do. You can't that is
:12:28. > :12:33.not a change. Somebody in not accepting yesterday, how can we
:12:34. > :12:37.trust you to control our economy when you can control yourself in the
:12:38. > :12:45.house the other day when we had the Autumn Statement? Can control myself
:12:46. > :12:50.in the house? Yes. Ice enough to make a response to George Osborne
:12:51. > :12:54.and I had 350 Conservative MPs yelling at the top of their boys in
:12:55. > :13:01.a desperate attempt to shut me down. You're no stranger to
:13:02. > :13:10.Heckerling. I'm not complaining. When the other night that volume.
:13:11. > :13:13.Thank you very much. The Prime Minister has praised
:13:14. > :13:16.coastal communities in Suffolk and Norfolk for coming together in the
:13:17. > :13:20.wake of the tidal surge two weeks ago. MPs will get their first chance
:13:21. > :13:23.to talk about the impact of the storms this evening. Hundreds of
:13:24. > :13:27.properties were affected. Almost two weeks on and in many places they are
:13:28. > :13:32.still claim of. Here, a Greek restaurant is hoping to open by
:13:33. > :13:36.Christmas. The landlords having to fit a new kitchen. Are you worried
:13:37. > :13:42.about funding? There is also potential. There needs to be a few
:13:43. > :13:47.more provisions in place. I think it is up to the residents and landlord
:13:48. > :13:52.to get themselves together, and sort ourselves out. The rail line only
:13:53. > :13:56.opened last night. Dozens of properties along the coast were
:13:57. > :14:01.flooded in the storm surge. The tide levels the highest for 60 years.
:14:02. > :14:05.Normally, time is found in Parliament to discuss major events,
:14:06. > :14:11.but this major event has been ignored so far a Westminster, much
:14:12. > :14:15.to the frustration of local MPs. Be sort of occurrences could happen a
:14:16. > :14:20.lot more frequently. We need to look at what went well last Thursday,
:14:21. > :14:24.what did not go so well and improve that, and a thing we also need to be
:14:25. > :14:28.looking at our flood defences and sea defences as well. The surge got
:14:29. > :14:35.a mention in Prime Minister's question today. He prays you minty
:14:36. > :14:37.services and local communities. The Prime Minister agree that on this
:14:38. > :14:42.occasion the region have been lucky. Because we put money into
:14:43. > :14:47.flood defences, we did protect more homes than otherwise would have been
:14:48. > :14:51.protected. Work need to continue. MPs were warned with winter just
:14:52. > :14:56.coming, there are still fears of the safety of our coastline. Parliament
:14:57. > :15:00.breaks for Christmas tomorrow. Tonight, there are lots of parties
:15:01. > :15:05.taking place. This even's debate will not be well a tenant, but MPs
:15:06. > :15:11.think it is still worth having `` attended.
:15:12. > :15:13.The last prisoners are leaving Blundeston Prison in Suffolk, three
:15:14. > :15:16.months after the government announced it was closing. Since
:15:17. > :15:19.then, the category C prison near Lowestoft has been moving its 500
:15:20. > :15:22.prisoners to other jails, mainly in this region. The BBC understands
:15:23. > :15:26.those that remain are serving life sentences. Blundeston was one of
:15:27. > :15:31.four prisons announced for closure in September. The government said it
:15:32. > :15:44.followed a thorough assessment of the needs of the prison system.
:15:45. > :15:51.Still to come. The darkness are coming home to Lowestoft and playing
:15:52. > :15:54.at the end of the pier. Another weapon in the fight to raise
:15:55. > :15:59.school's standards. Police officers out on the streets of expert looking
:16:00. > :16:02.for truants. There's been a big drop in
:16:03. > :16:05.unemployment in the East. It underlines our status as the region
:16:06. > :16:10.with the lowest unemployment rate in the country. The total stood at
:16:11. > :16:15.176,000 in the three months to October, a fall of 35,000 on the
:16:16. > :16:20.previous quarter. The East's unemployment rate is now 5.6%. That
:16:21. > :16:25.compares with 10.1% in the worst region, the North East. Companies of
:16:26. > :16:28.all sizes are said to be taking on staff. One large firm, which has
:16:29. > :16:34.been recruiting strongly, is the defence contractor Lockheed Martin
:16:35. > :16:37.in Bedfordshire. Warrior tanks have served the
:16:38. > :16:42.British Army for 25 years, seeing action in the Gulf War, Bosnia and
:16:43. > :16:48.Afghanistan. But they need upgrading. Lockheed Martin got the
:16:49. > :16:54.job. On the Warrior programme, we are upgrading the turret, electronic
:16:55. > :16:58.systems and the armour. There are over 700 warriors in service and the
:16:59. > :17:05.current plan is to upgrade a minimum of 380. That will take the vehicle
:17:06. > :17:09.to 2040. Lockheed Martin won the Warrior contract from rival British
:17:10. > :17:13.Aerospace. BAE staff in the Midlands lost their jobs. Here at Ampthill,
:17:14. > :17:18.hundreds of people were taken on. Not just for Warrior but other
:17:19. > :17:24.contracts, too. The site is working on the new Scout tank and is looking
:17:25. > :17:30.at how tanks can fire on the move. This motion platform imitates
:17:31. > :17:33.movement over rough ground. At current capabilities, they have to
:17:34. > :17:36.stop to allow them to shoot the target. The new capability on the
:17:37. > :17:40.new Scout and Warrior programmes, it allows them to shoot whilst on the
:17:41. > :17:43.move. Therefore, they are not a sitting target for the enemy. In
:17:44. > :17:46.three years, the Ampthill workforce has doubled to 900, mostly
:17:47. > :17:48.specialist engineers. Among many special projects, they provide the
:17:49. > :17:57.technology inside Apache helicopters. They also find ways of
:17:58. > :18:03.applying military know`how to civvy street. This visualisation product
:18:04. > :18:05.can be used for command and control in a military environment but also
:18:06. > :18:10.for civilian and commercial operations. For instance, wind. It
:18:11. > :18:13.will allow you to know where to place your wind turbines, in the
:18:14. > :18:17.right environment, so that you get the right wind density. And also,
:18:18. > :18:22.where not to place it, should you get too much wind power. Elsewhere
:18:23. > :18:25.in the region, defence cutbacks have caused job losses. 200 posts are
:18:26. > :18:29.currently under threat at the Marshall group in Cambridge. By
:18:30. > :18:35.winning business from competitors, Lockheed Martin has created hundreds
:18:36. > :18:38.of jobs. By using its know`how to find solutions to long`standing
:18:39. > :18:47.problems, it reckons more are on the way.
:18:48. > :18:54.Richard is here. So earlier we heard unemployment was down by 35,000 in
:18:55. > :18:59.one go. Why such a big drop? It must reflect an improving economy. We
:19:00. > :19:03.have been through a very severe recession in recent years, and when
:19:04. > :19:07.it started in 2008 unemployment started to shoot up as you would
:19:08. > :19:12.expect. We are now back on unemployment times when we were in
:19:13. > :19:16.2008. Whether people feel as close as did then is another matter, that
:19:17. > :19:21.is we are. Which sectors of the economy are taking on staff? It is
:19:22. > :19:27.the private sector will stop I was talking to a recruitment consultant
:19:28. > :19:31.who said her firm was as busy as it has ever been, and the sectors she
:19:32. > :19:38.mentioned were retail in a row to Christmas, food manufacturing, the
:19:39. > :19:41.energy sector and also professional services. Small and medium`sized
:19:42. > :19:45.firms are recruiting quite well at the moment, and in this region we
:19:46. > :19:49.have an awful lot of them. Thank you very much.
:19:50. > :19:53.The police and education officers took to the streets of Ipswich today
:19:54. > :19:56.to search out children who were playing truant from school. Suffolk
:19:57. > :19:58.has become well`known for the poor quality of its education,
:19:59. > :20:02.particularly in primary schools. But what is perhaps less well`known is
:20:03. > :20:07.that it has one of the worst truancy rates too. It stands 127th out of
:20:08. > :20:09.the 152 councils in England. And of course the experts say, if you
:20:10. > :20:17.improve attendance, you'll improve performance too.
:20:18. > :20:21.Etcher and heading back to school after being caught shopping this
:20:22. > :20:27.morning in Ipswich. Earlier, a team of officers were briefed, among them
:20:28. > :20:31.this officer. It wasn't long before they found children bunking off
:20:32. > :20:35.school. The excuse this boy's mother was that he needed a new school
:20:36. > :20:39.shirt after staying in one with beetroot juice. She didn't want to
:20:40. > :20:42.talk to us. Also out of school, this little girl, although her mother
:20:43. > :20:48.said there was a good reason, tonsillitis. Mainly they don't
:20:49. > :20:53.encourage children enough to wash their hands at school. It concerns
:20:54. > :21:00.me, and a public doesn't help with her getting her tonsillitis as often
:21:01. > :21:10.as she does. There is a huge range of excuses parents come web. Are you
:21:11. > :21:15.ever amazed by the excuses? It is a travesty that people are thinking on
:21:16. > :21:19.their feet. I think is a travesty that the children aren't in school
:21:20. > :21:23.and actually those regions have come before anything else. Suffolk is
:21:24. > :21:27.near the bottom of national league tables for attainment. It is also in
:21:28. > :21:32.the bottom quarter for truancy. We know that a child less than 90%
:21:33. > :21:37.attendance will only have a 74% of getting pied a disease. So a direct
:21:38. > :21:47.link there between truancy and spot`on. They caught 43 truants in
:21:48. > :21:51.Ipswich today, eight parents are issued with a fined ?60. The truancy
:21:52. > :21:54.team says their focus is getting children back into school, to give
:21:55. > :22:07.them the best chance of succeeding in life. We have still got banned to
:22:08. > :22:18.come. `` The Darkness. First the weather. It is going to bring some
:22:19. > :22:26.heavy rain and strong winds already in Beds. You can see from the radar,
:22:27. > :22:30.the last few hours have shown this band of rain intensifying as it
:22:31. > :22:35.moved eastwards. It is getting in the west half of the region and over
:22:36. > :22:39.that the next few hours it will move quickly. Expect some freshening
:22:40. > :22:43.winds and heavy rain for this evening. It should rustle through
:22:44. > :22:47.quite quickly, so we should be done with it by the time we get to bed
:22:48. > :22:51.night and it clears away into the North Sea. Despite the strong
:22:52. > :22:55.winds, there will start to ease down the second half the night. There may
:22:56. > :23:03.be some showers but clear spells developing. Temperatures of two to
:23:04. > :23:08.three Celsius. Tomorrow is a different feel. It is windy. It
:23:09. > :23:12.would be quite bright sunny spells in the morning, and temperatures
:23:13. > :23:17.will be on the chilly side, or seven Celsius, and although it won't be
:23:18. > :23:22.windy, it will feel a bit chilly. Into the afternoon, an increasing
:23:23. > :23:27.amount of cloud with a chance of showers. As we progress to the
:23:28. > :23:31.evening, these showers might turn a wintry. There may well end up going
:23:32. > :23:37.into the English and not really affecting us, but there is the
:23:38. > :23:43.potential of a little bittersweet `` Lincolnshire. It should clear
:23:44. > :23:51.through commerce of the rest of person I'd looks largely dry. In the
:23:52. > :23:54.next weather event, we have got several at Atlantic weather systems
:23:55. > :23:59.lined up bringing us wet and windy weather. This one will cause
:24:00. > :24:03.problems on Saturday. Once it gets the eastern half of the UK it will
:24:04. > :24:07.come to a grinding halt, so we may well get some rain on Saturday. It
:24:08. > :24:11.may well stick around. If properly will be here until the early hours
:24:12. > :24:15.of Saturday morning. Before then, we have got a dry day for Friday. It is
:24:16. > :24:21.going to be on the chilly side. There should be some sunny spells.
:24:22. > :24:27.Don't forget the potential is there on Thursday the wintry showers. Into
:24:28. > :24:30.Saturday, we started get increasing amount of cloud of lead, eventually
:24:31. > :24:35.bring us some rain. This will likely be on the heavy side but it brings
:24:36. > :24:40.in milder air, so temperatures may climb to 11 Celsius through the day
:24:41. > :24:45.on Saturday. That rain sticks around the Saturday night then it is out of
:24:46. > :24:54.the way. It will be dry and cool on Sunday, also overnight it could well
:24:55. > :24:58.be cold enough for a touch of frost. Go back to the early 2000s and one
:24:59. > :25:01.of the big bands from this part of the world were The Darkness. Heavy
:25:02. > :25:04.metal, outrageous suits and never guilty of taking themselves too
:25:05. > :25:08.seriously. They split up in 2006, re`formed in 2011 and released a
:25:09. > :25:11.third album last year. Now they're on tour, and tonight they are coming
:25:12. > :25:24.home to Lowestoft. Gareth George has been to meet them. The Darkness in
:25:25. > :25:31.their pomp. I first interviewed The Darkness ten years ago, before they
:25:32. > :25:38.are really hit the big time. Straight out of Lowestoft The
:25:39. > :25:54.Darkness. Do you remember that Not at all. Della.
:25:55. > :26:02.After ten years of rock stardom, they can't remember much. I think we
:26:03. > :26:07.should thank our parents. Denied, they are playing at a new venue in
:26:08. > :26:15.their hometown of Lowestoft. It is amazing this is your first gig in
:26:16. > :26:21.Lowestoft? It is amazing. We were formed in Lowestoft, we rehearsed in
:26:22. > :26:25.Lowestoft. Some of us still live in Lowestoft. Ten years ago it became
:26:26. > :26:29.famous. There was not anywhere big enough for us, so it is great
:26:30. > :26:34.somebody has invested the time and the money in a space that is now
:26:35. > :26:41.going to be hopefully one of the venues on the circuit for touring
:26:42. > :26:47.bands. As a teenager, you'd have to go over to Norwich to watch a. Often
:26:48. > :26:53.you would be unable to get the last train back. You'd have to get a list
:26:54. > :26:57.of someone, and this venue I think is 800 50 capacity. It is bigger
:26:58. > :27:04.than the waterfront in Norwich. Hopefully this new venue will bring
:27:05. > :27:09.bigger name bands to Lowestoft. With a bit of luck it will change
:27:10. > :27:15.Lowestoft music scene. The Darkness have not lost their loved rock roll.
:27:16. > :27:20.I think it has been our best tour so far, in terms of performance and
:27:21. > :27:26.five, and also technically I think we're better than me ever been. It
:27:27. > :27:34.is very cool to be playing rock 'n' roll. They play Lowestoft tonight
:27:35. > :27:40.and tomorrow. Nothing quite as talkative as a rock 'n' roll band.
:27:41. > :27:45.They will be fantastic. That is all. Goodbye.