Oh aren't you lovely? All of you - you're lovely. Lovely people. Mad as cakes. dearly, but lovely with it.

We got such a charming postbag after Christmas (we only go and get the mail once every three months) with all these letters from people who'd bought the single and had managed to decipher our address from amongst the tiles on the back. They were all the same! They went like this:

Dear "Ruth"
I recently saw your video for "I don't know" on The Chart Show and I thought it was brilliant, so I rushed out to buy your single and loved the other tracks so I'm basically writing to find out more about the band as I know nothing at the moment

which was from Laila in Devon (keep listening to Lantern Radio, Laila, they've just playlisted Fear of flying) And there were LOADS of these which we all sat round reading and grinning and feeling special and proud.

Rob from Oldham sent us this succinct missive which ! reproduce for you in it's entirety (except for his address, of course - that would be terrible):

Dear Ruth I have just bought that EP "I don't know" and I love it. To tell you the truth Ruth. I think you're gonna go far. Just thought you'd like to know.

David from Worcester (what is it about Worcester? People love us there. It must be inbreeding) said

After only hearing three songs I feel RUTH is my favourite band

Jo and Sarah from somewhere in Somerset said

We love you! We have fallen in love with you your single is truly fantastic

Yeah yeah. Hayley from Wiltshire said, rather reassuringly

Who gives a toss what that wanker from Soldier Soldier says, RUTH will take over the world

She's right! Who does give a toss? RUTH will take over the world.

Now then, Will from Northants, to answer your questions:

Yes it was our first single
You can shortly get our next one as I'm sure you are now aware.
Yeah. all right
We've been around since February 1992, but you wouldn't have heard of us until now.
Our heroes are the Rebel Alliance and Han Solo, The Beatles, Abba, Beach Boys, The Simpsons, Mr Burns, Alexander, pyramids, doughnuts. Uncle Phil, Chris Morris.
The brain is because we don't know.
Ben and Matt are the Hales's. Matt VB is the Vincent-Brown. Steve is a Cousins.

Of course, it's not all new folk writing - we got a lovely card from Mother Agnus and the sisters; and thanks for your letter Simon; and Fiona don't ever ever do that again. In fact, send us the original so it can be safely destroyed.

Keep sending stuff in - anything will do; stones. jokes, sweets, ideas for startling inventions - but let's just make sure we're all writing RUTH in capitals in future. We're not merely Ruth. Anyone could be Ruth, but we're RUTH. If necessary get a stencil and do it in black paint. All right? We don't ask much, just grant us the gravity we deserve.