Australian band seals itself in plastic bubble to record alb

Australian band seals itself in plastic bubble to record latest album



MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) - An Australian band sealed itself inside a plastic bubble in central Melbourne and set itself the task of recording an album while the public looks on over the next three weeks.

Brisbane-based trio Regurgitator will not be able to leave the 60 square metre (646 sq feet) dome during the recording process in a stunt that echoes US magician David Blaine's 44-day fast in a glass box suspended above London's River Thames last year.

Unlike Blaine, the band will receive regular meals but their every movement, aside from a small closed-off area set aside for ablutions, will be subject to public scrutiny and webcast live on the Internet.

Band member Ben Ely said Regurgitator came up with the idea in 1996 but management dismissed it as unrealistic until Blaine's feat.

He said the see-through studio opposite Melbourne's main railway station would give the public an idea of how the recording process worked, with external microphones to give passers-by input into the album.

"I'm slightly claustrophobic so I was a bit nervous about it at first but now we're all mentally prepared," he told AFP.

Ely said he hoped for a more positive reaction than that experienced by Blaine. Britons tempted him with a hamburger attached to a model helicopter and banged drums to keep him awake at night.

In an initial reaction, one elderly man banged on the studio's exterior as the band prepared to lock themselves away and shouted: "Turn down the music, it's too loud".