Smashing Pumpkins get to work on new album

The newly reformed Smashing Pumpkins have begun work on a new album.

The band are currently writing the follow-up to 2000’s ‘MACHINA/The Machines Of God’, and will begin recording shortly.

A statement on the band’s website reads: “It’s official, the Smashing Pumpkins are currently writing songs for their upcoming album, their first since 2000. No release date has been set, but the band plans to begin recording this summer.”

Singer Billy Corgan had made no secret of the fact he wants to reform his old. Last year on his webpage, he hinted reformation plans were coming along.

“The surprise I have in store for you all will be announced soon enough,” he said. “Hold on to your horses. After all, good things surely come to those who wait....Don't you just love the suspense?”

Corgan remains friends with former drummer Jimmy Chamberlain, and is also in contact with the band’s second bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur, having collaborated with her on her forthcoming second solo album. There is still no confirmation as to what line-up of the band Corgan has got together.

The first rumours of the band reforming came when the singer took out an advert in the local Chicago Tribune newspaper where he said “his heart” remains with his old band.

He wrote: “When I played the final show on the night of December 2, 2000, I walked off the stage believing that I was forever leaving a piece of my life behind. I naively tried to start a new band, but found that my heart wasn’t in it. I moved away to pursue a love that I once had but got lost. So I moved back home to heal what was broken in me, and to my surprise I found what I was looking or. I found that my heart is in Chicago, and that my heart is in the .

”For a year now I have walked around with a secret, a secret I chose to keep. But now I want you to be among the first to know that I have made plans to renew and revive the . I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams. In this desire I feel I have come home again.”