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| Minutes of the Meeting held 5th May 1999 |
| ACTION | |
| APOLOGIES | |
| There were no apologies | |
| MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING | |
| Agreed as a VALID record. | |
| MATTERS ARISING | |
| Reports were heard on the following items: | |
| UMBRELLA ORGANISATION | |
| Mr Fleay had checked up, and found that the œ25 cheque to Umbrella had been cashed, making it VALID for us now to move forward and tell people of their rip-off nature, as outlined in the previous minutes. | ALL |
| JOINING THE PRS/MCPS | |
| Mr Fleay had contacted the Musician's Union for advice, and awaited their response. | RF |
| BULL AND GATE CONTACTING | |
| Mr Hibbett had spoken to Charlie of the Fighting Cocks, who had advised that we actually book a night at the Bull & Gate. Mr Hibbett pointed out that, after a few months of relative public inactivity, it might be a good consciousness raiser if the label did this, and the meeting agreed that an evening should be booked, to feature Johnny Domino (if, on POLITE ASKING they agreed to it, obviously, with due NOTICE given also) and The Fighting Cocks. | MH |
| BIG CONFERENCE THING | |
| Mr Hibbett had met other label types at Bowlie, all of whom were on email. He thus put forward the idea that, rather than harass everyone to meet, we could contact them via email if need be, and this was agreed. | |
| ABBEY PARK | |
| Webpages for Abbey Park were now set up, with material about our 3 bands to go up in the near future. | |
| CARRIER BAGS | |
| Mr Fleay had not had a chance to talk to Tom recently, but believed him to be still Up For It, as his new shop was still going ahead. | RF |
| OLD BANK STATEMENTS | |
| Mr Hibbett had been unable to find the two statements which remained at liberty in the world, so Mr Fleay had been to the bank and got a different kind of statement thing. He requested that Mr Hibbett visit our actual branch, however, where they should be able to print out the proper versions. Mr Fleay would forward him the precise dates of the statements by email, to enable this to occur. | MH RF |
| WANDRIN ALLSTARS STICKERS AND ENVELOPES | |
| Mr Whitaker produced the stickers, which were absolutely lovely. The meeting gazed upon them in wonder, for no small amount of time. Mr Fleay promised to FACT Mr Whitaker an address for 12" envelopes, which the latter would then sort out. | RF MW |
| INNER CITY CRAWL | |
| This was occurring, though without official AAS involvement. Mr Fleay, a gleam in his eye, pledged to flyer the whole damn thing with AAS newsletters, however, that the KIDS be informed. | RF |
| ORGANISATIONAL ISSUES | |
| The following label-based issues were discussed: | |
| WEBPAGES | |
| The webpages were now at around 1,400 hits, making about 100 a week. Everyone agreed that this was groovy, and discussed the following: | |
| LINKS | |
| We now had loads of links, most of which had been reciprocated, which may well explain the increase in hits. Mr Fleay suggested that we look into categorising the links, and Mr Hibbett agreed this would be good. | MH |
| ACTION | |
| EMAIL HARVESTING | |
| So far 75 email addresses had been harvested, and Mr Fleay went through the list with other board members, identifying and categorising each address. Mr Hibbett pledged to set up a simple form to allow people to join the list, and Mr Fleay would create a filter that submitted addresses be added automatically. They became excited about that sort of thing, as Mr Whitaker looked on. It was agreed that a version of the newsletter be sent out in plain text form to the whole list, and that it be sent from the Artists Against Success address itself, rather than from Mr Fleay's account. | MH RF RF |
| AAS WEB CONSULTANCY | |
| In a similar stylee to the carrier bags, this was still pending. | RF |
| REDESIGN | |
| Mr Hibbett presented the meeting with his idea for a new look to the webpages, as, if we were to start creating pages for other people it might be an Good Idea to have a bit of a flashier page ourselves. The meeting agreed to this and gave the webpages the catalogue number AAS022, after some discussion about Tony Wilson's dog. Mr Hibbett would set up a beta version on our account, that other members might appraise it before going live, and that. Mr Whitaker asked that Mr Hibbett construct a Wandrin' Allstars page during this, and he agreed, asking Mr Whitaker in return to send him some words and pictures, that this might be the more easily facilitated. | MH MH MW |
| PLUGGERS | |
| Mr Whitaker reported that Overground were doing the Wandrin' Allstars single, and that they were absolutely lovely, having given lots of advice and generally been ACE. Mr Fleay produced the final report for the Johnny Domino campaign which was rather POLARISED, having lots of "Lots!" and lots of "nones" and very little in between. They are, it was summarised, that kinda band. | |
| SHELLSHOCK | |
| Mr Whitaker had spoken with them, and arranged a release date for the Wandrin' Allstars of June 14th. Everything's all right at the moment, Baby. | ALL |
| FINANCE | |
| Apart from the previously discussed matter of the missing bank statements, there was little to report at present. Mr Fleay stated that there had been a small error with Backs which meant that they owed us œ120 still, and he would invoice them for this. | RF |
| AGM DEBRIEFING | |
| It was agreed that this had been very beautiful indeed, and that we really ought to do something else like it again soon. | |
| A&R | |
| Bands and Ting were talked of, as follows: | |
| STUMBLE | |
| Mr Fleay reported that the band had recorded a new song recently in Redditch. He went on to state that he was no longer officially managing them, as he was Out Of The Loop a bit, and saw not the point. | |
| LAZER GUIDED | |
| Mr Fleay stated that they had been very good at the AAS gig on Monday, and that they were currently saving up their pennies that they might go into the studio soon. | |
| SALOON | |
| Saloon had already sent Mr Fleay the DAT for their track on the compilation, marking them out as dead KEEN, which was good. They had also recorded their half of the split-single, and a tape was winging its way to us, even as we spoke. | |
| PALA | |
| Pala had recruited a manager, by the name of Beef, who seemed terribly enthusiastic. Mr Whitaker reported that they had had a jolly good time at the VW Camper Van festival. | |
| JOHNNY DOMINO | |
| The JD's (this month's abbreviation) were recording their song for the compilation on their hot new 8 track. It is called "New Pink Shirt" and Mr Fleay labeled it a "stonker." Apparently this means it is Good. Mr Hibbett reported that they had been asking to do gigs, which was ACE. | |
| WANDRIN' ALLSTARS | |
| Mr Whitaker reported that the Czechs were being really good - stuff had been sent to them, invoices were done, and test pressings were already on the way. As reported previously, a limited amount of plugging was being done with Overground. He requested that Mr Hibbett send him the VALID stamp a.s.a.p., and stated that he would also be buying a numbering stamp thing, to number with. They were currently looking into getting someone to stick 400 stickers around, paying them œ20 to do this, and were also having an advert in the Shellshock column. Publicity photographs were being taken at the sign for Alvaston, with a cunning "G" added at the front. The meeting agreed that this was all MIGHTY, and turned its collective BRANE to thinking of yet more publicity type stuff. Mr Hibbett offered to look into getting them on the Radio One Roadshow somehow, and SCAMS were looked into also. Mr Whitaker would contact Ricardo about possibilities, and Project K (a rumour that the Wandrin' Allstars were in fact the KLF) was mooted. It was also suggested that the band set fire to a fiver outside the NME, but this may have been A Bit Daft. The discussion concluded with everyone stating their belief that this could be The Big One, and being EXCITED about the whole thing. | MH MW MW MH MW |
| MJ HIBBETT | |
| Mr Hibbett reported that he and The Validators had done their first gig, with Half Man Half Biscuit, and LO it was GOOD. He would be mixing the 12 songs recorded so far on the following day, and would pass tapes to his colleagues for validation. He also expressed his first avowed intent to almost definitely release "Hey Hey 16K" as a single in July, pending validation. | |
| LUKEWARM SKYWATER | |
| This was still pending, but with a much more positive nature. Mr Fleay passed tapes of some new Lukewarm Skywater material to colleagues, and stated that he planned to use the JD 8 track to record stuff, this time all on his lonesome, and see what came from it. | |
| THE FIGHTING COCKS | |
| Everybody had now heard their CD, and agreed that we liked it a LOT, thus it was with joy that the project was VALIDATED. Mr Fleay would contact them with the Good News. It was agreed that a contract be prepared, including some sort of Waiver where responsibility for samples and all that was put down to the band. They would be asked to include the AAS logo and their catalogue number (AAS021) on the artwork. There was a great deal which required discussion, and this could be done with them via email by Mr Fleay, while Mr Hibbett would arrange to meet them next time he was in London, to discuss in person. ACE. Also, they sound like Margareta Pracatan fronting the Prodigy. Yes. | RF RF MH |
| THE CUBAN BOYS | |
| Mr Whitaker put forward the idea that we might do their next single, which had yet to find a label. The meeting enthusiastically agreed to do this, and stated that it needed to be done pretty bloody quickly. There was much to discuss, and this would be done over the email, once Mr Whitaker had contacted the band themselves. Similarly to The Fighting Cocks, a waiver thing would need to be involved. It would probably be a CD single, 500 copies, no plugging, for speed and CHEAPNESS. Mr Hibbett would design a cover, if need be, and Mr Whitaker would coordinate. It was all very thrilling, and Mr Whitaker was congratulated by the meeting for bringing us into contact with them, it would be a Consciousness Raiser, and a Good Thing. | ALL MW MH MW |
| TAKING PICTURES | |
| Mr Whitaker reported that the band now had a 4 track, on which they would be recording at a gentle pace. There was something to do with tax, because they were artists, or something, but it was a little unclear. | |
| GARY BEEKEEPER | |
| Mr Beekeeper feels he is perhaps more suited to a bigger more manipulative exploitative major, and far too scared to be associated with urban revolutionaries such as AAS/ | |
| PROJECT B | |
| No response had been received yet. She was probably a bit busy. | |
| ANY OTHER A&R | |
| Mr Whitaker had received another Bok tape, which was in the Good At What They Do But Not Really Our Thing category. Mr Fleay was in contact with Lauren Hoffman in America, with whom there was possibly a possibility of doing some stuff. This would pend. Mr Fleay had been to see Ionic at the gig they had alerted us to, and had then invited them to play at the AAS night. They were definitely a Band To Watch Out For In The Future. Similarly, he had seen Earl Grey, who were Mental and also Mad. They were Unlike Anything Else, and a tape would be forthcoming. Mr Hibbett had recently seen Cookery Club in Leicester, and stated that we would probably also be hearing more from them in the future. | RF |
| COMPILATION ALBUM (inc. Arts Grant) | |
| A reference from Dr Brown had apparently been requested, and it was believed that he had sent it off, which was a Good Sign. This was all still pending, but we were POISED for action as soon as we received confirmation either way. All members were urged to tell their bands to get stuff ready for it, and most importantly to make sure it was something GOOD. There was a common foolish notion that bands did not put their best stuff onto compilations, but it was stated that for this one there would be loads of publicity, and for many it would be their largest audience, so should make it GOOD. | ALL |
| CORRESPONDENCE | |
| Nothing much had been received. | |
| ANY OTHER BUSINESS | |
| AGM FALLOUT | |
| Mr Whitaker reported that Mr Conlon of Overground had been very interested in the AGM, and everyone suddenly remembered that we were going to do a report on it for the webpages. Mr Hibbett asked that Messrs Fleay and Whitaker send him some kind of text of their talks, so that he could put it all together to make a report. | RF MW MH |
| DATE OF NEXT MEETING | |
| The next meeting will be at 7pm on June 2nd in the Three Nuns, Loughborough. | |
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