Mr Hibbett apologised for the fact that he might be a bit hyper.
MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING
Passed as a true and accurate record.
MATTERS ARISING
Reports were heard on the following items: GIGS
The chairman was CHASTISED for his recent habit of agreeing gig based issues without due consultation with both his fellow board members. He apologised and looked saddened, but wiser.
The London AAS gig was sorted out, and looked like it should be good. It was agreed that Mr Price be asked to DJ, and that Stumble be able to play too. There was discussion on the validity of alternative venues, and it was agreed that we would try the Bull & Gate for the next one, to see how it goes. Mr Whitaker passed Mr Fleay information received about the possibility of Stumble playing a VW Camper Van Festival, about which they would liaise.
LOLLOPALEICESTER
Pala were booked to play this on the 25th January, with Johnny Domino on the 22nd February. Mr Hibbett asked if anyone had ideas for other bands he could book, and Mr Fleay suggested Cato. He would pass information to Mr Hibbett, who would contact them anon.
There was some discussion about the Abbey Park Festival, and Mr Hibbett was happy to clear up any misunderstanding of occurrences - in place of the Sorted Stage this year there would be a LollopaLeicester stage, at which AAS would have a set number of slots in which to place our bands. There was the barest glimmer of a start of a conversation about who we would be booking, but on reflection it was felt to be a bit daft to be doing this eight months ahead of time. It would be returned to later.
WEBPAGES
Mr Fleay had re-aligned the webpages so that Mr Hibbett could also FTP to them, allowing them both to make alterations, and had prepared the letter detailing his tithe reduction, which would be sent henceforth. The pages had now had over 400 hits, which was good, and the gentle stream of weirdoes emailing from near and far continued.
It was reported that Left-Legged Pineapple had set up an AAS catalogue session for on-line ordering, which looked good. Mr Hibbett would set up a link from our pages to theirs, and Mr Whitaker would ask them to put a link from the catalogue to our pages.
There was brief discussion about encouraging bands to do their own pages, and Mr Fleay reported that he had discussed this with Ben from Pala, who would be making things occur in the near future.
UMBRELLA ORGANISATION
This was pending. Again.
PLUGGERS
A price had not yet been set for the proposed joint promo CD thingy.
Mr Fleay asked advice of other board members on the validity of using Overground for plugging the Johnny Domino CD, as they had limited resources and not many actual copies. He was advised to ring Mr Conlon to see what he thought, and if it were possible to send just a few copies.
SHELLSHOCK
Nothing much had been heard from them for a while, though they had asked Mr Whitaker for Mr Fleay's e-mail. Mr Fleay would supply this. He had also asked for Securicor labels, and Mr Whitaker reported that they had recently run out, which was a bit of a pain. No sales statements had been received since October, and Mr Whitaker would contact them to ask about this.
MUSIC WEEK
The new directory would be out some time this month, so we would have to cool our darn heels until then to find out whether we'd gotten in.
NEWSLETTER
Issue two of the newsletter had been received by all and passed as valid. It was agreed that copies of this should be sent in future with all future publicity, so that the label itself would gain some promotion (as well as the other bands) along with the main item. Mr Hibbett would make some copies to hand out at the AAS gigs in Derby and London.
PRS
Mr Hibbett passed Mr Fleay details of PRS membership, and Mr Fleay detailed his plan to furnish everyone with PAMRA forms also, for detailing session work. Mr Whitaker would indicate to Pala the validity of joining up (especially now they'd been on radio one), and think on about it himself.
MAILING ENVELOPES
Mr Whitaker had taken charge of this, and gone and done it. PO BOX
This was now GO - Mr Fleay stated that we would commence payment as soon as we got something sent to us via it. It was agreed that from hereon in we should commence putting the PO Box number onto everything, rather than Mr Hibbett's address. FINANCE
Mr Hibbett passed all available financial details to Mr Fleay, for him to digest. Mr Whitaker would pass back financial stuff accrued last time at their next meeting. Mr Hibbett had not yet asked the bank to forward statements to Mr Fleay, but would do so soon. A&R
STUMBLE
The new Stumble single was out on February 1st. Although they are not using radio plugging, they are paying œ200 for press promotion, at which eyebrows were raised. Excitingly, they had been contacted by Bloke From Magoo, who wanted to put their first single onto a compilation of the best 7"s of 1998 - the board agreed that they had no problem whatsoever with this, as longs as AAS got a mention somewhere. Stumble had also recorded their tracks for the Home Cookin' CD, would be appearing on the next Snakebite City CD, and we meant to be doing something with Glamour Puss fanzine. Coo! These boys are BUSY!
LAZER GUIDED
Mr Fleay had produced four track demoes with the band, all of which were dead good, but had proved to be a bit too long for a single, so Reveal had decided to issue a mini-album instead! This would be out some time in April. Lazer Guided were also appearing on the Home Cookin CD.
PALA
Mr Whitaker presented the meeting with a copy of the press-release which had been sent out to several Journalists. He reported that there were a nice few gigs coming up, and gleefully recounted the tale of how the single had gotten to be played on Steve Lamacq. He then passed Mr Fleay his Board Quota of the single, Mr Hibbett already having received his.
JOHNNY DOMINO
Mr Fleay passed copies on the forthcoming album to his colleagues, who accepted them with glee. There had been an overspill of about 70 copies, which Mr Fleay proposed to put into clear wallets and use as promotional copies (which could not be sold on by devious radio types as they were not in proper cases, HA!). This was agreed as a GRATE idea, and Mr Whitaker suggested he check to see if there had also been an overspill on printing. Mr Fleay passed on a formal sheet of costings for the album, which had come out as costing about œ800, with only a few bits and pieces still to go.
MJ HIBBETT
The Validators had not convened since the last meeting, but would be doing so soon, hopefully with recording sessions to follow in February.
SIENNA/LUKEWARMSKYWATER
Mr Fleay was considering recording some Sienna songs for the compilation album, with Sienna in fact, so that they would not be lost forever.
In the NOW, he was happy to report that Lukewarm Skywater now had a drummer, that a tape of songs for the band was ready, and that they should soon be commencing sessions. ACE.
WANDRIN' ALL STARS
Mr Whitaker was frothing with joy to report that they would finally be mixing the single on Sunday, and would see how it went from there. Mr Fleay mentioned the possibility of them doing it at Mr Mishra's, to which Mr Whitaker reacted positively. They would liaise on this.
ANY OTHER A&R
Mr Fleay had finally had an email from the Seymours, who were still interested, and who were sending a tape of unreleased stuff for consideration.
On a similar American TIP, Mr Hibbett had received a tape from Turtleneck, who he thought were ACE. He passed a copy onto other board members for consideration
MANUFACTURING
It was agreed that more time was needed before a final policy could be made on the great Key Vs Czech Republic debate, though the fact that 350 of the Pala singles had arrived warped (with 160 of the replacements also warped!) made things look pretty good for the burgeoning new democracy.
ARTS GRANTS
Mr Hibbett had prepared draft constitutions and forms, which were agreed as looking good - Mr Fleay had spoken to a cousin involved in Arts Grants, and he seemed to think we were doing the right thing. The only change advised was to alter the sectioning saying each board member did "at least five hours work" a week to ten hours, as that was more like it! The Constitution was duly signed, and Mr Hibbett would take the forms away and fill them in properly. The only thing remained was a Financial Statement, and it was agreed that Mr Hibbett should sort out a rough detailing of expenditure so far, to be passed by board members before forms were sent out. It was estimated that this would now be done before the end of the month, which would ROCK.
COMPILATION ALBUM
It was agreed that we would stick with the bands we had, and discuss matters more in-depth at the next meeting. Mr Woodward (G) would be asked to provide cover artwork.
AWAY DAY
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Due to time constraints it was agreed that discussion of these items be left until next time.
CORRESPONDENCE
None had been received.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
None.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
As this meeting had been moved to Derby, to allow for the Johnny Domino signing which was occurring directly subsequent to this meeting, the next meeting would be taking place in Loughborough, at 7pm on February 17th in the Three Nuns. /back to minutes page...
