Mr Fleay had thought about this, and had been unable to come up with an efficient way for recording a telephone call. Mr Hibbett would ask Dr Brown if he knew any way of so doing.
PROBE MUSIC ADVERTISING
Mr Fleay reported that Probe Music had merged with drownedinsound, and that this meant the Advertising Deal had changed. He would check it out again and alert the board via email, that they might take a decision about whether to use the magazine to publicise the Kraken album.
CHRISTMAS MEAL
Mr Whitaker had only just procured a diary capable of reaching Christmas, but would check that December 17th did not interfere with school.
BEER MATS
Unfortunately it turned out that the minimum order for beer mats would cost £600, and despite the still GRATE appeal of AAS beer mats, it was agreed that this was a bit too much.
ORGANISATIONAL ISSUES
WEBPAGES
The newsletter had been updated and u.k.m.a. alerted, with the Kraken album to go up on the releases page as soon as possible. It was reported that we were now approaching 10,000 hits, and the meeting got all nostalgic about the Early Days Of AAS when they would get excited every month about how many visits they'd had.
NEWSLETTER
Mr Hibbett would send the Kraken a copy of the questionnaire for completion, and would ask the Domino about their forthcoming album so that we could at least plug it for them.
PLUGGERS
This would be dealt with in the Kraken's item.
DISTRIBUTION
Cash from the invoice had STILL not turned up, although Mr Fleay was still chasing it.
FINANCE
Total manufacturing costs for the Kraken album (including forced rejigging of the Bleed around the cover) were £662.70. The label paid £99.41 of this and the band £563.29. Mr Fleay noted that they had actually sent AAS a cheque for £563.59, so the label now owed them 30p. Plugging would be extra (and would be dealt with under the band's item), but Mr Fleay stated that, if this too was taken into account, the label would still have around £362 in the account, thanks, as ever, to The Tithe.
AGM ADVANCE PLANNING
October 22nd was firmly agreed as the date for the AGM, and Mr Fleay would go to the Bless and book it at the earliest opportunity, whilst Mr Hibbett would sort out some invites which could be given (by hand or by email) to people - it was agreed that Board Members should ask all the people they asked last time, plus anyone else they could think of. The format and content would be further discussed at the next meeting.
FOOTBALL
After brief discussion of each Board Member's team's prospects for the new season, it was decided to have a PREDICTION COMPETITION. Each Board Member would predict the finishing position of each team, and at the end of the season they would be allocated POINTS depending on how far away from the actuality they were e.g. if Mr Whitaker predicted Bradford would finish 5th and they actually finished 3rd he would get 2 points. The Board Member with the least points would be declared winner, and be presented with a TROPHY during the Away Day. Everyone was VERY excited about this idea, agreed on Mr Fleay's proviso that the trophy be Quite Cheap, and Mr Whitaker would sort this out.
Those predictions in full:
Mr Whitaker
Mr Fleay
Mr Hibbett
Mr Dresden
Derby
17th
12th
18th
20th
Bradford
5th
3rd
8th
24th
Posh
12th
10th
6th
24th
Manchester Utd
1st
1st
1st
5th
FRANKIE MACHINE
Mr Fleay presented the meeting with CD copies of approximately HALF of his album, which he had REALLY been getting going on just lately. There were 21mins finished, with roughly the similar still to come. Steve Domino had recently been recording with him, which had given him a BOOST, and though he hoped to have it finished within the next couple of months the meeting agreed that he would be wise, both financially and for the purposes of LIVE ROCK, to hang on until the new year before releasing it.
MJ HIBBETT
Adding to the already overpowering levels of excitement Mr Hibbett presented tapes of half of HIS album, which had recently been finished. He reported that the band would be in the studio next week to commence phase 2 of this project, and that it was all sounding pretty darn good. He had recently played and absolutely amazingly GRATE gig in Birmingham, and was set to play in Leeds next month - this led to discussion of a Soppy New Song he had written, and finally to the Board formally congratulating him on his New Love. Aaah, bless.
JOHNNY DOMINO
Mr Fleay had recently spoken to both Steve and Marc from the mighty Domino, and nervously stated that they have most unusually been RAVING about their new album, and claiming to be really pleased with how it had turned out! Unfortunately they couldn't afford to release it through AAS and might be selling it through their webpage instead. Mr Fleay pledged to get copies of the finished article for his fellow board members, much to their obvious pleasure.
SALOON
It was reported that the band had secured a Peel session, which was awfully exciting, and that apparently the album had been mixed. All of the board had stopped going out of the house this month, so they could be at home when the 'Loon rang up to tell them when AAS could have the master tapes so that we could release their album. Perhaps they had lost our number?
THE FRIGHTENED PRISONERS OF THE KRAKEN
As the meeting sat, it was hoped that CDs would be FLYING off the production line, with them hopefully being delivered to Mr Fleay's house within the next couple of weeks. The meeting, already at a feverish high point, started to visible FROTH at this thought. There had been trouble with the BLEED, necessitating a slight increase in the costs, but that was all sorted out now. Barcodes had been done too - wahey!
Release date was now set for Monday September 17th with a RRP of £9.99, which meant we would get back about £4 for each one to be divided between band and label in an 85/15 split stylee. Apparently the album was a Big Favourite in the Prime offices, which was very nice.
Lee at Overground also really liked the album, describing it colloquially as "bonkers", and was currently working out what could be done for the agreed £400 (£60 of which would, again, be coming from the label). He had stressed the importance of the band doing lots of gigs - Taunton was already sorted, and Mr Hibbett would ask the Bull & Gate about the possibility of them playing there, as well as seeing if they could support him when he played in Leeds next month. Mr Fleay would contact Bath Moles to see if they could play there, and would try and get a Domino/Kraken double headed MONSTER gig sorted out in Derby also.
Finally, Mr Whitaker pledged to have a good old go at the press - he would finish off the press release before passing it to Mr Hibbett for a sprinkling of ROCK MAGIC, and then push it HARD. The meeting agreed that they were certainly Going For It in terms of the promotional campaign, and hoped that it would pay off if only for the sake of THE KIDS whose lives would be improved beyond measure by exposure to this FANTASTIC record.
THE PO BOX
Nothing had been received this month, although it was agreed that The PO Box would be a terribly good name for a band. Mr Whitaker reported that he had Actually Quite Liked the Brick CD, tho didn't think we could do much with them, and was trying to get round to writing back.
ANY OTHER A & R
ORKO
Mr Fleay had received this, and reported that it starts out good and then gets A Bit Dark. Mr Whitaker would take it away to listen to, and Mr Hibbett would see them at Abbey Park if he got there in time.
CORRESPONDENCE
The usual nonsense had been received from bands demanding we visit their website to download material, and had been deleted.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
RADIO DOCUMENTARY
Tasha from Glamourpuss had been commissioned to do a documentary on Starting Your Own Record Label for Radio One, and Mr Fleay had put her in touch with Jyoti while dropping subtly VEILED HINTS about a group of individuals who it would be much much much better to ask.
MEETING VENUE
Now that Mr Whitaker was moving to Leicester there was discussion about where to have meetings, and it was eventually agreed to continue holding them in Loughborough. Mr Hibbett asked for consideration of a change of time so that he could come on the bus instead of the train, which necessitated a really long journey for him, and this would be dealt with over the interweb.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The next meeting would take place at the Three Nuns, Loughborough on September 11th, with the time to be decided.
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