This was agreed as VALID, and would be put online.
AWAY DAY
This was tentatively booked for 27th April at the Millstone Inn, with date to be finalised for next time, after everyone had looked at their diaries. Mr Fleay requested that his Bagsie-ing of the top bunk be minuted, whilst Mr Whitaker similarly insisted on Official Minuting that it was his turn for the double bed. Finally it was agreed that a Rolling Agenda be generated, to comprise all issues to be discussed on the day, with Christmas Cards top of the list.
SHABBY PARK
This name wouldn't really work if it took place in Derby, so it would be retitled. Mr Fleay promised to investigate his suggested venue of The Dance Place Next To The Bless for next time.
BADGES
After careful scrutiny of company finances, Mr Fleay, he say YES! He would find out how many different designs would be viable. These would then be mocked up, and the Board would vote on which they preferred. Suggestions were: a simple AAS logo; "AAS: Bands From London Are Shit"; "AAS: Defy THE MAN"; "No Sales, No Sellout", and Mr Whitaker thought that replacing "AAS" on the logo with "ARSE" would be a good idea.
CHRISTMAS CARDS
This would pend until the Away Day.
ORGANISATIONAL ISSUES
WEBPAGES
These were now all working, except for the Web Counter - Mr Hibbett would try and find us a new one. There was then Some Discussion about the prospect of selling our records through Amazon, and an ACTION PLAN was formulated as follows:
1. Mr Fleay would set up AAS as an Amazon Associate
2. Mr Whitaker would contact Prime, asking them to get Amazon to stock our complete catalogue, and to try and reduce the supposed delivery time.
3. Mr Hibbett would set up a section of the webpage to SELL the records.
All agreed that this could be The Answer To All Problems, and set about to ROCK HARD.
NEWSLETTER
It was agreed that it might possibly a good idea to make the next issue very much briefer, as then people might actually read it, although the longer version could be linked to on the webpages. The next issue would appear when something actually happens.
PLUGGERS
The report for the Milk & Baubles EP had been received and was GOOD - it had gone done very well in isolated rural areas especially, and Mr Steve Lamacq had played it - it had all taken a while to happen, but when it had it had been GOOD.
DISTRIBUTION
The Kraken/Chemistry Experiment comparison had been INSTRUCTIVE. Sales figures were as follows:
MJ Hibbett & The Validators 37
The Chemistry Experiment 75
Frightened Prisoners of the Kraken 12
There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth re. The Kraken sales, and this would be returned to later. Meanwhile there was much HEINOUSNESS going down with Prime - Mr Whitaker had phoned SEVERAL times, and Paul had constantly promised to speak to Jamie in finance to get our invoices paid - this was now over a year old, and the sums of money were considerable. Mr Fleay also desperately needed statements - it really was Not Good Enough.
THUS Mr Whitaker would clearly state the Cash Flow Problems this was giving us, offering to go and VISIT them to sort it out. If the cheque had not finally been received by 23rd January, then Mr Fleay would be forced to go public on message boards about this, to see if that would push them into action.
FINANCE
Apart from the GRIM SCENARIO outlined above, Mr Fleay was given a cheque for £12 for sending Chemistry Experiment records to Prime, whilst Mr Whitaker was reminded by this that he too had a receipt for sending The Giraffe album, and would bring it next time,
FOOTBALL
It was agreed that Derby would quite probably be going down now, that Bradford's new manager was doing well, and that Posh were now in Administration. Mr Whitaker had rocketed to the first place in The Football, with Mr Hibbett a close second and Mr Fleay still languishing at the bottom. Mr Whitaker had not had time to sort out the trophy, so he would FACT details to Mr Hibbett, who would then DEAL with the matter.
A&R
THE FRIGHTENED PRISONERS OF THE KRAKEN
Mr Whitaker had not yet had a chance to speak to his CONTACT about getting The Kraken played on The Archers, but would do so. Mr Fleay handed out tapes on New Material, which, he confided, was GRATE, and the meeting fell to getting upset about the PALTRY sales figures of their album - it was BLOODY GRATE, and it was deeply SAD that so very few people had had a chance to find this out. The meeting consoled itself with the idea that this could be worked upon once the Amazon Stuff was worked out, but still, it was a RIGHT bugger.
THE CHEMISTRY EXPERIMENT
On the other hand, "The Giraffe Album" had sold 75 copies, so WELL DONE The Chemistry Experiment! Various Board Members had also seen them live in recent times and had reported firstly that they had been GRATE, and secondly that we LOVE them and they are ACE. The love-in paused to say that 25 copies HAD been sent to the band and that a copy had been sent to Careless Talk magazine, before reporting that their BRILLIANT single was supposedly out soon on Fortuna Pop! STILL we covet their next album, and the Board resolved to demonstrate to them the BEAUTY of Our Way, not just by showing our love but also by trying to get the DAMN CASH out of Prime and giving it to them. Also, of course, we needed to work on The Publicity Side, to quell other worries anybody might have. We WANT them though, really we do.
JOHNNY DOMINO
DETAILS had been received from them of how to do short runs of CD-Rs e.g. "The First 100 Years" had cost about £180 - closer inspection showed it wasn't really all THAT much cheaper than normal procedures, but was at least an OPTION. Otherwise it was revealed that the rockin' Domino planned to do at LEAST two more albums this year!
FRANKIE MACHINE
Disaster! Two attempts at a final mix for the album had FAILED, largely due to it producing a 32 minute WAV file. Mr Fleay stated he would try chopping it up into smaller segments, and would then send it to Board Members as SOON as it was done. He wasn't feeling awfully confident about it, so there was a beautiful session of CHIVVYING and GENTLE ENCOURAGEMENT from other Board Members. Smiling bravely, he stated that he was still going to be augmenting his line-up for live performance, probably utilising members of his fabulous Weddings, Parties and South Of France band, before Mr Whitaker gently reminded him that the Francois Machine mix of Spray needed finishing before the end of January.
MJ HIBBETT
There was a LOT to say. Radio One had played "Easily Impressed", and it had been playlisted on British Forces Broadcasting, hopefully keeping Our Boys out in Afghanistan CHEERY. "Oi! Sarge!" etc etc. The Pluggers' report had been GOOD, Need To Know had mentioned it in GLOWING terms, and it had ROCKETED to the Top 700 on Amazon, briefly, largely thanks to the efforts of Pauly Popex. The Christmas Album had proved to be GRATE - unexpectedly UPBEAT and FUN, and it was felt that we could really groove with these yankee cats at Stereorrific, who were ACE. Finally there was talk of the recent addition to the Validators' audience in the shape of Edie Skye Pattison, though obviously in a MANLY and TOUGH fashion.
Mr Hibbett the presented his Rock Plan Of Rock Action for 2002 (ROCK) document, which was discussed at some length. Issues which applied to all releases would be discussed further at other times, notably the Away Day, but other issues included : re-recording "The Fair Play Trophy" and just releasing it as a CD-R to try and gain TV/Radio interest (there was some discussion of releasing a Proper World Cup EP, but this was eventually, regretfully, dropped; releasing "Programming Is A Poetry For Our Time" as another interweb single, with "Boom Shake The Room" as b-side; recording a new(ish) song for a compilation album; developing "viral" marketing using lyrics to promote the album; re-releasing "Hey Hey 16K" to promote a re-release of "Say It With Words" through Amazon, and then promoting THAT through Ananova.
PHEW. Finally Mr Hibbett passed out copies of "Kazoo Magic III: ATAK of the Kazoos", which contained the songs detailed, his tracks for the MJ & Frankie Project (which was discussed separately after the meeting), and some new songs for his album.
TERRASHIMA
The band were doing some London gigs soon and would be in touch a.s.a.p. about the single.
L CHRISTIAN LUNDHOLM
L Chris had reported been working with Acoustic Guitar and Oboe on his recordings, and would be letting us know as soon as he had anything ready. He had read, and AGREED, with Contract Details, and the meeting agreed that his record would be BRILLIANT, not least because it would help us Break New Territory, and that. HOORAH!
ANY OTHER A&R
THE PARENTS
This had still not been heard yet.
RUSK
Mr Fleay passed out tapes of their new demo (well, it was on the same tape as the Kraken stuff anyway), and stated that it was 100 times better than the previous one, and that he looked forward to a similar improvement on the next one. Bless, agreed the meeting, he was like some crazy Big Brother of Bands.
MJ & FRANKIE
This project was discussed in full at a separate meeting facilitated by Mr Whitaker. It was agreed that Messrs Hibbett and Fleay would contribute 3 songs each to the project, to be recorded in two sessions (10-1 and 2-5) on a single week day at Mr Fleay's house, using a Scratch Band tentatively comprised of the rest of Frankie Machine and Steve Domino. Titles were undecided as yet.
THE PO BOX
Nothing had been received. Copies of the Crystal Lee tape had STILL not been handed over by Mr Fleay and The Board wondered what Nefarious Uses he might be putting it to. The filthy monkey.
CORRESPONDENCE
Mr Fleay produced the correspondence from the Goth Band mentioned last time, including photographs. All of it was As You Would Expect. Mr Hibbett had been in correspondence with Synth Kazoo, and it was agreed that though their music wasn't really Our Thing, the literature which had accompanied it had been officially the BEST we had ever received.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Not this time, no.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
This would be on 28th February at 8.00pm in the Three Nuns, Loughborough, all things being equal.
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