The board were silent, silent as the perfect night on the hills outside Paragua.
ORGANISATIONAL ISSUES
WEBPAGES
Dollar signs had been turned into pounds as discussed, and this had almost pushed our meagre existence above subsistence levels. Mr Hibbett had not redesigned the webpages yet, but would do soon, pending any new ideas from this meeting.
DISTRIBUTION
Mr Whitaker required some compilations to send, although he would check in his cupboards and mountain hut to see if there were any spare. He would sort it out.
FINANCE
Mr Fleay presented The Spreadsheet Of Love, and briefly explained some of its intricacies. He reported that Ann from Sienna had cashed her cheque, but the Kraken still hadn't. Mr Whitaker would check with them, and if all was OK with them we would send another cheque. Mr Hibbett was then presented with a cheque for £81.20 for further sales, which he vowed to hide from the prying eye of the National Institute for Agricultural Investigation.
FOOTBALL
It was looking tight.
A&R
DR COCA COLA MCDONALDS
Mr Whitaker asked whether £10 was a little much to pay for the Dr Coca Cola McDonalds CD, and suggested that a lower price might increase sales at market - Mr Fleay would check with Moo when he next drove his herd through the village. Moo also had a presentation to make to the board about future plans (including DVD and a documentary!) and he would be asked to attend a future meeting to present these ideas, and also to be Officially Signed.
JOHNNY DOMINO
All board members had now heard the album, and declared it to be Extremely VALID indeed, and thus it was given the catalogue number AAS039. Mr Fleay would contact them and ask how many copies they wanted to press up and how many they would want sending out for promos. He would also gently hint that they might want to get some gigs set up, around which we could base the release date. The meeting agreed that it really was a pity they didn't do gigs more often.
PLANS & APOLOGIES
Mr Fleay had seen them at the recent Festival in Maracaibo, and reported that they had been as good as ever. They had also been spotted re-recording some of their lost material in the Hive.
THE LAST STARFIGHTERZ
There was a possibility of us releasing an EP by this group - what had been heard was lovely, but we needed to hear some more please.
FRANKIE MACHINE
With the animals tethered Mr Fleay drew closer to the fire, and began to regale the meeting with tales untold about his comings and goings. First of all he presented the meeting with his US Compilation CD, which looked absolutely GORGEOUS. It was officially released on April 27th, and there was a possibility of a North American tour. The meeting expressed their pride in his achievement, he had done very well INDEED. Mr Hibbett pledged to send out 25 copies and press releases alongside the Validators EP, to publicise it in this country, and Mr Fleay provided him with a CD containing press releases and contacts.
As if that were not enough to send everyone back to their pastures aglow with joy, Mr Fleay then presented draft copies of his NEW album, "Re-Unmelt My Heart", fully finished and mastered. The meeting sat AGOG, with only the sound of the distant Orinoco disturbing the peace. The plan was for him to get some gigs to go vaguely alongside the US release, and then build up for release of "Re-Unmelt My Heart" maybe around September time.
He further reported that he'd done three gigs recently - one good, one awful, and one, in Sheffield, slightly odd. Also, the Org webpage now claimed that their CD would be out "any minute"!
MJ HIBBETT & THE VALIDATORS
"... our favourite part of the meeting..." said Mr Whitaker, returning from having briefly sexed some Alpines.
The Scottish tour had been GRATE, and recording had gone well on the new EP, and it was agreed as VALID by all. Artwork and Multimedia were done, and Mr Fleay presented the finished master of the five new songs. Mr Hibbett would combine the LOT and get it sent out soon. Sorted Supremo Dave Dixey had reported that Shellshock were baying for barcodes, and also that the Press Release was looking good - for the first time, it was both impressive AND true!
More gigs were being sorted out, and Mr Whitaker offered to do some flyering and postering for Leicester gigs. Similarly Mr Fleay would see about organising something in Derby, for which he would posterize. He then suggested the possibilty of sending "This Is Not A Library" to CAMRA and OFPUB, which Mr Hibbett would sort out. Mr Hibbett then moaned a bit about the PRS, and Mr Whitaker offered to speak to John Esplen about publishing. This would not be unwelcome to Mr Hibbett's family, who had had a poor yield from their Nubians this winter. He then showed the meeting a list of song titles for the new album, to much saying of "Oh!"
Finally he reported that nothing had been heard about the WIAIWYA compilation, but then Jerv looked over a mighty flock who required his attention often.
THE PO BOX
There had been no drop, as the key holder had travelled across the water, possibly to Trinidad, which was nearby.
ALUMNI NEWS
Mr Whitaker had not accidentally seen Terrashima. Saloon had not split up recently - just three of their members had left (at this point the board sang the haunting ballad "the curse of the bands on our label whose names begin with 'S'"). Stevie IOAA (nee Stumble) had been ordered to work with a personal trainer by his new masters, and the Chemistry Experiment had joined the aforementioned flock of Jerv, and so had a new single out with him.
OTHER A&R
The Dead By Dawn album had not been heard yet.
CORRESPONDENCE
Mr Hibbett had passed on an email from a DJ in Istanbul, which Mr Whitaker would deal with. Mr Fleay had recieved some photographs from a 14 year old girl, which he had politely ignored.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
BADGES
Mr Fleay reported that we were on the wee-badges website as a link and an example of their work, which was awfully nice. Mr Fleay had emailed to advise that we would be sending them some work soon.
MINUTES STYLE
The minutes would be composed in the style of a Venezuelan Goatherd.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The next meeting would take place in Leicester's Fashionable West End, meeting in Mr Whitaker's Living Room, with date and time to be agreed by email. On goats, or something..
