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| Minutes of the Meeting held 30th November 1999 |
| ACTION | |
| APOLOGIES | |
| There were no apologies | |
| MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING | |
| Accepted as VALID, except for the fact that the Cheap Kojak demo had been received by Mr Fleay on CD, not on tape. | |
| MATTERS ARISING | |
| Reports were heard on the following items: | |
| MCPS/PPL | |
| This was still pending. It was agreed that Mr Hibbett would take over this task, with Mr Whitaker forwarding him the relevant documentation. | MH MW |
| AAS GOLD DISC | |
| This remained in Mr Fleay’s kitchen, and was getting slowly less hilarious. It was agreed that he would take it into Reveal as soon as possible, before all humour was lost forever. | RF |
| MUSIC LIVE | |
| There was some discussion about a Good Idea, and one was had, that we apply for funding to mount an AAS stage at Abbey Park. Mr Hibbett had been unable to attend the recent Abbey Park AGM, but would contact the organisers to register his interest in being involved in next year’s festival. | MH |
| T-SHIRTS | |
| These had been done, and would be sent off by Mr Hibbett as soon as possible. | MH |
| PEOPLE SOUND | |
| Mr Fleay had looked at their documentation, and the matter would be discussed further under Stumble’s section in A&R. | |
| ORGANISATIONAL ISSUES | |
| The following label-based issues were discussed: | |
| VENUE OF MEETINGS | |
| The problems of timing of last trains from Derby (and subsequent rushing of meeting), combined with the possibility that a new venue might need to be found in Leicester, led the meeting to consider the idea of staging all future meetings in Loughborough. It was agreed that, if possible, the final meeting of this century should take place in the Durham Ox, but with the Three Nuns becoming the venue for the New Millenium. | |
| WEBPAGES | |
| All seemed well – some people had recently had problems accessing the site, but it was thought that this was probably due to the server running slowly, or something. Mr Whitaker also suggested looking at a free domain names site, which Mr Fleay would investigate, though both he and Mr Hibbett FROWNED and looked SERIOUS in a computer nur kinda way. | RF |
| WEB CONSULTANCY | |
| This was moving slowly – work had been done, but Mr Hibbett was still waiting for some information from Mr Rose before he could move much further. There had also been some problems with the FACT that it was all running on an NT server, but a New Method was going to be tried out. It was agreed that the Project should move onto the stage where there would at least be something to show, hopefully by next time. | MH |
| NEWSLETTER | |
| It was agreed that the next one should go out soon, with news of the Frankie Machine single, the Wandrin’ Allstars re-release, Saloon’s Radio One play, and the forthcoming album releases, with Johnny Domino taking their turn in Band Focus. Board Members had received a variety of emails from people various asking for readers to vote for them in the Festive 50, and this led to rather Confused Discussion about our policy. The meeting eventually decided that something both Clever and also Amusing be devised, and utilised. | MH |
| PLUGGERS | |
| Mr Whitaker had spoken to Jon at Overground, and this would be dealt with further in Any Other Business. | |
| DISTRIBUTION | |
| Further to the last meeting, Mr Whitaker had thrice rung Shellshock, each time to be told that Gareth was not there, eventually leaving a message asking how the matter could be sorted if phone calls were not returned. After leaving this message, Mr Whitaker rang Backs, and explained the situation. After holding for five minutes, he was informed that our stock was being sent off, and almost simultaneously he received an email from the absent Gareth, informing him that stock had been sent the day before. The meeting drew no conclusions from these Unusual Events. The stock arrived, as promised, in two lots, and now resided in Mr Hibbett’s office at work. It was agreed that these could safely be stored in his loft for the present. Mr Whitaker had then written again to Shellshock, thanking them for the returned stock, and asking when the last batch would be returned, and whether this would be the time to finally settle the account. He had spoken to Paul beforehand, who had agreed to pay the asked for Ł50, on condition that Shellshock produced details of all pre-sales, information which Mr Whitaker then passed on in his letter. No reply had yet been received, and Mr Whitaker would write again if none was received soon. In happier news, it was reported that Prime Independent were currently referring to AAS as their “favourite label” in press releases, and a warm glow spread around. | MH MW |
| FINANCE | |
| Mr Fleay reported that the Spreadsheet of TRUTH had been completed and, shaking slightly in FEAR, the meeting gathered round his Big Blue Folder to look upon it, its wonders to behold. The meeting then furrowed its brow as it collectively tried to work out what on earth was going on in the earlier stages, and happily managed to pretty much figure it all out. Mr Fleay was congratulated on his work, and a cheque was given to Mr Hibbett for Ł27.46 (to cover the valid stamp and t-shirts), with another being prepared for Mr Whitaker, to be given to him when he had handed over receipts for various mailings, including postage of AAS019. At this point, a drink was required. | MW |
| QUALITY MANUAL – JOB DESCRIPTIONS | |
| Due to work undertaken on the previous items, this one had moved no further, and would pend again until last time, when Mr Fleay would have finished his job description, and Mr Whitaker would have done some combining of other information. | RF MW |
| AWAY DAY/AGM | |
| It was agreed that it would be GRATE to have another AGM, with another Away Day to precede it. The AGM would be held again in the Bless in Derby, during April, with the Away Day probably in March, at a venue to be thought about by all in preparation for discussion next time. | ALL |
| FOOTBALL | |
| It was noted that Bradford was still poised just above Derby on the knife edge of the Premier League. It was also noted that Peterborough United were STILL looking good for promotion, and that it didn’t actually matter actually which division actually they were currently in. | |
| A&R | |
| Bands and Ting were talked of, as follows: | |
| FRANKIE MACHINE | |
| The Frankie Machine single was pressed, printed, delivered to Prime and lovingly cuddled by all Board Members, with the release date set for the following Monday. HOORAH! Mr Hibbett was passed a pre-enveloped copy, which he would send to the 12 Bar club for possible gig-getting, while Mr Fleay passed to Mr Whitaker a CD containing both the Frankie Machine and Wandrin’ Allstars singles, to be sent to the Melody Maker for review purposes. Mr Whitaker had already sent out the CORE promotional copies, with Mr Fleay following up with various fanzines and stuff. There was further discussion of gigs to promote the single, and Mr Fleay agreed that he would Think On about it. After this, with a smile on it’s face, the meeting agreed that all was pretty much done now, that we might ROCK. Finally Mr Fleay reported that he hoped to start recording the follow-up to this beautiful record early in the New Year, as he should get a bit of cash to pay for it come February. Let the nation ready itself! | MH MW RF RF |
| MJ HIBBETT AND THE VALIDATORS | |
| Mr Hibbett reported that the album “Say It With Words” was finally finally FINALLY finished, having been utterly mastered the night before, and passed a CD copy to Mr Whitaker, who would make copies for Various People. G-Dog of the Dominoes was currently preparing an image for the cover, with the insides already done, and it was hoped that a photo-session, during a rehearsal, could be arranged for the end of the year. A band meeting had occurred, at which plans were lain to play about eight gigs around the time of the release, and work would soon start on getting these together, aiming for the album coming out around February/March time. The DAT had been sent for the Domino split single also, and it was hoped that some of the aforementioned gigs (most notably Derby, Leicester and London) would be joint promotions with them. Finally, and with some grim inevitability, it was revealed that 12 songs were already ready for the next album, one of which featured dinosaurs fairly prominently. | MW |
| JOHNNY DOMINO | |
| All Board Members had received a copy of the FINISHED Domino album, and all agreed it was BLOODY GRATE, to quite some considerable degree. It was VALIDATED heartily, with much discussion over Good Bits in the Words, although the album title “In Orbit” was not necessarily perhaps the best thing about it. In order to MOP up catalogue numbers, it was agreed that it would be assigned the catalogue number AAS 017, following on nicely from Rabbit Themes’ 016. Mr Fleay had booked them in for Mastering later in the week, and had had a THOUGHT about a possible promotional idea, to whit, including free copies of Rabbit Themes with the first 50 copies of the new album, as we already had double CD containing tray things. He would pass this idea onto the band. It was hoped that this album would also come out around February/March time, making all things beautiful in their synchronicity. | RF |
| PALA | |
| Mr Whitaker had had an in-depth conversation with Alex from Pala. REPEAT had agreed to put out their next single on vinyl, and Alex wondered if AAS could possibly do the CD version. In excellent and heart-warmingly frank discussion, Mr Whitaker had pointed out that this wouldn’t be a very good idea, that problems would doubtless arise with the different distribution copies, and that they would be much much better off paying for CD’s if they wanted them, and then getting REPEAT to put them out simultaneously. Alex had taken all these points on board, and Mr Whitaker had offered his help and advice at any point that it was necessary. | |
| FIGHTING COCKS | |
| Nothing had been heard from them since the last meeting. | |
| LAZER GUIDED | |
| They were off into the studio again soon, and would be playing the All-EveningEr Gig thing on the 14th December. | |
| SALOON | |
| Their side of the split single had been played on John Peel in the preceding week, and Mr Fleay had rung to offer AAS’s heartiest congratulations. In other news, the track they had intended to go on the AAS compilation was now being put onto a French compilation album. | |
| WANDRIN’ ALLSTARS | |
| The band had recently purchased a new 8-track, but had somehow mislaid the motor, which had put a bit of a dampener on recording activities for now, although of course the debut single was being released very soon, to tie in with the hoped for Cuban Boys MANIA that would be gripping the Nation. Jon from Overground had passed on a list of some important places to which copies might be sent, in order to help the process. Meanwhile, a new website was being prepared for them, hopefully included an Internet Single. | |
| STUMBLE | |
| As stated, Mr Fleay had investigated the PeopleSound documentation, and had found that the Ł100 it paid out was in fact an advance. The Deal was that PeopleSound received the right to do what they liked with material while the band retained exactly the same rights. CDs had to be sold for a minimum of Ł6.99, with PeopleSound taking Ł2.00 for production, with half of the eventual revenue (minus VAT) going to the band. It sounded Unusual, but did have proper contracts and stuff. Anyway, the much talked of Stumble Internet Single was one of these projects, with 3 new tracks, Currently Everything Is Of Good Quality and Be My Guest from the Home Cookin’ CD. It was all a bit weird, and it was being promoted just as if it was a single proper, with Karen of Razzle doing press, and big plugging going in, resulting in a Kerrang! Review and plays on XFM, GLR and Radio 1. Mr Fleay had spoken to them to express interest in doing the next single, which was apparently A Cracker, and there was discussion about asking Paul from Prime to put some cash into the manufacturing, with it being agreed that we would see how the next few weeks went with this single, before going further. | |
| COMPILATION ALBUM | |
| This pended, but one day my friends it will rise anew. | |
| ANY OTHER A&R | |
| SPRAYDOG | |
| Tapes of the first half hour of their album were given to Board Members to Mr Fleay. The band had had singles, big gigs, and a Peel session, and were looking for a label to put out the new album, having done the first one on their own label. Mr Whitaker had spoken to them on email, detailing The Deal, and had also spoken to Paul again about possible manufacturing funding, as it might sell enough to make this worthwhile. If VALIDATION could occur fairly soon, things could be got moving on this one, so all board members agreed to give it a rapid listen. Mr Fleay would do a rough costing for a vinyl version, although it was generally agreed that, for an album, a CD would make much more sense. Finally it was agreed that The Board would like to meet them of a drink or something, to see that they were All Right And That. | ALL RF |
| SUBMARINE | |
| Nothing much was occurring, and this would be removed from the next agenda, although it was noted that Lee from Submarine would be joining 1.3 Billion for their next trip to Nice. | |
| MAKIF | |
| Mr Hibbett had received a tape from him, and had not really understood, as it was a totally other world from our kind of stuff. Still, he had FACTed him information about manufacturing and distribution, and offered any further advice that might be needed. | |
| 22 METRE BAND | |
| Mr Hibbett was still talking with them in an ambling stylee, and hoped to have CDs of their rather good album available soon. | |
| CHEAP KOJAK | |
| Mr Fleay had FACTed them The Deal, and had not heard anything else from them. | |
| TWINKIE REMIXES | |
| This project was awaiting the Wandrin’ Allstars remix before it could progress further, though it was reported that Moo was most impressed with the Cuban Boys remix. | |
| THE SCOTTISH MICK ALBUM | |
| Mr Fleay presented Mr Whitaker with a tape of Johnny Domino and Lazer Guided instrumentals to be passed onto Paul. Said gentleman had told Mr Whitaker that, although he thought it would be a GRATE idea to have an album done by many bands, Scottish Mick had informed him that he wanted to do it solely with The Freed Unit. He would try and persuade him otherwise, however, and Mr Hibbett advised that it might be best if Paul not mention the AAS connection to Mr Derrick, for various Leicester Reasons. There was discussion about the differences between Derby and Leicester, of which there were many, especially the rubbish nonciness of the so-called “Derby Indie-Wars” which had actually been in a big prancing pinny-wearing love-in. Cuh! | |
| CORRESPONDENCE | |
| There had been none. | |
| ANY OTHER BUSINESS | |
| PROMO VIDEOS | |
| Mr Fleay had been contacted by a chap who wanted VHS promo videos to play on his student TV show, and there was discussion of the FACT that Mr Fleay actually owned a video camera, which could be used for rudimentary promotional clip making. Also, the Wandrin’ Allstars were considering making a video, and there was the Taking Pictures video. Mr Whitaker would contact The Pictures, to ask if they were up for it, and if so to send another copy. | |
| LICENCING | |
| Jon from Overground had mentioned the possibility that the Allstars might be asked to do a deal with a Major Label, should Cuban Boys Mania take on a particularly mad life, possibly being licenced from AAS, or something. Wonderfully the meeting spent a really long-time discussing and refuting in no uncertain terms this non-existent scenario, agreeing that, even if they offered us Ł20,000 or something, no way would we sell out, it was against everything we stood for. Vague ideas of “Finders Fees” that was OK, but nothing of this sort. Everyone got quite RIGHTEOUS about it, in fact. The meeting was proud that it was a Real Proper Independent with Real Proper Independent Distribution and Promotions, and that’s the way we’re staying, baby. | RF |
| DATE OF NEXT MEETING | |
| The next meeting would occur in the Durham Ox, Leicester, on December 28th, at a time to be decided later, possibly during the daytime. | |
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