Artists Against Success: Annual General Meeting Report 2000
The second Annual General Meeting of Artists Against Success took place on the 16th October in Derby, at the Blessington Arms. Representatives of Stumble, Lazer Guided, The Wandrin’ Allstars, Fighting Cocks, MJ Hibbett and Frankie Machine were in attendance, with guests from Twinkie, Universal History of Infamy, Lucas J and Vic Twenty also viewing the proceedings.
After a few light glasses of BEER the meeting commenced, with a welcome from the Chairman. He gave an overview of the year (and a bit) since the last meeting, demonstrating the huge leaps forward AAS had made, and spoke a while about the HEY!/WAHEY! Dichotomy, insofar as AAS prided itself on being a WAHEY! Label, and not a “hey…” label i.e. riddled with enthusiasm and joie de vivre, rather than being bogged down in ideas of coolness. To illustrate this point, he finished by reading out a prepared statement from Saloon, who had been unable to attend.
Next Mr Whitaker took the stand, to outline the future of the label. He returned to the core aim of the label, to produce Records Of Great Beauty, and though he stated that we had always stuck to this ideal, there was more that could be done to actually reach The Kids. More use of the interweb, he said, would be a growth area. At AAS we had utilised this massively, and he foresaw more to come in the year ahead. To finish he reinstated our commitment to the Great Beauty Ethos, and there was much nodding of heads.
Mr Fleay then rose, to hand out cheques, even though most of the people who should receive them weren’t actually there, and then questions were taken from the floor, largely concerning the move over to Prime earlier in the year. All was jolly throughout, and the meeting adjourned for a ten minute beer break.
On returning upstairs, the delegates entered into Phase Two of the meeting – the SINGALONG! This was a new feature, which worked out really really well, as everybody took a turn in playing a song for the assemblage. It was noticeable that the younger delegates performed their own material, whilst their elders went straight for covers instead – the meaning of this is yet unclear.
Finally, the meeting joined in an EXTREMELY rousing rendition of the company song, which was recorded for use on the compilation album. That done, all that was left was for some more drink, some more chat, and then to home or the Blue Note, depending on individual recklessness. And a fine time was had by all.
Afterwards, the following lessons learnt were prepared by Mr Fleay:
Lesson's Learnt
What Worked Well:
Bands/people playing songs
Beer-fuelled Sing-along at the END
Mark's coloured slides
Inviting non-AAS type people
Saloon's message of love
Video evidence of our beautiful GRATEness
What Didn't Work:
Overlap/Duplication of Mark and Mat's speeches
Cheque signing debacle / non-attendance of KEY staff
Verses of company song
In SUMMATION and to conclude - some lessons to carry forward to next year:
1)MJH/RWF/MW to PRACTICE company song before hand. What sort of an example
to the KIDS is it if we don't even know our own ANTHEM?
2)Closer co-ordination of speeches to avoid duplication of content
3)Single source of OHP production. Mat's slides looked a bit BASIC in the
shadow of Mark's PICASSOs
4)Greater emphasis to be placed on encouraging ATTENDANCE amongst member
artists - particularly with regard to dishing out CA$H. Saloon style messages to be encouraged if people know they can't
attend in advance
5)Work on encouraging attendance of non-member artists. Perhaps some
rudimentary "gig-style" advertising of the EVENT?
