29. November 2004 !!!!

Dear All,

My last "weekly" newsletter is now exactly a year old (29th November) - so Happy Birthday to it!

I can't BELIEVE I left it so long, but I did. Sorry about that. Anyway ­ so now you get a year's worth. To be fair, I have been making sure Katie's site is pretty up-to-date, and establishing a (soon to be activated) site for my new signing ROBERT MEADMORE - so it isn't as if I've been lying in bed all year.

Some of you will be aware that I have been on tour as piano player with Katie Melua for much of 2004, and simultaneously organising the marketing for her in the UK and beyond. It has been a fantastically busy and exciting year for us. Last year at this time I was announcing that Katie's recently- released album was just turning Gold (100K copies) after only 3 weeks on
sale. Now ­ a year on, it is just turning FIVE TIMES PLATINUM - (1.5 million sales) and although we may well get pipped to the post for "biggest seller of the year" by a big selling competitor this Christmas, it is currently (as I write) still the biggest selling album this year in the UK, despite the fact that about 300K of our sales are not counted because they happened before the year end of 2003.

The Dramatico team has expanded slightly but is still a small, family-style unit operating as a single-artist label and management company. Except now we have two artists so that was a damned lie! The second is Robert (mentioned above). He is a really fine Baritone singer, and he and I made an album earlier this year, using just a small string orchestra and his voice. His site will be linked from here as soon as it is ready. His album is currently scheduled for February 28th, 2005. It is very much a classical
album, with just three songs from musicals, arranged and sung in a classsical vein, but very accessible and romantic. The other repertoire is all Debussy, Faure, etc - a very chilled-out album. His video, which we shot in Paris a couple of months ago, is on heavy rotation on Classic FM TV, and we will begin promoting it to radio and TV next week.

This year has seen the Katie bandwagon visiting the States, Moscow, Germany, Holland, Scandinavia, and many other placers. We spent the summer playing big festivals mainly in the UK, which was fascinating partly because of the contrasting venues. At T in the Park in Scotland we played to a packed tent full of 10,000 young Scottish music fans, most of them high or, er, tipsy.
Great reaction, then Katie came straight off stage and dragged me off to the fair where we went on a gut-wrenching high ride where I thanked God for centrifugal force. Guilfest (in Guildford, Surrey) was by contrast a more family-based audience, mostly sitting on the ground - and equally enthusiastic. It always intrigues me how such diverse audiences seem to go for Katie - not that I disapprove. She is an extraordinary talent.

My family and I had took a holiday in Italy in August, on a boat cruising the Amalfi Coast and jamming on deck with instruments we hired in Naples. That was a good and very necessary two week break before getting back to the turmoil of touring and keeping Dramatico rolling along.

In the States, Dramatico established a relationship with Universal Music - whereby they basically run Dramatico's marketing with us. It is progressing well, although it would only be a fool who would hope or expect to break an artist in the States in one short tour. We are returrning there (to New York City) - for a week in each month, right up to April initially. Katie will be playing small clubs like the Living Room, Joe's Pub and The Cutting Room. They are each about 150 capacity! It's a bit of a change from doing 10,000 seat sellouts, but Katie loves playing small intimate venues, and we can't assume the States will just accept her as a headline artist just because she's so big in Europe. You have to pay your dues. In Australia and New Zealand, we are delighted to have a similar relationship with Sony. The record is currently Gold there, and heading for Platinum. We have a great relationship with Just Music in South Africa, where we are already Gold and still moving forward. Throughout Europe, Dramatico has established direct relationships with distributors, and we do our own marketing with local teams of people.

Recently, we re-issued Call Off The Search in the UK and some of Europe with a bonus 70-minute DVD inside the pack - and we are now heading towards the year end with that as our main focus. At the same time, we have been writing and recording the new album. It is sounding good - but we won't rush it. It'll come out when it's ready.

Beyond that, I have just completed a deal with SONY to reacquire (for up to 15 years) my old back catalogue of solo albums as an artist. Dramatico will issue these throughout 2005 until by the end of the year they should all be available ­ remixed in 5.1 surround, and some with DVD content included ­ for example we are looking at putting out Zero Zero with the TV show as DVD
content, and Caravans in tandem with an inclusive DVD of the film.

Another addition to Dramatico's world this year is Robert Madsen, who, from his base in Germany - is looking after all our sites - which include this one, Katie's site, Dramatico's site, The Planets' site and Robert Meadmore's. This site is soon to get a facelift and a change of server. So stay tuned and it should get a bit more active around here.

There goes another newsletter without my recipe for Chicken Maryland, so count yourselves fortunate at least for that blessing.

Have fun, and don't invade Iran.

Cheers

Mike