22nd November, 2009

Here comes the blog. They used to be called newsletters when I first started doing ’em. It’s quite like making yourself write a diary. I looked back the other day and found the blogs I wrote (in the archive) when I first found Katie. Even before that, when I was forming the Planets. I used to write a proper diary. I’ve got books full of personal diary stuff, but there are huge gaps. One year, I was only writing on email (we had experimental early email computers back in 1982, before fax came in, would you believe) to my then new wife, Julianne. She was in Sydney doing a TV series and I was in London. These people we knew had the very first “web” system, - the earliest internet. We each had a tiny computer and a phone modem that actually fitted over a phone. We used to upload letters to the “mainframe” and download them. You could even be online together and write stuff to keep in touch. One year’s diary is just my printouts of those letters because we wrote to each other every day for six months giving full details of everything including thoughts about events. Then when fax came in, mid eighties, we thought those guys had gone out of business, and suddenly WHAM, back they were! The internet – every home should have one, etc.

Funny old world, innit!

Writing my autobiography. I’ve been writing it for about four years now. Stopped in my tracks a bit by my mate Gary Kemp’s book, - it’s really well written! But just because his is brilliant doesn’t mean mine won’t be OK. They are different I style. His reads like a novel, almost. There’s a conscious effort at good writing. I’m just spilling my brains out, a bit like this now. Trouble is, I’ve written about 80,000 words and I’m only half way through my life to date! Only up to my boat trip around the world. I wish I could take three months off and finish it properly. There are also all sorts of dilemmas about which beans to spill and when to let sleeping dogs lie (just to mix my metaphors for a moment). There certainly are a lot of funny and not-so-funny stories about life trying to make and maintain a living in the music business.

There’s a short extract at my recent POSTMAN BATT blog at: http://tinyurl.com/ygemuru

Katie goes into the studio this week with new big name producer (Not T Bone Burnett as previously announced) – all will be announced in Duke Horse. I’m very excited about her and this producer working together. Also she’s written some great songs either solely or with various co-writers. Can’t wait to hear it finished.

Gurrumul is in town at the moment. Andrew Bowles, our Managing Director, took him record shopping at HMV in Oxford Street on a day off. He’s got really wide tastes (is a huge Cliff Richard fan) – and insisted on paying for all his own records. He is just back from a triumphant TV duet with Sting, on French TV. Germany and now France have taken him to their hearts, just as a large number of UK broadcasters have, and our “gradual” organic marketing of him seems to be working here. He has built up a healthy sales base – not Earth-shattering but respectable, and it keeps growing. His new single “Gurrumul History (I was born blind)” has just been added to the Radio 2 playlist and is out soon.

Florence Rawlings has just finished her thrilling two-month tour of Europe supporting Sir Tom Jones – who was brilliant – (what a voice!) His crew and management were really kind and helpful to Florry, and her band and crew, so if any of you are reading this, thanks! F was also great, (what a voice!) as were the band. Her album, although already available for download, is coming out on CD in the middle of January. The new single is “Love Can Be A Battlefield”, on January 4tth. http://www.florencerawlings.com

We finally finished the art and mastering of my MIKE BATT MUSIC CUBE which is a bit of a collector’s item, being 16 discs (two of which are DVDs) and costing a couple of pence shy of sixty quid. I know it’s a lot but if you divide by sixteen it’s not much per album, and represents a life’s work. My two favourites are ones that haven’t been out before. There’s the orchestral Suite to “Watership Down” and by contrast, an album I’ve compiled and called “The Orinoco Kid” – [Early singles and curiosities] – Starting off with Summertime City, which I’ve never allowed to be re-released since it was in the charts in about 1976 – and going through some rare singles of mine at the time, followed by seven Wombles tracks, - not the obvious ones. That was a fun one to do. There’s more details on this site (I mean my main site, if you’re reading this on MySpace).

Just got back from a 12-day stint at a great spa-detox place in Austria. There’s no caffeine or alcohol there, and they feed you very small amounts of nice but medically supervised food, and you learn all about the importance of chewing food and stuff like that. I came away feeling great. Trying to keep up the regime now I’m back.

The Ergo movie is going from strength to strength. We have our first two virtual (CG) models made and rigged ready for animation – Elsie and Ergo. The first animation tests on Ergo look great. I’ve been tinkering with the script but now I think we are ready to record the character voices and start storyboarding. It’s a really fun project to work on, and we have a small but great team of people working on it.

Well, that was more of a NEWSLETTER than a blog, really. If there’s a difference. If not, it was just as much a newsletter as a blog. Whatever it was, it’s the end of it now, so stay cool, boogie down, mind the fleas don’t bite and get well soon. (If you are ill, which I hope you aren’t).

Peace and Love

Mike












6th September, 2009

Hi All,

Twittering as much as I have been, seems to have taken my eye off the ball for longer blogs – although I have now set up a new blog-site called POSTMAN BATT http://tinyurl.com/l83nf7 for non-newsletter-style blogs, just kind of articles and stuff I might write or stories I might tell, poems even, who knows? At the moment there’s only my SATVNAV nightmare adventure at that URL but you’ll be hearing more from POSTMAN BATT quite soon. Check it occasionally or watch on Twitter, for links.

Anyway so here comes my as always long overdue “newsletter” blog.

I’m having weekly meetings with Katie to help her accumulate material for her trip to LA to record her fourth studio album, this time produced by T Bone Burnett, not me, and I’m not writing with or for her this time, either. I’m just A&R’ing and exec producing it; helping to guide the material and the style a bit – “song-doctoring” as I call it - and liaising between all parties. The date of recording has been moved back to November - although she’ll be out there through October, preparing with him. She played me a beautiful song a couple of days ago, just right at the end of the day’s meeting/talking. She just said, “Oh, and I’ve written this, what d’you think?!”.

We’re in mid Florence launch now – but we are doing it in a slow way. The album was Album Of The Week on Radio 2 a week ago, and so we’ve released it on digital for anyone who just can’t wait for it – or prefer it on download, but we are waiting til January 4th to release it physically. That may seem weird, as it will take some chart-strength away, as we won’t be able to combine the three months’ digital sales with the first week’s CD sales for chart purposes, but the reason is, we have so many good promotion things lined up including a two month tour with a real megastar - starting in about two weeks’ time, although as we haven’t yet agreed on the exact wording of a joint press release I’m afraid I have to restrain myself from revealing who it is! But we’ll be able to release the info in a few days - it’s fantastic, really great. That’s the real reason for the physical CD going back to January, although you’ll be able to buy it at the gigs (and ONLY at the gigs, until then).

ERGO – the movie – is moving onwards. Which is of course what movies should do (move). But we have strengthened up the art team and have commissioned the first two virtual characters to be built (Ergo and Little Else). I’ve updated the script again. The new website is getting closer to being able to go live.

Fun and games in music politics again this week. After we finally got the government (Lord Mandelson) to agree that measures should be taken about illegal file-sharing, The Guardian printed a sensationalist and under-researched “shock-horror, pop stars don’t want this proposed legislation” story – stimulated by an irresponsible letter from the Featured Artists’ Coalition (who purport to but do not, represent a significant group of artists) and surprisingly supported by songwriters’ organization BASCA, of which I am a member –and who should never have gone along with it – in fact I personally know several board members of BASCA who didn’t even know their secretariat were aligning themselves with the statement).

I know there’s a debate in which some people think illegal file sharing is just the way of the new world, and the horse has bolted, but I don’t see it that way. It’s reduceable by legislation and education/persuasion and it really affects the meagre incomes of many songwriters, artists and the whole raft of other ordinary people who have jobs in the industry, supporting those artists and writers. Of course there should be (and are) new business models, but they aren’t proven or developed yet. Meanwhile, a violinist doesn’t say to me “don’t pay me to play on this record because everyone wants it free so let’s just let them have it, bless ‘em”. He wants hard cash in his pocket.

Big subject, but Billy Bragg and his FAC ought to sit down, they’re rocking the boat, and the boat’s already leaking.

Anyway – something cheerful to end on? Nah. Let’s not stick to a formula!

Cheers,

Mike

21st June, 2009

Hi all,

It’s been an interesting few weeks, work-wise. The Gurrumul record is gathering pace and proving extremely reactive to airplay. We’ve only had a few plays, albeit on the all-powerful Radio 2, but each time they play the record it shoots up to the top 3 in the Amazon charts, and sells a few thousand records in the few remaining record shops in the high street. The disappearance of high street record shops is a matter of great concern to the record industry, including artists. Up until last year, physical CDs still accounted for 90 percent of albums sold, and albums outsold singles by 85% to 15% at least. The ratio isn’t really any different now – but the demise of high street record stores has put undue power into the hands of HMV, practically the only remaining record chain other than supermarkets, and the only chain where you can sell catalogue records that aren’t in the chart. This isn’t just because of downloads (legal and illegal) but also because the harsh economic situation has driven otherwise healthy stores out of business (Woolworth’s, Zavvi, etc).

Despite the doom and gloom, we are charging ahead with several projects. Florence Rawlings and her band performed a blisteringly fabulous set at the Isle of Wight festival a couple of weeks ago, and was received with rapturous applause and much intoxicated dancing about. She repeated the same trick at the Café de Paris last week in front of an industry crowd including radio and TV producers, press, and many of Dramatico’s overseas sales and marketing people who flew in for the evening. Her agent, Neil Warnock said to me the next day “It’s rare to be able to say you were there at the birth of a superstar”. Not bad from a hardened professional like him (they don’t come much harder or much more professional!).

I had a nice lunch meeting last week with Katie Melua, and we spent much of the day talking about how we are going to tackle the future, that unknown and intangible “thing” that usually defies your expectations either positively or negatively. Exciting things happening with her, both creatively and commercially; the next album is slated to be produced in LA by T Bone Burnett, in September and October this year. Her recent one-woman tour of the States was refreshing and revealing, It revealed how brilliant she is for an hour and a half with just her own guitar, and occasionally switching to accompany herself on the piano. Some UK media people who dismiss her as lightweight would have changed their opinions had they seen her on that tour.

I am now stepping up my efforts to finish draft two of the screenplay to “ERGO: The Chronicles Of Don’t Be So Ridiculous Valley” the movie about Ergo the Slug and his girlfriend, Little Else, which I am developing for animation. The book is also in the process of being illustrated ready for publication. As soon as I’ve finished the script to my satisfaction I am going to record the sound track of the movie all the way through, before storyboarding and ultimately, CG animation. It’s very absorbing and stimulating work. Our art director, John Gosler is also working hard on visualisation, and bringing the character designs to a state of readiness. There will soon be a website on the subject, so watch this space for details.

On the political front – I just had a Tweet from someone suggesting we all change our Twitter account settings to location:Tehran, time: (GMT+3,30 hrs) to confuse security forces searching for Tehran based bloggers. I’ve done it. It sounds like a good idea. I hate to think what terrible things are happening to those who have been arrested over there. Back in the UK, I can’t believe Brown managed to bully his way through and that he wasn’t toppled by his own MPs a week or so ago. Two examples of power prevailing against the stated will of the people.

Love and sandwiches,

Mike

17th May, 2009

Dear All,

It’s a rainy Sunday at Batt Battlements. Waiting for people to come round for late (3pm!) lunch before going off to an ice skating competition in Guildford, where a friend of ours is competing.

Yesterday was my second Saturday in a row, mastering Florence Rawlings’ album. That means, after the mix stage, getting all the tracks to an equal level and preparing it, sonically, for the factory. I’m trying very hard to get it nice and punchy and loud without losing its organic, musical properties. Two tries at it, and I think we are there. We are now planning a video, which will go into pre-preparation next week while I’m away in Rome for the main board meeting of the IFPI (International Federation Of the Phonographic Industry). The first single is “The Only Woman In The World”. Last week we auditioned for musicians and backing singers for Florence’s band, and have put together a great team of young players. The line-up is trumpet, trombone, baritone sax, keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, drums, two backing singers and Florence herself. It’s really exciting to see it suddenly leap into being. After the auditions we had two days of rehearsals and already are at the stage where they could easily play a blinding set. Gigs already in the book are Thurs 11th June –Isle Of Wight Festival, Sat 4th July – “Pride”, Trafalgar Square, Sunday, 5th July – Wireless Festival, Hyde Park, Fri 24th July - Bix Club, Stuttgart Jazz Festival. 30th July, supporting Booker T at Bush Hall, London.

Recently got back from New York, LA and San Francisco, where I saw Katie begin her one-woman solo acoustic tour of small clubs in the States. She was a little concerned that it might not sustain an hour and 20 minutes, just her and her guitar (she also plays piano sometimes) – but she’s going down brilliantly. – gets a standing ovation most nights. The gig in San Francisco was a sell out with only 400 people – and they jumped to their feet en masse at the end of the performance.

San Francisco is such a great place. So many characters. It must be all the hippes who just grew old. There’s also a big population of wheelchair-bound oldies, motoring around the town. There seems to be one on every street corner. We couldn’t work out whether they were Vietnam vets or hippies who have reached an age where the drugs and hard living have caught up with them. Maybe a mixture.

Sorry there’s no recipe today, I’m afraid. Well, OK then, just so you aren’t disappointed, here’s a mini recipe for a cup of tea, Get a tea bag, get some hot water. Put the tea bag into the hot water. Add milk or lemon, et voila! What a load of drivel I do write sometimes. I think I’ll go now, but not before I’ve introduced you to my new religion, ISNT-ISM. It came about one day when I realized I had “followers” on Twitter. So I thought, right, if I’ve got followers I’d better start a religion, so I did. The result s the user friendly http://www.isnt-ism.com

Have fun in Ain’t Paul’s Cathedral.

Lots of love,

Mike

PS: Congratulations to Steve Sale, my chief sound engineer, who’s getting married to Charlotte this week.

5th March, 2009

Hello again,

Just a quickie for now as I'm bursting to get some arrangements done for the album I'm in the middle of making (Florence Rawlings). We just had the rhythm section in for two days, and I'm overdubbing the brass on Monday. Usually, a two day rhythm-fest delivers six to eight tracks of which maybe I use five. This one time we did seven and I think I can use five. I never like to spend long on a track, - if it doesn't happen" in two hours I'd rather chuck it away or try it another day, another way. But we now have about 15 tracks in the can for Florence, and only four have brass and backing singers on them (see her myspace for three examples) - so that leaves 11 arrangements to do, if I want brass on them all. As it's a soul album, I'm going to put brass on them all, but NO strings. I don't want to give myself the luxury of strings - I love records with strings, and Motown arrangers used them brilliantly (and check out the piccolo on "I'll Be There" by the Four Tops),- but I want this album to be raw and "swampy", (discipline, discipline!) so I've drawn the line at a brass section consisting of 3 trumpets, two trombones, three tenor saxes and a baritone sax. They make a great noise - brilliant players, all top British bods.

Just before the recent LA trip we had 12 inches of snow, - no kidding. Some said fourteen. I'm not arguing over two inches, it's never mattered before. What a peaceful day that was, - no-one except me at work, (I live on the premises at Batt Battlements) and I could work away silently looking out at the white countryside stretching for miles. Hey, this is getting cosy. Maybe we need a recipe. Haven't done one for ages. Ok, this is Batty's Halibut Heaven en Croute. Get some fresh Halibut steaks. Make some pastry, you know how to do that, YOU know! Take 236g of sifted, plain flour, 118g butter, 1.5 egg yolks. Bung the flour and butter in the food processor or mix it up by hand, extremely extrovertly, lifting your hands high and dropping it like fountains of lovely white flour, to get the air into it. You could take it out for a walk round the garden if there¹s a light breeze blowing, but be careful for sudden hurricanes that can rip the bowl out of your grasp and blow the lot away, and could kill you, which would of course be a huge disappointment to both you and your dinner guests. Mix the egg yolk with a splash of water and drop the mixture into a little hole you will have just made, right in the middle of the floury butter stuff. Knead the lot around the bowl, making -(yay!) a ball of pastry-looking stuff. Wrap the ball in cling-film and put it in the fridge for about 27 minutes for a nice little rest.

When you feel like it, roll the pastry out and cut into squares, big enough to wrap the halibut steaks in. Women are better at doing this, just as they are better at wrapping presents. We blokes just don't care, do we! Anyway, so wrap (or get your girlfriend/wife/aunt to wrap) the halibut in the pastry, but NOT BEFORE brushing the fish with butter, and a sprinkling of good old fashioned fresh parsley and a dash of pepper. You can add a hint of lemon zest if you want to be extremely poncey. Then get the lady to finish wrapping it up. By the way, my apologies to women reading this. You can of course wrap the pastry around the fish yourselves, you don¹t need a girlfriend or wife - unless, well, yep, as I was saying, I don't mind what you do in your spare time...well, anyway brush the OUTSIDE of the pastry with butter as well (which is a damn site easier than brushing the inside, after you¹ve closed the parcel) put it in the oven until the pastry is nice and cooked-looking, and the fish is still moist in the middle. God knows how long that is, just use your loaf. For REAL perfection, spoon some white sauce onto and under the fish before closing the package, but don¹t ask me for a recipe for that,- look it up in Delia or something. It¹s your usual flour and butter roux, plus milk, stir and Robert is the Husband Of Your Aunt.

Invite someone like Keira Knightly over (if she lives in your street, as in my case, but probably not yours) Make sure you invite more than one guest because if you are an old git they might get the wrong idea. If you are married, invite your wife, for safety. Or husband. Or Mother. Put on some early mediaeval or Tudor music played on historically accurate instruments.
Then, party!

Sorry, I don¹t know what came over me. The brass arrangements remain un-arranged, my office responsibilities lie unattended and there is a queue of people demanding decisions. Must dash.

By the way, isn't Twittering funny? Why are we doing it? I'll give it a bit longer to see if I get the point. If you DO follow my twitting on my homepage, go to www.twitter.com and join up properly, don't just sneakily read them from the front page, that's cheating. Get your knees brown. Harden the f**k up!

Loads of love,


Mike












19th February, 2009

Here comes another one. Blog, newsletter, whatever. This time from Sunny LA LA land, just before the Oscars which happen this Sunday, the day after I leave. I¹m here with Katie, who is working with the producer of her next album, developing material. 'Developing?' What¹s happening to me? You don't 'develop' material, you write it!

Anyway, an exciting trip for both me and Katie, - because we have always worked so closely, and the next album will not be created that way, so it's an excercise in breaking away. I'm here as her manager and exec producer (arms length A&R input) whereas someone else will actually hands-on produce the album. We'll be able to announce his identity soon.

I am also here to meet someone who I would like to be a key player in the growing creative team for 'ERGO: The Chronicles Of Don¹t Be So Ridiculous Valley' ­ the movie I'm DEVELOPING! (Already written it, you see). It will need several re-writes. It's about 50 pages too long for a start. That's a tough gig, tightening your writing to fit a smaller space, whether prose, script or song. It means being ruthless with your own ideas. Sometimes you can completely screw something up by shortening it. If that happens, you have to go right back to the long version and RE-shorten it a different way!

You can't just expect the audience to sit there for another half hour because you couldn't bring yourself to kiss goodbye to some good ideas you had. So many plays and films are too long. I like to define the length or shape of something and work within that. In the old days, on vinyl albums, you had 2 times twenty minutes (two sides) so that was that. Films, as we all know, tend to be 90 minutes long. A page of screenplay usually runs for a minute, on average. With the Hunting Of The Snark in the West End I set myself a goal that it should be exactly two times one hour. (Two acts). If it ever came in at 61 minutes an act, I had to find a minute to cut out! It worked as a discipline, and ultimately it ran at exactly 60 minutes an act, every night!

Managed to write the complete lyrics to two new songs for Florence Rawlings, on the plane out from Heathrow yesterday. It's a long flight so there was time to eat, sleep and write. I have a set of sessions on the first week of March, in which week I hope we will be able to finish the album. Check some of the rough mixes on her Myspace page at www.myspace.com/florencerawlings . We've only put shortened versions up there, for now, as they are rough mixes, but they have the brass section and backing singers on them, so they are pretty close to what the album will sound like.

Another new thing in our lives is Andrea McEwan's "Berlin Love Story" blog site. It's named after one of the songs on her imminent album, and is a really interesting view of one particular city by one particular person.

Andrea lives in Berlin now. This site gives you a fascinating jungle guide idea of her experience of living in Berlin. Go to http://www.berlinlovestory.com

Just getting back to ERGO for a minute, we are at the fun stage where, having commissioned the building of the virtual models of the two main characters, we are tweaking and adjusting the look of them. They are, as most people know, made from a virtual wire frame, then clad with a grey "skin" and textured to look right. We are starting with Ergo himself, then Little Else. A site showing their DEVELOPMENT will soon appear, so you can see how we are getting on at each stage. It's being built now. I'm going to start working on the audio soundtrack soon, - using some of the 'final' voices and some 'scratch' voices to be replaced later. I'm also working on the music, so that we will be able to develop the audio soundtrack alongside the storyboard as it develops.

Marianne Faithfull's great album, 'Easy Come, Easy Go' is due out on Dramatico very soon, and she played a concert at St Luke's last night. It was jammed! It's been raved about by the critics. Hope it's not another of those that gets 'critical acclaim' but sells not many. She deserves a hit with this.

So, there we go again, another one bites the proverbial dust, and not a single chuckle. Inwardly glowing and having lots of fun, though, - honest!

Take care,

Mike Batt













2nd February, 2009

Hello, Dear Bloggees,

New newsletter. Or blog. Someone invented that term about 3 years ago after we real bloggers had been at it for ages. Weird. So it’s a blog, not a newsletter. Groovy.

I have just spent a couple of hours re-reading some of my early blog/newsletters from 2000 and 20001 and there’s something more joyful and silly about them. Don’t know what caused it. Is it that Katie has now become huge and I’m too busy to be childish? I hope not. I had plenty of responsibilities back then with The Planets and discovering Katie (all documented in the blogs). I was having fun back then, and I’m having (different) fun now. Maybe I’m more “up myself” nowadays, being Deputy
Chairman of the British Phonographic Industry. But no, on examination (self examination) I really don’t think it’s that. I have definitely created a monster (not Katie, but Dramatico) - with many mouths to feed, but also, a team of people who can help me to realise my dreams, - whether it be bypassing the snotty, 28-year old A&R man and just getting on and making and marketing the records (I can’t tell you how much pleasure that gives me, both in success and failure) but also my other dreams, like making films, directing videos, writing books. I am surrounded by a fantastic “family” of loyal and enthusiastic people who know that we are on this joy ride together and that we sometimes hit the wall, sometimes reach the moon.

At the moment I am very much absorbed by two new projects (not forgetting the current release of Jem - YEAH!!! And the imminent releases of both MARIANNE FAITHFUL and the brilliant ANDREA McEWAN, our new, Australian knockout songwriter/singer who never ceases to impress me with everything she does) - but my new, future projects are “ERGO - THE CHRONICLES OF DON’T BE SO RIDICULOUS VALLEY” - the CG feature film/novel we are all trying hard to make happen. We want it to be up there with Ratatouille, Kung Fu Panda and Toy Story - I have had an art director (the fantastic John Gosler) and a line producer (Lee Hill) on board for about 18 months - and countless character designers. It’s all going well, and we are reaching stage two of stage one, - having got an illustrated book ready (printed only 200 copies, just for market research) - and now I have finished the screenplay, first draft. Second draft begins immediately!!!!

The other new "thing" is Florence Rawlings, whom I met when she was just 13 and Katie was 18, in the same week. Apologies if this is a repeat from previous blogs, but I’m not going to waste precious life going back and checking.

We have assembled a fantastic band around Florence, who, having just turned 21 has a voice like a piledriver and the sensibility to counter and control it, like almost nobody I have ever met. In my previous bloggy days I once posted:

"I’ve signed a new artist this week, too, and I'm not telling you anything about her, him or them. I'll tell you next time, but he she or they are or is going to be huge. Just remember where you heard it first. Remember that I told you somebody was going to be huge but didn't say who. At least I gave you half the information, and that's got to be better than nothing. I have already made a short promotional film, carried out a photo session and recorded seven songs, and I'm very excited about him, them or her."

Of course that was Katie. I feel that way about Florence. She will be huge. Fucking huge. Wait til you hear this voice and what we have done together. I am so proud.

So maybe “enough, enough,” you are saying! And is it enough, I ask myself, or is it too much? I’m not getting younger. Should I sell my company and write symphonies in the sun until it’s all over? Should I lap up the opportunity to work with great artists and do my best work? It’s a no-brainer. Why compete with Beethoven?

Lots of love to you all.

Stay cool, or even better, try to stay uncool. It’s a harder ride, takes more guts.

Mike