Dear World, I'm sorry, but I refuse to start this letter with an apology. It's been a long time between letters, but I'm a busy man with places to go,people to meet,songs to write, stuff like that. Went to the England v Germany game yesterday at Wembley (tickets kindly provided by Bernd Pfaff, the Germany manager) - and my kids and I were the only three people shouting for England and wearing England scarves in the Germany box! I had had dinner with the German team at their hotel two nights ago, - all because we got to know each other when I did some music for them a couple of years ago. I said I couldn't wish them luck, but thanked them for their hospitality, and hoped they came second! Anyone who has seen me with my Union Jack shoes on will know I am intensely patriotic, so wanted England to win - but frankly I felt ashamed at Wembley to witness our fans booing the German National anthem. After that, we deserved to lose. I was ashamed to be English - not because of the standard of the football - but because if you boo the other side's national anthem you deserve to lose the game. Another thing was that I was stunned at how bad the presentation was. This was the last Wembley Stadium game ever. There were some pathetic looking fountains at one end, and when Russell Watson sang, you couldn't even work out where he was. There was no stage, no sense of presentation at all. Eventually I spotted him - wearing a dark suit, at one end of the stadium, surrounded by people walking around getting on with their jobs. All very undersold - and so soon after the fantastic Olympic shows put on by the Aussies. Surely at least a band on the pitch or a truck as a stage at one end! Pathetic. Well, then. The last two or three weeks have been full of frenetic activity - I've been making two videos. One is for "Wombles on Parade" (the featured promotional track off the new album) - and the other is for the new single by THE WOMBLES with ROY WOOD - entitled "I Wish It Could Be A Wombling Merry Christmas Every Day" - the very silly record I've made with Roy, and which for we are planning a Christmas campaign. The Christmas video is a RIGHT laugh. We did it in a blue-screen situation, - that is to say that the background is all blue, so that later we will key in (replace) the backgrounds with shots of the Wombles Burrow - from the miniature TV sets - all done up as a Christmas party. Roy was great. I got into my Orinoco outfit and fun was had. We're now editing - for the next couple of weeks. At the moment we are "selling in" the album to retailers. Some are very enthusiastic but some big and essential-to-us retailers don't think a Womble album will do well this Christmas. In fact ASDA have refused point blank to stock it! They remember the fact that SONY put an album out two years ago and didn't promote it well - but that's exactly why we are doing it ourselves this time! (Grrrr...) So if you want it, don't go to ASDA! Gotta go now, my mum's just come round (not that she was unconscious) - for Sunday lunch. Nice sunny day in Farnham today - better than yesterday when it rained on England's defeat at Wembley! I'll try to write again in a week or so. (By the way, you can check out our new site www.dramatico.com in a day or two, if you feel so inclined). Bye for now. Mike
September 10th, 2000 Dear World, It seems to be a long time since I wrote a newsletter. Well, actually I DID write an update last week but it got wiped as I uploaded it, and I hadn't saved it. Honest! These last two weeks have been busy ones as we gear up for the launch of DRAMATICO records with the release of The Wombles Collection' on October 23rd. I've been working on the package design with Andy at Stylorouge studios. We've got the front cover design OK, but now we're working on the CD booklet - and trying to find - or take - a photograph to fit each of the 34 tracks. We were quite a few short, and so I got my trusty Mum to dig up all the extra bits of clothing on Thursday morning - like Jungle loin cloths and Hawaiian shirts etc, that we have, and so lucky old Steve (young Steve, actually - our studio engineer) and Nigel, our production carpenter became two instant Wombles - being Beach Boy wombles, jungle Wombles, even Chinese Wombles, with me snapping the results straight into my digital camera, and e mailing them to Andy at the studio. This 'cottage industry' approach works well, not just for speed and spontaneity, but cost-wise, too. The 'Christmas' stuff I shot on video earlier in the year when it suddenly SNEW in the garden - is the same sort of idea, - and we're shooting the Christmas video in a week's time, adding that footage into the edit of the final promotional video. Below are one or two shots from our session this week - The Orinoco kid, The jungle Wombles and a chinese Womble inviting you to the Ping Pong Ball. In addition to all this, I've had meetings with VITAL - our new distributors, - and it just happened to be their sales conference on Thursday, too, so the second half of the day was a visit to that, - with two Wombles in tow, to 'mingle' and have their photos taken with all the retail buyers. More meetings with the ad agency who'll be buying our TV, radio and press space for us, and yet more legal and financial meetings! Come back, songwriting, - all is forgiven! Also, coming to a record shop near you on October 2nd. is the Watership Down album on Polydor -(see last newsletter). Steve and I are working on getting the master ready for the factory on time, and the CD looks nice.(see Watership Down page). The field that had hay in it last time I wrote is now green again! It needs some sheep, really. Maybe I'll nip down to the pet shop and see what they've got. Have a good week, drive carefully, keep clean, etc... Love, Mike
Saturday, August 19th 2000 Latest news from Batt Control (sounds like pest control agency) - is that we have been HAYMAKING last week. Just managed to find two fine days and so mobilised a team of lads to help us bring it in, and they literally followed the tractor with a flatbed truck, bringing it in as soon as it was baled. Good job, too - many fields near us weren't so lucky - it rained this week, and there are lots of bales still sitting there. We have only one biggish - nine acre - paddock, but I've left it all to grow freely as grass and wild flowers, clover, etc, and it's yielded a really good, lush hay, - and where the rule of thumb is 100 bales to the acre, we got 1200 bales from about the eight acres left after the bits you miss round the edges because of the gradient, trees, etc. Well, I bet you didn't expect the Farmer's Report - but there you go - life's a roller coaster. On the musical front - well, the DRAMATICO label is nearly ready to go. I've been busy with distribution deals, marketing plans and so on. The first release is currently scheduled as THE WOMBLES COLLECTION, and we are planning to support it with lots of 'editorial' television activity - ie, appearances and performances, - together with a TV and radio advertising campaign. I've been doing a set of radio ads this week, - different experiments from the usual, hard-sell 30 second ones, to more fun, dialogue based , 60 second ones for regional radio. Have been supervising the design for the Wombles and the Watership Down albums. - Both seem, - at least on current release dates - to be coincidentally coming out on the same day, October 2nd. The Watership Down album is a great album - I'm really proud of it - but I have my doubts about whether it is much of a priority for Polydor. We'll soon see, - but there was a mix-up with the Stephen Gately Bright Eyes track which led to it being relegated to the second track on a 'double A side' which really means it was the B side. I think this decision damaged both Stephen's career and Polydor's bottom line on his solo album and the Watership Down project, but I'd be amazed if the Watership Down album is seen as a priority which might reverse that situation. Still, we'll see. The Wombles album will be a big hit album! Just watch... I am writing this on Saturday morning, 19th August, and it's a nice sunny day, so we're off to look at some bathroom shops! All best wishes, Mike
Saturday, August 5th 2000 This week I'm torn between starting my violin concerto and writing a song for the Wombles for a new single. It's sort of 50/50, artistically. Both tempt me. The former would need a really good player to cooperate with me - you know - somewhere between Vanessa and Nigel Kennedy. He plays the violin better, but she has more showmanship and doesn't fall off high heels. Difficult decision, and that's even before I decide the main violin/Wombles direction. Damn. I am planning (subject to many variables) a WOMBLE SPECTACULAR at the Royal Albert Hall between Christmas and New Year - if it all works out well. Loads and loads of Wombles everywhere. Military, ballet, horse-riding, orchestra, James Bond, tap-dancing Wombles etc. Should be a right laugh. Watch this space for details (It will be like the Neurenberg Rallies without the Nazis!) Flags, drums, hey - EVERYTHING! Gotta go now - the nurse comes round at 11 pm and I have to take my tablets. Bye for now. keep coming back Love, Mike.
July 20th 2000 Hello again... Dear Batt-orientated ones, There's a line in Evita (written by Tim Rice and his beautiful assistant, Andrew Lloyd Webber) that goes "We've made the front pages of all the World's papers today". It's Che Guevara talking to the deceased Eva Peron, explaining to her that dying has been her best career move. Well, today - (and they did "die" in the heat yesterday) - I do feel a bit like that. We made the front page of the TIMES and the SUN on the same day! Those kids (all about 14 years old) who were the Womble Guard Of Honour for me at the Queen Mother's parade were absolutely fantastic. They marched in step, looked the part, kept to the ground rules (or should I say "underground rules") of Wombleness and still managed to enjoy themselves. It was a unique event, considering that Royal Family members don't get to be 100 years old very often (or EVER). The bit that impressed me was the military bit - the Marines, RAF, Guards, Household Cavalry. It always leaves me awed and inspired to see such training and discipline at work on a parade ground. I speak as ex-cadet Company Sergeant Major Batt of Peter Symonds (Hampshire Regiment). Haha! Yay! Whooooooo!!!!! It all makes you glad to be alive, eh! Certainly, our "act" was made possible (via the organisation of my mum's sewing workforce) by Sandie Reid, who runs my office, Jo Goodale, my assistant, and lots of others, - particularly JUNE RUTLAND, - our main costume "operative" and chief Womble-guardian. The Hillingdon/Ealing Boys Brigade - the young men I mentioned earlier - were great! Getting all the papers today even gave me an excuse to buy the Daily Star and the Sport, in which there are pictures which warmed my, er...heart nearly as much as the Womble pictures that appeared in every other national paper. Why would I care what pictures of The Wombles appear in the papers and on TV? Well, Even the most cynical observer must admit that after 25 years of being connected with them and damned by the association, - and after all these nice little old ladies have sweated six weeks' worth of sewing time (!) into the project, it's good to see a result. Well, once again, I don't want you all to get too excited so I'll stop here. Take care. Mike
July 3rd 2000 Hello again... This has been an interesting couple of weeks. Last week Steve Harley came and stayed at my house with Jimmy Cregan and others....Jim was producing a song he and Harley have written, called "A Friend For Life" - with Harley singing, of course. Matt Butler engineered. (I hadn't worked with Matt since he was a young engineer at AIR studios (working for George Martin) - when he engineered "Phantom Of The Opera" for me, with Steve Harley and Sarah Brightman singing. So, last week they all dug in for the week, and a sunny happy time was had by all. The song sounds great. I was saying in the last newsletter that we were going to use the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra string quartet, - we did - and they were brilliant! Jonathan Carney leading.... great stuff. Then lunch. We also have Womble-costume-sewing ladies all over the house. It's kinda surreal, like a Monty Python sketch. You can just imagine Cleese and Chapman and all, dressed in the washerwoman outfits, -all over the house - talking in falsetto...."I think I'll just sew the next one in here, Mavis...oops, sorry, there seems to be a string quartet in that room. Come on, Mavis, we'll try the dining room" This week, more Womble costumes. We're doing a squad of Guards Wombles - with "bearskins" (except with Wombles, it would only be the skins from vegetarian bears) - for the Queen Mother's 100th birthday parade on 19th July. Should be a RIGHT laugh. Last Sunday was the SODS picnic (Society of Distinguished Songwriters) and we had fun playing cricket. Two days later (last Tuesday) we SODS went for our go on the Millenium Wheel and then to the Savoy for a "Wheel Meet Again" dinner. (I know, it's pathetic isn't it?) And now another week has sprung up in front of me...what delights will it bring? Well, I gave up drinking today, but as it's only 8pm I can't really claim success yet. Meeting with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra tomorrow (not all of them, just selected, especially bright ones). Stay cool and don't enjoy yourselves too much. Til next time, Mike Dear Net-navigators, So here we all are again on another 17th June. Doesn't time just slip by when you are grooving. Tonight I've been for drinks at the local Admiral's house (not all neighbourhoods have one) - and jolly nice he and his wife are, too. Went to a STEPS concert (being filmed for TV by my mate Jeff Thacker). Good show, it was, as long as you don't mind being patronised by the warm-up man, who got all the dads up -except me, skulking in my seat - to do the moves to YMCA and to sing some stupid nonsense or other! Tidying up a few matters in the office today. Booked a string quartet and flute for a Steve Harley record being produced in my studio by my pal Jim Cregan next week. (Jim is staying with me). Jimmy is dead well known, but in case you've just come back from 23 years on Pluto (the planet, not the dog) - he is the fantastic guitarist who played the stunning solo on "Come Up And See Me (Make Me Smile)" - by Steve Harley, and who was Rod Stewart's main band guitarist/MD for years, writing some of the big hits with Rod, and producing others. Steve Harley(who I've produced twice, including Phantom Of The Opera) is coming over next week, and I'm doing the arrangement for the quartet - on the single he's making.. It's the best quartet you can imagine - Jonathan Carney,-leader of the Royal Philharmonic as leader - followed by the principal string players of the RPO - hey, it pays to have friends in high places. Good job for them that they have! Anyway- I think this letter is just long enough or you'll all start getting too excited, - so, for your own good, I'll stop now. Have a nice week. See you soon- or sooner. Lotsalove, Mike
Dear Cyber-searchers, Wednesday, 14th June, 2000 Just started writing this newsletter from my home in London, but it's 1am at night and THE WIFE has just come home from a rehearsal...so forgive me if I crash out. Last week's newsletter has been moved to the "PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS" button, if you want it and I PROMISE I'll do the proper newsletter within a day or so. Honest. Watch this space. Stay cool, hang loose, boogey down, etc, Mike Dear Cyber-searchers, A rainy week in dear old Farnham ,with some little peeks of sunshine. This week we went to the British Academy's Ivor Novello Awards, - which I started off in 1976 at the Grosvenor House Hotel, - and it's still there, looking very much the same....but with even higher production values. (When I say "I started it off" I mean that the awards existed, but I moved them from the dusty old place they were at, to the Grosvenor, changed the style and directed it for some years to get it going properly). Travis got a couple of awards - including the coveted "Songwriter Of The Year" for their writer- (what's his name again? Genuinely can't remember. Damn. Getting old, I s'pose). Anyway he gave a good speech, and was articulate and genuine. "Why Does It Always Rain On Me" is a great song/record and worthy of the accolade. Elton presented one award and received another, - with Tim Rice - for Lion King, - a general "international acheivement " award for a theatre piece. Hans Zimmer and Lebo M shared the award; they were on our table, (it's a lunch) - and it was nice to see Hans after many years. He's doing well! They tell me his score for GLADIATORS is pretty damn good. Sir Paul McCartney was there too, to get the very first Fellowship of the Academy. It's the highest honour the academy will bestow on an individual. It's always a good, sociable event - being for writers and publishers. Not like the BRIT Awards, which are full of as much bad behaviour and swearing as possible to prove how hip everyone is. God, there are some horrible people about- not just the lowly ranks either, some of them are running record companies, but don't start me off on that! (And there are some great people too, so I suppose it's like most other industries. It just seems the ugliness of the record business comes out at the BRIT awards shows, and the friendliness of the music business- the warmth and appreciation,- comes out at the IVORS). Eh, well, there's another newsletter. Not packed with giggles this time, but hey, there's always next week! Y'all come back now y'hear?* Mike PS *remember that line? It was Jed Clampit of the Beverley Hillbillies, at the end of each episode.
Dear Curbsurfers, Thursday 18th May,2000 This week we're still mixing the club mix of the "Victory" track, by BOND. In fact, Steve (our studio engineer)is thumping away at 120 BPM as I write this...I'm trying to ignore it. Last week I fell in love with the Dixie Chicks. Whey! Great songs and she can really sing! If ever they want to make a classical-based crossover album, I'm their man! (Or even if they don't).(Maybe they'd like a trip to the seaside). Their entire appeal is great country with a fresh, stylish, sexy approach, and great jeans. What you do, is you put on the Dixie Chicks really loud, so you can hear in the kitchen even if your CD player is two rooms away, then you pour a glass of white wine. Petaluma Chardonnay from Australia is the best, but you can use anything. (Try to avoid Methylated Spirits). By the way this all happens about 6.30 pm while it's still sunny, or perhaps 7.30pm. Then you crush three or four big fat garlic cloves, sweat them in butter for a while, add some cream and white wine and then chuck in a couple of white fish fillets. Something like Orange Ruffy from New Zealand is the best, but you can use Cod, Monkfish, etc. (You could get a great effect by pan frying it in flour and egg first, and combining at the last minute., but it's not quite as stylish as bunging it in naked). Of course, with fish, the CRIME is to cook it for too long, so it's worth sacrificing your own portion to cut into it and check that it's just right. Underdone fish is horrible, but overdone is WORSE. This whole operation should take only about ten to fifteen minutes from scratch, so if you are listening to the Dixie Chicks you should only be on about track four or five by now and the sun will probably going down a bit. Then you select some fresh or frozen pasta that isn't too thick (forget Macaroni and Pennae - it takes too long - say fetuccinni or spaghetti - and throw it into some boiling water. Then after about 8 mins you take it off, wash off the starch through a strainer with REALLY HOT water, and when it's drained, add a TINY bit of olive oil. Get two plates and flop the pasta onto the middle of each. Top it with the sauce from the fish, then the fillets of fish across the top. Ring up Elle McPherson or Michelle Pfeiffer. Tell them to get over to your place, like without DELAY. Just before Michelle and/or Elle get to your place, change the record to Serve with affection. Chat freely. So anyway, that's not quite a newsletter, but it will have to do for now. I am rushing to finish scripting the radio series of ERGO THE SLUG while Steve mixes the dance track for the BOND string quartet. It's tough in the middle! Thanks for your e mails. They matter a lot. Hey! Have fun. All best wishes, Mike. PS. I forgot to say throw some herbs, (dill or parsley) in with the fish sauce but if you don't know that... Dear Snarkhunters and Boojum-avoiders, Thursday 11th May,2000 Dropping you another newsletter on this Foggy Farnham morning, where you can only just see your hand in front of your face and there is a broad glare across my field of vision - or vision of field, I should really say, because it is indeed a field I have vision of - or don't really, if you see what I mean.[see chapter one of SLUGS for relevance] Went to see the most fantasic, funny play in London's West End - LYRIC THEATRE - last night. Janie Dee and David Soul in "Comic Potential" by Alan Aykbourne. It's BRILLIANT - so go now if you're in the UK, because they close in a week or two, and it's tragic to see a great play close because of lack of PR. (Janie won Best Actress and loads of other awards). It is coming to Broadway, so maybe you Yanks can get to see it there, - Janie is probably going to be in it. David is fantastic in it, - too. This week we've delivered a final mix of the BOND (ALL GIRL string quartet) track, which is their next single. The girls are off to Cuba to shoot a video. Lucky Cuba! Other than that I continue to work on scripts for SLUGS because of upcoming sessions - and I can't wait to tell you who the cast are - when it's recorded and it becomes cool to let you know. I've also designated today as the day to write the song "Thinking Of Little Else" - which Ergo the slug sings about Little Else, his (potential) girlfriend. Hope you escaped the Love bug. I must say our incoming e mail traffic Had a call this week from the organisers of the Queen Mother's 100th Birthday parade, (At Horse Guard's Parade) -in July - and we are going to contribute a military band squad of 12 marching, uniformed Wombles! Should be a laugh! Gotta go and write a song now. Be nice to each other. Bye for now. Mike |
