Monday,24th September,2001

Dear World,

A memorable week last week. We did the Festival Hall and six thousand people lost their lives in New York. Damn.

For "Damn", read every expletive you've ever uttered. It had to happen, - we all knew it would happen, and this just happened to be the time when it did. It will happen again. Fighting an enemy within you is like fighting a Cancer, but I know there will be a way. Our lives have probably changed forever (just as the lives of the people of Northern Ireland or of the marshes of Southern Iraq changed forever some years ago). Our children may/will face greater challenges than we ever faced. My generation has got off lightly. We missed the Second World War, weren't there for Vietnam - being British - ,and can only watch in fear as our young are or will be called upon to be brave for the future. It means that we, too, have to be brave - because in each successive war on this planet, civilians have borne more of the brunt, - but we middle-aged civilians are not in any control of it, and yet we are wise enough to heed and be aware of the precedents.

So meanwhile, back at the DisneyLand which is my life, - there's a band called THE PLANETS who are about to be launched by EMI Classics and my new company, Dramatico Entertainment. Our Festival Hall gig went brilliantly. The band were great (not PERFECT - in case any of you in the band are reading this and think you WERE!)- to start with - so wooden that I thought they were using furniture polish for make-up (!) - but after they heard the first applause (after the first tune) they all relaxed and were great. Real stars. At the party afterwards, Mums and Dads rubbed shoulders with media stars and captains of industry. My mate Chris Tarrant gave us a shamelessly fantastic review on Capital FM the following morning. He's such a tart. Anything to keep in with me.

And now the hard bit. Getting enough top line newspapers, TV shows and radio people to take an interest in the four weeks leading up to the album release. We have a good team, both at my own offce, and within EMI and also the independent promotion teams retained to work on the PR and broadcast plugging. But we need a bit of luck, too.

For those of you who are kindly interested (as your e mails suggest)in my broken neck and Salima's injuries, - well, we are fine. Salima's right hand recovered just in time for her to rehearse up to scratch for the Festival Hall (where she played beautifully) and my neck brace has immobilised my spine so well that I feel perfectly secure. It weighs a stone (literally) so that it does make me feel glad when I get to bed (can't take it off but at least the weight is taken off it) - and I am so grateful to be alive that I can't stop grinning! So don't waste any concern on us: look to yourselves and your own families. There are enough bad things out there to worry about, so help yourselves.

Just remember to be courageous, because if you have that, you have all the protection you really need.(Or so I'm told).

All best wishes,

Mike

PS: Illustration pics for this letter will appear when I have time...

Friday,7th September,2001

Dear All,

Well, back to Spain we did indeed go. My friendly neighbourhood neurosurgeon (Neil Dawood - check him out if you ever break your neck), said it was OK, so off we went. We took a nurse, the lighting cameraman (Roger McDonald) and all the band, plus Salima's mum, Dawn, to help look after Salima, who was (and still is, despite current Royal Festival Hall rehearsals) - very delicate, and only now trying to use her hand to play the oboe after her injury in the same car that did for me. It was a good four days. We went back to the lovely Monastery location (see last newsletter via 'recent newsletters') and, despite the crane grips doing their best to spend all day to build the crane for the opening shot, we still managed to shoot the stuff and then get on to the Fiesta scene at Pedrazza village the following day, - when we went -on a night shoot - from 6pm til 6am the following morning, using a cowd of extras recruited locally. It's now edited and you'll hopefully be seeing it soon on a TV screen near you.

By the way, British Midland were bloody awful. We flew 14 people out, business class, costing a fortune. They forgot all the vegetarian meals, argued about availability of wheelchairs, for me and Salima despite being forewarned, - and were generally rude and unhelpful. If you are a nice helpful person and you work for British Midland, be aware that your company is letting you down.

Now we are in SERIOUS rehearsal mode for the Festival Hall on September 13th. We have done one week at the local Territotial Army drill hall - mainly concentrating on the musical side, (with the lovely Jae Alexander musically supervising for me) - and then one week at the same place concentrating on the movement side, - with Jae being joined by choreograher Leigh Miles. The band are coming on leaps and bounds. Now we are seeing a coordinated band of people moving together in harmony and still playing brilliantly. There's never been a band like this. I can't think of one, anyway. There was a band in Holland called Flairck, with whom I worked once - producing their 'Sleight Of Hand' album, - and they were very musical and rather similar in terms of 'music led' presentation, - but I really think THE PLANETS are a unique thing.

Also, this week, I have been editing the video, using my daughter's bedroom as an offline suite (with hired equipment and editor). It's the only way to fly. Every home should have one. As long as the editor doesn't mind S Club 7 posters on the walls and mauve curtains, you're OK. I've been finishing the album mix downstairs in the studio - all at the same time, and also rushing backwards and forwards (mainly forwards) to the T.A. Hall to check out the Festival Hall rehearsals. Three jobs at once, but very exhilerating, - plus of course liasing with EMI about marketing and so on. The neck brace is a bit of a burden, but actually perfectly OK when you think of the alternatives (best not to). You also get very funny looks in restaurants, - sleep sitting up, and it takes two people half an hour to change your shirt! Small price to pay for being allowed to keep on having fun, though.

Looking forward to next week's concert. Come along if you can get a ticket! See you there!

Gotta go now. Nurse, the screens!

Cheers,

Mike

Friday,17th August, 2001

Dear World,

I am sorry, but I refuse to begin this newsletter with an apology. (I know I've used that gag before but I'm not sorry). It's been over a month since the last newsletter and the reason is that I was waiting until I could give you full details of the new group and the special website - which I can now do, - and also there was the small matter of a terrible car crash out in Spain where we were making the video. I am pleased to report that we who were injured are all on the mend.

Those of you who saw it on the TV news or read it in the papers won't yet be aware of our progress in getting better, so I'll tell you, - I broke my neck quite badly. The Spanish neurosurgeon said it was unbelievable to see such a badly fractured second cervical vertebra and still be talking to the patient! He bolted me into a traction neck brace (four screws into the scull!) and apparently the bone should mend itself in time. I have to wear the brace for three months. There is no spinal chord damage, so I'm very lucky.I can think, talk, walk about, play the piano...in fact I'm off back to Spain with the band next week to direct the re-shoot of the video.

Salima Williams, our oboe player, was badly bashed in the crash. She was in front of me in the people carrier, and took a nasty blow to the head, has a big haematoma on her left leg and hurt her hand. We are waiting to see how she is today, before confirming that the video shoot will go ahead next week. We also hope she'll be match fit for the Festival Hall on Thursday, 13th September.

I'd rather not go into graphic detail about the crash - it actually makes me re-live it when I tell it - but just suffice to say we were being driven to the shoot by a Spanish production assistant at 6.30am on Tuesday 7th August, in Segovia, Spain. Aboard were Roger McDonald, the lighting cameraman (Director Of Photography), Salima, Alex O'Neil (Producer of the video), the driver, and myself as director of the video. The car hit a big concrete block, head on at 60 miles per hour on a hairpin bend. The driver and Alex were OK because of the front seat airbags, but Roger suffered a broken rib and a punctured lung, Salima as above and I got the star prize of three months in a "Scaffolding Man" outfit - but a hell of a lot better than being killed or paralyzed.


The monastery location we were heading for


A wide shot of the monastery - high on a cliff top

So, now to the positive stuff. THE PLANETS is the name of our new, eight piece band, and we are all desperately excited about everything that is happening. You can meet them - or at least look at and read about them, at their own new site, www.theplanets.org.uk which is now open for you to access. It's at an early design stage, so check it every few days to see it grow.

The plans for the release of "Classical Graffiti" -the first album via our deal with EMI Classics - are well under way, and the Festival Hall concert will precede the album release by about one month. So that means the album will be out mid-to-late October.

I know this is a public site and not exactly the place for intimate, private messages, but I would like to say to Salima, Ruth, Anne, Beverley, Jonathan, Michael, Lac-Hong and Ben, - I'm really proud of you all, and after our setback last week I am even further resolved to make this project happen, with your help. Nothing will stop us. Thanks for all your dedicated efforts patience and musicianship. I really believe that you will soon be making a big step which will establish you as a sensational, internationally successful and artistically ground-breaking band.

And now back to the newsletter! For those of you who would have preferred one of my recipes or something about the dog, sorry if this week's letter was too exciting for you.

I hope you are all well - and making good use of the things that you find.

Love,

Mike.

Monday 2nd July, 2001

Hello again.

The task and the pleasure of writing a newsletter combine to present me with a challenge this week...how to write a newsletter without giving away any secrets. Most of the things I'm doing at the moment are Top Secret (if anybody cares) - and so I'll have to think of something to divert you. I suppose I could do you my special seafood pasta recipe, as served to my Japanese fiend Matsutoya-san last Sunday evening (with his two Japanese friends whom I will not name as a matter of politeness as one of them is famous in Japan and may not like my namedropping) - or on the other hand, not much need for me to tell you the recipe really. The title says it all. You get some seafood and then you get some pasta and put them both together and it's ready. Hey, life's easy sometimes. You do the whole dish really quickly, obviously, so you have to chat to your guests as they sit in the kitchen sipping Chateau Chunda and looking up admiringly at you. You chuck a load of calamari, prawns, mussels and white fish bits into a frying pan, add some wine, some previously...(wait a minute! I'm giving you the recipe after all)... previously prepared garlic butter and parsley. A bit of cornflour in cold water, to thicken it (unless you like cream in your food - which I don't) - put on the new SHE DAISY album and invite your granny round just as you throw the spaghetti into a pan of boiling water.

By the way, (coincidentally) many thanks to my loyal and helpful Japan-based fan and correspondent (you know who you are) - who sent me the Dixie Chicks' autographs, knowing I'm a fan of theirs. That was very thoughtful - the bit of paper is pinned to my workstation notice board to impress my mates. But this week it is definitely She Daisy - check 'em out and see what you think.

The next newsletter will be packed full of even less useless things than this one. There will be full news and details all about the new band, and the announcement of a new website we're currently building, - especially for the band.

Hope your lives are currently slightly less hectic than mine and half as much fun - because that's enough for anyone! (I'm just greedy!).

Love and sandwiches,

Mike

Weds, 13th June, 2001

Dear World,

It's been slightly too long since I updated the newsletter. Sorry. Which reminds me, I found myself writing "slightly slower than you'd expect" on a music part the other day, as a tempo marking. I think I am finally going into the twilight. Take me, I'm ready.

These last few weeks have been, to say the least, a challenge, but at the same time, very stimulating. After my fond diary about our band rehearsal in the last newsletter, our star violinist left the band the next day, seemingly without much of a thought for his fellow musicians and the disarray it would cause - for reasons which are related to emotional turmoil in his private life - (which one sympathises with) - but it threw us into a frenzy to say the least. I was performing in Stuttgart on the Friday (as noted in the last newsletter) - but diverted to Rome the next day before returning home - in order to audition a potential replacement. The Stuttgart gig had gone very well indeed, and was a night of great fun and just a few drinks, - so my trip to Rome, - being via Switzerland and involving two trips on prop/non-jet aircaft and a two hour cab drive to the beautiful old town of Spiletto - was a surreal adventure. I met my auditionee and his charming girlfriend, for dinner, and left the next day after wandering in the tiny streets of the town on a lovely sunny day.

Then on Bank Holiday Monday I drove to Manchester to audition his rival - but in the end, neither audition bore fruit in sufficient quantities, although both subjects were outstanding. That week - the second week after the band literally fell apart - I went into the office on the Wednesday and threw down the gauntlet to all my management team, - that we MUST find ourselves not only a fantastic violinist, but also several other members of a band which had by now diminished in size from eight to five, for various reasons. Then I had to go to the classical Brits awards on the Thursday, and it was on that afternoon that I met my new star violinist. He played brilliantly and I knew instantly that he was the one. Then I went to the classical Brits,- at the Royal Albert Hall - where I watched my brainchildren (?) Bond, playing. Their first number was a bit crassly presented (by them)- however much I like them - , but their second tune was delightful - being a classical piece played live instead of mimed, but of course the second, more musical number was edited out of the TV show! Wouldn't ya know it!

I was the guest of EMI, and we had dinner in a box at the Albert Hall, before the show. I knew my friend Rob Dickins - (Chairman of the awards) and his sweetie of a wife - Cherrie Gillespie - were in the box next to us, - and so just for a joke in the middle of dinner, I banged on the thin walls between his box and mine, put my head round the door and said "Can you keep the noise down in here, we're trying to get some sleep next door!" much laughter - but I was immediately horrified to see that the Duchess of Kent and the Secretary Of State for the Arts were his dinner guests! Lucky I never wanted a knighthood anyway.

So anyway - I started building my band back up again the next day - and (with a wonderful new new bassist and wicked new percussionist)I am pleased to say they are now a stronger, better presented and more stable, brilliant band than before! Hurrah!

I am going to display here a picture of some friends of mine. Not that it has anything to do with my new band, of course. I am saying nothing about them, - and this may not be a picture of them. Either I could be lying, or just teasing you (should you care) - and this may just be eight of my friends from the pub, posing with instruments after I've cooked them "Fish a la Aga" and played them a Dixie Chicks album. You never can tell.

And in the meantime, the dear old Tories got whipped in the General Election. Have to say, the cuddly and compassionate qualities I had hoped would come out in their campaign were very much pushed to the back and we had an image of a rather Nationalistic party - which, frankly I was feeling was far too right wing to be elected. If the Tories want to be elected, they have to move to the left - ie the centre - just as Tony Blair did by moving a pace to the right to present the Labour party as a bit like conservatives. All very unhappy, - but if they really are so right wing, it is necessary to change now and re-think. I still think William Hague is a brilliant and good man. I also think Tony Blair is,- nice, and well motivated - but it rubs me up the wrong way that he calls his party the Labour party, when it clearly isn't a truly socialist-driven entity.

Well, if you aren't asleep by now, I nearly am, so this looks like the bottom of the page.

I am spending this week working with my new band, - a great lot, and buzzing with excitement and creativity, - and a lot of laughs and some football in the garden.

Stay cool, hang loose, boogie down, keep the law of the Wolf Cub pack and do a good turn to somebody every day.

Love,

Mike