28th May, 2008

Sitting here in the studio bashing out my latest blog while we mix the surround (5.1) for the new film Faintheart (a MySpace film in association with Vertigo Films). Sounds cool. We recorded it in Dublin after lots of hurried writing. Used the Irish Film Orchestra at Windmill Lane Studios. I wrote the score but many of the songs are from MySpace sites. Katie has written one song, called "Toy Collection" which she sings, and I've written one song called "A Day Like This" which I sing. It is directed by first-time-feature director Vito Rocco. It's a really good film, even though it only had a 1m pound budget. Funny and poignant.

Katie's new single "Ghost Town" comes out in a few weeks, (23rd June) as does my own "Railway Hotel" single (9th June)– a couple of weeks apart. I'm also working on finalising the video edit of her concert in Rotterdam a couple of months ago, and we are in mid-production with Andrea McEwan's album, too. So still pretty busy. Andrea, as you may know, has been touring ("opening") for Katie in Europe and going down really well. Her songs are catchy with intelligent and fun lyrics. The album is turning out very well, -we will be doing three days of vocal, keyboard and other overdubs this weekend, taking it all a step further. I'm hoping to have it out in the late summer. It's going to be hard to pick a single, there are so many good songs on the album. She's a crazy redhead from Australia. She has a myspace site. Just realised I mentioned her in my last blog.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=172971998

I'm also developing an album with a fantastic young singer called Florence Rawlings. Florence is 19, - came on the road with me to do back-up vocals and a couple of solo spots when I toured in Germany a few months ago, just for her to get experience. She doesn't write, so I guess we'll have to be excusing that fact endlessly to a press who think everyone should write their own stuff (forgetting the list of great who never wrote anything – Dusty, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Elvis). She has a great, strong souly voice and we are going for a very raw, early, Ike and Tina Turner sort of Staxy sound. We may even broadcast the sessions when we record the album live on Dramatico TV as it happens, broadcast from the studio, warts and all, for the week of production, which will all be done in "live" takes like they used to do in the sixties.

Whooo - lots of really fun stuff coming up. Better go now so my engineer doesn't think I'm more interested in writing my blog than mixing the sound!

Peace and love,


Mike

4th April, 2008

Yay, "A Songwriter's Tale" entered the UK album chart at 24 this week! Fame at last! I've been doing the rounds of radio and TV promo lately, between getting Katie's tour ready for the road. She and the band (3 busses and 4 trucks) are now well and truly on their way, rolling across France towards Holland and Germany, and I am writing this on the plane from Heathrow to Paris to catch the first of two Paris shows. The tour opened, appropriately, in the French town of Tours. At that first gig, she demonstrated yet again how consumately brilliant she is, live. We have gone for some quite unusual graphics on "flying" screens this time. My fear that these might distract attention from Katie were put to rest on the first night. She had three standing ovations, and during the last of three encores you could have heard a pin drop as she transfixed the audience with just her voice and a guitar.

Katie's "special guest" on this tour is Andrea McEwan, from Australia, who co-wrote two of the songs on "Pictures" and is now signed as an artist to Dramatico. She is completely different to Katie, stylistically. Another very fine singer and songwriter. I have been in Air Studios with her and the band recently and the album should be ready soon.

I have been to Stockholm and Oslo this week, promoting "A Songwriter's Tale". In Stockholm I had to get up at 3.30am for a soundcheck for breakfast TV! Being the artist does have its drawbacks! It does feel quite good to have my new album so well received, though. There is life in the old dog yet.

We've been making more progress with the character designs for "ERGO AND LITTLE ELSE", my animation project. We now have an art director, line producer and three character designers on board. I am desperately trying to make time to get deeper into converting the book into a screenplay, but time is not easy to find or make. Another new thing in our lives is a movie - to be announced soon - to which Katie is contributing a song and I am composing the score. It also has an urgent deadline, so we are all as busy as hell. It's such a good film though (low budget, British), and has arisen through a very imaginative web-based idea. More about that soon. Sorry to keep you in suspense.

Better leave it at that. Plane just landing at Charles De Gaulle.

Until next time; take care.

All the best,


Mike

11th February, 2008

Hi Guys,

Damn birthdays. I'm another year older. Better start writing faster, because there are too many things to do in the time I have left, always presuming I get to live a normal lifespan! Some people have the problem "too many women and not enough time" but I have the "too many projects and not enough time" version of that.

This year I have two new artists to produce albums for,(and organise bands to tour with each)- Katie's tour to get up and running, including the stage presentation, budgeting and visual production management - supervise the release of my own back catalogue after launching my new album "A Songwriter's Tale", keep up the pressure on the initial design stages of "Ergo," our animated film that has already started pre-production, - and oversee the finishing of and the marketing of "Voices In The Dark,"­ an exciting production being created for Planetariums, starting with Hamburg's Planetarium this Spring, based around my music. I'll put a full stop there because the sentence was already too long but I've hardly started. We have the exciting ASA record out, (see Dramatico's website www.dramatico.com ) - and she's in town this week to do promotion. "Fire On The Mountain" is a great single. I hope it's a hit for her. We have licensed her recordings for the UK only, from our friends at Naive Records in France, just as we did with Carla Bruni.

We have just finished a mad, 10 day editing session for Katie's new video for "If The Lights Go Out" - with the brilliance and hard work of John Gosler, who art-directed it and photo-collaged all the backgrounds together, assisted by Stuart Fortune. I shot Katie against a green screen and we built the backgrounds afterwards. Michael Dunne, our editor was the fourth member of the post production team. We went all night a couple of times to meet the deadline. John is the art director on "Ergo" and is a brilliant illustrator.

I ought to start an "Ergo" site so that you can see the backgrounds and animation progressing. For those who don't know who Ergo is, see "SLUGS" on my website.

I'm also hoping to progress the full recording of "The Hunting Of The Snark" score this year, and start work on mounting the stage show of "Men Who March Away". Then there's the book of "Ergo", the sheet music for "A Songwriter's Tale", ­ a sheet music folio of "The Hunting Of The Snark" and I'm trying to write my autobiography in my "spare time" (57,412 words so far), and I have all my BPI duties as Deputy Chairman.

We are ripping the desk out of our studio control room and installing a second hand Neve one in its place, so that's another thing to think about! Well I guess it's better than being bored or unemployed. I'm lucky, really. It just gets a bit daunting sometimes.

If you haven't checked out dramatico.tv yet, go and have a look. We call it a "pretend TV channel" because it's just a collection of Dramatico product, playing constantly and available all the time. Just go to www.dramatico.tv and you'll get the idea. "Zero Zero" is notable for its absence - the file was corrupted but we'll have it posted up there soon, together with new items as they occur.

We've had really nice weather this weekend in Surrey. Beautiful sunshine and cold air. Hope it's been nice where you are.

I'll write again soon.

All the best,


Mike

13th January, 2008

Dear All,

Just reporting in after the first night of my micro-tour of Germany. We played the Freiheiz Hall in Munich last night.

There was some doubt as to whether I would have a voice, as I stupidly caught a chill half way through last week (our rehearsal week) and had a lot of voice trouble. The day before the concert we were filming the rehearsals in London and I had to talk the lyrics through, rather than sing! Yesterday, after plying myself on Friday night with vitamins and all kinds of remedies (Manuca Honey being the magic ingredient – check it out!) I had at least a “talking voice” in the morning and tried to keep my verbal utterances to a minimum as we travelled with the band from Heathrow Airport to Munich, from where I am now writing this on Sunday morning from the Bayerischer Hof hotel.

Last night was a real blast, as they say in the States. I already knew the band were brilliant and that the rehearsals had gone well, but nothing quite prepared me for the fantastic reception we got from the Munich audience.

My two special guests, Chris Spedding and Florence Rawlings, performed an opening set that started off jazzily with Florence singing some pretty well-worn standard material, - like “Georgia” and “Summertime” – but given a new slant by having only Chris accompany her, on a very solid, dirty, electric guitar. The set developed with the band joining them, and ended with Chris doing a great rendition of his hit, “Motorbikin” with Florence joining in on the chorus. Then we had a twenty minute interval and began again with the main set.

I started with “Railway Hotel” and “Lady Of The Dawn” just with the piano. I screwed up the lyrics on “Railway Hotel" so that in the second chorus, second line I sang “but the best I could do was the best I could do” rather than “but the Railway Hotel was the best I could do.” I had been so relieved to find I could sing at all, and that my voice seemed to be back, to a certain extent, that my mind wandered off the meaning of the song. But the audience thought it was funny, and we had a laugh together about it.

Actually I screwed up the odd lyric and/or chord on the piano a few times thereafter but the band and the audience were so supportive that it became a really good atmosphere and although I say it myself, we hit a few bullseyes.

Somehow, it all fell into place and at the end we had finished our encore and were just getting changed and packing up to go home, when the tour manager came in a good ten minutes later and said the audience wouldn’t go home. I walked out to the theatre wings and could hear this stomping and clapping – and looking out, I could see the whole room standing up (it was a seated gig) and clapping and stamping. But we didn’t have any more stuff to do! It was mad. We just went on and I asked the audience if they’d like us to repeat anything because we didn’t know anything else! They all started shouting different titles and someone shouted “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” – which we didn’t know, but it’s not that hard, so I said to the audience “we could do that one, but we’ll have to learn it first if you don’t mind waiting” – which they didn’t, so I shouted some chords out and the band were in there straight away and off we went with this sort of half-arsed reggae version of “Misunderstood” that was a riot, and the audience quite liked seeing us learn it quickly on stage before doing it.

Then they wanted something else, and someone shouted out “The Ride To Agadir” which we had already done earlier, so we did that again, and I was glad they’d called that one out because it’s fun to play. The audience were dancing about and joining in. Then we really DID leave the stage for the final time, and the audience went home. We came off the stage feeling totally exhilarated after the fears and doubts I’d had about my voice, and my usual terror of forgetting lyrics and chords.

I must say I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a concert so much. The band, by the way, were: Chris Spedding (guitars), Tim Harries (bass), Luis Jardim (percussion and vocal) Frank Gallagher (keyboards, violin, penny whistle and vocals) and Florence Rawlings (Vocals and percussion) and Henry Spinetti (Drums). They were fantastic.

Now we are off to Hamburg for Monday’s concert, and after that there’s a show every day of the week, each in a different German City, and each one recorded for a different German radio station.

Meanwhile, Katie has been in France and other European cities for promotion. Soon we will start rehearsals for her Canadian visit, continue planning a possible appearance at South By South West in the States, and of course prepare for her concert at the Albert Hall on May 4th. We also have videos to shoot for her two next singles, “If The Lights Go Out” and “What I Miss About You”. The UK “Winter” leg of Katie’s tour goes on sale next week.

So, as usual, it’s a busy time.

The music business stumbles onwards in its constantly changing directions. My BPI Chairman colleague, Tony Wadsworth sadly had to stand down from his job at EMI where he had worked about 27 years, but if things go according to plan, we can keep him as Chairman of the BPI and I won’t need to step up to the Chair. I do think EMI’s new owners are taking some serious risks by switching senior management of Tony’s calibre. There aren’t many like him in the business.

I note that Coldplay and Robbie Williams amongst others are up in arms about the takeover of a music company by city bankers who appear to be trying to run it like a baked beans  company rather than a music company. Mind you, some major record companies are very arrogantly run by “music people” who draw ridiculous salaries that cripple their businesses while earning yearly bonuses based on sales numbers rather than value, so prices are coming down to a level that will not sustain good quality recordings and signings. Who knows whether it’s better to be led by arrogant music people or arrogant bankers? But Tony is not arrogant. He was the wrong guy to loose; I think EMI will ultimately regret his parting. Actually he hasn’t got a parting, he’s bald on top, but you know what I mean.

Monday, 17th December 2007

Hi Guys,

Just doing a quick blogette before Christmas. Am currently on the way to join Katie who is performing tonight at a carol service in London in aid of Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy. We got the great news yesterday that she has made it (in association with her posthumus duet partner, the great Eva Cassidy) to NUMBER 1 in the UK singles charts, a week before Christmas! This is a huge thrill for us, because Katie tends to be perceived as more of an albums artist although she has had a top 10 and a top 5 single in the UK before now, so something of a false impression. In fact, the whole single-v-albums dynamic is so ridiculous these days that there really isn’t much distinction any more between being an albums or a singles artist. If people download single tracks off albums, they are automatically ‘singles’! I do however think that it would be a pity if the ‘form’ of an album were to disappear completely. I think the running order of an album is very important, and we always spend a lot of time trying to get it right.

Sometimes you even make an album that has such a beginning, a middle and an end that you can only really get the best out of it by hearing it from top to bottom.

I am getting excited about my micro-tour of Germany which will take place in January starting with a concert on the 12th January at Freiheiz Hall, Munich. This is the only ‘commercially available’ concert on the tour, because the concerts taking place on the 14th – 18th are all to radio stations and I believe they are looking after the ticketing. The dates are on this website if you are interested for any reason! These concerts may lead to more of a proper tour later in the year and could include other countries. At the moment, my new album of old songs (!) which I have re-recorded, and titled ‘A Songwriter’s Tale’ is released in Germany on January 25th and throughout the rest of Europe in March.

I had a great surprise early this month to see that the guys at the office had organised a Music Week magazine tribute to my ’40 years in the business’. I think I am the only artist ever to graduate straight from kindergarten into the music business. It was a real surprise and a lovely thing for them to do, and contained tributes from many of my colleagues and artists I have worked with over the years.

I hope you have all had a good year. Next year for us, not only do we have the kick-off of Katie’s big world tour, but also the introduction of two new artists in addition to the release on Dramatico of an exciting Nigerian artist called Asa. Her single ‘Fire On The Mountain’ is released in February and is already getting lots of interest. In the meantime, we are all still battling away at the BPI and IFPI, trying to keep the music business alive and to encourage governments and the public to recognise the fact that recording artists at all levels of success, deserve a fair deal and a way of making a reasonable living.

Thanks for being supportive throughout the year, to me, Katie and all of our co-workers, and in particularly for putting the Eva/Katie single at number 1, - even though it will probably be blown away by the ‘X Factor’ factor next week, although nothing is sure in this world.

Hope you have a good festive season and a great new year.

All the best,

Mike

Sunday, 21st October 2007

Hello again.

Writing this on a sunny Sunday morning looking out across Central Park in New York. It’s a while since we were here, and whenever I’m looking out over the park from my apartment window it always reminds me of that great song by Gallagher and Lyle (often wrongly attributed to Simon and Garfunkel) “ a Heart In New York” sung by Garfunkel as a solo track.

“New York, to your tall skyline I come
Flying in from London to your door.
New York, Looking down on Central Park
Where they say you should not wander after dark.
New York, like a scene from all those movies, But you’re real enough to me
But there’s a heart A heart that lives in New York”

Last week, Katie consolidated her position and edged up to number two in the European charts with third album “Pictures”, having entered the UK chart at number 2 behind Bruce Springsteen (no shame to be number two to the boss) and achieving a good handful of number one and top five positions around the world. Katie was quoted in the Sunday Telegraph as saying this was the last album she and I would do together – and just to put the record straight, it is, in terms of my writing songs and producing. We always planned a gradual withdrawal by the fourth album. Trouble is, we were having such a ball doing album three that now if I’m going to pull out it has to be sudden! So from album four onwards, I’m going to “executive produce”, manage her and run the record label side of things as I do now. I need to move on, and I think it’s healthy for Katie to do so too. I had a forty year start on her and I’ve got lots that I still want to do. She has her whole life ahead of her and the world at her feet. Having said that, I’m not of that paranoid disposition that seems to prevail these days, that an artist can’t be regarded as a true artist unless he or she writes all or most of her own material. Look at Elvis, Ella Fitzgerald, Dusty Springfield. The Beatles and the Stones early albums are nearly all covers of chuck Berry, Carl Perkins and American black artists. Eva Cassidy didn’t write (much). Jeff Buckley’s two most revered tracks are “Lilac Wine” and “Hallelulah” neither of which he wrote. Elton John has never written a song on his own – just melodies for them, however brilliant, and it doesn’t make him a lesser writer. Dionne Warwick was Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s interpreter for years, and that’s how I see that part of my relationship with Katie. In her case, she is also a good songwriter as well as a fantastic singer, and she’s started to explore working with other people – for example, Andrea McEwan, who has co-written two of the songs on “Pictures” and whom we have also signed as a solo artist. I’ll “never say never” when it comes to writing with or for Katie, but it does seem a sensible way of freshening things up.

We got a bit of flack from some critic in The Times about my lyric for the song “Mary Pickford”. In giving us a one star review for the album, he spent two thirds of his space saying what a crap rhyme “He wore a moustache, musta had much cash” is. (Actually it’s a near-perfect rhyme, - so long as the accent on “moustache” falls on the first syllable) but it’s funny how at least four or five reviewers have winced at that lyric. Can’t they see it’s meant to be a bit cheeky? It’s totally tongue in cheek. If that guy wanted to find fault with my lyric I could have shown him several genuinely vulnerable, attackable bits, like “Davy Griffith worked as an extra…until they let him be a director”. “Extra” does not rhyme with “director” but I let it go because I liked the meaning and it sort of felt right, - but the guy at The Times missed it. I’m a stickler when it comes to rhymes. I would only very reluctantly rhyme a singular with a plural, for example, or let an “imperfect rhyme” through. Anyone interested in lyric writing should buy Jimmy Webb’s book (“Tunesmith: Inside The Art of Songwriting”). It’s a great read for an aspiring writer or even an established one. In fact, all established writers are still aspiring! Those who stop aspiring drop away and dry up.

Talking of signing artists, Dramatico has been quite busy on the A&R front. We are soon to release Nigerian girl singer Asa’s “Fire On The Mountain” a great single to herald the release of her brilliant album (see Dramatico site for more details). There’s also another new signing imminently to be announced.

I had an operation a week or so ago. I injured my arm conducting, would you believe! It was years ago, about twelve years ago, conducting a recording of Gustav Host’s “The Planets Suite” with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. I got a bit too excited and did something to my rotator cuff muscle. Years later it kept recurring, so the shoulder expert said he’d go in and do keyhole surgery to decompress the bit where the muscle passes through the ball and socket joint in the right shoulder. So I’m in post-operative state now, but all seems OK. If you write most of the time and only conduct occasionally your body isn’t as tuned up for it as when you conduct all day every day. So full-time classical conductors are usually in better shape for it, although they don’t usually have the fun or fulfillment of writing the music. In my case it can take a month to write and orchestrate enough music for one day’s session, so you have to be careful to keep in shape for the big day or days of the sessions, particularly with big orchestral stuff.

We’re off back to England today. Just learned that Hamilton missed out on becoming the first formula one driver to win the World championship in his rookie year, - real bad luck for him, particularly in China in the penultimate grand prix where he had tyre trouble. Number two just isn’t quite the same – unless it’s to Bruce Springsteen on your third album!

I’ll try to write sooner next time.

All the best

Mike

Sunday, 15th July 2007

Hi All,
 
Rainy weekend in Farnham after coming back from watching Katie kick off her ‘Summer Festivals’ tourette by playing to ten thousand at North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland. By contrast, while Katie and band have moved on to a similar gig, this time outdoors in Bonn (where I hear all went well), I was at the Guilfest festival in Guildford, Surrey, earlier today (Sunday) checking out an act.
 
We have now finished Katie's new (third) album, worked out the running order, nearly decided on the album cover and booklet, but are still agonising over which of two front-runner singles to put out. We've posted a new video blog from her, accessible from Dramatico site or her own site, giving a little insight into the recording of the album. I'll be off to join her and the band again in Berlin at the beginning of next week.
 
Lots going on in the political world of music. We had the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) Annual General Meeting a week or two ago. We had David Cameron as our key speaker, and he pledged to support the extension of copyright term in sound recordings from 50 to 70 years. Just what we wanted to hear. I know politicians often say what they know you want to hear, but I believed him! He also talked about social responsibility and the music business needing to be part of the rebuilding of the ‘broken society’ that is crumbling a bit, morally. Wow! ‘Morally’ sounds really pompous when you say it, but it is a point. Being ‘bad’ is seen as cool (not entirely the music business’s fault, but we do rather worship the naughty guys who do seem ‘cooler’).  I don't just mean gun-culture and drug-culture lyrics in some urban music (look at the film business and TV, they are just as bad) ­ but I see the point about it being cool to get pissed or high. Is Charlotte Church more credible for swearing and being slutty on TV? Yes, I¹m afraid she is, although not in my book. Is Katie Melua ‘uncool’ for being reasonably innocent and normal and doing charity work? To some people, yes.

Someone told me the other day, and I’ve heard/read it before ­ that an essential element to rock 'n' roll is rebellion. What is rebellious about everyone in a generation copying how everyone else in that generation dresses and behaves? What is rebellious about playing loud guitars (great) and doing drugs and stuff (not so great), just like all your mates? That is just as conformist as joining the army. In fact it IS joining an army of sorts, uniform included. I’m not being prudish, - I'm just saying that John Lennon wearing a suit and singing a brilliant cover version of ‘Twist And Shout’ WAS rock ‘n’ roll but wasn't rebellion. Neither was sitting in a bag and telling everyone to live in peace very useful, when he lived in a free society and had plenty of money and 90% of the other people in the World didn’t.
 
Meanwhile, back at the BPI, - Cameron didn’t talk about censorship, or ‘banning’ anything, - as misreported in Music Week magazine. Censorship is a rocky road, and Cameron doesn’t/didn’t advocate it. But as the father of four kids, - I remember being embarrassed to walk into newsagents and the tits and arse magazines being fully visible along the bottom row of the shop for my four-year-old daughter to see. It’s all to do with having a sense of proportion. We do worship excess and decadence, don't we? Hey, Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition! While I’m in high moral tone, I'm going to brag about having not had a drink for three weeks and two days! That’s huge for me, ­ I always used to drink too much wine every night, and vodka sometimes (excess and decadence!). Had to prove to myself I could live without it.
 
Anyway, I gave a little speech at the BPI AGM (as I am Deputy Chairman). I called everyone in the business a bastard but they seemed to like it. Insulting people seems to make them laugh. Must try it more often.
 
Currently working with a new artist we are signing at Dramatico. No clues, - but I think it's going to be fun. More when we get further down the line. You'll be the thirst to hear. Oops! Freudian slip.
 
Better stop now, in case I start confessing to anything else. Take care.

Stop smoking. Be nice. Shut up. Recycle your trash. Do as you¹re told. Oh, and lose some weight while you¹re at it.
 
Love
 
Mike

Right, here we go. More news from Batt Battlements.
 
Katie's new album sounding good after a trip to Dublin to put strings on 6 tracks. (Did brass in UK 2 weeks ago).  Great players, a nice experience, which we always have when we go to Ireland. Traveling party was Steve Sale, my engineer, Rosanna, my PA, Katie (needs no introduction), me (hopefully the same), Michelle (make-up artist), Quinn (cameraman) and Rob (sound for camera) We need all that entourage because we are doing some footage to put out as an EPK (Electronic Press Kit) ­ or we'll use the footage for some other purpose, possibly a DVD.
 
Writing this during a mixing session. I've just mixed a track and Steve is making it sound good after I mixed it, by mixing it better! It's a song by Prince, which may or may not make it onto to the album. Love the song.

Prince is a huge Katie fan and has performed 'Nine Million Bicycles' several times on stage and uses it as his crowd-calming/exciting music before he goes on stage. He invited us to his 'secret' London gig last month at Koko in Camden. So we thought we'd return the compliment. I've had this Prince song kicking about in my head for years and Katie sings the crap out of it.
Not one of his better known ones. We also met him the next day when he invited us to a private charity gig he was doing. He seemed very nice.
 
We have had a really hard time getting any radio play on Carla Bruni, - which I find a bit soul-destroying because her single sounds fantastic on radio. Philistines! (Except when they DO play my records!).
 
Pity about Putin being such a bloody old-school cold war git. I suppose it makes up for Bush being an Empire-building 'biggest dick-in-school' sort of guy. Pity anyway. Let¹s hope the good guys win, whoever they are, and that we are included.
 
Meanwhile, Steve Sale has gone home to get some sleep ­ how dare he! I don¹t pay him to sleep! I pay him to be a genius.
 
Very exciting news about the forthcoming continuous online TV station- DRAMATICO TV (HaHa! - yes, it will appear as a very high quality rolling-loop TV website soon and we have ambitions to expand it to SKY ad others one day). You need dreams.
 
Got a great card from someone the other day, - it said 'Follow your dreams ­ except the one where you are being eaten by a giant spider'. Good one.
 
Gotta go now as a large vodka and tonic awaits. 'Scuse relative brevity. Will try to be more fulfilling next time.
 
BTW - love and prayers for Luke ­ you don't need to know why. Just do it, please. Thanks.
 
All the best
 
Mike

Monday, 9th April 2007

Time for another blogette. Just returned from a train trip to Paris on Easter weekend. I often go to Paris for work ­ (concerts with Katie, or meetings with our French distributor, Naïve) but it was fun to go as tourists. Went with my wife, Julianne, daughter Hayley and brother-in-law Jonathan. The whole point was to check out the Moulin Rouge on the Saturday night; I'd never been there. Neither had the two Parisian waiters on the train, actually. It's funny how you don't always visit tourist attractions in your own town. I've lived in London most of my life but never been inside the Tower Of London. Obviously I've driven past it hundreds of times, even done a concert in the grounds,  so it feels like an old friend, (if it's possible to think of a gruesome prison in that way) - but I've never been inside. Anyway, the Moulin Rouge was a mixture of great and terrible. The supposed Michelin star restaurant was a disaster, with everyone pushed into too small a space at the table, and a rude waiter who kept hurrying us and trying to take the menus away before we'd finished ordering! I'll always remember how forgettable the food was. We had "ringside" seats, so lots of nipples-in-your-face and the smell of the greasepaint, (not complaining) and there was plenty to applaud in terms of the general show and in particular, the acrobatic "interlude" acts that separated the dance sequences. Others who have seen the previous show some years ago say it used to be a real Can-Can fest with the big line of seriously good Can-Can girls. This show had can-can but not the big accent on it as in days of old. Frankly, I'm fine with that, - I find the Can-Can a bit boring after the first twenty seconds or so, and it embarrasses me when they yelp!
 
Lately, we've been working on Katie's new album. We have recorded eight tracks so far. When we record, the band and Katie come over to my house and stay for two days, so it's a sociable atmosphere and we just record, eat, drink the odd bottle of wine, sleep, record again, go home, except I'm already home. We usually cut four titles with the rhythm section in a day.
They don't always all get included on the final album, but four a day is a good pace with plenty of time for chatting and discussion of the parts, the tempo, and what works and what doesn't. I think if you spend too long on recording a track it becomes laboured and loses its immediacy. We rarely do more than three or four takes of a track. Katie always does a guide vocal, which we've kept as the final vocal on several occasions ("Blues in The Night" and "Learnin' The Blues" being memorable examples of complete vocals, left unchanged from the rhythm section take). We're still working on writing more songs for another two-day session in a few weeks' time.
 
With all this work going on - including preparation for the release of Carla Bruni's album "No Promises" on the Dramatico label soon, (click on this link to go to Dramatico's site to read more about Carla's album) ­ it seems a funny time to be taking on extra work, but that's what I did recently by accepting the role of Deputy Chairman of the BPI (British Phonographic Industry). It's a hell of a lot more work, so I hope I can manage not to go mad trying to do too much. The Chairman of the BPI is Tony Wadsworth who runs EMI, and we have a new and very capable CEO (Geoff Taylor) so I'm sure my role will be supportive rather than dominant or central. Being a writer and artist I hope my indie-presence will help a little bit towards uniting some the differing voices in the industry. It is changing all the time. There seems to be some new aspect to the business of music each week, whether it's mergers, piracy, pricing, copyright term extension or new digital ways to buy music (good!) or steal it (bad!).
 
So that's life at Batt Battlements up-to-date at Easter Weekend 2007.
I am off now, to finish a lyric about Mary Pickford, who apparently used to eat roses when she was younger, thinking they would make her beautiful, and then went on to become one of the founders of United Artists, along with Douglas Fairbanks, DW Griffith and Charlie Chaplin.
 
 
All the best
 
 
Mike

Monday, 8th January 2007

January. Got to lose some weight. You can do that by dieting; if only you could get younger by dieting! Giving up booze, that'll help.

Been writing with Katie with a view to the next album. Funny how each album always seems to be the most important one. I suppose that's not unhealthy.
If we approached everything like that, I guess things would be better in many ways. "This is the most important meal I'll ever cook". "This is the most important letter I'll ever write". Maybe not. We'd all be nervous wrecks.

Also doing some nice preparatory work with a new girl singer songwriter I've signed. At the moment it's just a publishing deal but I've a feeling there's an artist ready to jump out from there. Meanwhile my son is working away on his own album but he doesn't need any help from his Dad. He's out there on his own. He did Music Tech at 'A' Level but they are so far behind in schools. I know so many kids who do or did Music Tech and, like my son, think it's a waste of time, that the teacher is usually ill-qualified to teach it and that the software they use is old-fashioned. I'm sure there must be some good ones, but you hear so many horror stories. It wasn't like that when I was a lad! You just left school and did your best. If you wanted to be an engineer or producer you nagged at studios until they gave you a job as a runner/tea boy and worked your way up. I suppose it's still like that, really. The arrogance of youth just seems to me (as a Fully Qualified Old Fart) more prevalent these days. We all know that each generation thinks they invented sex ­ but these days it seems that each generation thinks they invented pop music as well.

Saddam Hussein being executed ­ well yes,the manner of his execution was barbaric and uncalled for unless of course you were one of his victims that was gassed or thrown to the lions (literally) or tortured and imprisoned and then shot, or if you were one of the girls who were raped and then killed by his psychopathic son, with Dad's permission. While he was alive there was always the threat of a terrorist hostage incident to get him back. It's not as if he didn't commit the crimes, or that it might be mistaken identity. So civilisation took a step backwards for a few moments but I don't weep for Saddam Hussein. I often wonder how Idi Amin got away with being allowed to live safely in Saudi Arabia after he was ousted from power. He was at least as brutal as Hussein. You'd think someone would've had enough reason to hunt him down and keep his head in a fridge. "And I say to myself, What a wonderful World".

Been writing a bit more of my autobiography over Christmas. I've written about 40,000 words and I'm only up to the Wombles! Aged 24. I'll still be writing it when I'm 70 at this rate. I'll have to have a section where I "started writing my autobiography" and other chapters will have titles like "Chapter 16: Got to Chapter 16 of my autobiography". The problem is ­ what do you leave out? Do you put all the good bits of your main relationships in but leave out all the horrible bits because you'd hurt people by revealing them? That would be lying. But if you do put them in, why are you putting them in? For revenge? Self-explanation? To be journalistically accurate? In fact, why write memoirs at all if you can't write fully, for fear of hurting people. Life's a bitch. Maybe I'll write another song instead.

Seriously, if you do want to read a punchy biography ­ albeit ghost-written, read Sharon Osborne's. It's devastating. And even though she appears to be telling it like it was/is, you can bet your arse that even she's not even telling it all, to protect the guilty.

Gotta go. Might offend someone.

Love,


Mike

Saturday, 16th December 2006

Starting to close down now for the Christmas Holidays. Had our "office lunch" outing at a local hostelry yesterday, with crackers and EVERYTHING!
It's actually nice and clean and tidy this year with Christmas being on a Sunday, - it's sort of easy to work out that everyone closes down on the Friday and comes back on Jan 2nd.

Katie is taking her family to a warm, sunny place as a surprise this Christmas. In the New Year we'll start in ernest, writing and gradually starting to record the third album, to be "delivered to ourselves" by end of June for September release. Can't wait to get on with it.

Lots of Aggro in Copyrightland at the moment, with Andrew Gowers having published his not-very-clever review on IP matters, commissioned by the government. I found myself writing a measuredly angry letter to the Financial Times in response to an article by a Professor John Kay who has supported Gowers, and reckons recorded music copyright should not be extended beyond the current 50 years. For those who aren't familiar with the subject, recorded music is in copyright (ie, you can't steal it, change it or otherwise defile it, and have to pay to use it) for 50 years after the recording date. That's often while the artist is still alive, quite old and living off what has often become a meagre trickle of income from the hit they had in the 60's or the one violin concerto they ever recorded. We in the business have been campaigning to have that period extended to 95 years, in line with the period they have in the USA. Gowers says the government shouldn't extend it. But THE FAT LADY HAS NOT YET SUNG! I'm a bit of a hawk on copyright. I've often said ­ if you build a house, the government don't confiscate it after 50 years and donate it to the National Trust, do they?
The same should apply to records. When you make a record, you should be allowed to sell it to people and require them to make a payment for owning a copy. Composers/songwriters have a period that lasts for their life plus 70 years. This enables them at least to pass something from their efforts down to their children, but probably not the grandchildren. That's not bad. If I had my way, copyright would never run out, but if that were the case I wouldn't have been able to write "Minuetto Allegretto" based on Mozart's "Jupiter Symphony" without haggling with some cantankerous little old Mozart great-great-great grandson! The Public Domain is fine, but all in good time!
Most recording artists and songwriters are medium to low income earners.
It's not enough to say "Sod Paul McCartney and Sting, they've got enough money already!" Because that would be like taking a swing at your Sainsbury's checkout girl because you think Lord Sainsbury earns too much, or more graphically, not having a National Health Service because some people can afford private heath care.

Enough, already!

Went to see my daughter, Hayley performing in her school production of "Summer Holiday" last night. Good fun. (Funnily enough, containing songs by my mate Bruce Welch of the Shadows, whose records come out of copyright in two years' time, while he's in his sixties!). Oh, I thought I'd changed the subject!

We've been re-editing the Hunting Of The Snark concert TV special for DVD release soon, and Zero Zero, the TV Special from 1982. The Snark thing was recorded in 1987 when it was a 40 minute concert piece, so it's not representative of the full show, which wasn't written until about 12 years later, but it's quite fun to see it as a costumed concert from the Royal Albert Hall. Watching the "younger me" makes this me feel fat and old. Hey, maybe that's because I'm fat and old! The copyrights of my early records will be expiring soon. Oops! Sorry.

We are also fine-tuning the mixes of my so called "new" album - "Bright Eyes At The Railway Hotel". It was available through the website for a while, but I never released it on CD, so I'm re-mixing it, taking some reverb off the vocal and being much more sparse with the orchestra ­ and adding my own new version of "The Closest Thing To Crazy" for good measure.
All the above will be part of a "Mike Batt Archive Series" which Dramatico will release in the first half of next year, - but not until I've lost two stones in weight so I won't mind being on telly and promoting it! If only I were a foot taller I wouldn't be overweight.

Accidentally trod on a slug yesterday.

Had our annual SODS (Society Of Distinguished Songwriters) Ball last weekend. King SOD this year was Tony Hatch ("Downtown", "Don't Sleep In The Subway" and thousands if not hundreds, well tens more) and Petula Clark was there to sing those very songs. Tony did a great job. SODS is a club for songwriters who consider themselves to be distinguished. You have to be elected. The only rule is that it's totally SELFISH and we don't do anything for charity. In other words there's no auction or raffle. The idea is that we all (hope) we do enough for various charities and this is just pure decadence. I've been King Sod a couple of times. You meet three times, just the lads, (it's very chauvinistic) then in December we have "Ladies' Night" when we invite our wives, girlfriends and friends. We do our own cabaret. There's no shortage of hams to get up and sing their own hits.
Members include Tim Rice, Don Black, Guy Chambers, Errol Brown and about thirty more.

Gotta stop now; places to go, people to meet. Have a great Christmas and New Year.

Love


Mike

Thursday, 9th November 2006

Hi All.

Just got back from a good trip to New York, with my assistant, Rosanna, plus our MD, Andrew Bowles and THE SINGER. Lots done, including liaising with Emma, our VP of Everything, plus appointing a Head Of Promotion who must remain nameless. (He is being Christened next week, - weird because he is Jewish).

Katie did her usual round of promo and enchanted all she met. Sang some seriously good stuff on live radio. I was tweaking the décor at my apartment (where we Dramatico bods stayed) and have to say it really is a lucky, God-sent pleasure to be looking out over Central Park every morning. Had meetings with our friends at Universal Distribution and they are behind Katie from Doug Morris (President) down. They really believe in her and our insistence on a completely independent relationship with them (they press and distribute) only enhances the thrill for all of us.

Funny thing happened "on the way to the airport". We were called about an hour before leaving to go to JFK and return home, to be asked if Katie would sing the end titles to the Weinstein movie "Miss Potter" (Life and Love of Beatrix Potter) and because it is sung only accapella by Ewan McGregor to Rene Zellweger in the film, any chance of me writing a lyric for a girl, and turning it into a song, and going straight from the airport (LHR) at 6.30 am the next day, arranging a rhythm section then a string section, and then recording them at my house (in the living room) and then adding Katie's voice (once four people had approved the lyric) and delivering it by 3am the following day so that my pal Haydn Bendall could mix it in 5.1 surround the following morning for final inclusion in the movie the following day (Thursday). Of course we said yes. Why would you want to sleep and rest?

What a silly idea!

So the next day was a real adventure, and I finished the lyric AFTER the string section had left and two minutes before Katie recorded it - brilliantly, I may say. It's a joy to listen to, - and actually a superb film in the English, period way. Might make a good track for the next album.

Then on the Thursday we all had to be at Pinewood Studios where Katie was (sadly) duetting (for a Prime Time BBC Christmas Special) with the late Eva Cassidy on "Somewhere Over The Rainbow. Cassidy was Katie's inspiration to come into our business, but it was all the more poignant because only four days earlier we had lost our dear friend Pauly Walters - the man who, as Wogan's producer, undisputedly broke both Eva and Katie who would still remain unknown even now had it not been for him. He died after a fight against cancer of the esophagus. I just wish he could have lived another week to see and hear his two protégés (one, posthumously on film) sing the song that broke Eva. What a guy - and what a sad funeral it was a week later (this week). A great man with a terrific personality and a real nose for something special.

Still, we move on. Katie is now in Canada, where she is breaking very nicely out of the French-speaking sector - slowly but surely after breaking France.

Gotta go now. It's late and I've finished my boiled egg and marmite soldiers.

Love to all. Stay cool, etc. Don't enjoy yourselves too much.

Mike

Sunday, 15th October 2006


A sunny Sunday in Surrey. (Alliteration unintentional). Mist across the valley at Batt Control gives a great, diffused light, and cut-out lines of tees going into the distance, the further away the lighter the grey. Preparing for a short trip to New York with four of us, Katie, me, my assistant, Rosanna and Andrew, our M.D. The mission is to plan strategy for Katie’s next few months re USA and also for her to do some publicity stuff. Hoping to get some “quality time” to discuss and advance album three a bit (due for release NEXT September). I’ve always thought the expression “quality time” was a bit odd. All time is quality time, isn’t it? People seem to use it for parental moments like doing jigsaw puzzles or going to the zoo, but travelling in a train or taking out the rubbish is also quality time, surely? Who cares, and why is he crapping on about this, I hear you say.

Mixed blessings. A good friend of mine is very ill in the final stages of cancer. My 18 year old son and 16 year daughter are playing a great rock ‘n’ roll track in the control room of the studio at home, her on bass, him on guitar.

I was invited to the musical “Wicked” by Radio Two a week or so ago. Loved it. Some didn’t, and I believe it was mauled by the critics, one of whom (Mail On Sunday) gave it no stars out of five. That’s just viscious and ignorant. So there was no talent on stage, the costumes and set weren’t even a bit good? Actually the costumes are among the best I’ve seen and the stage overflows with true talent. It’s the story of the witches in The Wizard Of Oz, and how they got to be the wicked one and the good one. The songs need to be listened to attentatively to be appreciated, so that probably rules out some if not all critics. All in all a good way to spend an evening and you’ll only hate it if you are a miserable sod. I also saw a preview of “Dirty Dancing” which you’ll like if you are a girl out with the girls, mad keen on dancing but not bothered about acting, or a huge fan of the movie, or if you are a bloke who is red-blooded enough to be happy to spend two hours watching the tall girl with the legs that go on forever - which takes the edge off the boredom if you would otherwise be bored. Apart from that, t wasn’t my cuppa, but I enjoyed it through the eyes of the girls I was with (my wife and daughter) so enjoyed the evening. It’s booked out for months, will be a great success, but great art it isn’t.

Later today I am going to finish off the piano/vocal arrangements of the sheet music book of “Piece By Piece” so we can get it out for Christmas. Tedious work but it has to be done. We are setting up a direct sheet music publishing operation, distributed by a major distributor but originated edited and printed by/through us. As well as “Piece By Piece” we are doing a “Best Of’” my own songs and a “Hunting of the Snark” piano folio soon.

Also spent some time this week compiling and uploading my “Holst: The Planets” classical (conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)
album to iTunes. It will be in their store in a couple of weeks. Why anyone would want another recording of the Planets Suite I’m not sure, but I’ve got it so I’m putting it out, - along with “Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance No 1” and my own “Dublin” Overture. Simon Rattle must think they need another Planets because he’s just done it with the Berlin Phil. So now there are two, and – be fair, whose would you rather hear? (Yeah! Thanks for your vote!). “Berlin Phil” would be a good name for a singer, wouldn’t it! (No?) OK then.

Well, I’ll write more soon, depending on your definition of the word “soon”. Ask General Sir Richard Dannatt, who says he thinks our troops shoud be out of Iraq “soon”!!! but honest, I’ll try my best (to write, not to get our troops out of Iraq).

All the best,

Mike




14th May, 2006

Dear Anyone,

I know it always comes as a shock when I write a newsletter. Can't think why I leave them so long, - I really quite enjoy writing them. I guess I used to enjoy it more when the software was simpler. I'm OK with HTML but this template-based software is a pain in the butt and I can't easily attach pictures.

Anyway, so here we are in the middle of May. I'm just about to jump on a plane to the States to start the long process of helping Katie to break a bit bigger in the States, with the release of her album" Piece By Piece" on June 6th. We are very pleased with the album's performance in the UK and the rest of Europe, where it had achieved in six months what the first album had achieved in total. (3m sales in Europe by March). She has now been the biggest selling female singer in the UK for two years running, and Dramatico had the 9th biggest market share (of ALL record companies, not just indies) in the UK last year. Sorry if that sounds cocky, but we're a tiny company and it's nice to be proud of the good things that happen.

We put on the best live show we could, using a big screen behind Katie, and a set of four projectors hanging from the front lighting truss. As a "student" and sometime designer of projection projects this was a thrill for me. These new American projectors (D2) are smaller, more powerful than anything else sensibly tourable (anything more powerful is the size of a bus) , can move, have internal intelligence to correct something called "keystoning" - the distortion of the image due to the angle of projection - and can double as cameras as well. We haven't even scratched the surface of what they can do yet - I'm looking forward to developing them in a theatrical application. Anyway, I digress. All this production effort did nothing to distract from Katie's magnificent performance. She seemed to grow a lot on this tour, both in maturity and technique. We shot a couple of the gigs for TV and will be doing a DVD repackage of the album in September, - like last time - a "free" full length DVD in with the album.

So we've just got back from the European tour (I didn't make all the gigs now that I have sacked myself from the band (in favour of the brilliant Jim Watson on piano) and need to spend more time on admin and other, creative duties. Dramatico is settiing up a New York Office. I have been there twice in the past month, looking for premises on Broadway, and have now appointed key people. Our German office (Dramatico GmbH) , run by Sven Meyer and George Garcia has developed into a fully fledged Dramatico company, so now we have -albeit small, modest outposts, in Munich and New York. We have always operated independently anyway, and do not license our music to overseas record companies. We do direct deals with distributors, usually building up our own freelance promotion and marketing team in the territory, as we do in the UK.

I know you would have prefered my recipe for Duck Soup to the foregoing account of the way our record label works but perhaps next time.

We have now got all my old solo albums up on iTunes after a long period of negotiation with SONY who hadn't had them out for ages , except as compilations ("Best Of" type collections). We are going to get them all out on remastered CD as soon as we get a moment. See www.dramatico.com for more. I suppose it's partly vanity publishing, but then I guess if you've spent your life making solo albums that have been sometimes overshadowed by other, more successful projects (for which I am eternally grateful) - you can be forgiven for wanting them to be available. The modern, digital age is bringing great opportunities for artists and writers to make their work available. Of course with it comes the huge volume of competition because everyone else is doing the same, but at least it redistributes the power formerly held by the senior executives of a handful of major record companies.

Incidentally, congratulations to Dramatico artist Robert Meadmore, whose number two album, "After A Dream" (UK classical charts, 2005) earned him a nomination for "Best Album" at last week's Classical Brits. It's great to have a hit record, but a nomination like that really does make you feel good, and it's well- deserved.

Having a small indie record label is a huge buzz. It takes all the schlepp out of trying to get a record deal for each project, but of course it is hugely hard work, can be very risky and dangerous. Just my cup of tea then! I've always wanted to do it. Mind you, I wanted to be a yellow dumper truck driver when I was six, and never made it, - so at least I'm realising SOME of my ambitions.

I'm going to stop writing now before it gets too interesting. Mustn't spoil you.

Hope to write again soon - stay cool, boogie down, hang loose, swing low and don't spare the horses.

Mike



6th of August 2005
Dear (insert name),

So here we are now at the beginning of August, and things seem to be going
quite well here at Batt Control. We've finished Katie's new album, shot the
cover photo sessions and done the artwork, have commissioned the video and
are talking to retail and the media. So far, all seem very happy with "Piece
By Piece" - the album. We have had press playback days which were
well-attended, and had a great review in "What's On?" magazine (first and
only review to date).

So as we stagger ever nearer to the release date, we are trying hard not to
forget anything important, and to make our artistic and marketing decisions
without too much operator error. I am excited to hear that our record
company partners worldwide think this album surpasses album one.

Katie is off on holiday soon, but first we will be shooting the video (next
week) with director Kevin Godley. It's the first time we've used an
"external" director (that is, not me) ­ to direct the video, and both Katie
and I are finding it a stimulating prospect. I've always admired Kevin's
work, originally as a member of 10cc and since, in Godley and Creme, and
subsequently as a director. He has devised an interesting concept for "9
Million Bicycles" ­ involving not very much, if anything, in the way of
bicycles. He sees it as a floaty, dreamy record and is planning a similarly
floaty, stoned-looking video which involves Katie "floating away" at ground
level, away from a grassy picnic, across sand, snow, wallpaper and other
"backgrounds" with the camera constantly looking down from a fixed position
above her. Hmmm, should be fun to shoot, as they literally "drag" Katie
through the sand and snow, - wearing a harness, pulled by a winch!

I had lunch with Barrie Marshall, our tour promoter, today. He is very busy
with the new Paul McCartney tour and recent and ongoing Elton concerts, so
it was good to get a couple of hours with him, over some fish and chips. We
are planning to base ourselves here in the UK and jump off to Europe for
promotion work on the new album (which is to be released on the same day
throughout Europe, South Africa and Australasia), - until Christmas, then
embark on a huge World Tour in January, starting in the UK.

I also talked to him about some ideas for touring with Robert Meadmore ­ who
achieved the number two position in the UK Classical chart with "After A
Dream" and has now sold close to fifty thousand albums on Dramatico, - not
bad for a debut classical album. Robert might record something special for
the Christmas period, but will certainly tour early next year.

For those of you who would be disappointed if I didn't include my recipe for
Pickled Quail's Bladder Bisque, here goes:

Ingredients

1 pickled Quail
Some bisque
Salt
Pepper
A cheese sandwich
A bottle of vodka

Method

Take the pickled quail ­ kill it, and remove the bladder very carefully.
Chop the bladder into tiny bits and add the vodka slowly, heating over a low
flame, and eating the cheese sandwich. Add the bisque, stirring and
simmering until next Tuesday afternoon. Ring a stunningly beautiful woman
and invite her round for dinner, but don't tell her what the dinner is. Put
on a fabulously classy record such as Rupert Holmes "Widescreen" and hope
for the best. If you are a girl, invite a bloke, unless you are gay in which
case TELL EVERYONE and be proud of it. In fact, invite everyone. If you are
a quail, do not attempt this recipe, in fact get out of town. Add the salt
and pepper next August.

Meanwhile, back at my newsletter ­ I should say that I have enjoyed a round
of radio interviews to promote my single "Railway Hotel" ­ and I guess the
record will come out when we get a quiet moment. There is going to be a
"proper" release, - when the album is finally ready. At the moment we are
so busy with Katie's new album that there isn't time to concentrate enough
on the "Bright Eyes" album, - I guess it will come out when it's good and
ready.

This weekend we are doing a bit of final tweaking to "Piece By Piece" before
mastering it next week. See Katie's own site for more details
(www.katiemelua.com ).

Have a good few weeks,

All the best

Mike



16th July, 2005

Hello again,

It takes about 20 minutes to write and post a newsletter so God knows why it
can't be done more often. Anyway, here we go again, using 20 minutes which I
have created by staying up later than I had planned on the eve of Katie's
new album cover photo shoot.

It's mid-July and we have JUST finished the new album. The "difficult"
second album, they call it, don't they? But they forget how difficult the
first one was when they say that.

As this is my own, rather than Katie's newsletter I won't steal her thunder
by spilling the beans (hey, two clichés in one sentence!) about all her
activities, save to say that since I last wrote to you we have been to South
Africa, Beijing, the States several times, and made an album! Katie has won
a German "Echo" award and sold 300K copies there. Great stuff, and very
exciting times, with also the pressure (and pleasure) ­ of recording the new
album. I have to admit that three or four weeks ago, my feeling that we had
matched or exceeded the first album with this imminently-ready one, were
dashed by several negative comments about one or two of the tracks. When I
am getting an album ready for release I ask everybody what they think, and I
take the cleaning lady's opinion as seriously as I do the head of our
distribution company. It was a very good album, but didn't run quite as
effortlessly as the first, didn't have quite the same feelgood factor. So
we went back into the studio, cut SIX more songs, of which three are now on
the new album, and according to received opinion, we've cracked it, Of
course, only the public will really tell us whether or not we have. I truly
believe this album is at least as good as the last one - just more mature
and not quite as jazzy. I guess it's blues-based and folk/singer songwriter
based.. This week we did a "controlled explosion" of the album for 40 media
people in Germany, and the reaction was incredible. This was followed by a
triumphant gig in Stuttgart for 5,000 rocking fans with banners, and
enthusiasm to spare.

Tomorrow's album cover session is with photographer Simon Fowler, and we are
using a derelict-but-once-opulent old house in Portland Place. I'm taking a
video crew down there to get a bit of fly-on-the-wall stuff as well. Should
be interesting.

I flew back from Stuttgart to a BPI (British Phonographic Industry) meeting,
at which I was elected to the BPI council, so that was quite a good day.
Very well organised, the event was actually a 24-hour event involving a
river boat trip with lots of Members of Parliament (the BPI are involved in
lots of political lobbying and interaction) ­ which sadly I missed, - and
then a full day marathon seminar and Annual General Meeting, which was
packed, and at which we heard a very good speech from the Director General
of the BBC, Mark Thompson, who was excellent, and very skilful and
reasonable during an ensuing question and answer session. My reason for
standing as a BPI council member is that I gave up all my Industry committee
work some years ago, and just felt I needed to return to putting something
back into the industry that has been my livelihood for so many years. Also,
the BPI run the Brit Awards, which fund the Brit School where I discovered
Katie Melua, - so I think I owe them one.

So now, forty minutes after I predicted this would be a twenty minute
letter, I am thinking I should break for the bedroom. I hope my next
newsletter will be more fun to read, and might even include my recipe for
Pickled Quail's Bladder Bisque.

Oh, and just before I go, may I say Bollocks to those who bombed the London
Underground recently, and Bollocks to the American government and military,
who instructed all US military personnel stationed in Britain to avoid
London in the aftermath of last week's bombings. They should be offering to
join us in the front line of "their" war against terror, by offering
military personnel to help in the centre of London, not forbidding them to
enter the city so that our tourism and theatre business will die the same
death it did when in the eighties we allowed them to use UK air bases to
bomb Libya in reprisal for the Lockerbie Bombings and then all Amercians
gave the UK a wide birth for the following two years. Fighting terrorism
takes courage. Come on, USA, show us a bit of that. Don't let us think you
are all yellow.

I don't know whether I'm more angry with the bombers or the US government,
who could possibly show such stupidity as to make such an order. We help
you, - you help us, with courage, please, not cowardice.

Anyway, rant over. Have fun, be good, boogie down, stay cool, etc,


Mike



13th February, 2005

Hello again,

February’s newsletter comes between our January and February visits to the States. I decided in December that this was the way to give Katie an apparently constant presence there and yet leave her some time to visit other countries and also to make the new album, - so we are going there for at least a week each month.

As far as the new album is concerned – we are about half way there – but it will be out in September, so we have to put deadlines in, and exact sessions where we have to have certain songs ready. I’m writing, Katie’s writing, and we are exploring a few other songs, just as we did on the first album.

We got snowed in in New York a couple of weeks ago (we were there to play Joe’s Pub, then the Theatre of Living Arts in Philadelphia - before leaving for San Francisco, LA and San Juan Capistrano. So we had an enforced couple of days sitting in the Irish pub across the road from the hotel in New York while we waited for the blizzard to die down. It really was a hell of a blizzard. I’ve never seen deep snow lying on the roads in a major city and remaining for days. The streets (and I’m talking about 6th Avenue and Broadway, not Acacia Gardens) only went back to their usual black colour after two days of being white, even with traffic using them constantly. Finally we made it to the West Coast. Where the gigs went equally well. We also had an interesting evening in LA, putting Katie’s vocal onto Sharon Osbourne’s tsunami record “Tears In Heaven”, with producer Mark Hudson, - a man of cordial disposition and great musical and vocal understanding, who on that evening was sporting a camouflage pattern kilt and a bright red goatee beard. After our sold-out San Capistrano gig we drove back to LA ad got on a plane to Tokyo. Katie’s own newsletter will, no doubt fill you in on further details, but suffice to say a good time was had by all and we were well looked after by our Japanese hosts. Platia Entertainment. The album will be released in April over there.

Robert Meadmore’s album is being pre-advertised on Classic FM at the moment (see www.Robertmeadmore.com) and nice things are being said. At the moment we are at the important “sell-in” period where Dramatico’s distributors, - Pinnacle - take orders from retailers, - and the reaction at retail has been very good. Thing is, with a classical album like this (however much it has a beautiful “chill-out” feel) - you never know whether it will go huge, medium or sell just 25 records. We only made the record as two friends who had always wanted to work together on a proper album (after doing the odd thing here and there over the last 20 years, like the piece I wrote for the Queen’s opening ceremony for the Channel Tunnel), - so it was done for art, rather than commerce. However, - having been the “victim” of so much record company apathy over the years, I cannot, when releasing it on my own label, give it less than 100% marketing and promotional attention. So it is a bit of a risk, but why change the habits of a lifetime? I often find the acid test of an album is that people tell you they play it over and over again in their cars or wherever. It’s also a good album to peel carrots to, take a bath with your girlfriend or boyfriend (or both) – or why not take the carrots with you and peel them at the same time?

At the moment, in advance, we are preparing artwork for a series of nine to twelve double CD’s called “Mike Batt Archive Series”. – the first three are expected to be out on Dramatico in April or May . Essentially they are my solo albums, in two-for one packs. First one is Schizophonia/Tarot Suite, second is Waves/6Days In Berlin and third one is Zero Zero with the Zero TV special as a DVD on disc two. I’m really not expecting them to storm into the charts, but having them available will at least make a change, and there are some people out there who will show a vague interest! (But how many?).

It’s a beautiful sunny, cold Sunday here at Batt Towers, and I’m sitting typing this in the control room of our studio, where my 17 year-old son is engineering his friend, David who is adding drums to a heavy rock record they’re making just for fun. It’s loud. The drums are in the hallway as you enter the house – which is where we always set up Henry Spinetti’s drums when we record here. It just means if we have visitors and they ring the doorbell in the middle of a take, you have to stop and start again (unless you want a doorbell sound just at that point on the track). Trouble is, the dog barks when the doorbell goes, so you’d have to want a doorbell and a dog on the record in order to keep a take like that.

The drummer today is David Stewart, - son of our friends, Allan and Jane Stewart who are coming for a Sunday roast lamb dinner tonight. Allan is well-known as a performer and comedian. He is a brilliant mimic and singer, and has appeared on the Royal Variety show more than once. His heartland, however is Scotland, where he started very young with his own TV show and is always welcomed back warmly by audiences North of the border. He also played Al Jolson brilliantly in the West End show, Jolson. He likes a nice glass of single malt whisky so I’d better make sure we have some in.

This coming week gives me a couple of “office-and writing” days (while Katie goes to Holland for some TV) - before leaving for gigs in Boston, Washington DC and New York towards the end of the week and next week. (See her site for details).

We have a new Head Of International Marketing at Dramatico, - (never had one before) – it’s Andrew Bowles, - who comes to us from Hot Records who have Eva Cassidy. He can take some of the weight off my shoulders. I’ve set up a wide range of distribution relationships for Dramatico, worldwide, - but keeping all these different affiliates in the loop and planning marketing campaigns in each territory is a very big and time-consuming task, which I’ll be glad to share with him.

Now my son, Luke has moved onto performing the mad axeman guitar solo part of the record he and David are making, and so I’m getting out of here for a nice quiet cup of tea in the kitchen. Hey, just as I wrote that, my wife came in and said “Anyone for a cup of tea and a cheese scone?” Spooky. Eh?


Stay cool,


Mike

PS: Funny thing just happened. After writing the above, I went into the kitchen for my cup of tea, (and a cheese scone) - and my wife, Julianne said “They’re not coming!” I thought that was a bit short notice to cancel a dinner date, but said, “Why?” and she said “They’re busy”. I shrugged, - it didn’t sound like the Stewarts to cancel like that, - I was quite disappointed, but obviously took it on the chin. I finished my tea (and my cheese scone), came back to the computer and removed the above reference to Allan and Jane from the newsletter - just to keep it factual, - not out of spite!- and posted it on the site.

Ten minutes ago, the Stewarts turned up, with smiles and flowers, etc.

I said “I thought you cancelled!” They said “What made you think that?” I said, “Julianne told me earlier” Julianne said, “No I didn’t!”

Turns out that when she said “They’re not coming, - they’re busy” she was referring to the boys, - Luke and David not coming for a cup of tea (and a cheese scone)because they were busy being rock gods.

Trivia rules. Now you know. Bet you’re glad I told you that.

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





29th November, 2003.

Dear All,

I'm grabbing a moment on Saturday night while Chris Tarrant's jolly voice beams brightly from the next room during another edition of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?". Ok, so "quiet" isn't really the right description of the moment. Chris is such a noisy boy. But good value. He and several other male friends of mine convened here at Batt Battlements about four weeks ago (you see, if I leave the newsletter long enough I get to include events long gone!) - for a Boys' Night dinner. My wife Julianne sometimes has girls-only dinners, so I thought I'd get my own back. Good fun, about ten of us including the great Rolf Harris, a gentleman I first worked with back in the seventies, and who is now just reaching his prime in HIS seventies! Back then, we co-presented a BBC programme for children in which we pulled The Wombling Song to pieces and re-built it as a schools music programme, at Abbey Road studios. If Rolf hadn't been an entertainer he would have easily made a great name just as a painter. I mean as a Great Painter. Which he is, anyway. He just has a new collection of limited editions out, which are simply beautiful.

The few months (sorry!) since I wrote my last weekly newsletter have been full of fun and high energy effort, getting Katie Melua's album out, and marketing it via Dramatico, our label. As I write, she is on the verge of going gold with 100,000 copies sold, after only 3 weeks on the market. We are so proud of Katie, - she has developed in the one year we've known her, from a raw talent who'd only just taken up the guitar, - to a potential World star, possibly one of the greats of her generation. Throughout that time, there has been one man who gave me the confidence to go it alone on my own label in the UK, - and who almost single handedly has brought Katie to the public eye - or ear, I should say. That man is Paul Walters, senior producer at Radio Two, - (Terry Wogan's producer), whose track record reaches way back, but recently includes taking Eva Cassidy's "Over The Rainbow" - (after a friend sent it to him from the bargain bin in a U.S. record store) and breaking her in this country, despite apathy from the rest of the radio business. This he has now also done with Katie, and his courage and good taste (but I WOULD say that, wouldn't I!) are what has given Katie a hearing which she definitely wouldn't have had otherwise. In fact, there is even an argument that says I might even not have signed Katie if I had not known of the power of Wogan, and - it has to be said, - of Michael Parkinson, another man who can break an artist single-handedly (viz Jamie Cullum)- and who has also helped Katie. The THIRD man in this scenario is the mega talented Jeff Thacker, Senior Producer at Granada, - who produced the Royal Variety Show this year, and who was astute enough to snap Katie up only a week before the show was to go on, - because she entered the top 40 with her album just at the moment he was looking for a young singer who could deliver - completely live, some special magic. Those of you who caught the performance will, I'm sure, agree that this is exactly What Katie Did.

So now we career towards Christmas, keeping peddling (as in bike, not drugs!) - and hoping to be doing the right things to bring Katie further along the road. Her gig at Shepherd's Bush Empire was fantastic (see her site, www.katiemelua.com for further details and pictures). In the band were the delightful Henry Spinetti, whom we had seen two weeks earlier as the main drummer in the "Concert For George" (Harrison) movie, - Tim Harries, the Best Bass Player In Christendom, and Jim Cregan, me old mate who absconded to the States years ago to work as Rod Stewart's main guitarist/writer/producer, - just after being with Cat Stevens, then Cockney Rebel, - where he delivered that ridiculously good acoustic guitar solo on "Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)" It was a great evening. I played piano, which was fun for me. The evening was promoted by Barry Marshall, - who promotes Paul McCartney, Elton John, - and Katie Melua! We are discussing a tour for early next year.

Well, this hasn't turned out to be a funny, whacky newsletter or a serious political one. Just facts. - So far, that is! Did I ever tell you the one about the Englishman, the Irishman and the Third World Dictator?.
I know, it's pathetic isn't it? I wish it was five minutes ago. I suppose my recipe for Chicken Maryland would only make things worse.

So many of you guys have asked about my solo albums, and other things like Snark and stuff, that I ought to tell you that we are negotiating at the moment to get them all out again, possibly all at once. I'll keep you posted. As you know, my newsletter tends to be a little slower than CNN, so if you hold your breath, take out life insurance first.

Well, now Chris has finished on the telly, Pop Idol result has been announced for this week, - but I can't remember what happened, and now Donny Osmond is introducing a programme about the Seventies, that contains Stephen Gately singing Bright Eyes (some rather odd chords in there, guys, you should've bought the sheet music!) - but doesn't mention the Wombles. Maybe I ought to be grateful. It's when they ONLY mention the Wombles that my fur gets brushed up the wrong way. Which reminds me, Virginia, our lovely helper here at Batt Battlements, is currently washing all the old Womble costumes (they were FILTHY, darling!) - and they are hanging out to dry all along the landing. There's Great Uncle Bulgaria, Orinoco, Tomsk, Wellington, all headless. (Would I make this up?) It's like being in a weird film.

I think I'll Womble off to bed.

Be nice to each other, as you always are. I'm so glad God is English. (I reckon she is, anyway).
If you disagree with my decision not to include the recipe please write to the British Chicken Maryland Institute, 43, Kensington High Street, London. If you object to my religious views, write to The Archbishop Of Canterbury, Canterbury, (It's a bit like New York, New York). If you want to make an old man very happy, buy Katie's album for all your friends this Christmas, and don't forget, the fewer friends you have the less it will cost you.

Peace and Love.


Mike





30th July, 2003. This letter was written on 30th July but not posted til 20th August

Dear Everybody,

I thought I ought to drop you a line before I leave on holiday to Italy, otherwise where would you be? So here comes the latest Bulletin from Batt Battlements.

Katie Melua continues to get fantastic reaction. The Wogan Show on Radio 2 have received an astonishing number of enquiries after playing “The Closest Thing To Crazy” and “Call Off The Search”. The single will be “The Closest Thing To Crazy” on October 6th and the album, “Call Off The Search” will be October 20th. We were in Ireland again recently, putting brass and strings onto rhythm tracks recorded a few days earlier. The new songs give Katie’s album a nice, cool, blues/jazz vibe which we think is just right. You can easily check out her website (and some of the reactions) on www.katiemelua.com.

We went to see my mate, Gary Wilmot open in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” last week. He’s terrific. What a wonderful actor he is. I know he’s my mate, but I’ve always thought he was brilliant, even before I knew him. I saw him in “Travels With My Aunt” recently and he knocks a lot of Royal Shakespeare types into a cocked hat. Chitty is very twee (that’s part of its charm) and there are at least three terrible songs that should be cut, but the Irish family next to us in the stalls were shrieking with delight. That’s the great thing about theatre, - everybody gets something different from it.

Anyway, down to the serious business. There is an inflatable schoolboy who goes to an Inflatable school, has inflatable friends and inflatable teachers. One day, he decides he doesn’t like Mondays, so he goes into school with a pin. First he pricks his friends, then his teachers, then the school, and finally himself. The next day the headmaster calls round to the boy’s house in his inflatable car. He says to the boy “Son, not only have you let your friends down, you’ve also let your teachers down, you’ve let the whole school down, but more importantly you’ve let YOURSELF down”

Contrasting that with reports I read in the Sunday papers about how prisoners in Iraq were often executed by being sliced downwards in two, through the head, and it makes me think that quite honestly we supposedly civilised countries should ALWAYS invade countries who have terrible civil rights habits. (Call me old fashioned, and I know it's not the answer, in fact I don't really mean it, or maybe I do - but pretend I do for a minute. There's a thread of rightness in this). Dictators should be regarded as world criminals, and regimes of fear should be taken over and run as part of a World government. I know this is sensitive stuff, but ever since, as a teenager I read about Idi Amin poking people’s eyes out and having prisoners bash each other’s brains out with sledge hammers, I’ve felt that Western Civilisation should wage war on torturers and mass murderers. Amnesty International should support such invasions. I think we did the right thing in Iraq, - even if (as I greatly regret and abhor) - the US troops seem so lacking in training but bristling with firepower that they open fire at the slightest movement and ask questions later(or don’t). British troops rarely do that (Bloody Sunday being a possible exeption, with mysterious IRA elements complicating matters). We are better trained in policing (because of the legacy of experience from the now shrivelled and often immoral British Empire), and better able to deploy intelligent, well trained special forces.

Well, you wanted a newsletter, so that’s what you got. A recipe for prawn curry this isn’t.

On the other hand - get some prawns and do nothing with them for a minute. When the minute is up, take them and chuck them into a frying pan with a little pile of about four crushed garlic cloves and some butter and olive oil. Fry the lot for just a few seconds, maybe a minute. Pour in some white wine. (Chateau Chunda is good, don’t waste the best Blue Nun) - then build up a sauce by adding a little cornflower pre-mixed with cold water, some curry powder, - some cayenne pepper and some chilli pepper. The two latter items to taste, but go easy, - keep tasting it. If you have one of those frozen tomato and marscapone italian cheese sauces (of COURSE you do!) chuck a bit of that in to give you a nice fat, red taste. Put some seriously cool music on, like some Bangra or maybe Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Eat the curry. Light up a huge cigar. Have a bath.

Hope you don’t mind the disjointedness of this letter, - I am not very inspired today - being exhausted and ready for a holiday. If you disagree with my political views please write to M Batt Esq., Wimbledon Common, England. If you disagree with my recipe for prawn curry, please write to The British Prawn Curry Institute, 145 High Street Kensington, near Surrey, England.

Well, have a nice August, and don’t let those bastards get you. If a bird shits on your car windscreen, NEVER invite her out on a date again.

Lots of love

Mike

PS: I wrote the above on the day before leaving for my holiday, but didn't post it because I thought it was a bit strong. Now I've read it and it's fine, so you can read it! Incidentally, Idi Amin died while I was away. (Not a moment too soon).



Monday, 9th June, 2003.


Hello, young lovers, wherever you are,

This last couple of weeks has been full of bits of recording with the Planets, - and the week before that I was back in New York again for 3 days with Katie. In between, I've been doing stuff in the office, which is always there to mop up any time I have when I'm not writing or recording.

With the Planets, we are recording three new tracks, - "Sabre Dance" (Kachachurian), "Scheherezade" (Rimsky Korsakov) and "New Piece For The Planets" (Batt). Note how the least classically revered composer has the shortest and simplest name. Maybe I should change my name to Battsky-Michlof von Hampshire-Hoggsky. That would show the bastards.

Went to see the newly revamped production of Tell Me On A Sunday, (by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black) last week. It was fantastic, - Denise van Outen (there's a proper artist's name!) was magnificent as The Only Person In It, - a fantastic job of acting and singing; the new songs and linking material was extremely well written both lyrically and musically.

We had a meeting of SODS (Society Of Distinguished Songwriters) on Friday, 23rd May. It was held at Rules restaurant in Covent Garden, and reigned over by this year's King Sod, Brian Bennett (drummer of the Shadows and currently very distinguished as composer of, ooh, lots of things). It was a civilised evening, - we all wore dinner jackets as usual, - and it was marred only by my telling the joke about the inflatable schoolboy (which contrary to your vile expectations and presumptions, is absolutely clean). About 18 other SODS were there, including Gary Osborne (War Of The Worlds, Blue Eyes), Justin Hayward (Nights In White Satin), Tim Rice (Ooh, lots of things) Mitch Murray (Bonnie and Clyde, Billy Don't Be A Hero) and Peter Callendar (Bonnie and Clyde and Billy, Don't Be A Hero).

Last Tuesday, 3rd June, we had a lunch for 12 radio and TV show producers at the Langham Hilton Hotel, hosted by Dramatico Entertainment Ltd., my company. The purpose was for them to meet Katie Melua, who also played and sang 4 songs, with The Cheapest Piano Player In Christendom as her accompanist (me). I think she made some friends. Her first two radio plays ever, took place on Radio Two's morning show Wake Up To Wogan, - last week, and we were inundated with letters saying how fantastic she is. Well, we had four letters, - well, one anyway - saying she was quite good, - from her dad. Only kidding, Katie, if you're reading this, the station had loads of calls and e mails asking about your recording of "The Closest Thing To Crazy". At the lunch we had John Dory soup, Chicken breast with a Pasta Thingy, and Pear Tatin. Life just went into a suspended state of deliciousness.

Now it is 9th June, and I have returned to Batt Battlements ready for some recording tomorrow with various Planets. If Rimsky-Korsakov were alive today he'd be turning in his grave. Scheherezade with a reggae beat is novel, to say the least. Actually, I'm quite proud of it. Bob Marley meets the Classics. Puke not. It is Great Art, and don't you little buggers forget it.

Got to go, now. Time's a-wastin' and there are TV programmes to be watched, people to meet, cheese to be grated.

Hope your exams go well, or that you don't have any.

Love and cornflakes,


Mike



Wednesday 14th May, 2003.


Dear All,

Hah! That shocked you, didn't it! Bet you didn't expect a newsletter after 5 months! My last one wished you a Happy New Year. Maybe my next one will, too, if I go on neglecting you like this. Can't apologise enough, so won't! But thanks to those of you who wrote expressing concern about me, - in fact I was fine, just couldn't face what I still perceive to be an awkward way of updating the site text, and so kept leaving it. I WILL try to be more diligent about keeping in touch in future.

Right now, I'm updating this on my laptop in my hotel room overlooking Central Park in New York, while I wait for Katie Melua to knock on the door so we can go out to see Billy Joel's musical, "Movin' Out", - on Broadway. I'm looking forward to it very much, because Billy is one of my big heroes. (There's a song title in there somewhere).

Katie and I are in New York for a week to see various record companies, as the bidding for her solo contract starts to get interesting. I don't mean financial bidding (or if I did, I wouldn't tell you) - I mean that there is much interest in her here, - and I have decided to sign her to a US label. If you want more on Katie, try www.katiemelua.com. Read her biography notes there, - her story is very interesting. I think she is going to be a very big star. Her website is still in its infancy - but looking good thanks to our webmaster, Robert Madsen.

Today we went to the studio of top photographer Michael Halsband (he has photographed Andy Warhol, Jagger, Bowie, Brian Wilson) - and had a good day shooting Katie looking moody in black leather jacket -indoors to a black background, and outdoors in the street, looking cool and New Yorkish.
(Got to run, now, so as not to miss the 8pm start of the show).

*********

Just got back from the theatre and taking up the letter again. Initially I was very disappointed with the show - it attempts to tell a story through dance (ballet mixed with modern) - and nobody in the cast sings or talks. The band - on a Snark-style "bridge" that moves up-down and fore-and-aft, are brilliant, and a singer sitting at the piano -Billy Joel style, provides all the vocal content. The lyrics, being the original pop song lyrics, however fantastic, can't hope accurately to indicate what is happening in this tenuous story created around the songs, and if you can't see characters singing on stage you aren't really focussing on the lyrics anyway. I was seriously unentertained, but Katie, who has never been to a musical, reminded me that the band were great and the dancing was good. The dancing actually got really brilliant in act two, and the two lead dancers were exceptional. So it was all worth while, but too many naff bits for me.

We rode home to the hotel in one of those bicycle taxi cabs with two seats, which was fun, - down 46th Street to Sixth Avenue, past Radio City and along Central Park South. The girl who "drove" us said she does about a six hour shift. Must have arse muscles like a horse.

Anyway - now to do a fast rewind to give you some of what you missed for the past 5 months, - well I've been back here to the States another couple of times in that period, - preparing the ground for Katie, and setting up the Planets release. When the PLanets album was released in April, it went to number 7 in the Classical charts here, - but that doesn't mean much in terms of sales. More importantly, they came over here for a 4 date tour (see their website for details of Philadelphia, Washington, Boston and New York). During that time we did three National TV's, - a MHZ 30 minute special, (which was brilliant, - a fantastic achievement for the band, who were superb, playing the 30 minute set straight through, with great energy and musical drive) - a piece for National Geographic channel, and a piece for CBS Sunday Morning, which I was interviewed for, too. At the time of writing, most of this TV has not gone to air yet.

Another thing we did which was worth telling you about, was a trip to Dublin with Katie to record strings on some of the tracks for her album. This happened in March. We recorded at Windmill Lane studios,and stayed at the Westbury, where David, the manager kindly updated me to the Presidential Suite, no less. My 13 -year-old daughter, on seeing the size of it (it is vast) said "Dad, this is big enough to be my first flat!" I said, "You'll be lucky if your last flat is this big". I don't know - kids today! Who'd 'ave 'em? (Me, actually!).

The orchestral players were absolutely great - both musically and personally, - Ireland is a favourite place to record, and this experience only served to emphasise that feeling.

I'm falling asleep now, so I guess I might add a final paragraph or two during the next 48 hours. So check this space in about 49 hours for a hot update.

*****************

Here's the update, written on Sunday May 18th (I know this because I had to throw some ham away yesterday because it was dated 16th May and it was already 17th May). Katie and I got back from the States yesterday after a pleasant flight. Her whirlwind (first) trip to New York was a resounding success. She saw only a few labels, but ALL but one of them wanted to sign her, and the people from that one label were fantastically enthusiastic - we just haven't received a proper offer from them yet. Yippee! We now have a week or so here - Katie has her A level music exam (baroque harmony)on Thursday, and I am going to the Ivor Novello Awards on that day, - and then we'll be on a plane back to New York to get closer to a final deal.

It's a normal weather (overcast-but-bright) day here at Batt Control. The garden is full of interesting birds this year (woodpeckers, Jays, finches, pied wagtails etc) and there are deer in the fields and an explosion of big, brown cotton-tailed rabbits in the garden. You wouldn't want to be dead even if they paid you loads of money.

Stay cool and boogie down,

Eat plenty of salad,

Lots of love,


Mike





Friday, 24th January, 2003.


Happy New Year, you guys.

My pre-Christmas trip to New York was great. The highlight was an impromptu visit to Radio City Music Hall to see the Rockettes in their Christmas show. Cheesy but brilliant. 36 beautiful high kickers (the Rockettes chorus line) - in a stunning family show,- the precision dancing was fantastic. Notably,a 70 year -old routine in which they dance as wooden soldiers - awesome - and 50 Santas dancing, with a mirror coming down behind them, to create 100 Santas! Wish you could have been there. Even hardened rockers would have had to have admitted it was superbly done. The end, - a nativity tableau - was awful, - being far too holy and pious. It should have ended with holly, not holy! Not that I don't respect religion(s) - it was a showbiz thing, - and schmaltzy religion for showbiz' sake I can't be doing with!

I also touched base with SONY in New York, with whom I am doing a publishing deal. They invited me to their Christmas party, which took place on a thunderous rainstormy night. I was lucky to buy a 10 dollar umbrella from a passing opportunistic umbrella salesman. Wonder what he sells on sunny days.

Meetings with EMI Records and William Morris Agency regarding the launch of the Planets, seemed to go very well, - and it has now been decided that EMI will release in March and bring the band out in April, and it looks like they will play showcase concerts in at least New York, Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles.

The Planets spent a week doing concerts in Hong Kong, arriving back on 23rd December, - I didn't go with them this time. Seemed to go well.

Christmas was nice and quiet at Batt Battlements. New Year, again, very quiet, but we get a free firework show where we live, because we live on a hill, and at midnight on New Year's Eve everyone across the valley seems to have a firework show, so it's always abundantly pyrotechnical round our way, of a New Year's Eve. So the kids were running through the house, excited about the fireworks, the dog was going mad, I was catching bits of Jools Holland big band show on TV and joining in the festivities. Hope this year brings less ominous things than we all fear it might.

Katie Melua came over for a few odd days here and there, to do writing and recording in preparation for her album, which we are already starting to put tracks down for. Sorry about that last sentence ending with a preposition. I don't know what I do it for. Katie and I are getting some good material together, and today we had another meeting with the major label which she is about to sign to. Doh! Done it again. In a minute I'll probably start to sneakily split infinitives without you noticing.

Must do another recipe soon. In fact I thought I might put together some recipes specifically linked to pieces of music (unlike my Dixie Chicks fish dish, in an early newsletter on this site - which was only loosely linked to the record timings). I thought I might describe some recipes that you cook AS THE ALBUM PLAYS so that you put the balsamic vinegar in during the third chorus of the fourth song, that kind of thing. Could be fun. Might make a book, - hey! With CD's included. Remind yourself NOT to nick this idea before I do it! Let's see- we could have Schubert's Ninth Symphony Chicken Curry. You chop up the onions and apples during the exposition of the first subject of the first movement, starting with the beautiful horn motif at the beginning, during which you sweat some olive oil, butter and garlic together. By the Scherzo, everything's in and it's all sizzling away, and during the coda you shimmy to the table and serve it up. Haha! Must do it. Place your orders now.

Ahem, - back to the newsletter, - sorry, don't know what came over me, it won't happen again.

So lately it's been talks about the future of The Planets, in terms of the second album, States trip, etc, and a biggish tour in Japan next November. Oh, and we were recently in Dortmund for a very good week with the Circus Roncalli's Four Seasons concert "Circus Meets Classics", where the Planets played and I sang three songs at the piano, as well as doing a short stand-up routine (really!) as the clowns cleared up their mess. The songs were "Bright Eyes", "A Winter's Tale" and "Lady Of The Dawn". Good fun. A report of this trip is available on the Planets' German web site

So that was a memorable visit to Germany, and it all seemed to go down well with the audience. We did five shows throughout the weekend of 10th-12th January, in the 2,000 seat Dortmund Concert Hall, and it was packed.