4th November, 2008

Dear Blogees,

Can’t remember where my last one left off, but recent news is that Katie continues to get great reactions to her shows - I caught them in Gothenberg, Paris and Nottingham most recently. The band is sounding better than ever, and even a sore throat (which led to a regrettable re-scheduling of the Nantes concert) hasn’t prevented Katie from gradually regaining the strength of voice that is necessary for a gruelling 90 -100 minute show. In a way, it helped, because she tried the band playing slightly less loudly to let the voice through (although the front of house engineer still winds up the main volume for the audience) but the extra bit of “space” for her voice has given rise to some beautiful singing in the more extreme high and low registers of her voice, where you can really appreciate the level of control and some of the more subtle melodic elements of what she does.

A friend who “notices things” (Robert from Germany) suggested I ought to explain why some of the “exclusive” download tracks are only available if you buy the whole album, and that means if you want the two “exclusive” tracks you have to download the album 2 times.

Robert wrote:

Now a question regarding bonus tracks on download portals.
People here in Germany keep asking me whether the bonus downloads "Kozmic Blues" and "How sweet it is to be loved by you" will be available for separate downloads in the future. I can understand their issue that they don't really want to buy the same album three times just to be able to collect all Katie's stuff. Can you clarify that - perhaps in your next newsletter?

All I can say is, it’s because these download sites all seem to want you to buy the album from them, not the other sites, so they all want an exclusive” track (as distinct from the 3 bonus tracks available to all on download and physical CD). It’s unfortunate– not intended to make you buy the album 2 times. We were just reacting to the download sites. I’ll look into what can be done, if anything. I’ll talk it over with others here at Dramatico and try to work out how we can make these tracks more fairly available to all, somehow.

Robert also wrote:

Also, it would be nice to read an official statement why so many of Katie's releases are "download only". Some fans would prefer physical CDs

Obviously he’s talking about singles. 90% of the singles market, certainly in the UK, is downloads. Only HMV and a few indie shops stock physical singles any more - although many big shops took the X factor charity single recently. Sometimes, on special occasions like a first single from an album, or last Christmas when we put out the charity single through Tesco (in the Uk) we pressed up physical singles - and also it’s nice, as a collector’s item, to do vinyl singles (which we did on “Candle In A Chatroom” by Andrea - who, by the way, has been having a great time supporting Katie, and getting fantastic reactions). But the days of the physical single are over – at least for now – unless the market changes. Thankfully, most of the album market is CD’s - and so we continue to press physical CD’s of albums. Singles just cost money to press and most retailers won’t take them. It’s a great pity.

Anyway, moving on. Had a great recording session with Florence Rawlings recently, and cut some gutsy soul tracks that will blow you away! Can’t wait to add brass section, and cut some more tracks. It’s a mixture of obscure but phenomenal early soul material and new songs. As I said before, Florence isn’t a writer - which I find refreshing – and doesn’t feel pressure to be one because you are “supposed to”. Singing is what she does and boy can she DO it!

Good to see Lewis Hamilton win the drivers’ championship. Katie and I wrote a song last year about him, and recorded it (it doesn’t mention him by name but it’s about a petrol-head kid who’s faster than everybody). We didn’t release it because we thought it was a bit naff to put out a “topical” single like that. So there we are - if I’ve teased you with it – I’m sorry, but it will never see the light of day! It was a stonking track with a fantastic vocal, but lyrically too risky, and too obviously about him (mostly my fault). It was called “King Of The Track” . Anyway, high five to Lewis H, and commiserations to our Brazilian friends and to Massa, who rightly said of his country and his team, “We need to be proud”. What a race!

Went to Brighton for a nice non-working weekend, this last weekend. It rained all over us on the Saturday but the sun came out on Sunday, Both days were fun, but the sun makes such a difference! Discovered a couple of great fish restaurants - Gordon Ramsey’s Riddle and Finn’s (in Brighton, although they also have one in Hove), where the seafood is great and the atmosphere casual. The second good place we found, for lunch on Sunday, was “English’s” in central Brighton, where the Maitre D’ was a bit aloof, as we were carrying shopping bags and had a toddler with us, but once seated, the food was good and the waiters were cheerful and helpful. Those who know my newsletters of old will know that I sometimes used to put recipes and all sorts of stuff into them - but this time, two restaurant recommendations will have to suffice!

A new US president will be on the “throne” next time I write. Wonder who it will be? Still time for McCain, apparently, but I’m for Obama.

Got another meeting on behalf of the BPI tomorrow with Ofcomm and the ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) to try to work out a code for significantly reducing illegal file sharing of music and films on the web.

I think this has become quite a long blog, so thanks for being blogged at, and I’ll sign off.

Until next time – take care and as the song goes - don’t worry - be happy!

Love,

Mike



24th September, 2008

Dear All,

One slightly overdue newsletter coming right up.

There's too much going on to tell you all of it. Dramatico is like a scene from "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" as we all strain to deliver to several artists what we always only had to deliver to Katie. We've got remixes going on, video edits, promo copies going out to 16 countries, rehearals for at least 3 acts, merchandise and tour management happening for four acts. Katie herself is happily on tour, in South Africa, surrounded by her mates (her band) and the messages coming back are that they are all happy as you'd want to be. Her new, forthcoming single "Two Bare Feet", a co-write between her and me, written the night before the session, and for which we shot a stunning video just before she left - is out soon and she has already worked it into her live set. I think it's one of her best tracks to date. Unexpectedly up-tempo, with a jazzy twist and a dancey brightness.
Hope you like it.

Andrea McEwan has been doing showcases after a period of rehearsal with her new band - Rachel on guitars, Oroh on bass and Rocco on drums. They really are great. We didn't make it to the radio 2 playlist this week which is a bit disappointing, taking into account that we are talking about a majorly talented singer-songwriter here - but we see this as a gradual upward curve, and I know you who go to see the Katie arena tour - or already have
- will continue to love and support Adrea. We all went down to see her at the 12 bar club in Denmark Street yesterday, which was funny because it only holds about 30 people and as we hadn't advertised it there were about 20 people (including us) there, but how different from seeing her in front of 12,000 people in Amsterdam! At the 12 bar she said "It's a bit of a grotty dressing room, isn't it?" and I said "This isn't the dressing room, darling, this is the AUDITORIUM!"

Actually I made the last bit up - she never complains, but those who have been to the 12 bar will get the joke.

I myself have had to cancel my forthcoming tour of Germany and the couple of dates in England. I'm sorry - if you bought tickets (and I'm not if you didn't) - but life has just come crashing in on me lately and I can't do all the things I set out to do. Also my voice has been giving me trouble lately.

The "crackle" I talk about so happily on my doco-footage film on Dramatico.tv has become a bit of a liability - I don't know if I'm losing my voice permanently or whether its grittiness is just something I'm going to have to get used to as I grow older. Either way, it's time to step back and take a long look at whether I really have time LEFT to become a regular performing artist. I do love it, but I am torn between it and my responsibilities to our artists and the other projects in the works.

We've had Carla Bruni in town last week, reducing Jools Holland to a pile of adoring jelly. I love the way Carla can do that to men. It really makes me punch the air. I wish I had the same power over women that she has over men.

Bloody hell, what a liability it would be, though! She's not on my label by virtue of me being a pile of jelly - I happen to think she's a good singer songwriter. I've survived several dinners and lunches with her without falling under her dastardly female spell; she is a charming and civilised person with very frank and honest presentation of herself and her views of others. Anyway I have my own dastardly female wife whose spell I am already under. We songwriters always need to be in love, heading towards it or just out of it. My wife once threatened to leave me to inspire me to write hits! Who does she think she is! (It's a bastard when they know!).

We are on the verge of printing a run of 100 books of my novel "ERGO: The Chronicles Of Don't Be So Ridiculous Valley" - mainly as market research loan-out copies although guess what my friends will be getting for Christmas. Maybe one day they'll be hugely valuable (the books, not my friends) - or on the other hand...

John Gosler, our art director for the eventual movie of ERGO has done some phenomenal artwork for the book, which I am packaging as a highly illustrated paperback - rather an unusual beast in the book world. I want it to be seen in a "Mythology" light, but appealing to kids and adults, richly illustrated. We intend either to publish it through Dramatico or work with a proper publisher to get it out properly, probably next year. "Next year" is a great get-out for the answer to when you are going to do something. It's like starting your diet "tomorrow". Anyway, watch this space. Which reminds me (since its a cliché) that we have been talking in cliches this week to see how far we can get. Sentences like "Basically, at the end of the day I wanted to be over the moon but I'm as sick as a parrot, not to put too fine a point on it" have permeated our conversation. I think we do it to take the pressure off when we are really under the whip.

Found out tonight that our delightful Asa has been nominated for "Best African Act" in the MOBO awards. Yay! Congratulations, Asa. Well deserved. I still think "Fire On The Mountain" is a massive hit. Who knows, maybe one day it will be.

So much more to tell you, so little time to say it - so I guess the hope is that I get to add it to next month's - or even a surprise one next week (like, yeah).

Stay cool, boogie down, stretch out, touch your toes, swing low -

love and grooviness.

Mike

18th August, 2008

Back in New York this week,  - in fact leaving for the UK in a few hours. Took in two days in Boston during the week, too. We are giving our US company a bit of a spruce-up, and looking at how we can get better at doing what we do in this big country. I' m here with Andrew, our MD at Dramatico. It' s been a weird week, with all that' s been happening in Georgia. Katie has been going through all sorts of hell trying to get information about her relatives. Her own blog on the subject can be found here. That, and the Olympics all mixed up together. What a mad world. She' s had every newspaper and TV station chasing her for comments but she thought it would be better to say almost nothing to them at this stage, and just post a blog about her feelings. It' s not the sort of thing that comes under the heading of 'PR opportunity' when your country is being ravaged by war.

We' ve had some spectacular thunderstorms in New York – which we can see as changing dramas enacted in front of us as we look out across Central Park - red lightning cracking down onto big tall buildings through dark grey skies. Today' s actually a really nice day for a change.

The UK office sent me a DVD of my TV special (shot in Germany at an outdoor concert with the Stuttgart Philharmonic) for approval so that it can be manufactured as part of a deluxe edition of  'A Songwriter' s Tale'. It goes out on German TV on 28th August. Viewing it made me even more aware that I have to lose some weight! (Or gain some height). I' ve found a really good band to tour with - and Florence Rawlings has been coming along to do backing vocals and takes a solo on a couple of songs. The other band members are Michael Kruk (Kruky) – formerly of The Planets, Chris Hill on bass and Louis Riccardi on guitars. They all sing too, so we can get quite a good harmony block going. Florence keeps everybody amused – she' s so energetic, we call her the 'energy ball' – ought to be sponsored by Red Bull. Apart from the German dates we' ve listed on this site we are also doing a night or two at the Bloomsbury theatre in London on 27th October and possibly 28th with Chris Spedding as a special guest.

Andrea McEwan had to jump on a plane to go to Australia to get a new work permit – which is a slight drag, but nothing we can' t handle. Her single 'Candle In A Chatroom' is out soon. We seem to have a lot of stuff coming out in the next few months -it' s going to be an exciting time. The album is sounding great – she' s such a good writer (and singer).

Katie has 'The Katie Melua Collection', out in October, which will also have a DVD of her concert at the Ahoy arena in Holland. It' s hard to write a blog sometimes without it seeming like an advert – but I' m only trying to give you an idea of what' s going on!

We have been working on the development of 'Ergo and Little Else' (Tales from Don' t Be So Ridiculous Valley) my animated movie about slugs – and we have some spectacular artwork done, both for backgrounds and layouts, as well as character designs. It will probably come out as a book first. At the moment we have a team of three people, an art director, a character designer and a line producer – and we are getting nearer and nearer to having it ready to escalate to a 'production' stage. I am working on the screenplay – whenever I can find some time!

Next week we are recording some extra tracks for Katie's 'Collection' album, so I' m busy at the moment thinking what to record from the various songs we have, and booking the rhythm section to come over. One of the songs we' re recording is Kosmic Blues –  the old Janis Joplin song, which Katie found, and does as an encore on stage. She does a fantastic version of it.

So that' s it for now. I have to pack and get to JFK in time not to miss the overnight flight to Heathrow.

Love,

Mike

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 acertain 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 seriousrisks 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.