A Yawn In Your E-Mail - February 2002

First up a Happy 'newish' year to everyone. Last time I wrote about the fan club itself. At the moment I have been concentrating what bit of free time I get to the box set (more on that later)so we have not done a magazine for sometime. I have a feeling we may also have mislaid some post to help the confusion. We intend to start doing some kind of a newsletter again soon so please forgive us if you are still waiting. This however is a good medium to talk thanks to the hard work of young (ish) Nigel Stanworth.

Just before Christmas I made it out to Germany to join up with the band for a couple of shows. I flew out to Leipzig via Frankfurt followed by one of the famous local taxis that go very very fast which took me to a funny little hotel out in the country next door to a flock of Geese whose days I suspect were numbered. The hotel was also the venue and whilst the Band were good (they always are) it was by no means the best gig I have done. Anyway it was nice to see everybody. Mick ,Steve, Noel ,Pat. John and even Simon (lighting) who I've not seen for sometime. I also bumped into plenty of fan club people. Sleep was not in great supply. At about four in the morning with far too much drunk young (well younger than Nigel) Ian Tompson tells me the crew are going early and its my job to make sure the band get to the next venue and then adds that as its a Sunday if I loose anybody the gigs stuffed. Come to Germany to relax he had said a few days before. Noel did his best to get lost. Having got him onto the right train just as it was pulling out of Frankfurt Main he got off again!

As a bit of a train spotter at heart these new German ICE things are serious trains. Anyway I didn't loose anyone. Manfred and I killed the time between trains on Frankfurt Station drinking mulled wine in a mini Christmas Fare whilst discussing just how much the way we celebrate Christmas is down to just one guy. That being Charles Dickens.

We also did talk about the next album. This is all positive stuff. Manfred has taken some of the recording back a couple of stages because it had lost a bit of the excitement. He however seemed very happy with the way it was developing. Hopefully you may get to hear a little preview on the box set later on this year. The second gig was for me much better others disagreed which just goes to show that its all down to personal choice. I probably thought it was a good night cause the soloing was so hot. Manfred's solo on 'Martha' was inspired a classic with a long slow build up to a powerful climax almost surpassed by the moog/guitar battle on Father. Even the Moog solo on 'Dancing in the Sun' which speaking of taste is not my favourite part of the show was great.

Pete May I met for the first time. He has been playing drums for Cliff. After a few drinks I prepared to jot down just a few of the lesser scandals surrounding the Peter Pan of pop. Trouble is not only is Pete the true professional, but I don't think there are any scandals. With Cliff what you see is what you get. An all round jolly nice guy. Despite having worked for an all round jolly nice guy, Pete is settling into MMEB remarkably well (only joking)

As for the box set I cannot say too much yet. If it hits the shops as it is >now I think (and hope) you will be very very pleased with it. Fingers crossed. Tell you more soon.

Best wishes

Carol and Andy Taylor

Nigel's Note:

You may notice one or two changes on the site – partly due to the fact that the 'blessed' thing corrupted and my back up didn't work, and partly down to a desire to try and tidy a few things up! The buttons have largely been replaced with text links – this should speed up page downloads a bit. Also about half of the images have been optimised – for the same reason, the rest will get done when I have the time.

The good news is that Mick Rogers has agreed to liase with us on behalf of the band to get some up to date information on the site – a biography of Pete May is coming, bear with us (I'll post it as soon as it's available). Also thanks to Jens, Reinhard, Terry and Graeme for their items – if anyone else has anything they'd like to contribute, I'm always grateful.

And finally thanks to Nick for the rotating EarthBand logo – I've been thinking about this for at least two years. Nick actually sits next to me at work and I set him this as a training exercise on a quiet Tuesday afternoon a couple of week's ago, time well spent I'm sure you'll agree!

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