Arrived home from work this afternoon to find two 'newborn' size car seats, a bouncing chair and three bags of baby clothes outside the frontdoor!
brilliant - people are so kind and already I feel we'll get loads of similar donations oand offers of help when she arrives. Inspiring.
Trx picked me up about 4.30 so I could bring a printer home, and also to collect Alice and Flo who'd been in the office helping put together room folders all afternoon. We have 3,000 to make up next week so its all hands to the pump. the last pages for the inserts arrived on three pallets this morning and look absolutely fantastic. I am leaving the assembly to Jo and damian because I know he can be impossible to work with in this environment. She has sorted everything out over the last two weeks and has a system in place, but he has to do it all differently, try to move things around and just prove too many points.
I think we need to just let her run the thing and it will be fine.
Heaven forbid that he should accept that she might know what she is doing...

So I am manning the office, finishing of pageone and getting on with mapping Farnham and Botley.
That is, when I'm not on the phone doing the Foxx thing. Three calls from RH over the last two days - twice this afternoon - reporting on how well the tour is going and just generally catching up. I am being sent a list of questions for AL to put to Billy Currie when he interviews him for beatmag next week. For whatever reason, EV can't get an interview out of Billy for the Anthology project, and it was he who shat on the Island re-masters. Relations are tense there (he can be a difficult so-and-so) but I think Rob has a good idea. While AL is talking to Billy , he might try and get something out of him regarding Ultravox especially now that the re-issues are in circulation.
This is all for Monday night in Brighton, so I hope it does come off. Should do. The twinges are slowing down...
It's extremely annoying to see signed copies of the new albums on sale in eBay already. At the gigs, some w*nkers have been buying twenty or more copies in one go for the RRP of £12 and then selling them on eBay for upwards of £30!! There are so few of them also that fans are unable to get signed copies at the gigs. Problem is exaggerated when the Foxx management won't address the issue because as far as they are concerned they are getting the money they wanted for the CDs. And eBay won't do anything about it because the get a cut.
It's all twisted. We need to limit things like this to ONE copy of each per person on the night,a nd then any remaining albums are sold thru official channels after the tour - online so that fans abroad can get them etc.

Downloaded the most exquisite preview of Oceanic this week from KBs website, and duly copied the necessary people in.
Its also disappointing that, despite remanders a few weeks ago and constant talk of of it, no-one has yet sent me a set list for any of the gigs. I spoke to PY and asked for one from Sheffield and he 'didn't take any notes' commenting instead that I'm sure they will be posted on EV soon. He's a bit slow that one - one of the UKs biggest and most loyal fans with a huge collection of stuff, but it seems (and I've noticed this now more than once) he isn't too willing to make his own contributions. Always first to email when there's been an interview or whatever,a sking for copies, but when he's on the spot to make an effort it doesn't happen.
True of far too many people, so again I can understand the frustration.

John is on Radio 4 on Tuesday, talking to Jarvis Cocker on his three part look at art-school pop which is absolutely fascinating. I'm all set to record this bit of course, but I can guarantee no-one else will, so for now I won't announce that its going to happen. Shouldn't be selfish about it I suppose, but I would like to see more people making contributions and we could really have a valuable resource going.
Nottingham tonight, and I don't know of anyone going. General criticism is that the venues are too smaill, too hot and too loud, but in most cases its going down a storm.

I'm supposed to be going out tonight, but as usual with this local beers night I believe it when I see it. Matt called off last week because he and PM are going out this week, to which I have invited myself along. But turns out they haven't arranged it after all. Its a drink in the pub for goodness sake, I hate it when it becomes a Big Deal.