Blog: Address Checking

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In amongst all the FUN of getting ready for 'Dinosaur Planet' to be UNLEASHED on the world (and GOODNESS ME but there has been a lot of fun - the new website, for instance, is a source of IMMENSE joy!) there are some jobs that are SO boring, SO annoying that they make me sometimes think maybe be legally obliged to give all your money to a massive corporation full of GITS isn't such a bad idea, so long as some ELSE had to check the addresses for the promotional mailouts.

For LO! that is what i am doing at the moment and MAN ALIVE is it BORING. BORING! I'm currently going through my old lists and LABORIOUSLY looking people up to see if they still EXIST and/or work at the places they used to and/or have the same address. There are moments of BEAUTY in all this - it's a nice excuse to email people I haven't spoken to in a while, for instance, and there is a MELANCHOLY DELIGHT in seeing names and fanzines from a decade ago pop up as possibles - but most of it is a TOTAL DRAG.

The worst is yet to come, however, when I have to go through the teeming mounds of the interweb and not only find NEW people to send it to, but also ADDRESSES for them. For something that sounds so easy it is BRANE-DESTROYINGLY hard. For starters, I'm not a HUGE reader of music reviews (i get the excellent Word Magazine and that pretty much SATES me) so don't really know who or what is OPINION FORMING at the moment, and certainly have no idea which of the above might be even vaguely interested in an album like ours. Even when i DO find someone I think might be worth a go at POSTAL ADDRESSES appear to be treated like SECRET RECIPES - good lord! You'd think all news and review websites would have a CONTACT ADDRESS pretty prominently displayed, but it is surprisingly difficult to find out WHERE TO SEND THE THINGS THEIR WEBSITE IS BASED ON.

And Radio Producers! RADIO PRODUCERS! Everyone always says "If you're sending review copies to radio, make sure to send it to the producer" but they are as hard to track down as THE ACTUAL YETI. Again, you'd think they might be PROUD of their work and perhaps even be LISTED somewhere, but it's like a flipping 1980's SPIES and COMPUTERS movie as I try to HACK INTO their systems to find a name and address. GNNNYAAARGHH!!!

So yes, it's all a bit annoying - SO annoying that last time around I EMPLOYED a PR company, an experience that somehow managed to become THE MOST ANNOYING THING EVER as they were, not to put too fine a point on it, a towering pile of shite. I hired them to get us mentions in national magazines and they were SO APPALLINGLY TERRIBLE that not only did they utterly and completely FAIL at this, but when I took matters into my own hands and DID get us a review they were so HAPLESS they almost got it CANCELLED.

The moral of the story is, therefore, that it's a dreary job but one you're better off doing yourself, and so to OFFSET all the grinding doom of it all I'm also doing a whole OTHER mailout to people I don't really know but like/admire JUST FOR FUN. I call it KARMA OFFSETTING (and yes, yes, I AM very pleased with calling it that) and top of the list is Mr JEFF WAYNE. The idea that Jeff Wayne himself could possibly hold a copy of our album in his hands fills me with such joy that I think I might just be able to get to the end of the ELEVEN PAGE LIST OF NAMES in one piece.

Also, I must say, a good old RANT doesn't half help too - thanks for listening, and if anyone out there has any good IDEAS (or even LISTS) of people I could send it to, do please bung us a comment, it's be very much appreciated!

posted 11/10/2011 by MJ Hibbett

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