Blog: Minutes Of The Meeting

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Saturday found me in distant DERBY for a VERY important band meeting with The Validators a.k.a. CURRY NIGHT!

For LO! The album is pretty much finished and thus tradition demanded that the five of us get together to a) toast its completion b) discuss what we're doing next c) tit around d) eat curry. We managed to do ALL these things very successfully.

After checking into the swanky new Premier Inn I went to meet The Family Machine in The Silk Mill, a very pleasant pub nearby, before Mrs Machine dropped myself and Frankie off at The Rowditch, traditional site for the FIRST half of these meetings. We happily trotted to the door only to find it SHUT. PANIC! Then, realisation that it was 6:58pm so probably just not open yet. PHEW! We skipped across the road to the offie to purchase our beers for later (our next destination was BYOB) and faced the traditional dilemma of How Many Beers To Buy. "Two each will probably be enough", we agreed... and then bought a four pack each. Well, you wouldn't want to run out, would you?

We emerged to see Mr T 'The Tiger' McClure and The Pattisons heading into a now opened Rowditch, which worked out RATHER nicely as it meant that Emma was getting the drinks in when we got to the bar! There then followed HUGS and LARKS and CHAT and also, squeezed in between, a Proper Meeting. Here is what we discussed:

• Gigs And Festivals - We agreed on accommodation for Festival 8 (some in tents, some in a van, SENSIBLE people booking a hotel), decided to try for a launch gig in London and another in Leicester, and that ALL Validators would be making the trip to appear at HIBBETTFEST this year. We also agreed to officially GIVE UP on ever hearing from Another Festival, allowing everyone to get on with booking holidays/trips to weddings/tickets to go anyway!
  
  
• Merchandise - We settled on a design for BADGES and made some changes to a T-SHIRT. They look NICE!
  
  
• Promotional Activity - I presented my PRESS PLAN, a lengthy document of who and when I'll be contacting, and we discussed the modern need for VIDEOS and TRACKS and basically anything we can give to BLOGS. Several good ideas were suggested and we agreed to THINK ON for the future. So modern!
  
  
• Signing Off - everyone was now happy with the actual ALBUM and so that was unanimously signed off. The artwork, however, still had a little bit of work to do - there's a collage on the inside cover, and there were still a few people to check with to make sure they didn't mind appearing in it. Once THAT'S done (hopefully later this week) I can send it all off to be MADE!
  
  

That done we closed the meeting and adjourned to Balti International, traditional site for the SECOND hald of these meetings (we even got Our Usual Table!) for more LARKS and also delicious curry. I have no idea what we talked about, but I know it was a LOT of fun. Also, two cans each would have been enough.

We left full DELIGHT, also CURRY, ready to face whatever came next as a TEAM. Throughout the evening we'd been taking SELFIES (to maybe use for Promotional Purposes... also for FUN) and this one provides documentary evidence of quite how much fun we'd had:

We said our farewells and Frankie and I staggered down the road to a micropub where two blokes who had clearly never heard 'Streets Of London' were singing 'Streets Of London' so that the whole pub (NB it was tiny, so this mean about 15 people) had to sing the choruses AT them to make them do it right. It was a lovely end to a lovely evening - let the ROCK commence!

posted 18/4/2016 by MJ Hibbett

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