June 20, 2000 - Issue #5

Tons of e-mail and the hits aren't letting up. I noticed one e-mail which struck a chord. If you meet somebody (like me!) after a gig, what do you say - do - ? Now I understand this because I sometimes go to other people's gigs and I meet them after and I never know what to do either. I guess the best bet is to keep it short and sweet. Remember, the guy is probably mentally reliving the set he's just done in his head (I do that) and wondering why he blew the lyric to the third song! Try not to monopolize his time. He's got other people to meet as well and he may have family and/or friends to look after on top of that. Fatigue is another consideration. Try to make it as easy as possible. And if you're drunk please don't bother - you'll go on and on and then regret it in the morning. Basically, say what you've got to say, get your stuff signed and that's it. If you miss out, please don't take it personally. Back stage is always chaos; sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

These phantom gigs keep cropping up. Now I'm supposed to be doing a solo gig in Pittsburgh! I see there's more e-mail about the Pine Knob fiasco. There's not much more I can do. We've called the gig and told them and finally traced the agent. I'm really sorry to those of you who bought tickets, but I honestly can say we knew nothing about it.

My exclusive agent for North America is Marsha Vlasic, of MVO Ltd. (email address: [email protected]) and she is going crazy trying to sort out this mess. People were saying they represented me and I had not even heard of them. Someone had a complete tour booked for September and I didn't know a thing about it! Promoters get confused and this is not a good thing. Thankfully, Marsha is sorting out the mess right now. Don't believe I'm playing anywhere until I give you the dates here on this site. We would like to do a tour and Marsha is working on it.

I'm moving into New York City in July to get more involved with the songs for the new album It's easier for Andy if I'm in the area. Right now I'm taking a few days off because my old mate, Barry, and his wife Maureen, are in from Northampton and we're showing them the good old USA. This Sam Adams pale ale is something rather special in my life. I don't know why I've just discovered it. The pile of bottles in the recycling bin is growing at an alarming rate. Jess is trying to blag a P.R.S. off me cheap, but I'm not giving in (as of yet). We all saw Bruce and the E-Streeters at the Garden - Great! (Thanks, Liz) After all these years, finally took the three hour Circle Line Cruise around Manhattan Island which I thought would be boring, but wasn't. Barry makes movies in his spare time, so he missed it all because he was busy filming everything.

Once again, I can't respond to individual e-mail - it would take too long, but be assured it is read and I really do appreciate your support. Some of you want to buy stuff, but at the moment we're too busy to get into that. We will look into it for the future.

I have been aware that it has been difficult for some of you to find me over the years, but quite frankly, the complete manager is almost impossible to come by. They all want a large piece of the publishing and a percentage of the gross and I ain't giving it to them! They make you do stupid things like "breakfast with the egg man" (this does wonders for the old career) and flap about with things that don't matter to me. I'm unmanageable! So this site has to do. We've cut the middleman out!

Having said I can't answer individual e-mail of course I now have to react to an individual e-mail. Tom Semioli - thanks for some sense. Felt like I was reading Lester Bangs again! Good stuff!

No, "Ill Wind" is not "Ill Wind Blowing" (an old Mott track which I forgot about). "Ill Wind" was written in New York in the late eighties. I think it was floating around and landed in the wrong head, but I was glad to be its surrogate Mom.

Hello Fredrik and family in Gothenburg!! I'll let you know when I'm popping over.

Later,

IH