The Last Working Day Of The Month: Issue 34

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(MJ Hibbett & The Validators FACT, November 30th 2007 )

Hello all, and welcome to this EVE OF ADVENT edition of our monthly newsletter, let's RING THOSE BELLS!

GIGS TO COME

This month I shall be bringing festive cheer to the following places:

Friday November 30 - Island Bar, Birmingham
(With Winston Echo and The Icicles)

Sunday December 2 - The Red House, Sheffield
(With Pete Green and The 10p Mixes)

Friday December 7 - Bodrum Café, London
(Bucket Of Fun Cabaret night, rescheduled from last month)

Friday December 14 - The Glebe, Stoke
(Sunny Inside Christmas Party, with Horowitz)

Check http://www.mjhibbett.net/gigs/gigs.htm for further details.


GIGS WE'VE DONE

It's been the ROCKINGEST month... EVER! I had an absolutely brilliant time at Fuzztival, doing TWO sets and even got reviewed for the first time EVER in the NME! A few days later it was off on TOUR with the marvellous Mr Pete Green and Merchandise Boss Mr Warren Pilkington, drinking BEER and ROCKING in Glasgow, Manchester and Bristol with The Just Joans, The 10p Mixes, and the chaps from The Lauras, all of whom were EXCELLENT. It was FAB! I also did a radio session for Bristol Uncovered, which you can Listen Again to at http://www.bbc.co.uk/bristol/content/articles/2007/04/27/localmusic_feature.shtml . A few days later I did a Totally Acoustic Gig with the LOVELY Mr Pete Weiss (from AMERICA!), and then had a few weeks off, before a DUST SHAKING spot in Brixton last night, ready for the forthcoming WEEKEND DU ROCK.


RECORDS

"A Million Ukeleles" is SOLD OUT! Thanks very much to everyone who LEAPT IN to buy one of the handmade copies, it's nice to know they've gone to good homes, and if you didn't manage to get one you can always download it from iTunes. We got quite a bit of radio play on Radio 1, XFM, XFM Scotland, BBC Bristol, BBC Lancashire, BBC Liverpool and British Forces Broadcasting, and we've had INTERWEB support from Kooba, the Contrast and Dandelion, where Rocker's making it his album of the month for December. I was actually quite surprised to see it do so well, to be honest, but also rather PLEASED! Also, much thanks to all those who got t-shirts - there's still a few left, but get in quick as I'll probably not be re-ordering them.

Into THE FUTURE, there was another album session at the start of the month, when we recorded basic tracks for "Being Happy Doesn't Make Your Stupid", "That's Where All The Good Men Go", "The Drummer's Lament", "One Of The Walls Of My House Fell In" and the EPIC "Leicester's Trying To Tell Me Something" (one second short of seven minutes!) for the next album, as well as starting work on our cover version of "Songs About You" for a PopArt compilation which'll be out soon - we finished it off later in the month with HOME RECORDINGS, and it sounds GRATE!


OTHER THINGS

It's a PRICE SLASHING BONANZA over on our online shop (http://www.mjhibbett.net/buy/) this month, with T-shirts and the "WE VALIDATE!" album reduced to 8 quid and EVERYTHING else (including all other available albums) down to just 4 quid. On top of THAT, buy any item and we'll send you a free copy of "Better Things To Do", but any TWO and we'll send you "The Uberset" as well! As ever, postage and packaging is free wherever in the world you live and HEY! it's a win win situation - you get BARGAINS, I get more storage space, so let's SPEND FOR CHRISTMAS!

Meanwhile I'm still beavering away on the "My Exciting Life In ROCK" articles for the PopArt Digest (http://popartlondon.co.uk/digest/). We've just got into 1999, with forthcoming THRILLS including the Bowlie Weekender and my DEFIANCE OF THE VERY LIGHTNING at Abbey Park Festival - I'm having a LOVELY time writing these, so do pop and have a look if you get the chance!

And finally, if, like me, you're a bit upset about the systematic DEMOLITION of every pub you've ever loved in Leicester, do please sign the Save The Pump And Tap petition at http://www.leicestercivicsociety.org.uk/campaign.asp?item=14 - otherwise Leicester, much like The Monolith, will be FULL OF BARS.

Right then, that's that for this month, see you in a few weeks for our GRAND CHRISTMAS ISSUE!

Cheers,

Mark

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