The Last Working Day Of The Month: Issue 37

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(MJ Hibbett & The Validators FACT, February 29th 2008 )

Hello all, and welcome to this LEAP YEAR addition of the newsletter. Come, let us HOP TO IT.

GIGS TO COME

This month I shall be distributing my ROCK to the following places:

Sunday March 2 - Monkey Chews, London
(Two sets at Anything Goes Sunday, starting at 6pm PROMPT, also featuring
the marvellous Jim'll's Brain)

Tuesday March 18 - The Lamb, London
(Totally Acoustic night, with The Bobby McGees)

Sunday March 23 - The Battersea Barge, London
(The PopArt alldayer - BritPopArt 2!)

Saturday April 5 - Cardigan Arms, Leeds
Sunday April 6 - Leonard's, London
(Pennfest, variously featuring The Scaramanga Six, Penny Broadhurst,
Brontosaurus Chorus, The Fighting Cocks [Leeds] , The Seven Inches
[Leeds] Friends Of The Bride [London] and more)

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


GIGS WE'VE DONE

I had a lovely time at London Loves at the start of the month then headed to Leicester last week for Steve Haggis's birthday do. It's all been a bit quiet and London-based so far this year but I'll be getting out and about a bit more come the summer!

RECORDS

Our next single, "Do The Indie Kid" is now due for release on April 7th as a download or a lovely vinyl single. It's got "The Drummer's Lament" as the b-side and some Exciting Extra Tracks and we think it's GRATE - stayed tuned for next month's newsletter for more details and an Early Bird Offer!

Recording and mixing continues APACE for the next album, with more sessions scheduled and a plan to get all the basics DONE by the end of April. We'll then have time to concentrate on various Bits and Bobs (technical terms), ready for a VERY tentative release planned for October-ish.

In the meantime, I've just finished writing and recording a whole OTHER album as part of February Album Writing Month. It's called "All Around My House" and you can hear the demo versions at http://fawm.org/writers.php?id=1393 . I enjoyed it IMMENSELY, and though it was not intended to be done as a "serious" album a couple of people have asked about getting "proper" copies of it so I'm going to offer it out as an EXTREMELY limited edition, just for this weekend and just to people on the mailing list.

If you'd like a copy go to http://www.mjhibbett.net/releases/allaroundmyhouse.htm with a fiver and you'll find the full FACTS. It'll ONLY be available this weekend mind you (the page will be changed when I get in to work on Monday morning) so get in quick! Next week I'll make as many copies as required and that'll be that - some of the songs will in all likelihood pop up elsewhere in the future, but this package will be Super Limited. Yes, even more so than usual!

OTHER THINGS

Me and Mr S Hewitt went up to Edinburgh last month to CASE OUT some venues for the Fringe version of "My Exciting Life In ROCK" (still thrusting forward at http://www.popartlondon.co.uk/digest/?cat=14) and after dutifully investigating MANY venues (which just HAPPENED to be pubs) found one we really really wanted and are now pretty much BOOKED.

We've also arranged a World Premiere of the show, on the Friday night of this year's Indie Tracks festival. We're the only band on that night, which technically means that The Validators are co-headlining the festival with The Wedding Present! Tickets to our bit were available to the first 100 people to book tickets for the whole weekend, which I'm afraid have all gone now - I suppose that means I'd better get on and work out what on earth the show's going to BE, hadn't I?

In other news, as part of FAWM I wrote a song about seeing Alan Moore in my local comic shop, and the video I made (at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5gu-uhudZS4) has been zipping all OVER the interweb. It was featured in Rich Johnston's "Lying In The Gutters" column, got onto Neil Gaiman's journal (SWISH!) and is apparently being looked at by The Great Man Himself any time now. Status: AFEARED!

Also, that nice Mr Steve Lamacq played "The Lesson Of The Smiths" last week on his 6Music show and, seemingly as a result of carefully spelling out the web address, I sold two copies of the single! HOORAH!

And finally, I've made proper use of http://www.totallyacoustic.com, which now features full details of our semi-irregular Totally Acoustic nights. Go see!

And I think that's about it for now - thanks for listening, and see you next time!

Cheers,

Mark

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