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        Pete Atkin >> Newsletter >> The Pete Atkin Newsletter Archive updated!
        
(Message started by: S J Birkill on Today at 20:11)

Title: The Pete Atkin Newsletter Archive updated!
Post by S J Birkill on Today at 20:11

To some of you, this post may appear as the blatant action of one desperate to reawaken interest in this, his baby, the Atkin forum, at a time when members' indifference would be tangible, if you could touch a negative. But no, please, keep your own counsel, all of you -- it matters not. If you have nothing left to say about how the songs of Pete Atkin and Clive James have illuminated and informed the past 45 years for you, then better remain silent.

Yet, out there, something continues to stir. Every week or so, the peteatkin.com server advises me of a new name it has added to the circulation list of Pete's own e-mail newsletter. Now this isn't anything like the original Midnight Voices list, where you could expect one or five messages to rattle into your Inbox most days, with all manner of people, including Pete, discussing topics clear or obscure about the songs or the shows. No, this is exactly what it says in the header: a newsletter. Pete generates it himself, whenever he has news items sufficient in number or importance to disseminate. So its frequency is not prescribed. It may appear once per month, and then not again for another year, to the consternation no doubt of recent subscribers. And it's a one-way channel: misguided replies to the newsletter address disappear into cyber-oblivion, as is made clear in the footer to every message. The appropriate discussion forum is right here!

I note that not every MV member is a newsletter subscriber, and only a small fraction of those on the subscription list are also MVs. I'll not speculate on the reasons; there's also a Facebook group, and here again there's only partial membership overlap between that and MV, or the newsletter list. But note that all three networks may be joined by means of a few clicks of the mouse and the absolute minimum of keystrokes; see our Smash Flops (http://www.peteatkin.com/pa.htm) front page at www.peteatkin.com/pa.htm (http://www.peteatkin.com/pa.htm) for MV and the newsletter, and Rob Spence's Facebook group The Pete Atkin and Clive James Appreciation Society (https://www.facebook.com/groups/121229350012/) if you wish to follow the posts there.

However, because I aim for completeness in curating Pete's online presence, I maintain an archive of his newsletter posts as part of this forum: MV members may read the latest (after a few days' delay) and all past newsletters since the service began in January 2005. I've just added the latest newsletter, dated August 28th, to the archive. In it, Pete updates us on progress with his forthcoming CD album, and the gigs (still only two) lined up for his autumn tour of the UK and Scotland. The archive can be found by clicking the "Archive" menu option at the top or bottom of any MV page, and then selecting 'newsletter.php' at the foot of the members' archive page presented. Members must be logged in to see the "Archive" option. Here is the direct link (http://www.peteatkin.com/mv/newsletter.php).

If you're reading this (of which I can be fairly certain), and not yet a member of Midnight Voices, or The Pete Atkin and Clive James Appreciation Society, or a subscriber to the newsletter, I urge you to sign up to all three using the links above, and consider posting your own contributions. The revival shows signs of faltering, and Pete for one (and Clive also) will be very glad of any publicity boost. And I shan't mind at all.

Stephen J Birkill

Webmaster, 'Smash Flops'
Administrator, 'Midnight Voices'

Title: Pete Atkin's latest newsletter
Post by S J Birkill on 13.06.15 at 18:29

Quote:

From: Pete Atkin News <unmonitored address>;
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2015 03:56:00 -0700
Subject: PETE ATKIN NEWSLETTER MV1502

PETE ATKIN NEWSLETTER - MV1502 - 13th June 2015

THE COLOURS OF THE NIGHT (Hillside CDHILL09)

Yes, it exists, and, yes, it is orderable, and, yes, some people already
have their copy. You could be one of them!

Official release date is July 6th, and I'm a bit wary of treading on the
toes of the distributors and of retailers like Amazon, HMV, and the rest,
so I'm trying not to be too blatant about making it available early
whilst still wanting to give all of you most loyal fans and followers a
bit of a jump.

The thing is, there are a couple of patches in the next couple of weeks
where I'm not going to be able to oversee the usual smooth Hillside
mailout operation, so I've put a note on the Hillside Shop saying that
advance orders will be dispatched on June 29th. BUT if you place your
order in the next 48 hours (i.e. by close of business on Monday June 15th)
there's a better than even chance that I'll be able to ship your copy
before the end of next week. Otherwise it will indeed be June 29th -
still a week ahead of the official date, of course.

I'm relieved to be able to say that the reaction to the album so far seems
to have been pretty good, but that may be because the people who hate it are
keeping politely quiet about it. I know you to be a polite and diffident lot.
But I hope that you'll all feel able to post about it and discuss it
uninhibitedly. (It would of course be most helpful if anyone who likes it
could say as much on Amazon. These things really do help.)

Dave my PR guy says that several of the main music monthlies have already
confirmed that they will be reviewing it (we have no idea what they'll say
about it, of course), so keep an eye out. I hope there may well be a bit of
coverage which we don't know about in advance. We'll see.

I was talking to Clive last week and he revealed the origin of "the colours
of the night". In the early days of the Midnight Voices there were a lot of
exchanges about the references in Clive's lyrics, many of which were
distilled into the annotations now on the lyrics pages of www.peteatkin.com (http://www.peteatkin.com).
So here's a chance to revive that noddle-scratching process. I'll say by way
of a hint only that there are clues in the rest of that particular stanza of
the song as to what the nature of the colours might be (the Crimson Lake,
the China White).

It's my plan to start a Pete Atkin page on Youtube and to feed in some live
videos I've done with that nice Mr Wallace and some other occasional stuff,
so keep checking for that, and do please subscribe once it's there.

Meanwhile, do keep a regular eye on the MV Forum (http://www.peteatkin.com/cgi-bin/mv/YaBB.cgi), and join the Clive James
and Pete Atkin Appreciation Society page on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/121229350012/) - it's where a lot of
stuff happens these days.

Onward!

All jolly best

Pete

Sign up for future email newsletters from Pete here (http://www.peteatkin.com/pa.htm#newsletter).
And read the newsletter archive (http://www.peteatkin.com/mv/newsletter.php) (MV log-in required).

S J Birkill, Administrator, Midnight Voices; Webmaster, Smash Flops