'The Treasure Of Sarah Madre' was corrupted, it wouldn't play at all. Luckily it was the only song for which we had a semi-identical mix we could use, but what if the others were like that???
Thankfully they weren't, and we began to work on the songs. At 12 the main guy arrived and took over, and we finally finished at 7.30pm. I popped our completed master in the post to our manufacturers in Germany, and hoped that our problems were over, but I couldn't have been more wrong.Having sent for our licence from the MCPS in plenty of time, I was horrified when, shortly after the mastering was completed, a letter dropped onto my mat informing me that the licence was denied as on Saul's 'All's Well that's Never Begun' the copyright holders of 'Oh Mr Porter' couldn't be contacted to give consent to a sample being used. After a flurry of telephone calls among the Shorties, we decided to go ahead and take the consequences, hoping we were too small a concern for anyone to bother sueing. Then days later the German company contacted us...the mastered CD was corrupted and they needed another one immediately to have any chance of making our deadline.
Panther Studios had kept our finished master on their hard disk, and after some frantic phonecalls, had another cd pressed by 4.55, to meet a courier who was picking it up at 5pm, to get to Germany the next day. That should have been that, but when the cds hadn't arrived by the 5th of August I rang our manufacturers, who said that though the cds were ready, they couldn't be dispatched as the MCPS hadn't given clearance. I rang the MCPS who said, when a licence was refused, a band still had to pay the MCPS fee or they wouldn't allow pressing. They wouldn't take visa, and they had to have the money that day or they couldn't fax Germany in time for our manufacturers to get the cds to us. So Liam ended up hareing across London to pay the money, the MCPS faxed Germany, the German company released the cds and couriered them to London, where we could pick them up on Saturday 7th from the UPS depot. I rang UPS twice to check they knew myself and my girlfirend were coming to the depot, and they assured me the package would be out and waiting. Cutting a long story short, we endured 2 hours at the depot while a dozy staff member searched rather half-heartedly. When he announced he'd given up, I got on the phone to their head office, while Collette spoke to the man's superior, who reluctantly agreed to look himself. Before I'd even been connected, he'd found them, and I burst into tears with sheer relief. Somehow, despite everything ,the CDs were ready for the launch.eeeePictures from the last Mook recording session, June '99
The CD Launch Gig, August 8th '99
Ever since we'd finished the cd in late June, we'd been rehearsing for this gig. Liam had arrived back from Japan on the 27th of July, and we'd squeezed in two rehearsals with him, as we attempted a gig with all 6 of us present, for the first and last time. The songs for the gig were: Eine Kleine Mook Music, Star Wars Vision, Fish & The Tambourine, You Stop Time For Me, Get Out Of My World, In My Heart, Elephant Sings the Blues, Should I Stay Or Should I Go?, Listen To The Band & The Is Not The Gook. It was fantastic playing with Liam again, and overall I think we played really well. It was the end of an era in many ways.
Of course with Liam back it was Mal's last gig, and this was reflected in the set list with 2 of Mal's originals plus his favourite cover 'Should I Stay...?', but also, though we weren't to know it, it was the last of the old-style rocking Blackwells. Liam's return was too lead us into much more mellow and thoughtful territories, which would be reflected in changing setlists as will be shown later on. All of this was ahead of us though, and we just enjoyed the night. About 50 people were there, roughly 25 fans and 25 neutrals, and we rapidly won over the neutrals with our corny gags, and especially the inflatable whale during 'Fish'.
Mark kept hitting me on the head with it, which went down well but made it darned difficult to keep playing!! Mark's rather risque Gook dance attracted cheers and screams, while some of Mal's friends nearly got themselves attacked. During 'Should I Stay or Should I Go?' they kept replying 'Go' , and Anne, Saul's girlfriend, thinking they were criticising the band, was going to have words with them until she realised they were friends of Mal's teasing him.
Listen To The Band was quite emotional, welcoming Liam back and saying goodbye to Mal who'd filled his shoes so admirably for almost 2 years, but all told it was a great way to launch the cd , and this was reflected in the 10 sales we made on the night.
Richard Auty's Wedding
Next up on our 3 gig tour to promote the cd was an all Monkees set at Dan's brother's wedding. When Dan had asked me about the possiblity of us doing an all-Monkees set again, I must admit I was wary as it seemed something of a retrograde step. But Dan was keen, and the more we thought about it, the more fun it sounded. We decided to work out some Monkee tunes we'd never done before, just to make it a little more valid, and challenging for us. Among the new songs we attempted were 'She', 'Sunny Girlfriend', 'You Told Me', and a version of 'Nine Times Blue' complete with the amazingly cheesy 'Witchita Train' Horn arrangement, which Mark captured perfectly.
We also tried 'Mary Mary' with Dan rocking out on the drums. These all sounded great so we really hoped to have sort of permanent record of them, and so, having agreed to play for free, simply asked that the event be videotaped for us by the wedding camerman, which Richard happily agreed to.On the day itself, we played really well, in direct contrast to the final rehearsal which had been awful. The guests, softened up by drink, and knowing many of the tunes, got really into it, dancing and singing along. By the end they were refusing to let us leave, chanting our name repeatedly and screaming for more. It is unequivocally the best reception we have ever had.
One of our few regrets is that the arrangement to have the gig recorded was not honoured by the cameraman despite being requested to tape it by the groom himself. But that's rock'n' roll for you. 90% legend and memories! The set list for this gig was:Girl I Knew Somewhere, For Pete’s Sake, No Time, Circle Sky, Look Out Here Comes Tomorrow, Oklahoma Backroom Dancer, Early Morning B’s and G’s, Mary Mary, Star Collector, Little Bit Me.., PVS, Clarksville.
Set 2 Sunny Girlfriend, You Told Me, Gonna Buy Me A Dog, She, Nine Times Blue, Theme, Steppin Stone, Daydream Believer, Listen To the Band, I’m A Believer
The gig was the last project we had started before Liam's return, and now he began to wield his benign influence again. He had noticed that having a permanent keyboard player had made us musically lazy. Often the 2 guitars were simply playing the same thing, and on other occasions keyboards were present when there was really no need for them, purely so that Mark would have something to do. Liam's ideas made a lot of sense. In addition, Mark's goals for the band seemed to be quite different from ours, as he liked doing lots of gigs and was very keen to try and get signed, and the rest of us were avowedly non-commercial and much preferred recording to playing live.
Thus with great reluctance we made the decision that we would have to part company with Mark, and I made that very difficult phone call about a week after the gig. We thought we would make the Rockgarden gig a farewell one for Mark, but he felt that the reception we got at the Wedding gig couldn't be bettered, and was a great way to end. Thus it was that, with a certain amount of trepidation on my part I must admit, we faced the future as a 4-piece once again.
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