Well, the last six months my faith has been tested on grand scales. Each time, as difficult as things would get, I would turn to my ROCK, my unmoving and always dependable best mate, Hannah Milman. I hadn’t brought her up in diaries of late and I should more often cause she’s a riot, even when she’s stroppy! (which aint too often…but she’s still gonna kill me for that) But she’s working hard over in the UK and should be making her way permanently in LA come April 2006. SO in that time, obviously, there’s a bit of back-and-forth. She’s a spot on gal and i love her beyond words in a diary but wanted to express how blessed i feel to have such a wonderful person on (and by) my side.

Got a ring from Probyn the other day. The Brian Wilson tour finally ended. The Swedes were in LA 2 weeks ago and wanted to chill but their hotel was in Encino, near the H’Wood Bowl and i live in Santa Monica – the equivilent of visiting Newcastle from Bristol. (ok, not THAT far but it sure seems like it…). But Probe has signalled his desire to play with us and plans to come down to the studio and lay some trumpet down. I spoke with a few of our LA ensemble gals who are all up for playing as well so there could be some fun a-happening.

Now on to permanent things: As to set the record straight so that i can answer many of the emails in one heap…David “Daddyo” Green, David “Ch-to-the-apple” Chapple, Rusty “Obi-Won” Squeezebox and meself are OFFICIALLY……………………………………………………..

……….BABY LEMONADE! Yes we are. We are making a new record, some of which were meant to be Love material but obviously we know what happened there. Most of it will be songs without the constriants of writing for Love (or the pressure!) Now, before anyone accuse of of ‘trying’ to sound like Love, i’d like to remind everyone of what Robert Plant said to me, Rusty and Chapple at cantebury in ’03: that Love was Baby Lemonade and Arthur Lee, which i think he meant that we’d intertwined our sound with Love and made it more “Today”, as he seemed to be paying us a compliment. (i’ll never forget our faces when Rusty reached to shake his hand and Robert P. said, “I know who you are, you’re Baby Lemonade.” which FLOORED US)

Johnny and all of us agreed this was something we ought to do, as his attentions are on finishing Gethesemane and releasing it to the publis, once he feels it is ready and represents what he has in mind as a completed idea. Of course, Johnny will lend guitar and some vocals to the Baby Lem. record and don;t count out some shows of us together with him and his Gethesemane musicians. Watch this space…

As for what everyone is doing, every is getting on with their lives and feeling incredibly creative, fresh and blessed. Everyone is doing work they enjoy, as well as working on music. i think it’s best to keep our person lives in that area personal, as the last thing i want is someone showing up where i work asking me where Arthur’s club is. People STILL email me that question. (sigh)

As for what Arthur’s up to, that I don’t know. Rusty and me went by Jazmaan’s house a few weeks back and dropped off the last of his gear/stuff we had stored at our house. Jazmaan went by and gave him the gear and he was all pakced up to move to Memphis, Tn. Here’s hoping he comes through ok and plays music again someday.

One strong lesson I learned in all this is that telling people what to do and barking orders doesn’t make one a leader. Even if everyone voted for you that STILL doesn’t make you a leader. I’ve leanred that being a true leader means leading by example. it doesn’t matter what title you hold. When people see your dedication, they follow. I’ve learned that. SO many Love fans stand behind Baby Lemonade and that means the world to us. We always gave our best effort, even under terrible times. Rusty, as musical director, had to always be on his toes, as choruses and verses were being reversed and spit out much like the phlegm that was apt to fly across the stage. Daddyo spent so much time booking flights, trying to book flights, trying to get an ‘ok’ to tour, trying to book hotels, trying to baby sit, trying this andtrying that, and of course keeping a cool head even through abusive phone calls and such. Chapple not only designed the website but Dave also designed all the merchandise, the Forever Changes Tour Book and co-designed the DVD and CD artwork for the Concert release. Johnny Echols took it upon himself to re-learn an entire catalog of music. not only that but he had to learn arrangements that differed from the onces he knew and he learned guitar parts and worked around parts that differed from what he wrote. And always showed up, is a true gentlemen and brought TRUE peace to our musical alchemical envirement. he never once had an ego about anything and provided silent leadership- he led by example.

Both Glenn Povey and Gene Kraut did all they could to make all this happen. No matter how easy any of this looked, as God as my witness, Arthur fought them (and us) tooth and nail and every single thing that lead to more success. i don;t mean that as a knock or to be negative. That’s the facts, jack. Whatever we accomplished, we sure as hell did it DESPITE those issues. I now see that it came down to an inability to share credit. That’s sad but it’s probably true. Those guys deserve huge amounts of credit for the work they did and the trouble and debt they incurred on our and your behalf. Kose, Troels and Fraser were the hardest workign and smartest rock and roll crew that ever lived. Kose is the hardest Danish working man in Show Business; Copenhagen’s answer to James Brown.

We had all these things,. more than most bands or companies. imagine, THAT many dedicated people. And we still couldn’t fix it. Sometimes you can’t. Sometimes it’s best to leave it be and remember it for all the good it brought, but not overlook the bad because that way you never repeat it. Sometimes it’s best to remember what’s important in life. Life is too short not to have fun. And too long to be a miserable person. We look forward to making some great, moving and grand records in the near future. You are invited to be on board if you like. The debate is dead so let’s move on to more positive and spirited exchanges.

Mike Randle