LOVE supporter, Keith Dion, send me a CD of a record he produced by a New Zealand band called the “Ponsonby DC’s” and it’s like my fave. CD right now! Imagine The Velvet Underground meets The Damned meets the Specials meets Nick Heyward! It’s worth it just for the song, “Heaven”, alone, methinks. “Slogans and Cliches” kinda remind me of SLOAN, which is a GOOD thing! This one is spending quite a bit of time in the Randle CD player.

Another Cd that I completely Love (let’s just say this is my favorite band right now) is the new THE FEELING cd, “Twelve Stops and Home.” Kinda like Madness meets the Kinks. Just brill all the way through.

And now, The Freedom Man and myself have been thinking of something we could do to lift the spirits of our friends and fans alike, everyone who loved Arthur, his voice, his music. I mentioned earlier that he gave me one of his tambourines a while back. Anyone who was close to Arthur knew that he actually hated his tambourines! I never knew if he was taking the piss or if they annoyed him but, one day, he kicked the sh*it out of the tambourine on stage and Rusty asked him why he did it. He said, “Rusty, it’s because I hate the tambourine.”

So, what I want to do is give this tambourine away. It’s sat here on my wall for 4 1/2 years, never ever been used except by the man himself. I figured maybe someone might really want it. I have many things that I have so I can stand to lose this one. But what Freedom Man and I decided to do is have an essay contest. maybe a few paragraphs on what YOU feel was the best LOVE show you ever saw (any year, any version of Love) and WHY you think it was the best and what sets it aside from any other you may have seen (or may have not seen!) Email the stories to Freedom man’s link and we’ll judge them. The deadline is September 1 and the winner will be announced on September 4, Labor Day in the USA.

May the best essay win!

All the best,

Mike Randle