Magic Moments At Twilight Time "I was a bit more gothy by this time." Thus my favourite picture of you...
Julie Howell Taken in The Crypt by Pete Program, I believe.
Magic Moments At Twilight Time Yup.
Julie Howell I can keep going until we reach our natural conclusion. David's not home for another hour. I'm making chicken curry and that doesn't take long.
Julie Howell So to recap, I wrote Mick an anonymous letter in 1987 when I was 16. In 1989 he played a gig at my 18th birthday party where he met my best friend Sam. They dated for 22 years, then got married, then had a daughter. If I hadn't written that letter they may never have met.
Julie Howell Just goes to show, the power of letters.
Magic Moments At Twilight Time Cool. So, big gap coming up. Sadly, we fell out for a while, though you did inspire one more album title in your absence!

Magic Moments At Twilight Time All water under the bridge a long time ago. Next time we really took up regular contact again seriously, I discovered the awkward young girl had been replaced by a confident woman and an award winning website creator, "Jooly's Joint", how did that come about?
Julie Howell Yeah well, you could be a knob. >
Julie Howell Yeah, we didn't speak for 13 years, and then we spoke and fell out again for a few more years. I think we're done with falling out now. >
Julie Howell (for clarity, everyone falls out with Mick if they properly get to know him) :-D
Julie Howell That's not quite so, I was a confident young woman at 18, but I know what you're trying to say. Jooly's Joint was an online community I established in 1995 and ran for 20 years.
Magic Moments At Twilight Time >!!!
Magic Moments At Twilight Time They know. So, about "Jooly's Joint", your award winning wesbite - how exactly did that come about?
Julie Howell I closed it in 2015 to do other stuff.
Julie Howell It had it's time. Maybe it will have its time again. Who knows.
Magic Moments At Twilight Time Okay, let's go with why you chose to close it then?
Julie Howell see above
Julie Howell Tech has it's time, a view on which you and I differ. ;-)
Magic Moments At Twilight Time I don't care what you say, it is so too still 1973!
Julie Howell Yeah, in many ways that is true.

Julie Howell Had a big party to celebrate it's 10th anniversary. I was covered by The Guardian.
Julie Howell Jooly's Joint isn't my greatest achievement by a long chalk.
Julie Howell I have five national and lifetime achievement awards for my work in the digital industry and for community work.
Julie Howell I think I'm interviewing myself now.
Magic Moments At Twilight Time That's a nice picture, caught you well. Let's jump to the present day then. Like you said, we're (probably) done falling out these days, hey, you even came to visit us in the summer of 2015, brought your dog, Roger. Oh, and a bloke. I don't recall any mention of politics though, which has been the next step in your life, how and why did that come about?

Julie Howell (Mick and I are having an argument in the chat window. Could go either way, to be honest.)

Julie Howell Yes, let's talk about the present day >
Editor's Note It didn't go 'either way', I clearly won, you can see she's using the '>' symbol properly again. I rest my case.
Julie Howell It's a long story but I will keep is short because David's curry won't make itself. Today I live in Peterborough. I first came here due to work in 2003 and stayed because I love it. >
Julie Howell In recent years (I haven't had a 'job' since 2010) I've been working for myself as a confidence coach. However, in 2015 I decided to become a parish councillor. Through this I met another parish councillor who is in the Green Party. 'More weirdos', I thought. >
Julie Howell In March 2016, that guy asked me if I would stand as a city council candidate for the Green Party in Peterborough "Just so people in your ward have someone to vote for, no chance of actually winning." In May 2016, with very little effort, I polled 565 votes and came third place party-wise. This was the best the Greens had ever done here so I agreed to set aside 22 months to try to win the seat proper. If I succeeded I'd be the first Green councillor the city had ever had. To spice things up a bit, I stood for Mayor of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough in 2017 and did well at that, coming 5th (expected) but retaining our deposit (not expected). I was also made leader of the party in Peterborough. >

Julie Howell Fast forward (tape joke) to May 2018 and I stood in the local election as planned and won the seat with 1413 votes, which was 50% of the vote (it was 8% in 2016). Hence, I'm the first Green city councillor in the history of Peterborough. It caused quite a stir, as you would