* T H E   M I C K   M A G I C   E D I T O R I A L *

11th March 1987, the day I released (if that's the right word for it ;-) the first MMATT demo tape, "State Of The Art", the one that was "greeted by hails of very little", as Underground Magazine so aptly put it, yet ultimately lead to the whole Music & Elsewhere adventure. The final track for it, "Story X", had only been completed 10 days earlier, when my then wife, the legendary Shona Moments (pictured on the demo cover, left), added her wonderfully B movie sci fi voiceover and officially expanded the MMATT line up to two. If you fancy a nostalgic listen to that early demo version, just click on the picture and find yourself drawn back 32 years in time, singing along sweetly; "Hiermit regein sie die geschwindigkeit der chorus-modulation oder den soggenannten sweep. Wenn der einsteller ganz entgegen den uhrzeigersinn gedreht wird, erhoht sich die sweep-geschwindigkeit. Beim schliessen rastet der deckel automatisch ein."

And here we are, 600+ releases and 32 years on, preparing one last hurrah for the label. As a lot of you reading this will probably know, Music & Elsewhere originally came to an end sometime late in 2003. It was never planned, it just kind of happened. Things change, the world keeps turning, but our time seemed to have passed. Then, some 9 years later, following a resurgence of interest in the 80's/90's underground movement, I started up this website as a permanent memorial. Then came the Decadion compilations (2013-2014) to test the digital waters, followed by the highly successful "United World Underground Collection" (M&E 25-01) in October 2017, the latter of which remains available, as you'll have seen on the home page. It was never meant to be a standalone, of course, hence it stating "The M&E 25th Anniversary Collection Volume 1" on the cover. Well, I'm pleased to say that the second and final volume is now well under way!

I've been busy over the past few weeks; digitising some of the label's best cassette releases ("Dead Friend" - Cyborg Sex Babies - M&E 126 - Dec. 1992 - just in case you're struggling with the inlay in the photo), assembling tracks from some of the CD's and CDR's that appeared in the M&E Distro Direct listings... and talking to a lot of bands, natch! Whereas the emphasis on the UWU Collection was the global nature of the underground network, this one is purely about the music (and elsewhere). It will feature something in the region of 70 mini albums (circa 25 minutes / an LP side) by many of the finest artistes I had the pleasure to release, along with an undoubtedly quite large PDF booklet and many of the bonus extras you have come to expect from M&E over the years. I don't want to set a release date as yet and tie myself to a deadline, but it's coming along really well. I have the lion's share of the material I need to assemble the music collection, but at the time of going to press, am still talking to three bands, so watch the skies for news as things develop, updates should be coming very soon.

I had hoped to put up a little more than just a revamped home page and an editorial on this M&E anniversary day, most of which I had planned to put together last week, but fate rather conspired to knock the wind out of my sails. Sam and I had been out celebrating our own 30th anniversary on the evening of March 1st when, the following morning, my birth father, writer and journalist Danny Collins (right), passed away in Spain, aged 79. Although we had never met, only ever getting as far as swapping a few e-mails and photos, it hit a lot harder than I would have ever expected. Maybe in another life, eh? To what might have been, rest in peace. Suffice it to say I am back at it again now and keen to make this final collection something very special. I am also absolutely determined to get some of my own recording projects up and running this month too, so cross your fingers and wish me luck. Here's to 2019 being a very interesting year indeed, enjoy muchly!