Ah, yes... Monday arrives, the day that the Tour dates should/could be announced. Perhaps that's why I was awake at 3:30am looking at the timekeeper next to me, waiting for the loud noise to start the day. The usual morning routine kicks in... and an interesting email awaits.

"Dear Paul -Hi I am the Melbourne/Canberra Publicist for the Crüe tour working for Jacobsen Entertainment Group - the Promoter. I was copied in on your email - you have some good ideas therein and I will come back with you re interest from the Current Affairs type programs! We are awaiting approval of the press release from the US and this will be emailed to you ASAP - hopefully we can get it out tomorrow. I shall email you tomorrow in the meantime if there is anything you need re Melbourne and Canberra shows please contact me. Again thanks for your ideas and suggestions."

Cool. That's a nice email to kick off the week... but it seems some of the necessary procedures will mean today is not going to be THE day for the announcement. It's a false start... but a chance to dash a little and warm up again.

In so many ways, Australia seems to be way behind America, but there is one area that we Aussies are always ahead in, and that factor has come into play here. Time. Yep, the US is living in the past. Even though the working week has begun here, we need to wait for corporate America to return for work for approval of this release, and the announcement of the Tour. We have no choice but to wait... patiently... biting our fingernails.

Thommo waits for it to become a decent hour before ringing me with some more. Another regional tour promoter working on behalf of Jacobsen's has contacted him looking for some live footage of the band for his production of a TV ad. A TV ad? Wicked! Totally cool. He asks Thommo what songs he should play, to which he responds 'Kickstart My Heart,' 'Dr.Feelgood' and 'Hell On High Heels.' I tell Thommo I think he hit the nail on the head. I email this new contact to hook him in with the record label to get a copy of the Hell On High Heels video clip as well as the recent Pay Per View concert footage. That should do the trick nicely.

But wait... the email bounces, so something, somewhere along the line is bad... [Napster, Bad]. I call this promoter to see what's up and I catch the end of his half of a conversation with the record label in Sydney while on hold. He winds that call up and answers my call, puffing, and seemingly in a frenzy. I introduce myself and he explains his situation. It seems the record label doesn't have any VHS video footage of Mötley Crüe... at all!!! He needs footage tomorrow morning to meet production deadline of the TV ad. He asks where in his town can he buy a copy of a Mötley Crüe video today. I'm a little embarrassed to tell him that their home videos have been scarce commodities for some time now, and I myself am often scouring second hand stores and pawn shops for copies. "Great. Just, great," he says. He asks if I have a copy. Silly, but smart, question.

An hour or so later I wave goodbye to my personal copy of the 'Decade Of Decadence' home video in an airbag as it leaves my home, headed to the airport for a flight across the other side of this country, for a production studio, so a Mötley Tour TV ad can be aired to spread the word. I sit back and bite on some lunch, thinking to myself [Paul, Good... Napster Bad]. I also hope he enjoys his copy of my SkinInc. CD I enclosed in the airbag. :-)

Thommo's catchcry mission statement at the moment is to turn things into "Mötley Crüe" in Oz, instead of "Mötley Who?" Works for me. It's like all those multi-level marketing emails that come into your Inbox. Pyramid selling... call it what you will, but they all work on leverage. Tell (sell to) 5 people, then those 5 people will tell 5 people, then those people will tell 5 people and before you know it, there's an army of people with that knowledge or product. Same can apply here, so I'm going to tell 5 new people about Mötley's New Tattoo album today and ask them to tell another 5 people and pass it on. I hope you can too.... and then when the buzz and sales grow enough, that's when it seems time for most record companies to become more interested. On your marks...get set... GO!

Rock on
Paul Miles*

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