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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Hi All,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>At the breakfast table two days ago and after quickly
reading some OKOM e-mails I went into uncontrollable fits of laughter and
my wife is worried that the site could be dangerous for my health. What do
you think?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>After reading Stephen Barbone's fame comments about being
recognised in the street and Jim Beebe's reply about women taking
their children to the other side of the road when they saw the band, reminded me
of an incident some years back where a colleague said: if our band was
going to be playing anywhere nearby he would lock up his wife, children and the
family dog to keep them safe from us. I was so disgusted at these comments
that I now lead a much quieter life. Two years later our trombone
player who is a local legend (in his own mind) is finally recovering from being
introduced to 21 year old twins by their mother to be told at a band gig
that he was their father. (We played I want a little Girl, on the stand
after that). He still manages to have a girlfriend in every country
our band plays in. We are notorious but alas, not famous.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I do agree with Stephen that OKOM is still alive and
well. Our band uses the barometer of CD sales to measure success/failure
fame without fortune/notoriety </FONT><FONT face=Arial>or call it what you
will. We measure impulse buying from the stand and have found that the
saturation level is about an average of one CD every minute if you have more
than one CD to offer with sales on each side of the stage. Sales of
over 200 CDs in a 3 hour gig do not happen often but the last
three times this occurred was Edinburgh IJF Mardi Gras (mainly tourist audience)
Darling Harbour JF Sydney (mainly tourist audience) and Dusseldorf Jazz Rally
(mainly jazz audience). In Germany the band were jammed on stage and
cornered for their CDs to be autographed. In the middle of this one of the
band turned to me and said "I now know how the Beatles felt" ! (our moment of
glory) so OKOM is alive and well in some countries. Although we
actually sold all our CDs in USA last year we did not achieve these
figures. I believe the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee has sales of this
order. Maybe (<STRONG>Hint, Dig, Hint to Bob Ringwald and or Roger
Krum</STRONG>) we can achieve an invite for Sacramento 2004? Sorry that is
a blatant plug for the Sydney-Zenith, I won't do it again. We have this
Sydney/Melbourne thing here as was Glasgow/Edinburgh for me in the old days but,
wow! we are playing both places this year. Perhaps Stephen can compare
barometers so that we can find out how famous we are or could
be? </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>As Jerry from Norwich said, we are certainly not famous
but we know how it feels.<BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Cheers</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Tom
Wood<BR></FONT><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>Dixielandjazz
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