Well the Christmas festivities are over - I hope that you all had a great time! As we think about packing the decorations away for another twelve-month and remember the fun that we have had with those nearest and dearest to us, our next big decision has to be the making of "New Year's Resolutions"; those little promises we make to ourselves, in order to make each of us that much more of an asset to all of that in which we believe. We face a New Year - and with it who knows what opportunities may arise to promote and preserve Square Dancing? The future is always "uncertain" but we plan for it anyway, using our "rose-tinted" glasses - "certain" that we can have some affect on the way things shape-up. Let's hold on to this heartfelt optimism, keep our New Year's Resolutions and strive to do the best that we can for all concerned!

In retrospective vein, looking back over the last year, I am very pleased with a lot of what has happened - especially with regard to Sting and Snow Records. In this last year we have seen several indicators of an improvement in circumstances, which may signal a slightly brighter future for us and for all our endeavours.

During 2004 we completely re-designed and re-launched the web-site, adding several new features and links that, we hoped, would help to tell the World about what we are doing. As the year progressed, we added more and more to the web-site, including our regular e-mail up-date. The number of "hits" that we receive each month has, for the most part, increased; there have been a few "up-and-down" months - but the general trend is "upwards" (which is GREAT)!

We have managed to maintain our production targets, for new releases, all of which have been well received, have sold well and have helped us to hold-on-to our position as one of the market leaders in the vinyl record production business! Our sales, whilst not as good as we really need, have shown a slight increase, again an upwards trend. In simple terms we are selling more, which is excellent! Interest in the Standing Order Offer has continued to grow and we are signing-up new callers every month; if you are not yet a member, be sure and check out the details…

In September we held our annual pilgrimage to Nashville and recorded a bumper-bundle of new music for release next year. A full account of this trip was given in the November, October and December News-Letters; if you haven't seen those - check them out - they are worth reading.

Looking to the future, we are already planning our next Nashville expedition; many tunes have been selected - but we are always open to suggestions - so please let us know if you have any ideas.

STING PADERBORN CONVENTION:
Also this year we shall hold our first Sting Festival in Germany, hosted by the Pader Jumpers SDC check out the link for details on this event; the interest already shown is close to phenomenal, so we are expecting a record crowd! For full details - ALL NEW - checkout the flyer or use the link at the bottom on the Festivals drop-down menu; CONVENTION 2005!

INDIVIDUAL RECORD HISTORIES including ALL THE ADDITIONAL LYRICS:
It's here at last! In December, we added the first batch of Record Histories to the catalogue; you can access these by "clicking on the open-book picture, wherever it appears. The histories contain details about the original song and it's production, including the extra lyrics - as featured on the called side. You can also locate these on the Latest Releases and Future Releases pages.

The first "bumper" batch - released in December - were:

• Me And My Shadow
• If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body
• Every Breath You Take
• I Get A Kick Out Of You
• Help Yourself
• A Hard Day's Night
• Daydream Believer
• Merry Xmas, Everybody
• Rock 'n' Roll Is King
• I'm Checkin' Out
• A Coin In The Fountain
• Heaven
• She Used To Be Somebody's Baby
• Any Dream Will Do
• Three Steps To Heaven

• He'll Have To Go
• Wonderful Tonight
• Time After Time
• When You're Gone
• Norwegian Wood
• Fields Of Gold
• My Very Own Lucky Star
• Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
• Once I was A Lonely Cowgirl
• Will You Love Me Tomorrow

In order that these histories can be easily utilised, they have been created as pdf files. This is in response to those of you who have advised that you have had some difficulty in printing from our web-site. These difficulties arise because of the many individual paper and format sizes that exist on the Internet. To read a pdf file you will need the ADOBE reader, which can be downloaded (at no charge) from ADOBE . This will give you the entire history in a window that will auto-size to any printing system. Alternatively, another feature of the ADOBE reader is that - by clicking on the TEXT button - you can select, copy, paste and re-format the text that you require; this will allow YOU to choose the layout that works best to suit your needs!

Keep an eye on this feature, there will be more histories added, every month and please let us know, if there are any that you would particularly like to see added; if we know soon enough, we could probably add these to the next bundle…

THIS MONTH'S NEW MUSIC:
Our new vinyl releases for January are: - "Fields Of Gold" (vocal by Thorsten Geppert) a very beautiful song, the original of which has been a BIG hit both for the song's writer Sting and for the haunting voice of the extremely talented Eva Cassidy - and the Beatles classic "Norwegian Wood" (vocal by Paul Bristow). Our new MP3s are "When You're Gone" (vocal by Neil Whiston) and "Wonderful Tonight" (vocal by James Wyatt), both of which - having been previously released on vinyl - can be heard (in part) on the Listen To The Music link.

I am very pleased that both of our records, released in December achieved top-five listing on the Hanhurst's Tape and Record Service Best Seller listing. These were "Rock And Roll Is King", which came in at No.3 and "Fab One / Firefly", which came in at No.5.

FORUM: Don't forget to visit the Forum and join in the discussions that are taking place on a vriety of SD related topics. Do you have a "burning issue" that you would like to discuss? Do you have any comments about Sting and Snow music - or SD music in general? When you have a moment, take the time to "throw your hat into the ring"!

EPILOGUE: Okay, my Christmas records are back in their box, in that "safe" place, which I mentioned last month! I have recently acquired new glasses; a slightly stronger prescription, with an - even more - optimistic shade of "rose" tinting! So, as these are vari-lux lenses, with a variable focal strength, I now have to practice walking up and down stairs, without falling over! Have a great month, talk to you again on the February News-Letter.

Go Squareful! - Paul Bristow (Owner and Producer Sting and Snow Records)