Here in the U.K., in the month of May, we go "gathering nuts", whilst we dance around maypoles and generally have our first real "frolics" since the winter… or maybe it's just the lambs that frolic! However, it is that time of the year when a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of love… or -at least - that's what the poets tell us. For me it's the time of the year when I can look at the first sales and performance figures for the new financial year for Sting and Snow records - and what a FANTASTIC set of figures that is! In March (as you will see below, in "other news") we beat all others to take both the first and second positions in the BEST SELLERS chart; I wonder if I should dare to hope that this might be a portent of great things to come?

My main topic for this month is to announce some major changes to our web-site and I want to take this opportunity to mention and thank those persons who are responsible for this most valuable company asset; without which we would not be enjoying the same degree of recognition and success that we have achieved.

The web-site was originally the "brain-child" of Søren Lindergaard, who suggested the idea to me soon after I took control of Sting and Snow Records. In 2001, Søren offered to set up a web-site for the callers on Sting and Snow, which he did with my permission.

Initially, I was uncertain how to make the best use of this new resource; I am not a "techno-phile" and needed a lot of encouragement before being able to see the potential value of an Internet shop-window. Towards the end of 2003 Carsten Nielsen took an active interest and, together with Søren, began to barrack me with ideas. By this time I could see more clearly that there were considerable potential advantages to an active, well designed web-site, so I began asking a lot of questions.

This led to the stingproductions.com web-site being re-launched in February 2004.

Since that time we have added a great deal to the website, including details of all the staff callers on our labels as well as the history of all the songs that we have made available, together with audio samples and lyric sheets.

Most recently, Carsten Nielsen, our webmaster, has undertaken a lot of work on the web-site to make it more efficient and easy to manage. The MAJOR CHANGE to the website is the new Menu-Bar that you will see at the head of each page, just below the logo. This is a completely new piece of software that has been purchased and installed to provide full functionality (i.e. the use of the drop-down menus) to all web browsers.

In the past we could only support Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 (IE6); we can now support the new IE7 and Mozilla Firefox and Netscape and - hopefully - any other browsers that may exist.

We would like everyone to know about these developments and this is where we need your help.

Since we re-launched the web-site, in February 2004, we have had a tremendous number of "hits". However, we have received a number of "complaints" from people who could not use our web-site, because of our Menu-Bar being tied to the old IE6 browser. Many of these people have asked us to stop sending them the monthly e-mail, until we get the problem fixed, as they found the web-site "frustrating" to use.

Well - it's "fixed"! So we need to get the word out to anybody who might now be interested in receiving the monthly e-mails and making occasional visits to the web-site… the problem is that as they have "opted out" of our e-mails, we cannot contact them by that method. Thus we are hoping that you can help us… So - if you know of anyone who does not visit our web-site or of anyone that has opted not to visit us until we fix the "web-browser problem", we would be indebted to you if you could pass on the news - please!

Now for the other news:

BEST SELLER LISTING (positions on the March 2006 listing)

No.1 - Dixieland Delight - SIR 368
No.2 - Robin Hood - SIR 357

Yes, I am really pleased with this result! It is the first time that we have taken both of the top spots on the Best Seller listing and I am hoping that it won't be the last!!!

NEW RELEASES (May 2007):

Wherever You will Go - SNW 603 - vocal by: Thorsten Hubmann
Save The Last Dance For Me - SNW 904 - vocal by: Wil Stans

NEW CD RELEASES - also available on MP3 & Vinyl / (May 2007):

Peaceful Easy Feeling - SIR 108 - Vocal by Stefan Sidholm
Bubble And Squeak - SIR 503 - Called Hoedown by Paul Bristow
(Just A) Lemon Tree - SNW 303 - Vocal by Søren Lindergaard

INDIVIDUAL RECORD HISTORIES including ALL THE ADDITIONAL LYRICS:
To find these, just click on the book symbol next to the title on the Catalogue, Future Releases or Latest Releases pages, this month's record histories features our newest singing call releases: Wherever You Will Go and Save The Last Dance For Me

Right, now - as I said earlier - this is the time when a young man's fancy turns to love. So as I have two teenage daughters, I need to take steps to ensure that any "young men" out there are "directing" their "fancy" in an appropriate manner! Now, where did I put that shotgun? Have a great month-of- May - "speak" with you next month!

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