not sure Graeme, but you could try sending them as an attach to www.pinkgothic.com/luxuria/ , they could sort it for you maybe.

just tried to leave (a very long) comment and it didn't work!

try once again.

Nope - still didn't work. Is ther some kind of limit on length of post? So I'll just say - thanks to Open Mind for the welcome via Email!

really intrigued about the long comment. please try again, or @ me thanks.

try http//www.nme.com/features/10481​0.htm and http//www.musicremedy.com/audio/​3121 compare and contrast, then listen to ib p and wonder why he got no £...

Difficult for me to keep comments short! By way of introduction _ I grew up in M/C during the time depicted in 24 Hour Party People. Saw Magazine 5 times. Met Howard once.

Met Howard.......and? Tell all...please. I met him once but was the only one there at a book signing & couldn't get my words out. I saw M'zine twice in the Midlands 1978 & 1980.

Re Howard - not much to tell sorry! I'll quote directly from my diary entry on Sept 2nd 1978....in small chunks so it will post!

'Jeez - How can I ever rest again!... I'm writing this with the very same pen that Howard Devoto wrote with!Went to Erics last night with Cath - twas superb!

'Jeez - How can I ever rest again!... I'm writing this with the very same pen that Howard Devoto wrote with!Went to Erics last night with Cath - twas superb!

(then I ramble on about Tony Wilson)....but even more amazing - I got to meet Howard Devoto!!!There was I trying to get into the bands dressingroom when Cath spotted Howard...

(sorry for double post) ....just standing next to us in an alcove, chatting to people and signing autographs. He's so tiny you can miss him easily.

...Anyway, I peered around a crowd of people at him and he sort of peered back at me with a little grin while I handed him my bit of paper and a pen....

...and he handed me his bottle of beer to hold!!!!!! 'That's fair and square now' he said!!!!!!! He is beautiful - not at all arrogant and stand offish as the music press make him out to be!'

So - it wasn't much of a meeting really - but it made a big impression at the time! I've since (recently) met a singer from a well known band and been able to sustain a ten minute conversation with him...

..so if I was to meet Howard now I might fare better! I am trying to contact Howard via Friendster but he hasn't logged in for a while...

Aaah- that's great. Thanks Helen. He was meant to be at a recent event in London, a discussion forum thingy for Simon Reynold's new book. I nearly went but he apparently dropped out. When I saw him at his book signing I freaked out as there was nobody else in the shop so I didn't hang around to chat- in fact legged it quickly.

What book was he signing at his ..errr...book signing? Was it one he's written - and if so, when?

'It Only Looks as if it Hurts', the book of song lyrics, around 1990. Forgot to say- also saw him live in '83 as a solo gig. Didn't see Luxuria tho'- did you?? Did you go to Bridgewater Hall last March when he performed there?

Didn't know about Bridgewater Hall - I live in the NE now...Also - I've only just got back into music in a big way courtesy of new bands that have been heavily influenced by punk/new wave... I kind of missed out on the Luxuria phase, but have some dvds of them/him now. Not too sure what to think of them yet..

I once met Howard Devoto on the Number 19 bus to Islington in 1994. I'd just been reading a bit about him in the Morrissey & Marr - The Severed Alliance at the bus stop and then I got on the bus and he sat next to me! Needless to say, it was a fairly awkward conversation as the bus went quiet. I said something like 'You're Howard Devoto, aren't you?', to which he replied, 'I've heard of him'. Nice. We then had a brief chat which covered old band members (still gets on well with most of them), Luxuria, a Radio One interview with Richard Skinner I'd heard (he didn't enjoy it). He then shook my hand and thanked me for buying his records. He was friendly enough, but in later years when I used to see him regularly in Farringdon I decided it was best to keep your heroes at a distance.

Fantastic....he shook your hand & said thanks for buying his records. Aaah. If he sat next to me on a bus I'd be a quivering wreck.

He likes his enigmatic answers, doesn't he? A friend of mine met him in a club in the late 70's and said the same thing 'You're Howard Devoto aren't you?', to which he replied 'Occasionally'.