The date is Friday 10th September. The time is straight after work kicks out (i.e. 6pm onwards. if you want to come along later, no worries, we'll probably be there until 11pmish, depending on last trains).

The venue is The Prince Arthur, Eversholt Street, Euston.
More on the pub: http://www.golden-p.co.uk/

We've got the left-hand side of the pub reserved for us.
Location: http://www.golden-p.co.uk/location.htm and Google map.

ATTENDEES:
El Hombre Malo! (All the way from Scotland! Hooray!)
Drakeygirl
Dr Pill
Ganglesprocket
Leedsboy
Backwards7
Lenny Law
Phil Pirrip (tentatively)
Martin Simmonds
Idiotbear
Five-Centres
Carl Parker
Lunaman
Rosbif
Joe R
Steve Turner
Beezer
Piglu
Retro Man
Captain Underpants
Vorgongod
Sid Williams (ALL THE WAY FROM NORWAY!!)
Minty
Mondo
Whytey
Twangothan
DLM
Richie B
and me :-)

and you? sign up below...

Hannah , living in the town of stotties , Sage , and shirts in winter I will not be attending however owing a debt of gratitude to the massive for support and honesty at a time of crisis I will raise a coffee ( sadly I have never drank ) that night and toast the massive gathering .

Keep Well Dan

ya mo be there [deo volente]

with an MC5 *thing* for RetroMan

Add me to the list, Hannah.

Sid's coming from Norway!

I was thinking about making some pies..

I'd have loved to come along, but I'm away that weekend.

Do you go out to play often?

and I'd like to apologise in advance for my behaviour.

One of the big whisky, vodka and gin manufacturers (the one that's very unpopular in Scotland) is holding the press launch of its Christmas ranges that day, which involves a slap up lunch and plenty of, erm, product sampling. So I'll be suited, booted and pre-loaded, rather like Leedsboy last time.

It'll be over by three-ish, though, so maybe I can find a doorway to sleep it off in. Or perhaps I'll turn up at the Word office and borrow their drunk tank, if there's room for one more in there after lunch on a Friday

I happen to be in London on that very day, visiting a friend.

If I stay late enough, I might swing by before I have to head off home.

Unfortunately the travel to London is a problem on the 10th. If there's one near Christmas I'll try my best to be there. Have a great time.

Unfortunately the travel to London is a problem on the 10th. If there's one near Christmas I'll try my best to be there. Have a great time.

washing my television that night.

Drat!

Carl P, be sure and say hello to Tom (el hombremalo)

I will make it to one of these one day - especially as it would be nice to get to meet those of the Word Massive who I follow / and who follow me on Twitter.

@MrRenoDakota in case you were wondering... ; )

It will be a special occasion when I do, being as I'm in the North East of England.

Have fun, y'all!

that night down in Leicester Square. May drop down and pop in for a shandy or two en route if I can

Cannot make this one, but will be thinking of the lot of yer, etc. I know from past experience it'll be an excellent evening!

... and will cheerfully attend!

Can I beg a favour from a kind person coming? Basically all I seem to be reading and hearing about these days is Dr Feelgood and I have never heard a thing by them, other than Milk and Alcohol and Wilco Johnson didn't play on that. Could some kind massive person please burn me a compilation of their good Wilco Era stuff? I return I will curate a fine compilation of stuff I like which is quite Word friendly and will hopefully go down well...

Cheers! Mines a guinness!

someone will take a camera and post some pics? We'd love to have some faces to put to names.
Have a lovely time - hope to attend myself one fine day.

As suspected I shall be wining and dining Mrs Phil to celebrate her birthday this Friday and won't be able to make the meet.

I do however now have a ticket and an evening pass for a "Word in your ear". Hope to see you there.

After having missed the last two.

I recall rashly promising Retro Man a beer as I left the one at The Lamb in February. I'm a fool.

I should be there reasonably early on after 6-ish as I've assured Mrs Beezer (I wish I could remember her first name)I'll be back at the ranch before it becomes Saturday, so will be leaving at a pink lightweight shandy-drinking hour of the evening.

Anybody know if parking is ok around the area? Tips welcome.

... if you take the street that leads there from Tottenham Court Road - Mornington Crescent (sorry can't remember the name, but when my mum visits its where I park to pick her up)

That may be no real help... sorry about that.

many extra hours this week - and been alcoholically abstinent so that I could take Saturday off and have a big old run at it on Friday, so apologies in advance!
Looking forward to seeing you all again.

I wrote a poem about it: Word Massive Meet

I'll be coming along for the first time, with my good friend Five-Centres. Mine’s a pint of bitter.

Annoyingly, I won't be able to get there as early as I'd like :-(

But I will be there later bearing apple cinnamon cake :-)

Hannah xxx

I'm going to Greenwich Park. And Fopp.

I've made the pies.

The hotel room is booked.

Knowing how much I've been looking forward to this, Mrs L asked me tonight "Have you decided what you're wearing yet?"

She really doesn't understand. Even so, I bet Hannah and Mrs Drake have been quietly agonising over which shoes they'll wear for the past week.

I do wonder if I should wear my flowery hat, though.

Lenny, you've lost your bet, mate. You are going to be sorely disappointed if you're expecting me to turn up in my Manolo Blahniks (I had to google that to see how it was spelt).

I have only ever agonised over my footwear in my life (and that was trying to find 16 hole, white DMs to wear under my wedding dress).

I shall be there really quite early, ostensibly because I'm catching an afternoon train down to miss the rush hour (but really because I don't get out much, so I like to make the most of it).

I'll be the unexceptionally-shod, rather large, rather drunk woman in the corner. Ahoy hoy!

Sitting alone in the corner, looking lost and bewildered, sad in the knowledge that I'm the only one without a ticket for Nov 4th.

Spare a thought for the lost soul who took a short three day holiday and then returned to find the invitation email. At the time I could never have known that I was just one click away from eternal disappointment.

The words "sold" and "out" have never looked quite so terrifying.

Who does one have to sleep with to get in through less conventional means?

althou will have to leave early to get to Fopp and Bill Bailey and praying that the 'I'm DogfacedBoy' moment won't be too sticky

I can't go to the gig either. I'll be the tall-ish Suggs-alike for those of you who haven't already had the pleasure.
I might even bring some snap.

...to summon up the courage to come to this, but then forgot all about it. Oh well, let's see if I'm brave enough to come to the next one.

Oh, and I do care about my footwear and will happily wear my Blahniks* if required.

*May be a cheap high street copy rather than original.

Great to meet everyone - there were some chats towards the end which are (my bad) slightly fuzzy. Please drop me a message if there is anything I'm meant to send on [Brian Charles for Lenny Law, Bowie 6Music for Simon & Vorgongod : pm me your addresses, please]

Link for photos :
http://picasaweb.google.com/116831446839050824791/20100911Iphone201010Se...

For vorgongod : http://www.myspace.com/originalbeatpoets

It seems that a splendid time was had by all. Glad you all enjoyed it.

Please spare a thought for those of us stuck in a control room all night.

The lights must stay on !

Especially to those I stole cigarettes from. Next time, I'll buy my own, I promise.

And Hannah: thanks for organising - I've purchased the Niki Segnit book, and you can get the new Harold McGee from Amazon.

Excellent night had by all I think. Once I discovered the back route through St Pancras from Kings Cross it is also a very easy journey! great to see everyone. A few things:

Five C / TT - this is that book about the music press

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Their-Own-Write-Paul-Gorman/dp/1860743412/ref=sr...

Fraser - those podcasts I couldn't remember the name of were from Voiceprint Radio

http://www.voiceprint.co.uk/web/Web%20Radio/

Here's to the next!

despite turning up very late and rather pissed off, my mood was quickly altered. By the company more than the alcohol.
Splendid to see some returnees and I'll say a hello to Simon who says he generally a lurker, but came along and I hope had a fun night. It was good to meet you. Other lurkers are equally welcome next time.

Also good to meet Steve Turner at last and Sid and his sons. I had lots of good conversation, and as Shelby Lynne featured in a few of them and some of you don't know her here she is with Willie Nelson. I know some of us would love to hear Shelby say "I'll do anything your heart desires.."

for the co-ordinaton and the beautiful cake.

And thanks to everyone I met for the great company and badinage. Apologies to all those I never got a chance to speak with properly - do forgive my appalling manners. I'll try harder next time.

I bought Retro that beer! I can sleep at nights now...

PS I'm the (mercifully) fuzzy lump in the blue jumper in El Hombre Malo's photo's! Relax, girls.

Thanks once again Hannah for organising. I've thought long and hard about trying to list everyone I managed to natter with last night and I shirk away for fear of not including a single one of you. Suffice to say that I ambled and weaved home happy, more informed, and buoyed by laughter and good companionship. Already looking forward to the next one: Massive meet-ups: the conversation that goes on and on....

Good to catch up hopefully we'll have another before 2011. Good chat etc. (even though I might have been a bit blunt in my dismissal of morris dancing, Retroman!)

Thank expecially to El Hombre Malo, Retro Man and Drakeygirl for the CD's. The FPO is out with the girls tomorrow, so I'll get almost a full day to devour them without any complaints.

Great to see peolpe I've met before and those I haven't, and sorry not to have mingled more, but time slips by.

Thanks Twang for the link, and the photo of me which I didn't realise was even being taken is thankfully passable for once.

Hats off to Hannah for her exceptional organisation skills and cake which I didn't have.

See you next time.

biggest regret is I had to leave at 10pm to catch train back to Brum. Will aim to make the next one too whenever it is. Carl, think we will be both be standing in same queue for Shelby!! Having seen her up close and personal have to say the photos on her cd's do not do her justice. Hannah, your apple cake was divine - much better than the seriously fruity version that Waitrose sold me the night before. Anyway enough of this I hsve to go and listen to the MC5 - thanks all for a great night.

believe every single topic imaginable was discussed at length without rancour. Couldn't believe how quickly it became 11:30.

Thanks to Hannah for organising (and the lovely apple cake).

Good organisation, Hannah. And splendid to, at long last, put some faces and proper names to all the screen-names. I don't think I got too battered. And I wasn't that shabby this morning, although spending the night in a hotel and not waking up until ten thirty probably had something to do with it..

I’ve mentally quarantined the grimy netherworld of sex shops and pokey off-licences that surround Euston station as an area of the Capital accessible only via the London Underground. Yesterday I bothered to look it up in my London AZ and realised that it was just up the road from the British Museum. I walked there from Russell Square, where I had spent a lazy hour lounging on the grass reading Tim Bradford’s Groundwater Diaries and watching an indecisive squirrel, clutching a walnut in its paws, bounding around in circles looking for a place to bury it. Having settled on a suitable spot and secured its food reserves for the hard metropolitan winter ahead, it scurried up the trunk of one of the enormous trees. A crow that had been lurking in the wings, hopped across the grass, prised the nut out of the ground and flew away with it in its beak.

On the final approach to The Prince Arthur I was accosted in the street by fellow WORD acolyte and all-round good egg Vorgongod. We descended on the pub to find that early arrival and board legend Drakeygirl, being unfamiliar with the suave and handsome men and women that comprise the WORD Massive, had mistakenly attempted to ingratiate herself with a group of non-Word-reading strangers, who did not take kindly to her attempts to discuss changing band line-ups with them.

There were mixed fortunes for Captain Underpants who has apparently been unmasked by his work colleagues. He also has a new role which, whatever he says to the contrary, is blatantly a front for him joining The Justice League and fighting high-end crime alongside Wonder Woman and the Martian Manhunter.

Hannah bought a wonderful cake tiled with slices of apple.

“It really smells of apples,” I said. Probably the stupidest remark uttered without he assistance of alcohol all evening.

I don’t think that continued thank yous are really going to be adequate compensation for Hannah's organisational and baking skills. We need to start working on some kind of portable shrine that we can bring with us to meetings.

El Hombre Malo, here on temporary loan from Scotland, confirmed his role as a walking encyclopaedia of music.

Joe Rivers pondered on whether a group that has spontaneously shed 60% of its members can still call itself a band and recounted a short energetic live set by Janelle Monae, whose towering hairstyle was unable to withstand more than a few minutes of animated grooving.

Leedsboy came out defending Snow Patrol and in particular their song Chasing Cars which played a minor supporting role in the delivery of his twins. In the spirit of consensus building that will one day see the Word Massive diplomatically resolve all major conflicts around the world, the three of us who were listening all nodded our heads and admitted that actually the band were alright and had recorded a few good songs. In a separate conversation, we agreed that we should make more of an effort to be nicer about George Michael on the boards. As Symon rightly pointed out, had Everything She Wants been recorded by Marvin Gaye it would be regarded as a classic.

A discussion with Ganglesprocket about Sean Connery segued into him recalling an anecdote about how Michael Caine, who , in one of his lesser film roles, suffered the indignity of wearing a safari suit that was slowly darkened in colour by a deluge of bee guano.

Did Drakeygirl really tell a story about dressing up as a chicken and accepting an industry award on behalf of a much disliked colleague? Come half-past ten, a fuzzy logic was starting to gain a footing in the conversation. Leedsboy was patiently explaining to me the reasons why ex-conservative front bencher Michael Portillo is his bitch, as if this was an objective truth that could be irrefutably proven by rigorous scientific argument - Which it may well be; I not saying that it isn’t the case.

As is ever the way with these gatherings there were some faces who were permanently away on the other side of the bar and who I didn’t really get to talk to. I suppose it doesn’t matter. It’s good that people who share virtual space make an continuing effort to get together in person every few months, often travelling great distances to do so. Intellectual slag that I am, I like to look around at the pockets of discussion and count the groups and the number of people in them, in an attempt to unravel how it works and what it means...

I caught the second to last train home which I note has a better quality of person on it than the last train. It’s the love train – the one that the O’ Jays sang about, as opposed to the one that crawls out of Fenchurch Street station 25 minutes later, which is the “we’ll beat you up while you’re semi-conscious and steal your shoes and your iPod train.”

I got stuck on a closed M4 and barely made it down to the Bill Bailey gig at 9.30 in the centre of town

I hope I will be welcomed to the next one and i'll make sure i'm not already gigging that night

I burnt off a couple of my Costello Meltdown and Birmingham recordings from earlier in the year to give to anyone that wanted one - so get in touch.

I hope you know how jealous, envious and, down right spiteful you have made me, all of you! Especially you Sr. Malo traipsing off to 'That London' when I'm 5 mins down the road from you. My best efforts to rally the Weegie Massif over the summer came to nought.

Bah, pffff and 'down with this sort of thing' the lot of you!

J. Blast BMF

I am not mad

Hope so.

I had a great time, and in my rush to get the link up for the photos forgot to thank Twangothan, Steve Turner & Ganglesprocket for the CDs.

Merci beaucoup, toutlemonde.

Great to meet so many of my invisible friends, including a couple who don't post so much but were brave enough to come along and blether like champs.

Another splendid evening, especially as I missed the last one. I enjoyed talking to everyone, enjoyed the cake (Hannah's apple tart takes the prize), enjoyed the atmosphere, enjoyed meeting relative newcomers drakeygirl and Simon. I even found a potential fellow masochist for the Dunwich Dynamo next year, Carl, who's about to embark on an even longer ride, to Arnhem. Yes, Arnhem. I've got ten months to work on you Carl, it's a must.

In the excitement of laughing like a numpty while in the company of the wholly lovely drakeygirl, I meant to tell of my celebrity-lined journey to the boozer.

I popped into Fopp in Covent Garden on my way up and as I came out and crossed over into Charing Cross Road I saw IFTLATLW hit maker Mick Jones enter The Marquis of Granby boozer on Cambridge Circus.

'Oh. I'll tell the Massive. Bit of a conversation starter', I thought.

But wait, it gets even better. By the time I got to Phoenix, er, I mean Euston, I was wilting a bit and needed scran. So I swerved into the station concourse and went into WH Smith to buy a Twix. I stood in a short queue of suitcase manouvering travellers. Directly in front of me was a harassed looking blonde lady with a young son and some cumbersome luggage-on-wheels. She took her turn at the till and promptly knocked her suitcase on its side. I picked it up for her.

It was Sarah Lancashire, aka Raquel out of Corrie and several subsequent tv dramas.

'Oh thank you very much' she said. 'We're not having much luck with that blooming case'

'It's quite alright', I said, mildly stunned.

Then I arrived at the pub, was dazzled by the glamour within and forgot all about it.

I had a wonderful time and it was terrific to see you all, old and new faces alike.

Thanks for the kind comments on the cake too. As I might have mentioned last night, my husband's an incredibly fussy and uninterested eater, which unfortunately limits the cooking I do. It's a bit heartbreaking, given that cooking and food are two of my greatest pleasures in life.

So. It was lovely to have the opportunity to do a bit of baking and then to share it with you all.

While I'm here... we had planned 5th November for the next drinks, but the Word gig's since been announced for the 4th. I feel we should kick back the drinks towards the end of November, what do you think?

So glad everyone of our southern brethren had a whoopee time.Us next on the 24th.I don't suppose any of you lot fancy a trip 'oop north? A warm welcome guaranteed.

No, not him. And not me either as I was not physically in the country at the time. Pathetic excuse I know. Cakes and ale? Somerset Maugham will be jealous

what's gone before and say it was lovely to see everyone - faces old and new - and I had a thoroughly lovely time.

Thanks to Hannah for organisation (and CAKE!), and to Retro and Twang for the CDs.

It's not often in one night I talk about the transparency of Tracey Thorn's ears, Norwegian football and the lyrics of Serge Gainsbourg, but Friday was one of those nights, and all the better for it.

I'm late in posting doesn't mean I didn't have a great night. It's a strange and lovely thing to shoot the breeze with a bunch of people you don't know at all and yet know really quite well. I was delighted to add legendary Lenny, darling Drakey (right back attcha, sweetcheeks) and the two Turners to my Massive Faces to Names file.

As mentioned, the Captain's cloak of invisibility has indeed slipped. (Long story short: if you initially used your real name or email address as your blog name, and subsequently changed it, a Google search for your name will still lead to your Word Blog page.) What's happened is that, after a tip off, work colleagues and even rival journalists have been coming up and nudging me and saying things like, "So why didn't you just tell the Fuckwits to fuck off?" or "I prefered your earlier, funny blogs".

This unmasking of my alter ego is kind of cool and flattering, and has had one very, very good outcome. (When I told Mr Hepworth that The Word had helped land me a job, he laughed politely and then demanded 15% of my first year's salary.) But still, it's unnerving to have actual real people you actually really know sending you emails asking 'So what's MyAmericanMate's problem, anyway?'*

It's also made me realise what an enormous amount of time, much of it on someone else's ticket, I have spent talking bollocks with my invisible friends. I think cold turkey is what's needed here, so the Captain will therefore regretfully be hanging up his cloak for a while. I'll be at the Hannon show though and any meet ups if I'm allowed.

So thank you and, um, goodnight.

Dave

*Not really, Mate. I just felt like winding you up one more time.

And I would've posted much sooner if my sodding interweb hadn't been such a bastard this weekend.

I had a brilliant night, as ever, and as ever didn't get to speak properly to half the people I'd wanted to. I'd name names of all the wonderful people I did get to spend time with, but it would take too long and as I've already proven to Joe, my memory is extremely beer-soluble. I will mention, though, that it was a treat to meet Drakey and Lenny for the first time, and that Vorgongod has a fantastic set of voices up his larynx. He treated me to startlingly accurate impressions of almost every single Thick Of It / In The Loop character, so Mike, it's always a pleasure - thanks for making me laugh. A lot. And the rest of you, you know who you are. Thanks for a great night.

Oh, and here are the only two pictures I managed to snap.

Top, L-R:
Sid Williams, Retro, Richie B, Fraser

Bottom, L-R:
Drakeygirl, Lenny Law

(sorry about the awful flash-eyes, everyone)

And here are the lovely el hombre malo and the loveliest Hannah.

Thanks, everyone.

I lurk around the site and rarely post. I lurked outside the pub for quite a while which is not a good thing to do around Euston Station.

Lots of biggish groups at the pub but spotted David H and decided to stop lurking and go in. I had a lovely time meeting everyone who all turned to be at least as nice, funny and intelligent as their website incarnations.

I was coming "off the back of" a longish and liquidish lunch - and my decision to drink Stella was not the best perhaps. So - I'm very sorry if I upset anybody as a result.

Anyway, if I have not blotted my copy book too much, I hope to meet all of you again and thanks to all (especially Hannah for organising) for a great evening

I bet the photo of Hannah and El H was taken some time before the other one above it.
Great to see everyone and don't worry about Stella intake. There were plenty worse on my bus home. (like backwards7 I caught the penultimate service, but standards seem to have dropped)
See you all at the next one including I hope the now unmasked Captain.

I managed to mislay my iPhone on the train on the way home from Friday's acohol-fuelled jamboree. Localised air turbulence I believe, was to blame, causing the carriages to rock uncontrollably*
*insert fart joke here.
Imagine the joyfulness that leapt into my heart on Monday, then, when I phoned Euston's Lost Property Office to discover that London Midland Trains staff had handed in the phone and all I had to do was get on the train and go down to that thar London and collect it!**
**At this point, I would like to thank Word Massive wit Archie Valparaiso, who suggested on Twitter that "surely there was an 'app' for that?".
So, having collected the wayward device today, I eagerly checked the photo gallery to see what arty and well-composed photos I took at Friday's gathering of the great and the gorgeous.
The list is as follows:
Photos 1-3: A pink, amorphous blob, which I soon deduced was my thumb over the lens.
Photos 4-5: Blackness. Possibly the inside of my pocket or handbag?
Photo 6: A close-up of a pint, which makes me feel a little queasy even now, four days later.

And then, there it was, Photo 7. Grainy, badly lit (no flash), and somehow paparazzi-like. Yes, it was the legendary lost Prince Arthur pic, of the unfeasibly young Joe R:

... you've made Joe look like my little cousin Raymond.

You didn't seem that pissed at the end of the night. Was I wrecked as well? I thought I was fine

http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/london-massive-drinks-when-do-you-...

I'm on a massive and tedious health kick, so between now and Christmas is out. I won't even be drinking at the other two Word nights.

21st Jan is my birthday, so it's 7th or 14th for me.