August 19th, 2003 Chico, CA

Last time I wrote, the summer was ahead, and now it is officially over, since
school starts in a few days. Sorry for the long lulls in my updates!
I spent nearly two months in Germany and the time flew by as you might
expect. I played eight shows in Germany: three with Go Luckys, four solo,
and one with the Terminal Waste Band from Chico! All were special and
quite different from each other. I even had friends join in, as Silvana
from the Woog Riots joined me in Darmstadt, Kurt Kreikenbaum joined me in
Koeln, and Chris Cacavas joined the GoLuckys on stage at Karlsruehe. It
was super fun to play a few shows with Calexico too. Playing at the Swamp
Room Happening was a BLAST! But I think my favorite show was playing in the
street fest in Tuebingen, watching the street fill up with people from
different ages and musical tastes, all watching me beat on my guitar and
try not to look nervous.

Not to make you all jealous or anything, but my favorite moments in Germany
this summer were camping along the Rhein river and exploring Amsterdam for
a few days: Looking at Vincent's paintings, eating ice cream on the canals
and observing the local talent at night with my best friend beside me. A
well deserved perfect summer.

Now I am back in Chico getting braced for another tough semester. I am
looking forward to Botany, and new German cinema, but the rest of the
courses will be a challenge. Just imagine taking Organic Chemistry at
8am!!!!!And then Human Genetics before breakfast!!!! I also got myself a
job in the chemistry stockroom. whhhhhoooohhhhhoooo! I can't wait to start
washing the E-flasks and testtubes. I sewed a patch of an exploding bomb
on to my lab coat which I hope helps me to make lots of friends at the new
job.

I will have a Chico show, presenting my newest group playing my songs
called ETC on Sept 27th in the downtown park. The show is free, all ages
and starts at 6pm-8. The band, ETC, features Terminal Waste Band members,
Christen and Scott. I am very happy to have a band to play with locally,
and look forward to our progress and future shows. Plus the drummer girl is
really cute.

I have also written some songs for an upcoming play, an adaption of
Moliere's Misanthrope with a modern spin on the music industry, presented
by the Blue Room theatre of Chico. The play will run in November. See
blueroomtheatre.com

Also in November, the hard-to-believe-it-is-going-to-happen, nearly twenty
years later, reunion of 28th Day (my first band) will happen on NOv. 28th
at the MakeOut Room in San Francisco. I also hope to have a Chico show
organized the smae weekend. I will post that announcement on the message
board as I get it pinned down. 28th Day will record a couple of songs for a
limited 7 inch which will be available at the show.

I have been given the great opportunity to record an album with my
extremely talented sister, Terri! We will work on it all autumn and
winter, hoping for a spring '04 release. We plan to play all the
instruments, etc. ourselves, and record it at Terri's house in SF. I know
it will have that special sound that two sisters at home can make.
Lots of tea kettles rattling and cats purring, you know that kind of
recording session. More about our progress later.

The twins are busy as ever. Their awesome new Crashing Dreams record has a
label and song titles and all, only waiting for my liner notes to finish it
up. I can't give this record enough praise. It really is brilliant. I
will announce it's release on the message board once it is in my hands. The
twins are also touring with Gram Jeffries' Cake Kitchen this September in
Germany. I wish I could see them play!!!!

Another release to proudly announce is the new vinyl release of the Glands
Of External Secretion's Tubular Bells!!!! Yes, really really.
It is a masterpiece of achievement, especially considering it was performed
entirely with office supplies. It can be bought via RevolverUSA at
midheaven.com and is on the fine label, Starlight Furnishings.

I am super deeelighted with the recent Go Luckys vinyl picture disc called
One Starry Night at the Shop, on Hannover label Swamproom records. I will
send one to our web mistress, Renee, and hopefully she can scan the art
work-it is really fantastic!

Hero the van is trying hard to pass the smog test at this very moment.
Otherwise, Hero is running excellently and seems happy that I'm back in the
states again. No big plans for touring except look for me in Sacramento, SF
and Tuscon before the end of the year.

One last thing before I sign off: I am a DJ on the community radio station
of Chico: KZFR 90.1 every second Tuesday at 7:30-10 pm.
I play all those great bands who manage to slip me their self released cds
and records while I am on the road, as well as my favorites, so tune in if
you are near.

Thanks everyone for being patient for my overdue updates and my basic
aversion to computers, and especially, thanks for being a fan.

write in!

love,
Barbara

Newsletter July 9th 2002 Suessen, Germany

Hello friends,
here's Flavio & Fabrizio writing. Barbara is going to write the last passage of this month's newsletter. We hope you all are doing fine while reading these lines. We just want to tell you some plans of the band as well as some nice stories!

Let's start with today. It's our 25th birthday as we were born in 1977, the year that punk broke! For the first time in 3 years we will not be able to celebrate this day together with our dear bandmate Barbara. What a shame! This is one of the negative aspects of being a transatlantic band! The gap between places is too big and it takes ages till we meet again sometimes! But we don't want to complain too much either. It's a happy day for us. Together we're fifty years old; older than almost all the rest of you;-) We will have a small party this year, since there's no Golden Gate Park here in Suessen/South Germany! As usual we're pretty sure that we will not give presents to each other.
We never did that. Also a strange thing about being twins! We're wondering how other twins are handling it!

Talking about music now: We also have a new band. Crashing Dreams, that's our name! It's pure instrumental music and different than all the post rock stuff. And it rocks! Please don't get this wrong: Barbara Manning And The Go-Luckys will always remain, but as Barbara is doing solo shows when we're not around we also had to find a way to stay musically alive when there's no Go-Luckys-action time! This spring we wrote many songs, recorded them in April, had our first show at the Swamp Room Happening Festival in May and beginning of August our Debut EP will be released on the Stuttgart based label Naiv. We're happy we had the chance to work together again with our friend Lolo Blümler in the studio. And Volker Zander also helped a lot! He is the best bass player in the world. Calexico are damned lucky! Our good friend Nabil Atassi also was part of our line-up at the debut show in Hannover and he will be playing with us in future too! That's the short story so far.

We'll play with Barbara again in October in Boston at the Terrastock 5 Festival. That's going to be our only American show this year! The German tour starts on December 24th 2002 and ends on January 18th 2003! Details will come a.s.a.p.! Last month 'Transatlantic Trips' was released in Germany on Normal Records as part of the Return To Sender series! It's mainly something for real fans cause it shows the band in all its dimensions! Live material, radio sessions, etc.! It's rough! Next release will be the 7" single/CDsingle 'A Mountain' on Supermodern Records, a very cool German indie label! 2 new songs and some other specialties! On Christmas we'll also have a little release party going on for our punk rock 7"single! The 2 songs "Don`t Neglect Yourself" and "Old Woman" will be released by another very cool German indie label called Swamp Room Records! The singles will be very limited and are released as a part of the Swamp Room Singles Club! After that the live album 'One Starry Night At The Shop' will
be released as Picture Disc Vinyl only. Again on Swamp Room Records! And that's all the release plans for 2002.

We hope we still have your attention as the newsletter has not ended yet! Barbara has some more lines for you! But we'll end for now. We're looking forward to meet you all again down the road. Please take care and feel free to write back if you have any cool suggestions, like for example good labels or agencies that you think the Go-Luckys should be working with in future to get even more famous;-)

Ciao,
Flavio & Fabrizio

Barbara here you go:

July 9th, 2002 Chico, CA

Happy Birthday Twins! I wish I could go to your birthday party!!!! Have a Kult beer for me, haha.

Hello friends!

Well I am considerably more cheered up than in my last newsletter. In fact, I am starting to really like it here in Chico now, mostly because I have been making some great new friends, and the housing and job front began to look up. In fact I think that as soon as I started to think I was going to leave soon, I ended up meeting some folks that opened my eyes to some of the charms of Chico that I had missed.

I just came from the apartment of one of my new pals, Jeff, who has the best radio show on the local community radio station, KZFR. He let me in to the studio with him last week and I got to play my favorite songs, "Euro-tunes" as one listener remarked, plus talk about the twins, as I love to do. Today he brought out all of his rare Pete Townsend records, and we Who'ed out for a little while. I am still hoping to get my foot in the door at KZFR, but even to volunteer, I must be patient. I am going to just start hanging out there until they let me get involved...

KCSC is still in limbo. It appears that the station was disrupted by a hacker and someone has been living in the station as well, so getting in to do radio has turned out to be difficult. I still have hopes to do a show with Seymour Glass during the 4th of July weekend, but I don't know exactly when we will be able to get in. I will try to email the mailing list as soon as I know what date and time we are broadcasting.

I managed to get myself a couple of little jobs! I am once again a record clerk, luckily at the best vinyl shop in Chico, Melody records. I will be there at the counter on most Fridays from 3-6. Only! Still it is nice to be surrounded by records again, even if for a three hour a week shift. I am also freelancing for the Chico, News and Review, writing live reviews for bands and CDs! I will have my first one in the paper tomorrow. It feels a bit strange to critique a person's work, but if I can turn it around for some money, then I am ready to let my opinions fly!

The Dirty Pillows had our first rehearsal since the band combusted. We are still a five girl band, but now we have renamed ourselves: We are the Moist Makers! I think we will be prepared to have our coming out performance in the next months. The line-up now is: Trish on vocals, Tamie on guitar and vocals, Robin on drum and vocals, Candice on bass, and yours truly, Babuna Honnig (my alias) on lead guitar and keyboard.

The twins new band, the Crashing Dreams, are fabulous. I got to hear their new recordings, and I can tell you that it doesn't need a vocalist. The guitars sing and so does the bass! And the drums rock. Congratulations Twins! You are..twentyfive, you are, that's what you are...la la la.

The biggest event of my summer: Mission of Burma are playing at the Fillmore, SF in a few weeks!!! I will be hyper-excited like a displaced electron. I can not wait!!!!

And last but not least, summer school report: I actually love my chemistry class and I even bought myself a little lab coat so I feel the role of chemist. I am doing quite well so far, but there are still three weeks of daily classes ahead, and the homework is heavy. I told my sister that Chemistry is my new boyfriend cause I sleep with the textbook.

I have been really enjoying the postings on the message board thing on this page. (Did anyone read the one from the two girls in So Cal who named their band, Planet Manning? I wanna hear their version of That Kid! ) I love being able to share the letters, and to have an open forum. Once again, a huge thank you to the awesome Miss Renee Esquivil for all of her web expertise. She makes this page exist.

Signing off for now. Everyone have a fun summer and keep the cards and letters coming!

Love,
Barbara

May 30th, 2002 Chico, California

Schools out for the summer! But it only lasts ten days for me, as I am summer school bound. Six weeks of chemistry and three of US History, whee!

I am told that Chico can be survivable if you spend it by the creek, and so I plan to do alot of outside studying, and will try to remember that the library is my friend. I am in the university library now, and it is empty of students. Chico deflates like an innertube when the students leave town. I was hoping the lack of all of those blond and white youngins would increase my chances of finding gainful employment, but so far I've been striking out. I've tried all of the record shops in town, even Tower!...But no one wanted to see my impressive resume and binder full of letters of recommendation.

My sister said to me yesterday, "as one door slams you in the face, another one may open."

I am having a slightly critical look at my return to this flat, hot and insular town, and wondering if it is right for me. I've made a few good friends, but boy oh boy do I miss San Francisco, and Suessen. Those places feel like home.

Speaking of home: it is time that I get one! I have spent the last week looking for a room to rent, and wondering how my mother managed to move two teenaged daughters and a schoolbus to Chico so many years ago. Rents are crazy expensive here and I am barely scraping by as it is. I am feeling the stuckedness one gets when you get some security. It is a weird compromise for basic survival. It really makes me wish I could write a hit song. Life
is so hard at times. How do people who are alone manage?

The Dirty Pillows had a slight internal combustion which pushed the band into a hiatus, and may even will change the name. I think all the girls are happy for a break anyway. I don't know about the band's future at this time, but something very wonderful is bound to be reconstructed from it's metamorphase.

My radio program, the Rundfunk Umleitung show (Radio Detour)also is on a hiatus. I need to figure out how to get some consistent summer hours, but the poor student run operation is very under nourished. There will be a brilliant radio marathon during the 4th of july weekend when ex-patriate KCSC DJ legend Seymour Glass visits Chico. We will reinvent college radio for a brief few hours, and try to conjure up the old music ghosts of the KSCS radio past, Shattered Future and The 95th Parallel. I will announce
it on the message board on the BM web site. I am also about to jump through the hoops required to be involved with the Chico community radio station, KZFR. (I only hope that they forgive me for accidentally calling it KFRC on the application! Whoops.) KZFR is affiliated with KPFA and can be heard as far south as Sacramento. I will
train during the next months and then apply for a show. Hopefully I will be free enough to have my Rundfunk Umleitung show and play all of those brilliant records that I treasure.

Tomorrow I drive to Sacramento to perform at the Tape Op conference. I see how pricey it is and so I appologize to all of you in the Sac area who can't make it. I will be performing with my sis, Terri, at the wonderful True Love Cafe with some other superb acts, particulary Rebeccal Gates. Also, concurrently playing are Calexico at another venue, so its one of those frustrating festivals that require constant moving between sets. The Golucky twins are utterly thrilled that I get to see Kevin Seconds (from 7
Seconds) which is one of Flavio's current idols. Other acts that I am excited to see are Hurricane Lamps from Virginia/Wash DC, and the post 28th Day band called the Sunbirds featuring Cole Marquis (who celebrated his 40th last Friday and is going to be a daddy soon!!!) I look forward to having some fun, as I have been in a worry wart state since finals. I am ready to have some laughs!

The Twins have had a massively fun past several weeks. They recorded several of their new songs in Darmstadt with our favorite recording guy, Lolo. Volker Zander, owner of Sommerweg records, and bass player for the European Calexico line-up plays bass with them and so does the Go-Luckys sometime keyboard player, Nabil Atassi, on guitar. The band is called Crashing Dreams (yes, from Rain Parade) and they sound so great that they were invited to play Germany's biggest hippie-psych rock festival in
Hannover, the Swampfest. The festival was a big success and the twins got no sleep the whole time. They are still on the road as I write this. Ahh the life of a musician can be so fine.

Flavio wanted me to mention that the Normal records Return to Sender album of live Go-Luckys recordings is about to be available, mail order only. The twins will send out some kind of announcement. They are great at that promotional stuff.

I went up to the woods to see my mama last weekend, and we had a real blast. She was helping me with my Frankenstein laptop computer that was donated to me by the other Manning sisters: Shannon and Tammy. I finally have a zip drive attached to download what I wrote on it, but Mom and I couldn't get it to work yet. However, we did manage to connect to the internet which really surprised us. Slowly slowly the cyberworld is making its way to me. If I am able to have computer access away from the library, I would be very happy about it. I know, the library is my friend, but familiarity has breed some contempt.

Mom and I also watched some movies together: Memento and a cool German flick called the Princess and the Warrior. Both super great, but the German film had subtitles which required me to sit right next to the three inch TV screen and read the subtitles outloud to her throughout the film! An outside bath and a lot of sleeping in the dear old trailer added to a great get-away from Chico.

Next week I am planning on a short roadtrip up to Eureka, Mckinleyville, and Arcada to visit my pals in Automatic Pink and darlings, the Fulmers. I hope to see lots of fog, mountains and trees, and at least one walk on the beach.

Then back to hot hot hot Chico, and chemistry class, and the inevitable job hunt, and moving to a place to settle down all of my school books. After basically three years of living out of a suitcase and staying with my friends, I don't need much. Just a happy environment and a place for my bed.

I will write in once I have some good news to tell. You can all write in to the message board now that I learned how to use it, and I now can access all of those messages that are sent to the web, thanks again Renee! So write in, ask questions, make comments, its a great little forum, and I check it regularly now that I know how.

I wish you all a very fun-filled summer. Use your best judgment, love your friends, and look after each other.

your pal,
Barbara

April 17, 2002 Chico, CA

Hi Friends,

Are you able to understand my crazy chords and lyrics notations? I know some of my chords are wacky, but I tried to draw them so that you could figure them out... =Any feedback would be good, but I must confess that I never remember how to access the web mail. I guess no one should write me since I can't figure out how to read the mail.. I noticed that there is a kind of bulletin board up on this site that I could read, so please write to me there. I also can receive mail at my new PO Box in Chico (address below).

The site is getting flashier, thanks a million to Renee! I have drifted over to it occasionally when I was supposed to be writing an essay or some other homework. I am very proud of it!!!!! What else do you all want to see on it? More songs? (I can almost hear Renee sighing now. I imagine it ain't easy getting things scanned in.)

I am getting better at my radio show! I have another hour of "air time" which means that now my show is from 4-7 pm California Time on Thursday nights. I go by the on air name of Babuna Honnig and the show is called "Rundfunk Umleitung," which sort of means "radio detour" in German. You can listen to it online at: www.asbookstore.com/kcsc and call to make requests! (530-898-6228) I also get to play all those CDs that I am given while on the road. For sure, send me your CDs to play on the air!!!!

Radio Radio Radio! Last weekend, I performed my first solo gig in ages in a small town outside of Chico called Oroville. It was a benefit for a brand new Low-Power radio station called Radio Bird Street, KRBS. The airwaves are becoming a huge monopoly of corporate power, so if you get a chance to support a local community radio station, do it while they still exist! It breaks my heart to learn about how NPR is attempting to squash the small, freeform stations.

The next official Barbara Manning gig should be at the Tape Op Conference at the beginning of June. I haven't been told a thing about it, so I can't say what date or time I am playing yet, but I know that it will be at Sacramento's historic Crest Theater. I played there once before, back in the mid-eighties with Twenty Eighth Day opening up for TSOL. I hope I am better received this time!! As I remember last time we got covered in spit. Ah, but these are different times.

The Go-Lucky twins just finished up their holiday jobs working at a huge heavy metal record mail order company called Nuclear Blast. They ended up loving the environment and made lots of friends, of course, that's the twins. They aren't wearing spikes and Entombed tshirts, as far as I know. But they had fun packing the boxes. They are organizing two new releases of Go-Luckys! Live albums and a single. I can't wait to see and play with them again next October at the Terrastock 5 fest in Boston.

The Dirty Pillows meine reine Frauenband ist nicht fertig zu spielen. Oops, sorry I was doing my German homework right before writing this letter. What I meant to tell you is that in a few months the all girl punk band I have joined will be ready to warp the stages of Chico, but not quite yet. I will make the announcement when we are ready to come out!

Lastly, I want to send my love out on the cyber waves to my family who are still reeling from the death of my beloved cousin, Josh Crow, on Easter Sunday. He was a magnificent person and I miss him.

Take good care of each other out there. I will write in again near the end of this semester.

Much love,
Barbara
PO Box 5435
Chico, CA 95927-5435
USA

February 21, 2002 Chico, California

Schiesse! School is hard! No wonder I dropped out the first time. Except this time I am determined to get as much out of it as I can, and all of the old peer pressure and misguided sexual tension is gratefully missing this time around. Not that I don't feel like a weirdo, sitting in the classes surrounded by students who were born the year I joined my first band. Ah well, nothing has changed that much. I am still a geek in a sea of Greeks.

The only class worth mentioning here is my German class. I am learning German, and I guess it is about time. Finally I will be able to read for myself all of the reviews that the Twins said were positive. Hmmmm.

The exciting news to share with you all is that I have a radio show on the college station, KCSC. It is the very same station that spawned my earlier hectic life here in Chico, back in the days of 28th Day and all. Former DJ greats include Seymour Glass with his Shattered Future show featured on the first Glands of External Secretion lp, and the legendary 95th Parallel show that also highlighted the punk rock genius of DJ Joan of Art. Well these are very different times, but I intend to have a killer radio show regardless of the pervading outside musical tastes. The best part about the station is that it is broadcast on the web which means it is accessible to anyone with a computer anywhere-that means you can hear my fluid seg-ways and deeelightful back announcements without having to travel to Chico to hear it! What a thrill! This semester, my show is on Thursday nights from 5-7 PST. It's free to listen, but it may require a ! slight cyber hooking up trick. I intend to figure it out so that I can explain how to hook it up. The site is located at: www.asbookstore.com/kcsc. Since so much of my homework must be done online, I have been fooling around with computers more than usual for me, and I realized that I can listen to great radio stations such as WFMU and WMBR while I am typing away at the computer in the Chico library. What a technological wonderment!

The other way that I am maintaining my flimsy sanity while going to school is that I have joined an all girl punk rock band called The Dirty Pillows. I am the official lead guitarist and am known as my special alias, Babuna Honig. The band is already full of raw hit songs thanks to the masterful songwriting duo of Tammie and Trish and also features Dara on bass and Robin on drums. I look forward to our practices so much! It is a blast to be playing again and not having to sing or be a bandleader. More about the Dirty Pillows as our career begins to take off. Of course, The Go-Luckys! remain my numero uno as far as musical compainions are concerned and I am super happy to announce that we three will be reunited this October for the upcoming Terrastock 5 in Boston. Hurray!! So far it is the only scheduled Go-Luckys! gig in the USA for 2002.

That's all my news for now. I will write again soon since my computer skills appear to be unthawing. I send lots of love to all of you.

your pal,
Barbara


Barbara Manning
PO Box 5435
Chico CA 95927-5435
www.barbaramanning.com

January 19, 2002 Suessen, Germany

Hello to All!

Now the holidays are over, but here in Germany the Karnival is in full swing with flashy wigs, children dressed as clowns and men dressed as young girls. I fly back to California in less than 24 hours, carrying with me heavy suitcases full of newly aquired CDs and LPs. Last weekend The Go-Luckys! had our last performance of our tour at the greatest used record store in the world, Second Hand Records in Stuttgart. We were paid with a shopping spree, and I walked out of the store with an armload of rare German punk records among other treasures.

I have been so happy to be here in Europe with my bandmates, Flavio and Fabrizio, for the past five months, and I hope I don't end up crying on the plane all the way back to the USA. The Go-Luckys! have been together non-stop since the twins arrived in San Francisco last June, touring America together, and then much of Europe. In between shows and trips we did as much castle hunting and sightseeing as possible. Some big highlights include visiting the statue dedicated to the Bremen Town Musicians (our personal musical heros) and walking around the house of the Grimm Brothers while we were in Kassel. We have friends in every town, city and dorf, and to mention them all would make this letter way too long, but kisses from us are flying through the air and will catch up with our pals when they least expect it.

Have you all checked out the very delightful flash movies that Ulrike Nolte made for my songs, "The Arsonist Story" and "Rhombus"? They are totally cool. Her e-mail address is: uli@daydreams-music.de and she can explain how to view her films online.

The Go-Luckys! recorded some new songs while we were on the road in Germany. We expect to release the songs "A Mountain" and "Heat" as a 7 inch single later this year. We also joined forces with the legendary Friedberg band, The Logan Brothers, for a casio-core version of the Tocotronic hit, "Jackpot". I am particularly proud of the fact that besides playing organ and lead guitar on the song, I am also singing in GERMAN!!! Ja! This song will appear on a Logan Tapes compilation called "Zombies of the Stratosphere" also due out later this year. Oh, yes, I also must remember to mention that the Go-Luckys! will grace the Normal label with a collection of live tracks for a limited release CD for the Return To Sender series. The Go-Luckys! will send out a cyberspace newsletter announcing each release, so you will be sure to know about it as soon as it happens.

Meanwhile, I will be restarting university in Chico, California and will be studying all of those subjects that I had managed to avoid the first time I attempted higher education. No doubt my free time will be spent playing the guitar and daydreaming about the next time I get to play with the twins. I'm gonna really miss them!!!

Quite a few of you requested lyrics to songs, and so I wrote out a few of the most requested ones for you. Soon we will also post the handwritten versions with guitar chords out of my own notebook. I am always thrilled to hear that someone covers one of my songs, so I am hoping to motivate you out there by making it that much easier!

And last of all, big THANKS to Ms. Renee Esquivil who keeps making this web site looking so great!

Lots of love,
Barbara

October 1st, 2001 Suessen, Germany

Hello Friends,
I can hear you all grumbling, "What has happened with Barbara and why hasn't she written in so long?" You are all so right, I have been really lame to avoid computers and let so many months slip by without a word, especially after I promised I would write in during our USA summer tour. I found that the tour was so demanding that when I was finally sitting down at a friend's house who had a computer available to me, instead of checking my messages, I would open a beer and sink into the couch. When the tour ended at the beginning of September, I was stressed to prepare myself for the Europe trip, and then once I got here to Germany, I caught such a bad flu that I spent the next ten days in bed and even was taken to the local doctor's office to check if my bad throat wasn't more serious. It was just the flu and I am on the mend now. I think my body knew that it had a few weeks inbetween touring that it could break down on me. I had the weirdest dreams while I was sick: many scary ones about the terrorist attacks, one about Tom Hanks hanging out and smoking pot with me in my van, a perverse dream about the Dirty Three, and a long dream in which I saw an entire Robyn Hitchcock concert during which I was brewing a tea made from his sweat! It's great to be healthy again and have a normal night's sleep. Still forgive me for not being as communicative as I should be. Now that I have checked in to my email I read so many lovely messages from the friends we made on tour. Thanks also to those of you who came to my defence from the hateful message sent anonymously to the chatroom.

The Go Luckys! USA tour was really something special. 35 shows booked without an agent!!! The drives were all reasonable, and the warm welcomes we received in every city were mind blowing. Every show felt like it mattered, and we had a great time everywhere we went. We were helped in so many ways: we were housed, fed and sometimes even given clothes by friends throughout the tour. Several of the shows were booked by the opening band, or fans who just wanted us to come to their town and became instant pals. Shayne Stacy spent at least a month on the phone helping us to get gigs in all of the coolest clubs, and he is just an average guy like you or me. Music fans unite! This tour proved to me that it is possible for an obscure band to travel 11,000 miles around America with the help of individuals who love the music. Big thanks to Axel and Nicole who traveled with us and worked very hard on the tour as driver, selling merchandise and guest musicians. There is such a long list of people, so far at least 88!, to thank. We don't feel that email is the appropriate way to send our love, so the twins and I will be working on a personal thank you to all of those who went out of their way to help us. I felt as though we were landing into a comforting lap every time we stopped. We had no scary incidents, no accidents, no cop action, and Hero the van ran like a trooper until after the very last show of the tour when poor Hero started smoking due to the worn out brakes,and still got us safely home to my sister's house! Hero is now in the mechanic's shop (Hi Janet!) in San Francisco and will be fully repaired and tuned up before I return to the USA.

Originally I had planned to write that we had just checked in on most of America, and found that the roads were in good shape, and the people all seemed in good spirits. But now, after the terrorist attacks and the threat of war, America appears to be a scary place. I was hanging out with a pal last night who regularly visits America, but he has put off future plans to visit USA, not because of the fear of terrorist activities, but because he is of Syrian descent and he is afraid of being threatened or harmed by the flag waving bullys who appear to be the representative faces of the American public these days. I am watching the European news so I can tell you that at this time the European community is supportive and sympathetic towards America, but if our patriotic urge for revenge and retribution is let loose on the innocents of countries that we barely understand, we as a nation will lose the right to call our actions that of "infinite justice" and the rest of the world will no doubt revert to the former opinion that American policy is that of "might makes right." I have never been an outspoken person as far as politics are concerned, but I am sure that you agree that all Americans have a responsibility to denounce the paranoid hate crimes happening in front of them. Stand up for your neighbors and coworkers who have a different skin color or religion than you. Now is the time to act with humanity towards the diverse cultural mix of people which is the basis for what makes America a great country. Bigotry is terrorism. Thank you for reading my commentary and I welcome your opinions as well.

It's Autumn now, another year flying by. The Go Luckys! are fortunate to be together eight months in a row this year, from June until January 2002. Our European tour is shaping up somewhat differently than we had originally hoped. It appears that the current interest in American indie rock is not as strong as it had been in the past. Our two week tour of Switzerland has been reduced to only two shows, the France tour is skeletal as well, and the Spain tour is cancelled. On the other hand the Germany tour has more dates than expected, partly due to the positive review we recieved in the latest German Rolling Stone which rated our new record 3 1/2 stars out of 4. Still I must give Flavio all of the credit for booking us, once again a self booked tour for the Go Luckys! proving that booking agents are not always necessary. The European tour dates have been changing so much over the last weeks that we were not able to write out any confirmed dates until now.

We have had one show since we arrived back in Germany. On Friday September 14, we were the honored guests of the 10th Anniversary of Hausmusik Records, along with such rock notables as Ghost Club (former 3Ds), Notwist (featuring Console), Couch, Cake Kitchen, Fred Is Dead, and many others playing three nights in a Munich nightclub. Our show was special because Melanie Clarin and her husband Andy DeGiovanni joined us for most of our set. You all know Melanie from my earlier albums, "Scissors" to "Truth Walks...," where Mel was my drummer and singing harmonizing partner in the SF Seals. Mel also was in a slew of other great SF area bands such as The Donner Party, The Cat Heads, Harm Farm, Three Day Stubble, and The Merchants of the New Bizarre. She and Andy were visiting Munich coincidentally at the same time as our show. We were really great that night; the audience seemed to catch our playful happy mood, and smiles were everywhere.

My sister Terri has a couple of recent accomplishments I want to announce. She entered the Matador records photo contest, themed "How much do you love your turntable?" Matador didn't disqualify her for being my sister, and in fact, she won after entering a whole book of photos showing Terri and her turntable out and about in San Francisco, at the beach, in the record store and riding a bike. But the clincher, the one that was the winning photo, was Terri in the bath tub with her beloved record player. She won a record bag emblazoned with Matador's logo and a box of their current releases, most of which she will undoubtedly trade at Ameoba record store for some really good records. Check out Matador's website where the winning photo will be posted: http://www.matadorrecords.com/whatsup/vinyl_rules_winners.html. Terri also participated in recording a soundtrack for an educational film intended for users of American Sign Language, called "See What I Mean" directed by Dan Veltri and distributed by the Seattle based Sign Enhancers Film co. Terri played a variety of instruments including banjo-mandolin and cello.

My plans after the European tour are to return to school to work towards my goal of becoming an environmental scientist. I have been accepted to return to my old university in Chico, California. During the years that I was in my first band, 28th Day, I struggled at Chico State University with complete apathy towards higher learning. Now, 17 years later, I am willing to commit the time and effort to succeed at school, and I am promising myself that I will not become the rebelious student I always was in the past. Well, we will see. The Go Luckys! will aim to reunite during the short school breaks and make the most of our time together. Unless, of course, we have a sudden hit record, and then we will say good bye to school so that we can get back to what we really love to do: recording and playing live.

For now, we will play about 30 shows in the next months and plan to record some songs in December at our friend Lolo's studio in Darmstadt, Germany. I know the time will pass too quickly and I will dream about these days while I am staring at my homework next year. I will miss this troubador life style! So I am really enjoying myself now while the adventures are still happening.

I will write in again close to the Christmas holidays. Thanks to all of you who remain interested and supportive. I appreciate each and every one of you.

Love,
Barbara

July 17th, 2001

Hi Everybody!
In two days we hit the road. The tour is looking great and we have lots of friends to greet us along the way. Thanks to all of you for writing in and making this adventure happen. We have quite a number of new shows to announce, so take a look at the updated Go-Luckys! tour calendar.

Axel (driving, sax) and Nicole ( merchandise, piano) are arriving today from Suessen, Germany, also known as Sweet Town, home of the twins. We are also bringing along our tent, bbq, sleeping bags and tons of tapes (but we always need more music if you want to make us one!). Our van, Hero, is ready to roll with it and the ice chest is stocked with sparkling mineral water.

So far our two shows, Grass Valley and SF, have been full on fun. We are trying out new songs, plus relearning some older ones that the Go-Luckys! had not tried together yet. You can now yell for "Blood of Feeling" and "Joed Out" (which we learned for Liz at Atlanta's Echo Lounge). Flavio will be getting out from behind the drums for a little piano work on "Marcus Leid." We have other surprises for you, so be sure not to miss our show.

Now we must tell you the little news we made in the local Grass Valley Newspaper, The Union. On the very day of the show on the 7th of July at the Center For The Arts, the Go-Luckys had their lucky stars shining super bright on them. While driving in her Mom's truck, Barbara, Fabrizio and Sammy (the dog on the cover of our new record) were hit head on by a suspected DUI driver! A helicopter came for the passenger of the vehicle that hit us, and Barbara was taken away in an ambulance while strapped to a board and neck brace. Fabrizio took care of the injured until the paramedics came. After being examined, Barbara was released, Fabrizio was fine, and Sammy the dog was only shaken. We didn't miss our show and played for two hours only 7 hours after the crash! The Go-Luckys! have the right name. We are feeling very fortunate and happy to have survived such a scary experience.

So we leave you with this Public Service Announcement: Please Drive Safely and Always Wear Your Seatbelt! (Fahr vorsichtig, H.-J.!)

See you down the road and we will write in when we get the chance. You do too!

Love,
Barbara, Fabrizio, and Flavio

June 27th, 2001

Summer is upon us, but you would hardly know it in the foothills of the Sierra Mountains this week. Its raining and the temperature is cold enough for a jacket. Just for now, the weather is preventing me from emptying out my wee trailer in the woods and packing up the band equipment from the famous shed. Soon I will be out of this pretty mountain area, ready to live out of our van Hero for another determined trek across America. Thanks to all of your tour suggestions that have truly come flooding in since we made the plea for help some months ago. And especially huge thanks to our pal from Citrus Heights, CA, Shayne Stacy, who made all of the booking calls for me. It's a reality now. The Go-Luckys! are touring the USA! Check this site now for the confirmed listing of shows, and we will hopefully be adding more to the itinerary.

As you will notice, we still have some loooong gaps between shows in some areas of this huge country. If, by chance, you lived somewhere along the routes of, say, Tucson and New Orleans, or along the pathways of Minneapolis and Spokane, WA, we would sure appreciate some venue suggestions since we are blank in those areas. We can go hungry, but Hero the van can not. Also, anyone who thinks they could post a handful of our tour posters in their local cool spots, like the neighborhood laundromat or record store?, we would gladly send a few your way if you send us your address. We take help whereever we can get it.

We will have some new merchandise for sale while on the road, including a brand new 7 inch single, and vinyl editions of the new album, "You Should Know By Now" and even a long sleeved t-shirt! Sorry, but the "Live in Stuttgart" CD has sold completely out. We will have other surprises as well.

Also look for a feature on The Go-Luckys! in the upcoming Tower Pulse magazine.

We want to know what you all think about our new album, we really do! Any one want to send us your personal review? Any live reviews would be fun for us to read as well. Also I was thinking about posting lyrics and chords for songs, but I know that the lyrics are mostly out there on the records already and my chords are kind of hard to describe sometimes...still I can be easily convinced to write them out for those who want to try and play a Manning number on their own.

I will be writing in when ever possible to give you some up to the minute tour stories. Please come to the shows if you can, and drag your pals with you. And don't forget to tell the promoter how happy you are that the Go-Luckys! were invited to play near you.

One more thing: I must apologize to all of you who wrote in to the web page and never heard back from me. I am only now figuring out how to retrieve messages from there. I am so sorry to have never acknowledged your messages!!! I will get better at this I promise!!! keep writing in, and I will answer all of you who I neglected for so long!

Love,
Barbara, Flavio and Fabrizio

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