Join Me

Archived news 1

Apologies!

Apologies that the site hasn't been updated in a while... as some of you know, I've been away for a little while putting a couple of new things together, which you'll hear more about in the next few months (whether you like it or not)... in the meantime, here's the news!

Moon Man!

I've just returned from a jaunt to the States, where I passed through Lake Tahoe and so made my way to the workplace of none other than Dennis M. Hope... Anyone who's read the book will know who I mean... yep... the head of the Galactic Government and the Lunar Embassy! The Head Cheese! The man who owns the moon!My mentor!

Dennis is a marvellous man who, in 1983, claimed the moon as his own. He now owns all the planets in our solar system apart from Earth, which just goes to show you where a bit of hard work and twenty years can get you. Dennis and I shared an afternoon, and he asked me to say hello to all joinees, wherever you are. He also said that he might come over to London later this year in order to meet some of you and to make a short speech. And to 'enjoy some of your bad lager'. I'm sure we can accomodate him there. Hurrah for Dennis Hope! (see www.lunarembassy.com for more...)

You've Been Priced!

Official Join Me rogue Raymond Price is STILL at it! Our unstoppable rascal has been spotted in and around the betting shops of London, and in at least two pubs. Most sightings now do not involve a scam (so perhaps he is slowing down), but many still do... including the day he was caught - yet again - on camera.
Remember, if you see Raymond - let me know...

Art!

Another date for your diary!
There's going to be a Join Me exhibition on April 8th at the Art of Propaganda Gallery in Wakefield... I'm going to be heading up there on the day and if any Yorkshire joinees want to come along then that'd be marvellous. There'll be some kind of launch with a Q&A, a chance to have a look at the exhibition, and then - I imagine - a couple of pints. More news soon...

Join Him

Cheeky, chirpy Dermot O'Leary of Radio 2 fame has developed a brand new catchphrase ('Join Me') and a new look for photos (the 'Join Me point') on his show's website. A joinee mailed him recently to ask if he'd joined yet, and he said he was 'open to suggestions'. Good man. Scott Mills is also doing his weekly Random Act of Kindness on Radio 1, in his new slot, Random Acts of Kindness. Come on, Scott! Join Me! You know you want to!

Tsunami Relief

Thanks to everyone who responded to the last Join Me Mailout encouraging you not to forget about donating to the Tsunami Relief fund... judging by what was written back to me, joinees gave over a grand in the days after the e-mail was sent... thank you so much. And remember - you can still donate... click on the link on the front page...

Seph Lawrance

I'm sure many British joinees will have read with some sadness about the death of Seph Lawrance. He was an active joinee who was killed in January during an apparent mugging. So many of you sent messages to his family and friends through his tribute website, www.sephlawrance.co.uk, and I received an e-mail from one of his friends, saying how much this meant to him. Perhaps, with the permission of Gold Joinee Benner, we can raise some money on Good Good Friday and donate it to a cause of his parent's choice.

And finally...

They did it! Joinees Brake and Laura, who met at a Join Meet after reading Join Me, have had the first Inter-Joinee Baby... I had, of course, imagined they'd be calling it Little Danny Wallace regardless of its sex, but apparently this is 'still under negotiation'...

Passport photo: Artist's impression of the first InterJoinee Baby (not actual size).

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OLDER NEWS

Join Me June

Well, Join Me June, our big summer meet-up, was a great success... and my huge thanks to everyone who came along. Around 220 people had turned up by the end of the day, with joinees being split into four teams and spreading loveliness and random acts of kindness north, east, south and west of Soho’s Golden Square. By the end of the day, at least a thousand good deeds would have been done!
London - Click to enlarge the photo

At the same time, joinees congregated in Edinburgh for a satellite meet-up, and did much that same in that fair city - taking to the streets with presents and banners, and confusing locals, tourists and goths alike.
Edinburgh

Joinee Griffin strums away

Sadly, official Join Me band Vis a Vis couldn’t make it to London on the day, but the official Join Me popstar Alistair Griffin bravely stepped in, and played the Join Me song in their place. He is now, of course, Silver Joinee Griffin.

And so to the fundraising... I’d heard a story about an old Thai farmer who’d recently been diagnosed with cancer. In order to pay for his treatment, he’d had to sell half his farm, worth around £2500... the treatment hadn’t worked, and he’d been given three months to live. On top of that, he was incredibly worried about his family... and wracked with guilt that they would only have half a farm to see them all through...
At the same time as Join Me June, elsewhere in London, was a mini-fundraiser for the old man, organised by his son-in-law - a chap called Gareth. He wanted to raise £1000 in a day in order to buy the farm back and ensure the family’s safety, and allow the old man to die knowing they’d be okay. I told him if he could raise £500, I reckoned we could too... In the end, joinees alone raised nearly £900! Together with the money Gareth raised (another £700 or so!), we bought the farm back and saved a family! My heartfelt thanks to everyone who donated money on the day... especially Gold Joinee James Frost who changed his name by deed poll to ‘Joinee’ in order to secure funds! Thanks also to all the joinees who made considerable treks to be there on the day - including Silver Joinee Gac - who came all the way from Washington DC!
I had a fantastic day, and it was brilliant to meet so many of you and to see how more and more small collectives are popping up all over the country - and the world!
See you for another one soon...

More and more meets have been happening up and down the country.. .Silver Joinee Varwell recently managed to persuade around forty joinees to travel up to Inverness to spread the word and visit some of the places mentioned in the Join Me book... the Rev. Gareth Saunders showed people around the cathedral and apparently got up to his usual mischief.
A fine couple of days was had by all...

Inverness Meet

Meets also took place in Manchester, Brighton, Wapping, Nottingham, Southend, Glasgow, Edinburgh, York, Los Angeles, Washington DC - and two joinees (Silver Joinees John and Hulme) even took to the streets of Bolton with a giant Join Me banner which was later hung off a bridge:
Nice work!

Fantastic news!

Prepare to welcome... the official Join Me baby! The first interjoinee baby - the result of a harmonious joinee coupling kickstarted at a Join Meet - is on its way. Congrats to the marvellous joinees Brake and Laura!

Thanks to everyone who sent in an idea for our Join Me mini-book, Random Acts of Kindness.
The book, which has 365 Ways To Make The World A Nicer Place in it, comes out in November, for £4.99. I’ll be giving away a load of copies on the site, soon. Read more or order one here...

And yet more Joinee love news!

Joinees Vaughn and House are getting married! They met at a Join Meet in Birmingham this year and are preparing to tie the knot in May 2005...
Who knows... the second Join Me baby may soon be in the pipeline. If that’s not a rude way of putting it.

My thanks to all the joinees in the East Bay area of California, who recently took to the streets in order to spread the word... (and have been Silvered as a result!)
The day out made it into the excellent East Bay Express, who, despite calling me 'Wacky', published a fantastic article. Check it out here...

LOOK AT OUR COW!

This is the cow we bought at Karmageddon 2!
She's the one on the right and her name is Malu. That's her calf on the left, and the people with her are currently trying to come with a name for her. Any ideas?
The fella in the middle is Radhkrishnan and it's his family that Malu has gone to help. Now they all live in Devala, a village in the Nilgiri hills in India... Malu sleeps in the front part of the house and helps to keep the family warm... her manure is used on vegetable plots, and her milk is a source of food and income.
Hurrah for the official Join Me cow!

SIGNED NEW BOOKS

The new edition of Join Me comes out on June 7th... and it's all lovely and shiny and embossed. It's also got an extended epilogue with updated news and mentions of all your favourite characters (new and old). There are some quite odd new pictures too. WHSmith are doing an exclusive deal - a signed copy of the new book for £4.89, plus p&p. I drew doodles in about 100 of them, so I apologise if you get one of those. Get a copy here: http://www.whsmith.co.uk

LONDON MEET-UP!

What are you doing on Saturday June 5th? Do you fancy coming to another meet-up? A kind of Karmageddon 2.5? Oh, go on, it'll be lovely. Meet me at 2.30pm in the centre of GOLDEN SQUARE in London... I will be making an important announcement and carrying a placard. I will be wearing glasses so you can recognise me. BRING ONE GIFT-WRAPPED PRESENT TO HAND TO A STRANGER (or as many as you want - presents, I mean, not strangers).
Golden Square is mere moments away from Picadilly Circus and Oxford Circus, right in the heart of London. If you can only come along later in the afternoon, we'll be in THE MIDAS TOUCH, at number 4 Golden Square, where you should be prepared for an afternoon and evening of joinees, beers, friends, curry, giveaways, laughs, Jonesys, Cobbetts, Whitbys and more... ITN will also be filming something so you could make the news!...
Here's where we'll be: http://www.streetmap.co.uk


To celebrate the launch of the new version, Ebury Press are also printing up limited supply of postcards, posters and t-shirts... turn up on the dot and you'll get one!

JOIN ME CHINA!

There's been an upsurge in the number of Chinese passport photos I've been receiving, thanks to a couple of local newspapers over there... a huge welcome to all the new Chinese joinees! And well done in particular to a guy called Lei who, for his first Good Friday, wandered through his market handing out fruit-based treats to elderly shoppers!

THE GERMANS!

I was over in Germany the other day, recording an interview for the Frank Elstner Show... the Chris Tarrant of Germany and the man who invented such TV formats as Man O Man! and You Bet!. I am therefore surprised that his new show, Menschen Der Woche, did not end in an exclamation mark. Anyway, the trip was fantastic fun - even when they realised that as they wanted to call me The Leader they might have to work on the translation... what with it being Die Fuhrer and everything... anyway, more Germans continue to join up as a result...

BOOK TOUR!

I'm off on tour again... fancy coming along? To one of the events, I mean, not on the whole tour... Here's where I'll be and when... would be great to see you!

LONDON - Thursday 10th May - 6.30pm, Borders Oxford Street - London
YORK - Monday 7th June - 7pm - Waterstones - York
LEEDS - Tuesday 8th June - 7pm - Waterstones - 93 Albion Street, Leeds
MANCHESTER - Wednesday 9th June - 7pm - Waterstones - 91 Deansgate, Manchester
LIVERPOOL - Thursday 10th June - 7pm - Waterstones - 52 Bold Street, Liverpool
BOURNEMOUTH - Monday 14th June - 6.30pm - Borders - The Square, Bournemouth
NORWICH - Tuesday 15th June - 7pm - Ottakars - 11-17 Castle Street, Norwich
MILTON KEYNES - Wednesday 16th June - 6.30pm - Ottakars - 72 Midsummer Place, Milton Keynes
BROMLEY - Thursday 17th June - 7.30pm - Ottakars - Bromley central library, Bromley
BIRMINGHAM - Monday 21st June - 7pm - Waterstones - 128 New Street, Birmingham
NOTTINGHAM - Tuesday 22nd June - 7.30pm - Waterstones - 1-5 Bridlesmith Gate, Nottingham
NEWCASTLE - Wednesday 23rd June - 6pm - Waterstones - Blackett Street, Emerson Chambers, Newcastle
GLASGOW - Thursday 24th June - 6pm - Borders - 98 Buchanan Street, Glasgow

JOIN ME JUNE

Well, it seems like a day doesn't pass without me receiving at least one e-mail from joinees demanding another big meet-up...
So, please be upstanding for...
JOIN ME JUNE.
Basically, it'll be one year since Join Me hit the shops, and one year since the amount of passport photos I receive on a daily basis just went crazy. So to celebrate that fact, how about another day of beer, friends, and random acts of kindness on the streets...
I'll be holding another meet-up on SATURDAY JUNE 5th, in London...Why London? Because it's the birthplace on Join Me...That's not to say you can't get involved if you can't come to London... why not hold a satellite meet-up in your local area? Let me know what you're planning, and I'll try and get some goodies sent your way...
But here in London it should be a marvellous day out - a kind of Karmageddon 2-and-a-half.
So can you make it? I hope so! Stick it in yer diary!
More details to follow..

And for the rest of June?

Well, the new edition of Join Me comes out on June 7th, so I'll be embarking on another tour for three weeks in June...
I'll be doing bookreadings and meeting joinees in York, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Bournemouth, Norwich, Milton Keynes, Bromley, Birmingham, Nottingham, Newcastle and Glasgow... come along! I promise not to ramble too much,
I'll also be doing another reading earlier on... at Borders on Oxford Street in London... Thursday May 20th at 7pm...But let's try and make June the month of Join Me... feel free to use this excuse to hold meet-ups and do RAoKs like you've never done before...

US-wahey.

So I'm back from the US Join Me tour, having spread the word in New York, Boston, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Portland, Milwaukee, Minnesota and two Madisons...
Hundreds of Americans have sent me their passport photos, hundreds more have signed up to the mailing list, and Join Me has become a weird kind of underground word-of-mouth movement in some of the colleges and universities there...
American chapters are beginning to spring up - mainly in Wisconsin, for some reason - and it won't be long before the American Karma Army becomes a global force for good, a bit like the UN, or Batman.
The book's doing well over there, too, with the likes of The Onion, The San Francisco Chronicle, Playboy (!) and - yes - Psychology Today championing the cause... hoorah.

Another tattoo!

Well done to Joinee Bee for... well... essentially defacing himself. But defacing himself with words of beauty. To be honest, I'm very happy, but slightly concerned that there might be a new joinee craze developing... please think long and hard before doing something like this... both Joinee Bee and the similarly-tattooed Joinee Hodges did, but I don't want to be seen as encouraging you to do it... because, like a puppy, a tattoo ain't just for Join Me... it's for life.
Nice tattoo, though.

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Hello!

By the time you read this, I'll be in the States, attempting to start up the American Karma Army (aka AKA).
I'll also be trying to write a daily tour diary throughout March and upload a few pictures while I'm out there... you can see if I'm successful by clicking here...

Many more Australians continue to send their passport photos in, and join us! My trip out there - which was never supposed to be about Join Me but happily ended up that way - seems to have done the trick. There are now a good 500 or so happy-faced Australians who have undertaken the Good Fridays Agreement and agreed to do their random acts of kindness whenever they can and wherever they are... Some great stories have been coming in from downunder of RAoKs... here's to a load more...

The Germans have finally come on board!
For a while there, I didn't know what was going on. I was continually being interviewed by enthusiastic German journalists... but the stories would mysteriously never run. I began to suspect that some kind of secret police task force was keeping its eye on me. And then Die Welt published an article... opening the sluice gates.
My thanks to my first two joinees, Jonesy and Cobbett, for appearing on no less than two German TV shows, and for spreading the word to our no-longer-suspicious German cousins...
Well done, Jonesy and Cobbett!

Good God!

Look what Silver Joinee Hodges has done to his arm!
He's had the first-ever JOIN ME tattoo! Although I was worried at first, Joinee Hodges wrote the following: 'Why a Join Me tattoo? Well, why not? My current tattoos each represent important times and changes in my life. Join Me has already greatly influenced my life. I have met many new close friends and had the opportunity to travel the country experiencing things that I would not have done before. The tattoo, like the others, would represent a chapter of my life.'
Nice one, Tony!

Join Me: The Movie...

Well, all I'm saying is, things are progressing nicely with the film, and I'm really pleased and enthused with the way it's going. I won't give away too much, and obviously 99% of films never get made, but things are looking good...
More news soon...

Yahoo!

Well, the Yahoo! awards have come and gone, with the Join Me website walking away with a Find of the Year Award for the most Weird & Wonderful Site on the Web 2003... and very nice it is, too. Nicely weighted, but a fully-functioning magnifying glass built into its sturdy design. Which is what I look for in any award or statuette, really. Here's me with the web-designing genius that is Silver Joinee Primrose, the man responsible for updating this site!

I need your help, Joinees!

Every day, here at Join Me HQ, your e-mails pour in. I try to answer as many as I can, but it gets tricker the more Join Me grows...
However, one of the questions I'm asked most is 'Can you give me any ideas for what random acts of kindness I can do?'And so, I've decided that we should create a kind of handbook. I need 365 Ways To Make The World A Nicer Place... so send me your stories! Have you done a Random Act of Kindness that went incredibly well? Was it touching? Or funny? Or just plain odd? Did you like it? Did the person you did it to like it?
Please send your stuff through - keep stories short and sweet, and if you've any ideas or tips for unusual or cool RAoKs then whack 'em my way! You'll be credited for anything you contribute!
Also - photos. Got a funny photo of you doing a RAoK? Send it in! The quicker we can get the stuff together the better - click here to contribute.
It'll be a great resource for joinees... so let's do it!

Mix!

Well, the now-legendary Madras Valley curryhouse in Camden is quite clearly getting into the spirit of Join Me, and undertaking small acts of kindness for every customer who walks through the door. They're giving away bags of Bombay Mix bearing our name. Oh, and the name of "Danny Vallae", whoever he is. Anyway. Nice effort, Madras Valley!

Wahoo!

Huge congratulations to Silver Joinee Smemo, Join Me's very own Max Clifford.
Stina won the PPC (Publishers Publicity Circle) Award for Best Publicity Campaign 2003 for Join Me! Here she is looking very pleased with herself, and holding some quite frankly rubbish flowers I got her.

Strewth!

Well, the first-ever Melbourne meet-up was fantastic!
I asked people to meet me outside Flinders Street station in the heart of the city if they fancied coming along and Joining Me... And by the end of the day, nearly 250 people had done just that! It was brilliant to properly instigate the Australian Karma Army, and to meet so many fine and noble joinees... the fact that so many of you turned up shows that the future of your fine country is in safe hands. After Flinders Street, we moved like a stealthy task force to the park next to Federation Square, where myself and some burly Australian men brought eight slabs of beer for the assembled masses... I made a short and ineffective speech, the first Australian joinee, Cazz, was Silvered, and I twinned the Melbourne Collective with the Edinburgh Collective... A full report will be with you soon...

The Australian Karma Army is born... January 3rd, 2004, Melbourne...

Click to download a larger photo

Blimey!

I'm incredibly pleased to report that Karmageddon 2 - the second major London join meet in modern history - was an out-and-out success... thanks to you fantastic joinees.

I'd genuinely been expecting about 11 of you to turn up... there's no way in the world I ever expected more than 300 of you! Joinees from all over England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland travelled to the big city to meet me at the bottom of Oxford Street this week and undertake a march up Oxford Street...
Every joinee brought with them two gift-wrapped presents, and when I blew a whistle they thrust them at unsuspecting strangers... we made hundreds of people very happy indeed, and brought Oxford Street to a complete standstill...

It's standing room only inside... and outside, too!

Journalists from Germany, Holland and France were present, as was a crew from Richard & Judy, and journos from The Daily Mail and The Independent... so your actions will be reported far and wide and bring more joinees into the fold!
At 3pm, we adjourned to the pub (I'd booked a function room... but we ended up filling the entire pub, as well as the one down the road), and not only did we hold the first-ever JOIN ME AWARDS, but we raised money for a very special cause...
For a while now I've been fascinated by the website www.goodgifts.org - a site which encourages you to give gifts that really count. I wanted to raise £185 - enough money to buy a cow for a needy Indian family. An hour after the announcement and we'd raised just under £700 - enough for 3.7 cows! More on that soon...
A fantastic night was had by all... I'll do a special page very soon, including reports on what happened when the Head Chef of the Madras Valley turned up out-of-the-blue and Joined Me in front of the cheering masses, and all the other incredible stuff that took place during
Karmageddon 2... my thanks to the Vis a Vis boys for singing the song with me again, to Joinee Bond for reprising his security role, and to everyone who turned up!
Well done, joinees!

Yahoo!

And another reason to congratulate joinees everywhere! This site has been awarded a rather prestigious award by the people at Yahoo...
We're now officially one of just ten YAHOO FINDS OF THE YEAR.
We won the WEIRD AND WONDERFUL category... there'll be an awards ceremony and trophy handover in January, and I'll report to you from the event...
We're also up for the Yahoo Picks OVERALL SITE OF THE YEAR AWARD... it's a public vote, so if you'd like to vote for this site (go on... it'll only take a second), go to http://www.yahoo.co.uk/findoftheyear and register your decision.
Go to it, joinees!

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Join Me Awards!

Congrats to the following winners of the first-ever Join Me Awards...

MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER: JOINEES FROST AND HODGES
INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR: JOINEES JOAN AND INGE OF BELGIUM
JOINEE TEAM OF THE YEAR: THE ACCRINGTON COLLECTIVE
JOIN ME AMBASSADOR OF THE YEAR: JOINEE SMITH
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: JOINEE WHITBY
JOINEE OF THE YEAR AWARD: JOINEE GAZ & JOINEE SAUNDERS

Thanks

My thanks to the American publishers of Join Me!- the people at Plume.
This mysterious package arrived at my flat this week - a life-size cardboard cut-out of... er... The Leader. Me. Yes. It is absolutely terrifying.

Look at this!

Incredible documentary evidence that Raymond Price is still at large!
We have Joinee Tom of London to thank for this photo, captured by mobile phone technology on the corner of Regent Street this week…
Tom writes: “Last night as I was walking home I was approached by a well-dressed man who asked me if I was local. Upon replying positively, he said he had parked his car in the NCP in Poland Street which had then been moved to a depot in Maida Vale. He asked me if I could help him with some money, and then showed me his driving licence. I laughed out loud, as he was from Teignmouth in Devon, and called Raymond Price!
“I told him I had just read a book in which he was a central character so I knew all about him. I told him about the book, the website, and the Raymond Price Fund, and so you never know – he may be in touch!
“Even after all that, he still asked me if I wanted to help him. I declined his kind offer, and off he went, again asking the name of the book…”
So he’s got a new scam on the go… you cheeky scamp, Raymond…!

Hurrah!

The US booktour is starting to take shape… I’ll be in the following places on the following dates, with more places and dates to follow…

March 1 & 2 – NEW YORK, NY
March 3 – BOSTON
March 4 – AUSTIN, TX
March 8 – CHICAGO, IL
March 9 – MILWAUKEE, WI
March 10 – MADISON, WI
March 11 – MINNEAPOLIS, MN
March 14 – LAFAYETTE, CA
March 15 & 16 – SAN FRANCISCO, CA
March 17 – PORTLAND, OR
March 19 – SEATTLE

I hope to meet many of my American joinees while out there… if you want to be kept abreast of further tour dates/venues, sign up the US mailing list at www.joinmeusa.com!

And still the word spreads

Welcome on board, the first two members of the Chinese Collective… Joinees Zhou and Xiao!
Thanks to Joinee Dixon for kickstarting it out there!
Apparently, I’m the new Lei Feng. So there.
But while you’re reading this – how’s about helping Joinees Zhou and Xiao out? It’s virtually impossible for them to get English-language stuff out there, and they and their mates are desperate to learn more English… if you’ve an old book or magazine you don’t want any more, why not pop it in an envelope this Friday and send it off to:
Miss Dixon, LingLing Xue Yuan, Yongzhou, Hunan, 425000, China.
Let’s give their classroom the Join Me treatment!

Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Wallace?

Join Me - The Movie!

Well, it appears that this could well be about to happen…
The rights to the book have been sold to an excellent company who are really, really behind Join Me – so much so that most of the execs are now joinees (one of whom was involved in the now infamous Edinburgh Making-Mrs-Mitchell-Happy scheme…)
The very early stages of work have begun, and I’ll bring you more news as it happens… but we’re hoping to have at least one huge scene, packed with real-life joinees as extras… so if you’re interested…
And before you ask, I would like Gary Coleman (left) to play me. And not just because of the physical similarities. I believe he has the correct range, too.

First there were GOOD FRIDAYS…

Now, for one month only, I am instigating a new scheme…
Throughout December, I would like to ask all joinees to not only continue with Good Fridays… but to start HAPPY MONDAYS, as well…
Do something that makes you happy, every Monday.
It could be watching a video. It could be going for a walk. It could even be doing another random act of kindness for a stranger.
Whatever it is, do it, and tell me about it.
Have some happy Happy Mondays!

The Madras Valley curryhouse – which I visited with my first-ever Joinees, Jonesy and Cobbett, last year – has inadvertently gained a… well… ‘cult’ following…
Joinees from all over the globe have been visiting the curryhouse while in London and ordering the Chicken Dansak on some kind of curry-based pilgrimage.
The Dansak, of course, is the official Join Me dish, and it seems the people running the takeaway have been a bit puzzled about why on earth it’s suddenly become so popular…
Two newspapers and a radio station have so far interviewed the head chef who, like his colleagues, seems a bit bewildered by the whole thing…

Here’s a pic of the Nottingham meet, during which joinees spread the word in fine style and had a few pints along the way… meets have also taken place in Bristol, Dublin, Glasgow, Birmingham, London and more… look out for one in Manchester very soon, too…
To organise one in your area, check out the Joinee Directory for joinees near you… and don’t forget to add yourself!

Joinee Payne is organising a Join Me Christmas concert, starring at least two Joinee Bands (Levanter and The Paisley Wheelchair Experience)
It’ll take place in London, with ticket money going to charity… find out more here… http://www.joinee.co.uk/concert.asp
Talking of Joinee Bands, a joinee by the name of Ruth is in the brilliant band Dogs Die In Hot Cars, who I tried my very hardest to see back in August, but was thwarted by a London-wide powercut, packed buses and heavy rain. If you can see ‘em, do… they will be big.

Oh, and one more thing about joinee bands – well done to Joinee Riggs, who managed to stick a JOIN ME sign on the front of Blur’s drumkit, while on Top of the Pops… a fine feat, and one that deserves congratulations.
Well done, Joinee Riggs!

From 1st October

Hello. It is I. Your friend and slightly rubbish cult leader. And I bring word from Join Me HQ (my flat).
Sorry about the lack of updates to the news section lately... things have really been taking off, in the world of Join Me... there are now around 4000 fantastic joinees, each of whom has agreed to undertake at least one random act of kindness towards a complete stranger, each and every Friday ('Good Fridays')... and you all seem to be doing your best to spread the word, too! Join Me gets more global by the day, with recent, small collectives forming in places like Brazil, Colombia and Fiji!

Karmageddon 2!

What are you doing on December 6th? It's a Saturday, so you'd probably just be sitting about, scratching.
Well, why not come to the second London Join Meet - Karmageddon 2? It should be fun... the usual heady mix of joinees, beer, music, dodgy speeches, new friends, and more. You should come along. You could meet Gaz! Or Jonesy! Or Whitby! Or maybe even the Reverend Saunders! Perhaps you'll walk away with a novelty Joinee Cobbett mug or toastrack! Who can say? Well, I can, but I'm not going to. Not yet.
Mail me if you fancy it.
More details soon...

Talking of Join Meets, you lot really have been doing your best to meet up with each other in recent week, eh?! Gold Joinee Whitby's excellent Joinee Directory (www.joinee.co.uk/directory.asp) has helped you identify joinees in your local area... check it out and see whether there are any joinees near you... oh, and join the Join Me Community (www.joinee.co.uk/community.asp), while you're at it!

The Edinburgh Meet last month at the official Edinburgh Join Me pub was a huge success... and great fun.
Around 50 different joinees attended, with a hardcore group of around 25. The day started at around 11am, when several joinees, including Silver Joinees Frost and Hodges, and Gold Joinee Saunders, took to the streets and handed out leaflets and copies of the Join Me song on CD... later in the afternoon, I divided the group into three task forces, with a different mission each...
The first task force was asked to stay in the pub garden and guard our tables. This was vital. The second task force was asked to march into Edinburgh, spread the word and bring back new joinees. This they did.
The third task force accompanied me, in two taxis, to the home of Mrs Jeanie Mitchell, an 83-year-old lady living on the outskirts of Edinburgh, who'd written to me after seeing me on Richard and Judy, and just wanted to say hello. But she also mentioned she was feeling extremely down at the moment... so we surprised her, and set about making her happy. We brought flowers, cakes and more, and sat and chatted with her for an hour or so. She was a fantastic woman, and even Joined Me!
There'll be more on this, and the subsequent Edinburgh Meets, very soon...

A Join Meet site at www.join-meet.co.uk is currently being worked on by technical expert Silver Joinee Tirwin. Keep checking it, because it'll be up and running soon... if you're having a meet, write a report up and send Tirwin some pictures, and he'll add it to what should be a really useful site.

I'll be making a very exciting announcement soon - very soon, in fact. An announcement which will make JOIN ME truly global and spread the word on just about every continent this Earth can throw at us... it could be huge...

In the meantime, there's a new forum here on the site, which is far better than the old one - thanks again to Gold Joinee Whitby for his efforts. Mr Whitby should also be rather proud of himself for other reasons - while he hasn't yet managed to track down Raymond Price and get him to sign his copy of the Join Me book, he has managed to track down and buy a painting crafted by the wily old rogue. Well done, Gold Joinee Whitby! Oh, and Whitby's attempts to track down Mr Price are catalogued and recommended by this month's Broadband World magazine (out on the 30th).

There's a new Gold Joinee! Joinee Joan from Brussels did her best (along with Silver Joinee Inge) to spread the word of Join Me, and managed to get us into five national newspapers and on the radio, too... the two of them organised a Join Meet in Brussels, and a fine night was had by all...
And one of the finest random acts of kindness they performed? Three of the girls gave this old man their undivided attention for much of the evening... the ol' fella in question was celebrating the first anniversary of starting a new life... looks like it was a good choice...

A new version of the book, with an extended epilogue and a new cover, comes out in the UK next year... Random House are printing a load up already, and I'll be giving a couple of copies away to the people whose random acts of kindness impress me most...
The press has been great about Join Me... the Daily Mail calls it 'One of the funniest stories you will ever read', although that kind of depends on what else you like reading, while I've been called everything from 'Britain's first postmodern spiritual leader' (Telegraph) to 'The Austin Powers of Cult Leaders' (The Big Issue).
Mind you, the Observer said Join Me was 'a pointless book written by a pointless man'. I wanted to put that on the front cover but they wouldn't let me.

My thanks to Joinee Smith, Whitby and Pallister, who took part in a bit of filming for BBC1's Heaven and Earth show.
Whitby has also been interviewed by a few radio stations on his good work, as you can see here.

Well done to the Accrington Collective - in particular Silver Joinees Mack and Claire, who've been doing a fine job of not only undertaking many and varied random acts of kindness on the streets, but also of organising the first-ever Accrington Join Meet and spreading the word in their local paper, too.

Here's a reminder of dates, for anyone who wants to come to a (slightly shabby) bookreading/booksigning...
I'll be in these places on these dates...
4th October - BRACKNELL ARTS CENTRE, 6.30pm
15th October - BRIGHTON, BORDERS
22nd October - BRISTOL, BORDERS
12 November - OXFORD UNION

The book comes out in the USA in March, courtesy of Plume Books (a division of Penguin) - this is the cover... if you know any Americans who you think should join up and help me start the American Karma Army (aka AKA), then let them know!
I'll be doing a ten city US tour throughout March 2004... I'm already slightly scared, as six-foot cardboard cut-outs of me looking like a lunatic have already started to infiltrate US bookfairs... be afraid, Americans. For I am coming.
Keep your eye on www.joinmeusa.com for more US news... together, we can tidy up the Americas!

Join the Join Me Network!

Do you have a Join Me website? Would you like it to feel more connected to this site? Let me know as soon as you can, and we'll add it to the ever-expanding Join Me network...

Well done to the Oxford Collective and the Edinburgh Collective. Their recent meet-ups were happening on the same night, and so I 'twinned' the collectives... I also set them each a mission.
The Edinburgh Collective had to find someone from Oxford and do five nice things for them.
The Oxford Collective had to find someone from Edinburgh and do five nice things for them.
Within an hour, the Edinburgh lot had located two Oxford dons, thanks to some clever poster-making from Silver Joinee Geoff... both dons were made very happy indeed throughout the course of the night.
The Oxford Collective may have taken longer, but they did a stirling job... they made one Edinburgher so happy that he left the group he was with and stayed with the Oxford lot all night! The Oxford Collective also managed to get a load of Japanese blokes from Mt Fuji to sign up to Join Me, and hang out with them for the rest of the evening.
Well done, all concerned!

Well done to Joinee Smith of Wapping, now to be known as Silver Joinee Smith, for some excellent work in the name of Join Me.
Be impressed by this: Silver Joinee Smith travelled from London up to Edinburgh on the 19th September in order to attend the Edinburgh meet. After a couple of hours, he took a plane down to London and travelled to Oxford to attend that meet. In the morning, he and his hangover boarded a plane bound for Brussels, where he attended the Belgium meet-up. The next morning, he flew to London and took a train to Southampton, where he attended the Southampton meet. And, on his return to London, he will stop by at the Islington booksigning, where he will present me with the evidence of his travels... an amazing achievement, and, I am proud to say, a brilliant Ambassador for Join Me.
Well done, Silver Joinee Smith!

Well done to Joinee Sutherland, who recently holidayed in Malia (the same place I holidayed in the book) and wore her regulation novelty T-shirt with pride...
Joinee Sutherland is to be commended for picking up where I left off, and attempting to spread the word of Join Me throughout Crete - now the official Join Me Greek Island - even though her copy of the Join Me book fell apart when the binding glue melted in the sun.
Well done, Joinee Sutherland!

Official Join Me criminal Raymond Price is still at large - I have had three new sightings sent to me - all in London. One on Wardour Street, one just off Carnaby Street, and another in Soho. Surely it can't be long before our paths cross again?
Get in touch, Raymond! I've got a cheque for you!

Well done to Now magazine, who have tried to start a fight with the Daily Mail over Join Me.

Well done to Joinee Ridsel, who lied to a load of students recently and told them she needed them for an art project she was doing, and managed to get 45 of them to line up on a beach and spell out the words JOIN ME, in order to appeal to anyone flying by in a plane.
A fine effort, and a fantastic picture. Well done, Joinee Ridsel!

Well done to the Southampton Collective, who met up recently and, with great determination, undertook a mission I set them.
I asked them to spend the afternoon making the animals of Southampton happier. And this they did.
Later, they were interviewed by a TV news crew, and went to an old people's home, bringing with them a novelty disco band called The Paisley Wheelchair Experience, who rocked the old folks like never before.
Later still, Gold Joinee Whitby delivered a moving lecture to a local Christian group.

A sad farewell to Silver Joinee Gaz, who's having to take more of a backseat role with Join Me for personal reasons. He's been with Join Me since the very beginning, and I hope that he'll continue to do his random act of kindness every Friday (though I'm guessing he may have to do it secretly...), and pop into the forum from time to time.
Before he goes - and I had wanted to do this at the next Karmageddon - I'd like to make Gaz a Gold Joinee and award him the title of Joinee of the Year, 2003, for being funny, dedicated, down-to-earth, and treating Join Me in precisely the way it should be treated.
So bye-bye for now, Gold Joinee Gaz - Joinee of the Year.

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