SPRING 2005 TOUR STARTS
The Words and Music 2005 Spring tour has gotten off to a great start. Fan and media reviews have been glowing and we are all excited to be back out playing in front of all of the great Mellencamp fans! John and band were in high spirits when I was with them at the beginning of the tour in Savannah. Be sure to watch the news page of JohnMellencamp.com and ClubCherryBomb.net for tour updates. PAID Club members have access to journal reports, pictures and video from the first week of the tour. Just log into the club site and click JOURNAL, GALLERY and VIDEO. If you have attended a show please post your thoughts about the show in the POST section. You can post a short review for the world to see in the TOUR section on the Club website. We heard lots of rumblings at the start of the tour that the Summer leg of the tour should be announced in the next two to four weeks!!! Watch the website for details as we get them.

If you haven't read anything about the shows the special guest on the spring tour is singer/songwriter Donovan. When John found out that Donovan was willing to tour again he invited him to go out on the Spring tour and use the Mellencamp band. The show format is that John comes out to start the show a little after 8pm and plays for about an hour. Then John introduces Donovan and he plays a set backed by the Mellencamp band (and joined by John on one song). When Donovan is done John come back out to close out the show. John introduces Donovan each night with a wonderful introduction, he explains that in the 60's there were only three people he knew how to play every song by, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie and Donovan. He jokingly remembers how those Donovan songs helped him with the women! John's love for Donovan's music is very clear by his words every night. We hope you all enjoy seeing this legend onstage backed by the awesome Mellencamp band. The music and performances are great!

JOHN MELLENCAMP DEFINITIVE REMASTERS RELEASED TODAY!!!
The first 5 albums in Universal Records re-release program of Mellencamp's classic albums come out today, Tuesday, March 29, 2005. Each album features complete artwork and packaging along with a bonus track.

From the Universal Records press release: As one of the most popular and significant artists of our era heads out on tour this spring for the first time in three years -- in support of the platinum-certified, two-CD "Words & Music: John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits" -- a "Definitive Remaster" series of reissues is set to reinvigorate his original albums. Thirteen Mellencamp discs, from 1978's "A Biography" (never before released in the U.S. and never on CD anywhere) to 1998's "Rough Harvest," are included in "The John Mellencamp Definitive Remasters" to be chronologically issued in three releases from Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) and Island/Def Jam during 2005.

Series One of the remasters is set to be released March 29, 2005 and will include the following albums: "A Biography," "John Cougar," "Nothin' Matters And What If It Did," "American Fool," and "Uh-Huh".

John Cougar Music

WALK TALL RELEASED TO COUNTRY RADIO
"Walk Tall" has been sent out nationwide to country radio stations. We have a list on the CLUB NEWS page of what stations have added it to their playlists. However, you can show your support of John NOW by calling all of your local radio stations a few times a week and asking them to play it. If your local station happens to be one of the stations playing it call them and thank them for supporting John! If you hear a station in your area playing "Walk Tall" please drop us an email.

FAN CLUB NEWS

CLUB WEBSITE UPDATE
Many sections of the ClubCherryBomb.net website have launched in the past few weeks, WEBMAIL, GALLERY, JOURNAL, CONTESTS and VIDEO are all available for PAID members. Still to come in the next few weeks are the downloadable/printable membership card and Minutes To Memories Newsletter. We presented a draft of the newsletter to John for his opinions last week. Once we incorporate his feedback the first issue will be released to PAID members. Our plan is to upload new VIDEO and GALLERIES every few weeks for members to enjoy. We will be posting some JOURNAL entries along with some fan journal entries when they have extra special stories from the road. Last week club manager TonyB posted a number of pictures, videos and journal entries from the opening shows, be sure to check them out!

WIN A PAIR OF PASSES TO A POST CONCERT MEET AND GREET WITH JOHN MELLENCAMP
John Mellencamp has provided Club Cherry Bomb with 2 post concert Meet and Greet passes where a PAID fan club member, and their guest, will get to meet John Mellencamp after each show on the Spring 2005 tour. Three days before each show we will randomly pick a winner from the entries and contact them with how to pick up their after show passes. To enter you must be a PAID fan club member with tickets to the concert. You do NOT need to have bought your tickets through the fan club to win. This contest will stay open until April 15, 2005. If you are attending multiple shows on the tour please list each city you are attending in the box at the bottom of the entry form. We will post winners names on the club website and email you if you are a winner. Be sure to watch your email a few days before your show to see if you won! Winners through the Omaha show are posted on the website.

http://www.clubcherrybomb.net/contests/?contestname=Meet_and_Greet is the link to the contest. You must be a PAID member to enter. You can join/upgrade your membership and then enter the contest!

FAN CLUB TICKETS UPDATE
Below are updates on the shipping for all shows. We are pushing the promoters as hard as we can to get the tickets to us. In general once we get the tickets from the venues/promoters they are packaged up and shipped out within 24 hours, the hold up has not been on our end. For example, yesterday we got St. Paul, Moline and Rockford, all of them will mail out today. Thankfully, when the summer tour comes we will have a lot more time between the on sales and the shows to get the tickets shipped to you. Yes, that's right, a summer tour should be announced in the next 4 weeks!

All tickets for the Spring tour are shipping out via UPS using 2 Day Blue with a signature required. If you do not have your BRONZE tickets two days before the show email tickethelp@fanfire.com with the SUBJECT: MELLENCAMP TICKETS and we will get the tickets re-printed and put at the Will Call window at the Box Office night of show. If you get to the show and have problems with your tickets, or your tickets aren't available at Will Call just have the box office get in touch with Mellencamp assistant tour manager Julie Duffy, she should be able to help in most situations.

GOLD TICKETS - please remember that all GOLD TICKETS are to be picked up at the Will Call window at the Venue Box Office the night of the show. We do NOT ship GOLD TICKETS out in advance of the show. We do this to keep scalpers out of these seats. You were charged a shipping fee on those tickets but that is for delivery of your GOLD T-SHIRT. We finally got the shirt design approved and they are being made now. We hope to start shipping them out late this week or early next week. Check the CLUB NEWS page on Wednesday for some pictures of the design.

TICKET MAILING UPDATE
03/29/05 Oklahoma City - Mailed out 3/24
03/30/05 Wichita KS - Mailed out 3/24
04/01/05 Omaha NE - Mailed out 3/22
04/02/05 Fargo ND - Mailed out 3/25
04/04/05 Rapid City SD - Mailed out 3/25
04/06/05 St. Paul MN - Mailing out Tues 3/29
04/08/05 Moline IL - Mailing out Tues 3/29
04/09/05 Rockford, IL - Mailing out Tues 3/29
04/11/05 Terre Haute, IN - Tentatively Mailing out Friday 4/1
04/12/05 Ft Wayne, IN - Mail Date To Be Announced
04/14/05 Grand Rapids, MI - Mail Date To Be Announced
04/15/05 Green Bay, WI - Tentatively Mailing out Monday 4/4
04/17/05 Louisville, KY - Tentatively Mailing out Monday 4/4

UPGRADING TO PAID FROM FREE
If you are a FREE member and want all of the benefits of being a PAID member just log into the site and click UPGRADE.

For a $30 annual membership fee members will receive the following benefits:

PAID Members only website featuring:
- Opportunity to purchase tickets via Fan Club Pre Sales (access to some of the best seats at each show - subject to availability),
- Exclusive news and updates
- Members only multimedia content
- Members only Bulletin Board
- Members only Digital Minutes To Memories Newsletter
- Members only contests
- Members only access to exclusive Mellencamp events (appearances/concerts/tapings not open to the public)
- Online Membership Card
- JohnMellencamp.com email address
- Mellencamp Merchandise Discount in the FanFire.com Store

Please contact us if you have questions or are having problems, we are here to help. Email us at help@mellencamp.com

A LOT OF OTHER NEWS
Be sure to visit the JohnMellencamp.com NEWS page and the ClubCherryBomb.net NEWS pages for many other Mellencamp updates.
Thanks for your support!