Where are they now?

Delighted to get a call from Mike Moss, one of the good guys, to say he's starting a new job at Asda in a few weeks. Some of my most enjoyable times at zavvi were with Mike, so that news made my day, although it does mean that the cleaning of my hypothetical conservatory will have to wait...

Mission accomplished (part 1)

I'm so glad it's a long Easter weekend, because I need to relax and reboot after an intense week.

When I joined Ministry of Sound the main part of the brief was to create a new website for Hed Kandi. I started talking to everyone and writing a requirements document that I was going to use to manage Trinity Street, Ministry's ecommerce partner.

On Friday February 13 (funny that) Trinity Street went into administration and the main Ministry of Sound website disappeared with them. That changed the focus somewhat.

Rudy, nothing if not bold, moved quickly to hire the development team from Trinity Street that had worked on Ministry, and they started here on February 23. The team and I were given until this week to build an ecommerce platform and resurrect the website - oh, and there were a few additional requirements too, like a new blogging area.

You do the math. Seven weeks to build a new ecommerce platform and launch a website with full transactional capability including physical products, tickets and downloads.

But we did it, thanks to an amazing development team that not only really know their stuff but are a great bunch of guys to work with - open, communicative and responsive (compare and contrast...).

The site is obviously not as sophisticated as the zavvi site, but it looks great, it works (give or take a few snagging issues) and I'm going to reward myself with a work-free weekend - before starting on phase 2 next week.

The IT crowd

Had a drink with John C and Kevin H last night, in an implausably old fashioned pub near Waterloo station. John, of course, is going from strength to strength at Comet, and it was great to hear that Kevin has got a job at a Financial Services company.

It was good to see both of them, although I don't think I'm speaking out of turn if I say that our discussion about PCI compliance was a low point in the evening. There was good stuff as well.

Earlier I saw Steve, who popped into Ministry to talk about some stuff he's working on. It was supposed to be a half hour chat over a cup of coffee - instead we had An Audience With Rudy Tambala.

I had a Roddy Frame day yesterday; all day shuffle on my iPod. Fantastic. The man's a genius.

I'm sad to be missing out on drinks tonight with some of the zavvi crew - I've got a meeting with a headhunter after work then playing football later. Next time.

Anyway, last night on the way to the tube I noticed a woman stop, bend down and pick up a £10 note that was lying on the floor. And then another.

£20 for nothing? Proof that the glass can fill up at any time...

zavvi bounces back

So zavvi.co.uk has appeared again, courtesy of those nice people at The Hut. I can't say I'm surprised. When we met with The Hut it was obvious that they're on a mission to increase their reach, and they probably picked up a decent sized database of known entertainment buyers for a song from the administrators.

As soon as Lee told me that The Hut had bought it, I knew exactly what it would look like, and there were no surprises - The Hut's bog-standard white label solution with a bit of green added.

A capital 'Z' in zavvi though - they obviously didn't think the style guide was worth paying extra for. Cathy will be apoplectic.

MCV reported today that the purchase will create 100 new jobs. Frankly I don't see it - I can only imagine that there's a grant flying around in the Liverpool area. The website is just a reskin so they need a few people to look after content and merchandising. They already have the warehouse and the products, and a customer services team; so it feels like maybe up to 10 new people would be needed. But if true it's good news - although it would have been nice if some of the zavvi people had been given the opportunity to join the new operation. Maybe once they start hiring that'll happen.

What the buyout has done is given me an excuse to post another gratuitous image under the disguise of 'journalism'. The Hut is selling a range of lingerie on the new site, and by a happy coincidence they're also having a bounceback sale... you fill in the rest.

The weekend

I had a really good weekend. On Friday evening Wenge and I went to one of our regular haunts - Pradera in Hornsey, for some excellent tapas. On Saturday we walked down to Crouch End to pick up some ingredients for an Indian chicken recipe that Wenge saw on TV. Apart from that it was a catch-up day although I did have a lengthy transatlantic phone call with Steven about all things Mac. I still don't get spaces...

I managed to stay injury free at footie, where we had a good 5 v 6 game.

James arrived home on Saturday night, understandably tired from partying all through the previous night then playing football for the university team. Those were the days...

Actually, one of the highlights of the weekend was James showing us some photos from uni. A large proportion of them seemed to involve him surrounded by assorted babes, which drew interesting and differing reactions from Wenge and me.

The mother's reaction was: "That's it. You're not going back to university with all those girls"

Mine, by contrast, went more like: "Get back to Surrey and make sure you send pictures".

Today has been tough, as most Mondays are. Negotiating the terms of my new contract; meeting with the development team; fleshing out requirements with the e-Commerce team. I even had time to talk to a headhunter about an interesting role (which would, however, require me to be an expert in SEO). I've got a feeling that it's going to be pretty intense from now on as I try to manage stuff at Ministry of Sound while keeping active in the job market. But I'm thankful that I do have some work, so I'm not complaining.

Meanwhile, Lee emailed to say that all zavvi head office staff were made redundant today. Good luck to everyone.

zavvi reunion 2

Had a mini-reunion last night at The Endurance pub on Berwick Street (not, as Steve texted me, the Endurance on Beak Street nor, as Stephen texted me, the Endance on Berwick Street). Fortunately I'm a resourceful chap so I got there to be greeted by:

Steve - dapper in black after an interview.

Cathy - who I found out was Welsh.

Stephen - also suited after what sounded like an overly tactile meeting with a recruiter.

Zoe - I can't believe I called her Laura again!

Mel - getting very close to finding out whether she'll be able to stay in the UK or not; my offer of marriage wouldn't solve things apparently (oh, and someone told me that bigamy is still illegal in the UK).

During the course of the evening we were also joined by:

Laura - I didn't get to speak to her but she's obviously got a good new job as she was dressed for business and I overheard talk of City Airport, security and the likes.

Dave - Looking very suave and sophisticated in his black coat and new hair.

And of course Suzanne - straight from work, and managing a couple of drinks before going back home to continue working. Ah the joys of a new job (or in SJ's case, more like two new jobs).

Anyway, a good night was had by all, I believe. I bailed out about 10.00 but even though I didn't have much to drink I still felt pretty rough this morning. I blame poor bar stewardship.

Today I spent pretty much all day with our new development team. Notwithstanding the dilemma I spoke about a couple of days ago, this has the makings of a significant project and it would be good to manage it through. Good experience, lots of learnings and probably good for the CV.

Footie tonight, then more of the same tomorrow - if I can get out of bed in the morning. I'm absolutely knackered...

Lights out

I see from Lee's facebook status that it's officially all over at zavvi. Such a shame for all concerned, but without trying to sound trite, at least there's a chance for closure and for everyone to move on. That's better than it sounds.

The news here isn't so great either. As a result of Trinity Street (Ministry's eCommerce & fulfilment partner) going into Administration on Friday, they've decided to hire a development team and build a new platform. That, coupled with the loss of a substantial amount of money owed for sales, means the P&L has been shot and basically I've been told they can't keep me for longer than a few more weeks at my current rate. So I need to decide:

(a) Do I work as long as I can and then get back to full time jobhunting?
(b) Do I accept an offer to be a full time contractor for a fixed period (maybe 6 months) but at a significantly lower rate (month's notice would allow me to move if a job came along...)
(c) Is there a plan C that would work better?

...and it was looking so good... Ho hum.

A new dawn

I'll start by saying congratulations and good luck to Suzanne and Amy, who are both starting new jobs on Monday. It's great to see team zavvi doing well.

I need to react to a comment left recently by my good friend and fiercest critic Lies. "Enough zavvi", he said. "Time to let it go". I confess that there have been quite a lot of zavvi related posts on this blog, which of course is inevitable since I started it just around the time that it was all starting to go pear-shaped. In fact, it was one of the triggers for starting to write melvtopia: if I could keep looking for the positive, and stay optimistic, it would stand me in good stead when the lights went out.

The first readers of melvtopia were in the office, and I'd guess that more than 50% of readers now are zavvi people - so, again, it's understandable that this major thing that happened to us is something that I write about.

But is Lies right? Is it time to move on? Have I said everything of interest that needs to be said about zavvi, and are you tired of emotional rants about how great everyone was? What happened, happened, and it's a chapter of our lives. In a year from now we may hardly talk about zavvi.

Or is it a glue that binds a number of us and, let's face it, is still pretty fresh and is still affecting our working lives. As a 'publisher' is it my job to provide content that strikes a chord with my readership - like, for example, the Daily Mail does every time it puts an article on its front page about immigrants taking British jobs or the failure of the education system?

Actually that's a pretty poor analogy. I'm not a proper publisher. I'm not even a proper writer. So I'm not kidding myself that this is anything more than me doing something that I'm having fun with. But I do try to make it interesting enough for others to want to read it. So what do you think I should do about the whole zavvi/moving on thing? Let me know by voting in the new poll.

And Lies, go easy with those cynical pills...

Glass half full thinking at zavvi

The word from zavvi is that something is going to happen today, and I take that to mean there will be a buyer for the business. The only realistic type of buyer is one already in the business, which suggests that opportunities for zavvi head office personnel are going to be limited. I guess the main thing is that everyone needs closure, and however painful it is being told it's all over, ultimately it allows you to get on with your life and in the longer term it's better than plodding along in a dying company.

Easy for me to say though - whatever happens I wish everyone well.

On a more positive note, I received this email from someone within zavvi towers (who must remain nameless to protect the innocent). I quote verbatim:

If you're looking for a glass half full example of working at zavvi at the moment it is this; One of the Administrators is quite fabulously attractive. A six foot Mauritian beauty in 4 inch heels. And she sits in my eye line. Awlright.

The zavvi reunion

18:00: Big zavvi reunion tonight. I'm starting writing about it now while I'm sober, in the hope that when I write more on my way home tonight it'll compensate for the decline in quality from this point on.

23:00: OK, so it goes downhill from here as it's 11.00 and I'm on my way home. It was a mega night. I arrived at around 6.30 and, making my way to the bar, found David Green, who bought me a drink (which is a pretty good start) and promised, under some duress, to become a follower of melvtopia. This may be become a recurrent theme, because I have a target of 25 followers by the end of February - so if you haven't signed up yet please get following...

After chatting with David, and urging him to get a LinkedIn profile working for him, I spent some time with Steve and Heather, and then Simon. It's difficult for everyone, but when you've started the company it has to hurt even more. Some of the stories of stores closing down and how staff reacted are both heartbreaking and inspirational; we had something special going on at zavvi.

Then, the customer services team. Amy has found a new job, which is fantastic. Kelly is considering a local opportunity that she is so much better than. I mentioned that I'm going to meet with Ann Summers about a Head of eCommerce position and - well, let's just say there was some interest there - I may not get the job but I'll try my darndest to get Kelly a job there! As it happens, Richard W is interviewing for a position at Ann Summers too - so we agreed a mutual support strategy.

I didn't get to spend much time with Lee, but one thing I know is that if any of us are going to go on to greater success it's Lee. Delighted that he's been asked back to meet again with Best Buy.

I managed to catch up with Wren, Ned and Paul Byrne. As usual, Greg was giving little away...

There were lots of other people; Suki, Tilly, Kevin, Louise, Kirsty, Paul Pledger, Guy, Patrick, Dave R - and others that I've probably forgotten in my slightly mellow state. Good to see Michael again, too. Finally I spent some time with Suzanne. A while ago I thought of adding a zavvi 'hall of fame' to melvtopia, listing people's names as they found jobs. But we all knew that SJ would be the first, so there wasn't much point, was there?

12:00: I'm sitting in my kitchen, having just cooked myself a fry up since I haven't eaten for 12 hours. I can only reflect on the fact that I was privileged to work with such amazing people. And tonight was, for me, a form of closure. Not that I don't want to meet up with these guys again, but because this is now my last memory of zavvi; having a laugh and a good time. This is what I'll remember, not picking up my things from an empty office in January.

11:00: Tired. The head's not too bad but I'm starving. At least I can have a cup of coffee in my zavvi mug...

A bit of a week

Last week was the third week of jobhunting; the week when the adrenaline started to run out. The week when the brave new world of updating my LinkedIn profile, sending out my cv and selling myself over the phone was starting to become tedious.

It wasn't a particularly bad week, and a couple of very interesting new opportunities have come on the scene. But like I've said before, you start to measure your progress in short periods, and a few hours without activity can start to get you down. And the lack of people around you; on Thursday I didn't have any contact with the outside world for the entire morning.

So imagine my delight to receive a call at 6.00 on Friday evening asking if I could start a project next week. I don't want to say who it is until I've had my first meeting with the team I'll be working with, but it sounds like a really interesting project, with a fantastic brand, and I'm really looking forward to getting back on the horse again, even if it's only temporary and part time.

In the meantime, the search for a proper job continues. I'm meeting a recruiter on Monday to talk about one very interesting opportunity. And in the 'what a small world' category, it turns out that old mate and ex-colleague Russell is working at a company that I've been talking to about a position. So maybe a word from him to the MD might move things along a little...

I'm delighted also for Suzanne, who has secured a job for an agency working with a large broadcaster. As soon as they said they wanted to meet her in a bar for one of her interviews it was a foregone conclusion. It's just fortunate that they didn't suggest The Distillers at lunchtime a few days before Christmas - now that could have been a very different story...

I'm aware that there are people reading this who haven't been as fortunate, and are still waiting for a breakthrough. To them I say we're all in this together, and we'll continue to support each other. All of us who worked at zavvi have an extraordinary story to tell, so keep on telling it, keep strong, keep positive and and things will happen.

A mug's game

I'm whispering, because I don't want the administrators to hear; before I left zavvi I 'liberated' one of the mugs from the kitchen. I figure it might become a collectors, piece one day. I imagine turning on Antiques' Roadshow to see some expert on ceramics saying:

"This is a remarkable find. zavvi was an entertainment retailer around 2007-2008 but they were only around for about 18 months. There were only a small number of zavvi mugs produced, and - I do believe you've struck gold here - I think this is from the kitchen on the south side, so it's even more of a collector's piece since it would have been used by the eCommerce team. It's probably worth around £10,000 today."

Anyway, the thing is that I've found myself unable to drink from it. Bad karma. It reminds me too much of the painful last few weeks at zavvi. So I've decided that when I find my next job I'm going to make that coffee and use that mug. Until then, I'll keep it under wraps just in case I get a call from a bbc producer.

And while I'm on the subject of coffee, has there ever been a better smell than that of freshly ground coffee? I went to Martyns in Muswell Hill yesterday to pick up my favourite mix of colombian and java, and the aroma from my bag on the way home was just fantastic.

Monday, Monday

Today has been a good day. For those who know me well, the words 'good day' used in the context of a Monday is an unusual combination so that's got to be a positive start to the week...

I met The Arch at Cafe Apogee in Leicester Place for lunch (a rather dodgy full English breakfast) and had a good chat with a good friend. As I was walking to the tube who should I bump into but thick-as-thieves ex-zavvi colleagues Bernadette and David, probably up to no good as usual.

Then it was off to Chiswick for a meeting with the Head of eCommerce for a major book retailer. A really good meeting that was useful and interesting whether anything comes out of it or not.

Back home for a call with a recruiter, which went well I thought, and I reckon that should about do it for today.

As for tonight - well, Jack's back. What more can I say?

So I've been re-acquainting myself with the 'home office', and remembered one of the great things about working from home. Since the good IT folks at zavvi rumbled me for listening to BBC iPlayer and using up all the company bandwidth, I've been blocked from listening to Zane Lowe. This afternoon, while tweaking my cv for the umpteenth time (I'm up to version 7.6), reviewing some agency contacts and talking to a recruiter, I've been listening to Zane Lowe's New Year Mixtape - stonking.

The office

Weird, going into the office this morning. Suddenly the place I worked in every day was a strange, empty place.

And a horrible place. They've started to clear out our side of the building so there was hardly anyone there. It was good to bump into a few friendly faces but frankly, I couldn't wait to clear the rest of my stuff and be out of there for good.

Had a nice lunch at Frank's with Lee, Suzanne and Steve, bumped into Ana on the way to the tube, and made my weighed-down way home...

I'm due to speak to a couple of recruiters this afternoon so Project Melvin starts in earnest now.

A surprise package

Oh, there was another thing that was really funny about the announcement. The administrator was explaining the procedure for claiming redundancy from the Government, and how the Government will pay up to a statutory amount. He then said that "for the money that the Government won't pay we've put together a package".

I, and many others, thought 'that's a nice gesture - nice that they've looked after everyone'.

Until he told us that we could pick up the package that had all the details afterwards...

The last supper

Well, not exactly the last supper, but the nearest thing to it right now. Lots of us went across the road for drinks at The Distillers.

It's such a strange situation that nobody really knows how to handle it. Lots of talk about new doors opening, reunions, Facebook groups etc. I really hope that each and every one of the people in that room is able to emerge from this with something better than they had.

As Suzanne said, it's not the people that you got close to - you'll keep in touch with them. It's the people that you just worked with. The people who have been the canvas for every day you walked into the office. The people who will in all likelihood never be a part of your life again.

So even though I'm writing this on the Piccadilly line and nowhere near a bar, I raise an imaginary drink to everyone at zavvi that I was privileged to work with. Some of you were probably really good at what you did, maybe some of you were just ok. It really doesn't matter.

I've worked for companies, and I've worked for myself. But I can honestly say that in the last year I found a family. A group of people who wanted to achieve a dream against all the odds.

I'm listening to my ipod on shuffle as I write this, and right now it's playing the Rocky theme tune (I'm not making this up, honestly). And there you have it: the story of the underdog, punching above his weight, with no right to succeed. The only problem is that we were Rocky 2 and not the original. We got the girl but lost the fight.

But hey, Rocky came back, didn't he?

It's officially over

We've just been separated into two groups, a bit like in X Factor, and half of us have been told we're redundant. I'm in the losing group...

I know it's not really funny, but we were told to pick up a package at the end, and give our name so we could be ticked off a list. I couldn't help thinking of that scene in Life of Brian where Michael Palin asks everyone if they're being crucified or released. I thought about it, but...

139,988 is the magic number

139,988 - that's how many visitors we had to the site on Boxing Day - one of four consecutive 100k+ traffic days.

For a closed shop. We must have been doing something right...

Good times start here

Right, enough of the gloom. I'm still at home, not fully fit yet but on the mend, and planning to go back into the office tomorrow to see what's happening. I fully expect to be made redundant by New Year's Eve, and I don't hold out any hope that I'll get any money from zavvi. But there's nothing I can do about that, so no point in worrying about it.

What I can do is concentrate on doing everything I can to turn this situation into a positive - and that's what I'm going to do. I've had a few contacts with recruiters, including one who - with fantastic timing - contacted me on Christmas Eve shortly after the zavvi announcement. There are opportunities out there - and I intend to find one with my name on it.

If I can find some time over the coming week or so I think I should turn the retail woes to my advantage by buying a new suit - got to look my best for the interviews...