November 26:
Hello and welcome to what should – hopefully – be our first full issue as a fully paid up business. If you’ve been enjoying the issues we’ve been making, then please take the time to look at some of our advertisers and help us out a bit. We have to make this site pay somehow! In the meantime, yes as you can plainly see we did manage to get an issue out to you this week, although next week looks like being a different story thanks to various tax return courses and the like. Oh and congratulations to us all for reaching 2500 hits – a magnificent achievement that means we only need another 99, 7500 to make a million (hmm actually that’s quite a depressing thought, forget that one!)
In the meantime, what does David Cameron think he’s up to? Ticking China off for their human rights record while being the country that supported America in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars? Give me break – surely somebody somewhere is playing a practical joke on us putting this idiot in charge. And it would be nice if he was actually in this country for a change. Oh and while we’re at it thanks for cutting my self-employment programme down from six months to 13 weeks – any business that manages to thrive under that kind of pressure must surely come around about once a year. But – the biggest question of all – why is all the media ignoring it all, even the pro-Labour camp? As The Who put it in our last issue, I guess we know that the hypnotised never lie (do they?!) Rant over, it’s on with the news stories...
♫ Beatles News: As you may have read, the legal dispute between The Beatles’ Apple Records and the computer manufacturer Apple have now been resolved and all of the band’s back catalogue is now available to download at I-tunes. The Beatles is probably the last of the big name groups to make their content available in this way and early reports are that there is such a rush for their back catalogue that we may well have a Beatles #1 single and album this week. Let’s hope so anyway, as it seems ages since we had a member of the AAA in the top ten in either chart!
In other news, BBC6 are continuing their strong run of documentary repeats with the multi-part programme ‘In My Life - Lennon Remembered’, which I think is the show that went out on the 10th anniversary of Lennon’s death in 1990 (although BBC6 are a bit sketchy on the details as yet so I may well change my mind by next issue!) The repeats run every weekday from 3am the week after next (Monday, November 29th-Friday December 3rd).
And finally for Beatles news this week, Paul McCartney is taking part in a celebration of American radio station Sirius XM, which is a subscriber-only service that has now reached 20 million followers. Macca and his band will be recording a special show for al subscribers sometime soon as a thankyou to them for plugging his back catalogue so often. It will also mark Macca’s first appearance at America’s prestigious Apollo Theatre venue – one of the few places Macca hasn’t played at yet in the Western world (it’s where Michael Jackson came to fame, not that that’s at all encouraging).
♫ Neil Young News: Alas poor Neil had bad news this month when a fire started in his infamous car warehouse where he keeps his impressive collection of old cars and trains. The fire is thought to have been started by a faulty part in a 1959 Lincoln Continental which Neil had converted into a more green efficient car (the key theme of his record of 2008 ‘Fork In The Road’ you may remember) which caused around £534,000 of damage to Neil’s collection. Thankfully none of the Young family were nearby at the time and firefighters claim that they’ve saved around 70% of Neil’s belongings so it could have been much worse. Typically Neil, he’s already said in the press that he intends to rebuild the car and convert all his other vehicles to be ‘greener’ despite the setback!
ANNIVERSARIES: Unusually there are no AAA members celebrating birthdays this week (November 24-30th). Instead here are the anniversaries of events: The Who play their first gig at London’s Marquee Club, the venue that will forever be linked with their name (November 24th 1964); Otis Redding scores the biggest single hit of his short lifetime with ‘Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa (Sad Song)’ (November 24th 1966); John Lennon returns his MBE, awarded in 1964, to The Queen along with a letter outlining his fury at Britain’s involvement in Biafra and Vietnam and, umm, ‘Cold Turkey’s poor showing in the charts. His Aunt Mimi is furious – she’s been keeping the medal in her living room and thought her nephew wanted to borrow it, not use it as a political gesture! (November 25th 1969); The Band’s farewell extravaganza ‘The Last Waltz’ takes place including AAA members Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Ringo Starr (November 25th 1976); 10cc split into two after just four albums, surprising all of the fan base who hadn’t spotted any signs of discord in the group (November 26th 1976); Paul McCartney and Wings’ little seen but fabulous concert film ‘Wings Over America’ finally premieres in the US some four years after being shot (November 26th 1980); The Beatles release their double EP ‘Magical Mystery Tour’, ahead of a screening of the TV special on Boxing Day; contrary to popular belief the soundtrack is very well received (November 27th 1967); The Rolling Stones start a four day concert tour at Madison Square Gardens, the highlights of which are immortalised on the most popular Stones live record ‘Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!’ (November 27th 1969); John Lennon’s last concert takes place – a three song cameo in the middle of a show by close friend Elton John. Lennon hadn’t been on stage for three years and only took part after Elton bet the ex-Beatle single his latest single ‘Whatever Gets You Thru The Night’ would make #1 in the American charts (November 28th 1974); Lennon is at it again on November 29th 1968, being busted for possession of cannabis on the same day he and Yoko release their experimental LP ‘Two Virgins’; The Beatles top the NME ‘favourite group’ poll for the first time – with the exception of 1966 when The Beach Boys win it, The Beatles will hold the title right up until their dissolution in 1970 (November 30th 1963) and finally, Wings release their second band single which is, incidentally, their second banned single – the controversial drug taking ode ‘Hi Hi Hi’ (most fans will probably know the B-side ‘C Moon’ better) (November 30th 1972).
No comments:
Post a Comment