July 31:
♫ Welcome to another weave through the wonderful
world of Alan’s Album Archives on the World Wide Web. This week we’ve been
going hi-tech as a prelude to developing our site by adding a series of
‘listmania’ lists to online retailers Amazon. So the next time you hunt for one
of our AAA accredited albums you should see our name come up on one of our four
AAA lists. Several readers have been asking me where they can get their hands
on the albums reviewed on this site so, much as I hate helping one conglomerate
company over smaller retailers, this seemed the easiest way of giving everybody
what they wanted. Please give us a ‘star rating’ if you happen to find one of
our lists – it all helps plug this site! Meanwhile, on with the news (what
little there is this week)...
♫ Kinks News: BBC4 are
giving us a third repeat of the ‘Blues At The BBC’ compilation, featuring one of the earliest Kinks
television recordings from 1964. The Kinks do a great version of ‘Got Love If You Want It’, with Ray Davies
aping all the blues legends that had just appeared on the show before the young
upstarts did.
♫ Moody Blues/ Pink Floyd News: BBC4 are repeating
their nicely detailed jog through prog rock’s finest moments tonight between
9.45pm and 12.30am. As well as a repeat of the ‘prog rock at the BBC’ programme
(which I missed first time round) and ‘prog rock Britannia’ (which I didn’t –
lots on Jethro Tull I’m pleased to say and small sections on the Moodies and
the Floyd) we get a 15 minute ‘sounds of the 70s’ this time around featuring a
song by the Moody Blues (‘Question’ , I reckon, as that’s the most common
Moodies clip from the series, although it could be the re-issue of ‘Nights In
White Satin’ they were plugging in 1972). There’s also a repeat of ‘BBC’ and
‘Britannia’ (though sadly not ‘S.O.T.70s’) on Saturday, August 1st.
♫
Anniversaries: Happy birthday bonanzas this week (July 31st-August 6th)
go to Jerry Garcia (guitarist with the Grateful Dead 1965-95) who would have
been 67 had he not he not died tragically 14 years ago. Anniversaries of events
this week include: The Beach Boys feature in the UK charts for the first time
with third single ‘Surfin’ USA – in time they become more successful in Britain
than they were in their American homeland (August 1st 1963); George
Harrison’s much-talked about concert for Bangladesh finally takes place on
August 1st 1971; the Beatles become the headline act at Liverpool’s
Cavern Club for the first time (August 2nd 1961); The Who buy film
lot Shepperton Studios for the sum of £350,000, but only use it for rehearsals
and one well-remembered gig (the last with Keith Moon, recorded specially for
the ‘Kids Are Alright’ documentary that came out months after his death); Almost
two years to the day since their first headline gig, the Beatles play their
last session at the Cavern Club, clocking up nearly 300 performances at the
venue (amazingly it’s as late as August 3rd 1963 – the same period
they released fourth single ‘From Me To You’);
Wings are announced to the press on August 3rd 1971, just
before their informal series of concerts up and down the UK’s university
campuses; The ‘Beatles are bigger than Jesus’ storms really hits the fab four’s
American tours in a big way when six of the countries’ biggest radio stations
ban their singles (August 4th 1966); Pink Floyd perform the first of
their mammoth concerts to promote ‘The Wall’ album (August 4th
1980); the Beatles release ‘Revolver’, one of the most influential and
important records of all time, 43 years ago (August 5th); August 5th
is a good day for records in fact – just a year later Pink Floyd release their
debut LP ‘Piper At The Gates Of Dawn’; The Small Faces release their debut
single, the wonderfully ungrammatical ‘What’cha Gonna Do Bout It?’ (August 6th
1965) and finally Pink Floyd almost celebrate the 2nd anniversary of
their ‘Wall’ shows with the premiere of the ‘Wall’ film on August 6th
1982.
