News, Views and Music Issue 91 (Intro)

February 14:

Hello and welcome back to what is – in total – our 199^th article for Alan’s Album Archives. Expect a celebration next week for our 200^th issue! In the meantime, we’re nearing the end of our far-too-short 13 week trial aimed at turning the AAA into a business. We’ve not made anything like enough money to make it financially viable yet (get buying from Amazon if you want to help us out!), but our site hits have more than doubled since we started so we can cautiously call it a bit of a success. Rest assured, we’ll still be writing away for you come what may, even if there is a bit more space between issues than there has been in the past. We’ve actually passed the 4600 mark now, which isn’t bad at all given all the myriad problems we’ve had since launching and for what is still such a low-budgeted site. In other news, we now have business cards and stickers plugging our site so get into contact with us at the usual email address (pattin82@yahoo.co.uk) if you want some posted out to you for free to give out to your friends and family. Oh and our Sims are doing OK – we now have a neighbouring house to our Beatles Sims full of Dr Who and Star Trek characters who seem to spend most of their time in the shower for some reason (perhaps its bigger on the inside?!) Oh and a follow-up to last week’s rant: David Cameron, hang your head in shame. You say our multicultural society isn’t working and it’s everyone elses’ fault? No sir, its stuck-up people like you who won’t tolerate others having a piece of what you have. Shocking!  Well, what with all that news from us its on with...oh no, hang on, for only the second time in our history there isn’t any actual musical news this week. What the heck is everyone doing?! Instead its on with the ‘birthdays’ section...

ANNIVERSARIES: It’s that time of year again for AAA members born between February 9^th and 15^th: Peter Tork (bassist and keyboardist with The Monkees 1966-68 and various reunions) turns 65 on February 13^th and Mick Avory (drummer with The Kinks 1964-85) turns 67 on February 15^th. Anniversaries of events include: The Beatles’ historic first appearance on the Ed Sullivan TV show, still the highest-rated music-linked programme in history (February 9^th 1964); Wings play their first ever gig, after randomly turning up at Nottingham University and asking if they can play(February 9^th 1972); A sign of the times when the American office of the Beatles fan club closes its doors two years before the UK fan-base officially folds (February 10^th 1968); the infamous 10 hour Beatles recording session at Abbey Road for the ‘Please Please Me’ album that sees 10 tracks recorded and ends with a blistering ‘Twist and Shout’ (February 11^th 1963); Two days after their appearance on ‘Ed Sullivan’, the Beatles play their first live gig in America at Washington’s Coliseum (February 11^th 1964); Ringo Starr becomes the third Beatle to get hitched when he marries his first wife Maureen Cox (February 11^th 1965); Graham Gouldmann releases his first solo single ‘Bus Stop’ – although it won’t be a hit until The Hollies cover it later on in the year (February 11^th 1966); Ringo’s first non-Beatles film ‘The Magic Christian’ premieres in New York with a theme song featuring Apple band Badfinger singing a Paul McCartney song (February 11th 1970); The infamous raid on Keith Richards’ house Redlands takes place and will dominate Rolling Stones proceedings for the rest of the year (February 12^th 1967); Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ beats the record for longest run in Billboard’s top 200 when it logs up its 402^nd week (February 13^th 1982); The Who play a gig at Leeds University that will go on to be one of the most famous live records of all time when released as ‘Live At Leeds’ (February 14^th 1970); JohnandYoko begin a week-long stint as guest hosts on the Mike Douglas show, introducing guests including Chuck Berry (February 14^th 1972); ‘Meet The Beatles’ – the first American Beatles album made up of singles and tracks from the band’s first two albums – begins a then-record 11 week stint at the top of the charts (February 14^th 1964) and finally, The Who play the first of their ill-fated ‘Lifehouse’ shows at London’s New Vic Theatre for a film of the project that will never be released (see ‘news and views 81’ for the full story).