News, Views and Music Issue 55 (Intro)

March 6:

♫ Hello, hiya, howdy and watcher, it’s time for issue 55 of everybody’s favourite spice girls-baiting rotten music hating AAA-pulsating monkeynuts newsletter. Not much news to tell you this week except that we’re now approaching the 700 visitors mark, so thankyou to everyone whose dropped in for a visit and a quick look round our (non-photo) albums. We’ll be back a bit later than normal next issue but seeing as we’ve been a bit early posting the last two hopefully that shouldn’t matter too much. Anyway, till then happy reading!

                                                             

♫ CSNY News/Jefferson Airplane News: There were no less than two AAA-related answers on last week’s under-rated ‘Only Connect’ quiz (BBC3 Monday 8.30pm) which would have got me a whopping seven points if I’d been on the show (though, as normal, I can’t say I got many of the other rounds that week). For those who don’t know the show is about connections between four seemingly random people/places/objects and on the CSNY round contestants had to guess the fourth name in the sequence after being provided with (Bing) Crosby, (whisky) Stills, (Kate) Nash (the result, of course, was (Jimmy) Young). I’m pleased to see its the only round where I’ve ever guessed the answer from the beginning (or are ever likely to!) As if that wasn’t enough round four was all about ‘famous Graces’, naturally including Mrs Slick from the Jefferson Airplane. Full marks to host Victoria Coren for calling the latter group ‘that wonderful band...’ although perhaps not her ‘bird competition’ joke which changed CSNY into Crowsby, Starling, Natterjack and Yearling! Yeah, OK, so that’s not really very newsworthy but I have to fill this column up somehow!

                              

♫ ANNIVERSARIES: Our birthday boys this week (February 28^th-March 6^th) are Brian Jones (multi-instrumentalist with The Rolling Stones 1962-68) who would have been 68 on February 28^th, Roger Daltrey (singer with The Who 1964-82 and various re-unions) who turns 66 on March 1^st and David Gilmour (guitarist with Pink Floyd 1968-94) who turns 63 on March 6^th. Anniversaries of events include: John and Paul write ‘From Me To You’ in the back of a tour bus after reading the quote in that week’s letter column of the NME (February 28^th 1963); The Cavern Club closes its doors for the final time after raking up debts of £70,000 (February 28^th 1966); The Beatles start filming for their first film ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ – amazingly the film will premiere in the summer of the same year (March 2^nd 1964); Stephen Stills takes part in the fondly if hazily remembered ‘Havana Jam’ festival, an event held to strengthen American-Cuban relations (March 2^nd 1979); John Lennon’s quote about The Beatles being bigger than Jesus first appears in print in the Evening Standard where it doesn’t even make a headline – it won’t be till American journalists get hold of the story a few months later that it becomes front page news (March 4^th 1966); The Rolling Stones record their ‘Love You Live’ album at Toronto’s low capacity and intimate El Macombo Club – with Keith Richards’ latest drug bust hanging over the band (see last week’s column) there are fears that this will be the last record the bad will ever do (March 4^th 1977); The Rolling Stones and The Hollies begin a tour together, creating a friendship that lasts throughout most of the 1960s (March 5^th 1965 – and contrary to most books on the subject they are joint headliners, generally switching billing depending on the venue); The Rolling Stones also record their first live album – Got Live If You Want It – during a gig in Liverpool on March 6^th 1965 and finally, The Beatles release their last ever single in the UK with ‘Let It Be’ on March 6^th 1970, over a year after it’s recording.

And for week two (March 7^th-13^th) its birthday celebrations for Micky Dolenz (drummer and actor with The Monkees 1966-70) who turns 65 on March 8^th. Anniversaries of events include: the first time British stars fill up the whole of the UK top 10 (including AAA members The Searchers at no 5 with ‘Needles and Pins’ and The Rolling Stones at no 6 with ‘Not Fade Away’) (March 7^th 1964); The Beatles appear on the radio for the first time singing ‘Dream Baby’ on ‘Teenagers Turn’ a full seven months before their first single release (March 8^th 1962); The legendary Fillmore East venue - or ‘Fillmore Esat’ as they famously mis-spelled it on their advertising banner – opens in San Francisco and will become home to the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane among others (March 8^th 1968); Pigpen aka Ron McKernan, organist and founder of The Grateful Dead, dies of liver failure on March 8^th 1973; The Beatles release their last ever EP after breaking every EP record in the book over the past four years (‘Yesterday’, which never was a single in the UK, is released on March 10^th 1966); The Blue Jays – Moody Blues members Justin Hayward and John Lodge – perform their first gig at the Albert Hall (March 10^th 1975); Paul Simon gets a gold record for his best-selling solo single ’50 Ways To Leave Your Lover’ (March 11^th 1976); Paul and Linda McCartney tie the knot at Marleybone Registry Office (March 12^th 1969); John Lennon gets evicted from Los Angeles’ Troubadour Club after heckling the Smothers Brothers, an act that makes him question the wisdom of continuing his ‘lost weekend’ (March 12^th 1974) and finally, Stephen Stills’ biggest solo hit ‘Love The One You’re With’ reaches its peak in the UK charts (March 13^th 1971).