News, Views and Music Issue 105 (Intro)

July 15^th:

Hello again, dear readers! Guess what?! We’re back at the library again this week and are still waiting for our computer to be returned, so apologies for the funny looking graphics for the second issue in a row. I’m quite pleased with the library’s clipart resources though – hmm, very modern, a bit more so than our usual fare! Sorry about the week delay too, but being limited to two hours a session means we’ve fallen a bit behind this issue! So what delights do we have to excite your eyes and ears this week then? Only one of the AAA’s best-selling albums of all time (Oasis’ ‘Definitely Maybe’) and a quite alarming top five slot where we’ll be studying the ultimate rock and roll super-group that never was (and sadly never will be). There’s not much news this week but, no matter, we’ve got lots of other stuff for you so read on…

                                

Beatles News: Strangely BBC1 has chosen to celebrate Lennon’s time in America during their ‘Imagine’ slot next Tuesday, July 12^th at 10.45pm on BBC One. That’s strange both because a) this is McCartney month once again following re-issues of McCartney and McCartney II and his forthcoming marriage when Macca’s in all the papers and b) everyone celebrated the anniversary of Lennon’s move to the States at the beginning of the year. Still, I like ‘Imagine’ (even if they don’t do anything like enough music programmes) and this era of Lennon’s life is a fascinating one, full of revolution, counter-culturism, political activism and some downright oddball music…Full marks to the beeb, what with this and Friday, July 14^th’s Kinks night on BBC4 (see last issue) this is the best AAA’s viewing in a week since Christmas!

Pentangle News:One item we only heard about too late for last issue, though, was a repeat of a ridiculously early Pentangle session for the BBC in 1968 – the year before their first official release. Very poor sound quality it was too, but the Pentangle brilliance was undimmed. The broadcast was part of the ‘Gideon Coe’ show on Monday, July 4^th if anyone wants to find it via I-player!

ANNIVERSARIES: It’s that time of year again for AAA musicians born between July 11^th and 17^th: Roger McGuinn (guitarist with The Byrds 1965-73) who turns 69 on July 13^{th .} Anniversaries of events include: Neil Young’s first concert film ‘Rust Never Sleeps’, premieres in Los Angeles, offering a ‘history of rock and roll’ and his backing crew dressed up as Ewok Ninjas (or something like that!; July 11^th 1979); the first ever performance of the Rolling Stones at London’s Marquee Club, with Brian Jones using the stage name ‘Elmo Lewis’, no bassist and Kink Mick Avory playing drums in the months  before Charlie Watts joins the band (July 12^th 1969); The unthinkable happens when half of all radio stations ban a Beatles single – no, not The BBC’s ban on ‘A Day In The Life’ but a UK-wide ban on ‘The Ballad of John And Yoko’ for using the word ‘Christ’ (July 12^th 1969); Janis Joplin’s first gig with her third and final group ‘The Full Tilt Boogie Band’ just months before her death (July 12^th 1970); Pink Floyd release their first post-Syd Barrett LP ‘A Saucerful Of Secrets’ (July 13^th 1968); The Who begin their first full American tour, as support to – Gerry and The Pacemakers (!) who were still big in the US in the psychedelic years (July 14^th 1967); Much loved guitarist Clarence White, guitarist with The Byrds for the second half of their turbulent career, dies whilst unloading his guitar from a truck outside a gig in America (July 14^th 1973); Neil Young scores his biggest album hit in years with the uneven ‘Rust Never Sleeps’ (July 14^th 1979); Ray Davies announces for the umpteempth time that he is quitting The Kinks during an on-stage announcement (July 15^th 1977); the film of the Graham Nash-organized charity film ‘No Nukes’ premieres, featuring the first CSN reunion for three years (July 16^th 1980); Beatles film ‘Yellow Submarine’ premieres at the London Pavilion (July 17^th 1968); The Who release classic single ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’, even if it is cut down from the album version by four whole minutes! (July 17^th 1971); An anonymous music critic comes close to ruining a Stones gig after leaving a bomb in a crate containing the band’s speakers, causing untold damage (July 17^th 1972) and finally, The Moody Blues open the world’s first quadraphonic studio – some two years after splitting up! (July 17^th 1974).