Friday 18 November 2011

News, Views and Music Issue 122 (Intro)




November 18th:

Dear all, this might be the last newsletter for a while as we take a ‘pause for the cause’ to quote Stephen Stills. Despite completing my medical report three weeks early – and ignoring a simply horrid scaremongering leter from the DWP about how dare I wait so close to the deadline and did I know my benefits for the entire futurew were at stake if I so much as missed by an hour – I’ve already been told I have my medical assessment at the end of the month. For those who don’t think this is a big deal see this site to know what we’re up against:  http://www.whywaitforever.com/dwpatos.html In the meantime, we’ve been busy renovating the ‘Alan’s Songs’ section of the site – the one that’s taken longest to get right of all our 10 pages. We’ve no added a link to a wonderful site called ‘Best Ever Albums’, which allows you to post your favourite albums and give star-ratings to bands. You can find the link to the overall website on that page and above it the html code that will take you to my actual listing of 100 LPs (you can cut and paste it into your web bar – look at all these bits of tachnical jargon I’m using, anyone would think I knew what I was talking about!) No surprise to see that a whopping 77% of my choices comes from the 1960s and 70s or that ‘Smile’ is number one! Please leave me a comment and have a go at adding your top albums yourself – I’m intrigued to see what my reader’s tastes are! (Note: you can only add 40 albums at first until you’ve posted a few ‘star ratings’ and then you’ll get a chance to add 60 albums!) Now on with the news...



                                                 

Lulu News: At long last Lulu has been booted out of Strictly Come Dancing which means I dont have to keep tuning in for the last five minutes or asking friends because, truly, what could possibly be more boring than people you dont like or care about dancing to music you cant stand. As you may have guessed, Im really not a fan of this programme and Im alarmed at how fashionable it seems to have become just a few years past the point where no one admitted to watching predecessor Come Dancing, simply because of some D-list celebrities (not Lulu of course), a bit of glitter and Bruce Forsyth paying for his pension. Please, Lulu, go and record that R and B record weve been waiting for you to make all your life and drop the light entertainment career you keep complaining about!

Simon and Garfunkel News: What a cop out last weeks Imagine film about Simon and Garfunkel was it was just the (admittedly pretty good) Harmony Game documentary from the Bridge Ovwer Troubled Water deluxe set thats been asvailable since Easter this year! Alan Yentob tacked on a few minutes at the beginning (none of which were helpful and all of which were filmed in his car were there no studios available) but otherwisae this was identical! How cheeky! Still at least it got Simon and Grafunkel trending on twitter. Altogether now #alansalbumarchives...






ANNIVERSARIES: November 22nd-28th: Would you believe, it’s that time of year again when no AAA musicians whatsoever were born – the only week in the year that happens! There are oodles of anniversaries of events however: No less than three important Beatles releases come out for the Christmas market on November 22nd (‘With The Beatles’ in 1963, ‘The White Album’ in 1968 and John Lennon’s last record ‘Double Fantasy’ in 1980); The Rolling Stones are temporarily banned from all BBC Radio for the heinous crime of - gosh – turning up a bit late for a show for the series ‘Saturday Club’ (November 23rd 1964); 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) and finally, 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).

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