Friday 30 September 2011

News, Views and Music Issue 114 (Intro)




September 30th:

Hello once again for a surprisingly sombre News, Views and Music. We’ve death, illness, recuperation and incompetence for you this issue – no guessing which category our latest (and extended) ‘top five’ political debate comes under! First up, I have to re-apply for my incapacity benefit (for those of you who don’t know even though I mention it every few issues I’ve been writing this site while suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and looking for something actually worth getting up for every day), even though a) I’d only just received the old one b) I should be exempt because I’m running my own business with job centre help (ie this site) and c) the new hoops they’ve added to new claimants under the Coalition Government are outrageous, unfair and – till the law was changed this year – illegal. Even I win I shall have to attend monthly work trial sessions miles away from my house that will make me more and more tired and make my illness worse – and if I lose (which seems likely with only a 10% success rate) I shall end up back at the jobcentre, with an illness that will cause me to collapse looking for jobs that don’t exist. All this is being done to save the Government a few measly pounds – despite the fact that the new system costs bucket-loads and they haven’t exactly made it easy for claimants left in great pain and misery, what with cutting your benefits while you’re being ‘assessed’, making you fill in massive forms (with no space for either ‘pain’ or ‘tiredness’ (which is a crazy state of affairs because who wants an employee who falls asleep at their desk everyday and keeps saying ‘ow’ every few minutes whenever he moves) and sending you to doctors with a total of six week’s training who think they know more than the specialist you’ve been seeing for years. All this means that I shall have less time (and less energy) to devote to this site, even though it’s my best means to recovery and my best chance of ever getting a job when I am well enough to work. The whole system is a mess and I resent being one of the early guinea pigs testing it, not to mention losing three weeks of my life hand-writing a form that I could have typed up online in a couple of days, packing it full of detail that backs up my case that no one will ever read (because this Government simply assumes that if you’re not one of the rich, you must be guilty of something). For more angry protest see our top five below and open your eyes to what’s really going on...

All that’s a shame because the last week has seen some great steps forward for our site. You may have noticed a ‘blog’ page has been to our site – there’s nothing in there our regulars won’t already know but I have included all of our best ‘top fives’ for newcomers to read before actually clicking on each article and will continue to add each week’s closing column here. By the wonders of modern technology (which still seem like magic to me, but there we are) I’ve been able to set up an account that enables me to update my twitter feed and various other programmes every time I post one of these (so sorry to my followers who have seen me add about a hundred articles in the past week!) It seems to be working – in the past two days we’ve had 200 hits alone which is a big increase on the 40 we were having every day, so let me take the time to say ‘hello’ for any readers who are reading this as their first article, forgive the ranting it doesn’t happen often (well...OK, it does) and I hope you have a long and pleasant journey with us. If I ever actually have the energy, time and run of good health to keep Alan’s Album Archives going. Anyway, enough doom and gloom, on with the news...

               

                                                     

Because of the ‘split’ nature of the new this week, we’ve decided to give you details of the week’s events (mostly repeats) in group order:

First up, BBC6 are repeating the first two series of their ‘Classic Albums’ series from the early 1990s in their ‘documentary’ slot at 3am each night. They repeated the first series (featuring Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys and a different Small Faces) not so long ago but their second (featuring CSN and the first Small Faces album for Immediate) is a nice surprise, long overdue for a repeat. For the record the dates are as follows (curiously, the two series have had their running orders jumbled together) and are all at 3am on the mornings listed:

Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ this Tuesday, September 27th

Crosby, Stills and Nash ‘Crosby, Stills and Nash’ this Thursday, September 29th (the best of the series and unrepeated since around 1991 and featuring new interviews with the great comedy double act that is Crosby-Nash and a separate one with Stills: listen out for the anecdote about the band being asked to re-shoot the cover only to find the run-down house they used had been knocked down!) See our review no 29)

Beach Boys ‘Pet Sounds’ this Friday, September 30th

The Who ‘Who’s Next’ this Saturday, October 1st (see news and views 14 and 81)

Rolling Stones ‘Beggar’s Banquet’ next Wednesday, October 5th (see review no 26)

Small Faces ‘The Small Faces’ (on its first repeat in 20 years) next Thursday, October 6th (see review no 12)



And more on that Spirit of the 60s series we told you about last week. How wonderful to see the 10 Sounds of the 60s compilations (also from 1991 spookily enough) again, even if they did cut out some of the captions at the end and a few other edits I noticed to squeeze them into the running slot. For the record heres what they did show:

Beatles ‘She Loves You’ (TOTP 1964) (1st episode)

Byrds ‘All I Really Wanna Do’ (TOTP 1965) (2nd episode)

Grateful Dead ‘The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)’ (Haight-Ashbury promo clip, 1967) (8th episode)

Hollies ‘Just One Look’ (TOTP 1963, 3rd episode) and ‘Sorry Suzanne’ (TOTP 1969, 6th episode)

Kinks ‘You Really Got Me’ (TOTP 1964, 3rd episode) and ‘Days’ (‘Pop Go The 60s, New Year’s Eve 1969 – weirdly this whole show was shown on the same day so this little seen clip was on twice in three hours!, 5th episode)

Moody Blues ‘Ride My See-Saw’ (Colour Me Pop 1968, 8th episode)

Pink Floyd ‘Flaming’ and ‘Astronomy Domine’ (Look Hear – the one with the really smug presenter who hates them because they are ‘too loud’ and ‘do not play like a string quartet’!, 8th episode) and ‘Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun’ (‘All MY Loving’, a programme shown in full later the same night again!, episode 10)

 Rolling Stones ‘It’s All Over Now’ (TOTP 1964, 1st episode) ‘Get Off Cloud’ (TOTP 1965, 3rd episode) and ‘Honky Tonk Woman’ (TOTP 1969, 6th episode)

Small Faces ‘Song Of A Baker’ (Colour Me Pop 1968, 9th episode)

The Who ‘I Can See For Miles (TOTP 1967, 8th episode) and ‘My Generation’ (live, ‘All My Loving’ 1968, 10th episode)

There were also the additional programmes: ‘Magical Mystery Tour Memories’ with Victor Spinetti that was basically a loud of proud locals reminiscing about the days when the Beatles’ film crew passed through the village, although there were two interesting  radio clips with an on-form George and an ever-grumpy Ringo. Basically it was disappointing – and I noticed it had a ‘2007’ production credit, as if Yesterday were too afraid to show it the first time around because it wasn’t good enough to stand on its own. To be honest the biggest fact we learnt was that a 27 year old Ringo Starr had a 32” waist in 1967 and paid 19 shillings for his funky trousers!

Monkee documentary ‘Hey Hey We Are The Monkees’ has been shown once before, despite the bally hoo about this being it’s UK premiere (it isn’t). Another slightly disappointing doc, it’s no substitute for the superior ‘Making of The Monkees’ doc from a few years earlier but does have some rare footage and interesting interviews with all the members of the cast (even Mike Nesmith, which was quite a coup at the time!)

There was also the rare addition of Tony Palmer’s 1968 documentary ‘All My Loving’ (the sequel to his ‘All You Need Is Love’ series. Featuring interviews with Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend and a hilarious Frank Zappa, it also included rare clips of Pink Floyd (‘Set The Controls’ as shown above – how weird that both have been unseen for two decades on terrestrial TV and crop up on the very same day!), The Who (ditto clips of My Generation and a snippet of ‘Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand’), Cream and Jimi Hendrix. The best parts though are the pompous attempts of the ‘older’ generation to explain away ‘pop’ music as a cathartic release or a poor substitute for classical music (which is next to ‘Godliness’ in stark contrast to ‘pop’ according to writer Anthony Burgess who has clearly never heard Beach Boys or CSN harmonies in his life!) 

Keep an eye out for repeats as the Yesterday channel do tend to repeat their programmes ad infinitum (how many times have they shown ‘Hitler’s Bodyguards’ for instance?!)



Also celebrating a television retrospective was The Old Grey Whistle Test, which has now reached the middle age of 40 (actually, didn’t it always seem middle aged?) A fine retrospective and a so-so documentary on BBC4 were joined by a much-more-us 40 minute compilation of songs from 1973. For the record the AAA performances were:

Lindisfarne ‘Fog On The Tyne’ (1972, as included in the ‘70s Gold’ compilation)

The Who ‘Relay’ (1973, as included in the ‘OGWT Years’ compilation)

Sadly there were no repeats for the exclusive John Lennon ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ footage or the great Nils Lofgren footage from 1976 this time around (unlike the 30th anniversary specials) – perhaps the 50th anniversary will have even more?!

Beatles News: We sadly have to report the death of Beatles photographer par excellence Robert Whittaker. Its probably fair to say that Robert was the bands photographer of choice during their crucial 1965-66 phase, taking the band out of their moptop image and into something a little deeper. This worked wonderfully well on occasions, creating some of the most enduring images of the band (ie the shots of sun-glasses wearing Beatles in 1966) and left fans scratching their heads on others (the infamous butcher cover, which was probably a social comment too far for 1966 America). He was 73.

Beatles/CSN News: The November issue of Mojo (why – it’s still blooming September!) has just been issued and includes a lengthy discussion of George Harrison’s life and music as its main feature. The text is awful and the record reviews are worse (only three stars for ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘George Harrison’?! Only two for ‘Gone Troppo’ and ‘Brainwashed’ and yet four for the horrible mess that was ‘Cloud Nine’?! I don’t think so!) but the pictures taken from the new Olivia Harrison book ‘Living In The Material World’ bode well. There’s some fascinating pics both by and of George, including a pensive Macca on an early Beatles flight and George on holiday by the Taj Mahal. The CSN bit of new concerns the cover CD, which features 15 varying covers of George Harrison songs. No other than Graham Nash pops up on harmonies for Jonathon Wilson’s exclusive take on ‘Isn’t It A Pity?’ and it’s about the highlight of the set even though there isn’t that much of him – by contrast ‘Lanterns On The Lake’ completely murder ‘Long Long Long’ (George’s greatest Beatle song) and there’s no sign of ‘Beware Of darkness’ (his greatest solo song).

Hollies News: Have you been watching BBC4s recent repeats of TOTP from 1976? Me neither I tend to fast-forward them just to check if theres any good stuff but cant take the glam versus punk battles going on in that era (both are dire). There have been a couple of surprises in the last two weeks though: not The Hollies or even their singer Allan Clarke but two songs that I only know from his solo albums. Two drippy females wailed their way through Sideshow a couple of weeks ago, soon after Clarke released a storming version of the same song on his 1976 LP Ive Got Time. More of a surprise was the Manfred Manns Earth Band version of Blinded By The Light the story goes that Clarke discovered this early Bruce Springsteen song and was convinced it should be a single m- till the record company told him in no uncertain terms that it probably wouldnt sell. A passing Manfredd Mann (Clarkes neighbour of the time) called in one day and asked if he had any songs spare Clarke told him his dilemma and the Earth Band recorded this rather low-key folky version of the song, reaching the top 10 of the charts and proving Clarkeys hit instincts right yet again. I much prefer Clarkeys full on rocky version of the song, by the way! STOP PRESS: Having never heard this version of the song ever in my life, I have just heard it for the third time in three weeks as part of the BBCs excellent coverage of formula one qualifying for the Singapore GP. Yet another astonishing website coincidence!

Pink Floyd News: What was the recent Pink Floyd re-issue bonanza missing to make it seem like the old days? A barmy publicity stunt, thats what! Yes its the flying pig over Battersea Power Station story again, as the band release news that they wanted to fly their old pig (carefully stored in their archives) again unexpectedly only to discover shed developed a hole after 34 years! The band are still planning to build a new one by the way at exorbitant costs, even though it will be too late by then to serve as a proper advertisement because the albums will have been out several weeks already. Hmm, pigs might fly... 






ANNIVERSARIES: Happy birthdays once again to AAA members born between September 27th and October 3rd: Dewey Martin (drummer with the Buffalo Springfield 1965-68) who would have been 69 on September 30th  and Phil Oakey (lead singer with The Human League 1978-present) who turns 56 on October 2nd. Anniversaries of events include: The Hollies release their groundbreaking single ‘King Midas In Reverse’ (September 27th 1967), A and M sue George Harrison for being late with delivery of his last album for the label (George is ill with hepatitis, delaying delivery of ‘33 and 1/3rd’ till later in the year), the Rolling Stones begin their first ‘proper’ tour – supporting Bo Diddley and the Everly Brothers across the UK (September 29th 1963), CSN go gold in America with their first self-titled album less than three months after its release in July (September 30th 1969), In contrast, it takes the Grateful Dead 22 years to earn their first platinum disc (for ‘In The Dark’, the same day in 1987) and finally, 63 Rolling Stones are arrested after failing to get in to see their band at a concert in Milan. 2000 fans are thought to have taken part in the riot after finding out the venue had been sold out by an overwhelming number (October 2nd 1970).


News, Views and Music Issue 114 (Top Twenty): The Reasons david Cameron Has To Go!




The 20 Reasons why Cameron has to go:

So it’s finally come to this. The media are now so firmly in the grasp of the Coalition that they’re afraid to talk. There are warnings that the Coalition financial policies are not working and that we’re all loosing our jobs, our benefits and our sense of pride for no good reason whatsoever. The Coalition have had 18 months to come good now or give way to other people with stronger, better, fairer ideas and they’ve failed. So – for the simple reason that you won’t see this list anywhere else at the time being – are my reasons to get rid of the smug git.

1)    The Conservatives didn’t actually win the election: You’d think, wouldn’t you, that shaking up more constitutions than any prior Governments would involve both a) pots of money and b) full public support wouldn’t you? Well, wrong. The reason we have a coalition is that all parties lost the election: the country didn’t have faith in anyone after as torrid term in office for Gordon Brown (who even so now looks like a saint in comparison to Cameron!) Constitutionally, what should have happened in 2010 is that all three leading parties (Labour, Lib Dems and Conservatives) formed a temporary coalition for a year and then everyone in the UK gets their chance to vote again, having seen how each party’s respective ideas begin to work out and who seems to have the better grasp on the world’s problems. Instead, Cameron rode rough shode over that little detail and declared himself prime minister, despite being voted in by less than a third of the population (and barely anyone in Scotland), cutting Labour out of the deal.

2)    The Coalition’s first act was to break the law. Sorry, amend it: till 2010 it was deemed illegal for Coalition governments to run for a full term in office, something Cameron ended unannounced because of the ‘financial crisis’ facing Britain (which he then determined to make worse). Not content with only that, Cameron asked for and was granted a stay of execution so that the Coalition that nobody voted for could rule over us for five years before another election – one more year than the usual terms of office given to parties that actually win elections legitimately.



3)    Surely a ‘coalition’, the nearest thing to a decision made by the electorate last year, implies a partnership. If so, then it definitely isn’t one of equals. Nick Clegg is deputy pm in name only, having less responsibilities than John Prescott under Tony Blair, with Cameron forever interfering with his policies even on days he should be out of the country. Other Lib Dems fared just as badly, taking all the unpopular jobs (if any), leaving the Conservatives the de facto party of Great Britain – despite being their second favourite (and possibly third favourite) choice when all votes are taken into consideration. If I was Nick Clegg I’d have walked by now, however long my party had been out of power, because surely its clear after 18 months that he has no say in matters he knows better than the Conservatives(those policies the Lib Dems claim they raised? They all got thrown out by the House of Lords, as Cameron knew they would). Remember too Cameron’s tactic of rubbishing Clegg’s name just before the Lib Dem push for a refurendum vote came about? If this was a fair country (which it isn’t) where politics is treated like a sport then this would be ‘unsportsmanlike behaviour’ and Cameron would currently still be in the sin-bin with more red cards than Wayne Rooney, Eric Cantona and Michael Schumacher combined. No wonder they call it the ‘con’-Lib coalition!



4)    What policies does Cameron have anyway? He’s been in power for 18  months now and even his closer aides struggle to answer this question when it crops up in interviews. A recent poll of the public revealed that none of them could actually point to a specific policy anywhere anyway apart from ‘shaking up the NHS’ and ‘shitting on students’ as one interviewee put it. I’ve seen dozens of interviwes with our pm now, either before or after the election, and while I very much know what he’s against (in essence the ill, the elderly, the young, hoodies and Northerners) I still don’t know what he’s for. Big society? What does that mean exactly? Surely our leader actually has a plan, not just a tasty soundbite for the media – or did he never actually expect to win this election?!





5)    Talking of which the Big Society as proposed loosly is the biggest con of the lot. Paying someone absoutely nothing in return for doing the same job where they used to have a wage is not ‘great for the country’, its the complete opposite. On the one hand, paying people means they have money to spend on items produced by our country (and others), thus boosting the economy and helping progress with a (largely made up) financial crisis. On the other, surely the only point of Government is to have a system where we give power to those we deem worthy of it rather than dividing it between so many thousands of people without specialist information that nothing ever gets done. If Big Society really is the way that Cameron sees things going forward and not just an opportunity for a future u-turn then there’s no point in having a Government at all. And the idea of having parents running schools and patients running hospitals is insane – the whole point of creating those institutions is so that those who have particular insightful knowledge can pass it on to those who need it most; the point of both institutions is far greater than just making money (which they won’t anyway because they’re funded so badly). And don’t even get me started on the elitism such a system will cause!



6)    Talking of which, why have we got such an elite prime minister who doesn’t really need the either the money or the prestige having this job will win him during a time of supposed financial crisis? I’m all for millionaire politicians who think they can spread their secrets tothe masses and sure, politicans are all generally rich buggers – that’s how they fund their campaigns – but you always got the sense that somewhere, in their back of thir minds, Blair, Brown and maybe even Major and Thatcher still vaguely remembered where they came from and what life is like when your bank isn’t dripping with money and you have to carve out a normal life for yourself.  David Cameron has never known a life like that – and has never once shown empathy to anyone (except his family) to prove that he understands what life is like for others at all. And have you heard what he got up to with Boris Johnson in the Huffingdon club? And got away with? The man’s practially a hoodie!





7)    Which leads me nicely onto: the August riots. Cameron’s response to the first real domestic test of his term in office was a disaster, with only the pm’s pr office taking any credit. Cameron started by ignoring the problem, busy on one of his many foreign holidays (more on that story later). He then proceeded to make a bad situation worse, blaming everything he could on  a handful of disaffected youths, left with no job prospects (because of the Coaltion) and having to pay for their own education (because of the Coalition), making a disenfranchised part of society feel even less need to follow ‘the law’ which protects some and not others. The police did an appaling job too its fair to say, but Cameron made a bad situation worse when more intelligent politicans (umm, err, Obama?) would have calmed the situation down with an we’re-all-in-this-together-speech, whether he meant it or not.



8)    Onto another riot and the first real test of Cameron’s foreign affairs. Suddenly our beloved leader is out in Libya, praising a bunch of youths for standing up against ‘evil’ and overthrowing a tyrannical regime he didbn’t like the look of. I don’t want to worry you, Dave, but isn’t that what our riots were about? His speech about ‘all of England’ being behind the Libyan riots was also a stroke of stupidity by his scriptwriter – is our pm deciding what we get to think as well now?! And why the hell is our country getting involved so closely in yet another international war – if they’ve asked for our help then, fine, we don’t want to be isolationist (look where that gotr America), but this is just bloody interference!





9)    Going back to the financial system and why Cameron claims to be the person to solve it: Hang on, going back to when the story broke in 2008, when Gordon Brown was prime minister, was Cameron pushing for greater bank controls and a change in fiscal prorities? Erm, no – he not only agreed with Brown he actually actively fought against the measures put in place by his predecessor on his way out the door in 2009, saving Britain from falling into the immediate debt of Greece and Ireland (the man’s finest hour by far, for which he’s been undeservedly punished in the media since). Surely the idea of the opposition (as Cameron then was) is to point out where leaders go wrong and to keep them honest? Well, not only did the Conservatives not notice the crisis their intended spending as specified in the 2006 election (two years before the crisis) was nearly double Labour’s and triple the Lib Dems’. Hmm very responsible and forward sighted there Cameron!



10) Lets’ take the time to look at some of the few individual policies Cameron’s seen through, excepting of course those famous u-turns. First up, job losses: hmm that’s meant to help the economy is it? People have less money, with no prospect of getting any jobs, never mind better paid ones, and that’s meant to save the economy how? Not ot mention being bitterly bitterly unfair.





11) Ditto students. Why the hell should individuals pay for a system that demands you have to have qualifications in order to make a living and will actually do rather well from each student it trains to take each highly salaried job? Call me stupid, but forcing students to pay £36,000 of tuition fees is going to put off our greatest talents and makew them take off elsewhere, leaving our workforce with a load of pig ignorant untrained school leavers and posh kids with more money than sense within a generation, isn’t it?



12) Oh yes and of course the benefits sytem – the unfairest treatement you can expect this side of being a criminal, in fact the two run pretty close these days – has got to be re-formed. To make it, umm, worse. New questionnaires have been planned for new signees to incapacity benefit or whatever ghastly name they give it now, most of which won’t be read because its not part of an assessment ‘points’ system, to be passed onto some idiot doctor who can’t understand a word of English and hasn’t bothered to research your illness and yet still thinks he knows better than the specialist you saw whose been busy studying the disease for some decades (admittedly, this happened under the old system too). If you win – as only 10% of you do – you get to take part in work training groups that, erm, try and get you into the work you’ve just proved you’re too ill to do. If you lose – as 90% of you do – its back on jobseeker’s benefit with a pay cut, no job prospects and the opportunity to make yourself iller fighting for a job you don’t want to have. This system, by the way, costs a ridiculous amount of money – far more than the Government would ever make if it were to never award another pass again for the next century – in return for catching around 17 benefit frauds a year. An astonishing 60% of appeals are overturned at tribunals, by the way, because of deliberate mis-interpretation by the doctors and advisors and poorly asked questions. The people running this new scheme were rated ‘deeply unsatisfactory’ by independent investigators, by the way, and yet still continue to get the job no questions asked and no targets set!



13) Jobseekers too aren’t let off the hook – new ideas include making claimants work on community projects for no money whatsoever are in the works, doing exactly the same thing the UK currently makes their minor criminals do (for less hours too, I might add). Cutting housing benefit is a terrible horrific idea too – how many people are we going to see added to our countries’ already scandalously large homless population?





14) Of course the people who should be paying for this isn’t the workers and it isn’t the students and it isn’t even the people on benefits (put down that copy of the Daily Mail you disagreeing with me out there, its making you grow fangs and suffocating your brain cells!) but the bankers! And who is the one group that the Coalition haven’t attacked yet? Yup, guessed it in one! Just think how many financial crises could be solved by just one law outlawing wages over a certain point? Setting up failsafes so this mess can’t happen again? Demanding some small slight compensation for buying them out those years ago (say, anything over profit for the next 10 years) Or a law that attacked multi-million businesses who make all their money in Britain and flee overseas to avoid paying it back? Far from forcing the issue, the Coalition have even introduced a law that says they’ll accept a pittance from companies who owe millions and write off all their other debts. That’s justice for you. What a great guy that Cameron is! But only if you’re rich and don’t want to live in Britain.       



15) Next up: the NHS. How do we make an underperforming industry pull its socks up? By giving it more money? Extra training? More buildings to spread the load of patients? Nope – we give them a whole new scheme to learn, whilst cutting their budgets in half and closing down hospitals in many areas, placing greater burdens on the other ones. All that to save a pittance! Unless you’re rich enough to go private of course...





16) Remember that News of the World scandal involving Andy Coulsen and his close role to the pm? In olden days this sort of a scandal would have seen the pm out on his ear! After all, however innocent Coulsen’s role ‘guiding’ the pm, he has already proved himself a liar, what with saying that he hardly ever met with his advisor in the wake of the scandal (a fact it didn’t take the papers very long to find out wasn’t true!) In the olden days the media would be all over him – but, no, the story has been quietly forgotten nowadays. A great example to set our young – next he’ll be looting things! And talk about airbrushing! What the hell was that election poster meant to prove?



17) Oh and it might seem a minor point, but how many bloody holidays has the guy taken this year? Five, that’s how many! Just at the point when most of us can’t afford one! There are 52 weeks in a year right? So that means he’s been missing from his own country he’s meant to be running for about a tenth of all the weeks in the year. Right that’s it, from now on, a new law, sorry epetition, that I’ve proposed – a prime minister is not allowed to take a foreign holiday for all the weeks he serves in office; if he must, he can take them at home, thus setting a good example for the economy, and being only a few hours’ notice away from his office if he’s needed. Yeah, right, as if they’ll agree to that – they’ll just tweak the numbers who’ve clicked ‘yes’ on it!





18) In the past two years, when Britain has allegedly needed to save its money, we’ve agreed to host the 2012 olympics and had a visit from The Pope. Couldn’t both of these things have been delayed a few years till we can afford them? And couldn’t we have scrapped some of the ridiculous schemes we had planned but hadn’t actually started, such as new art galleries and museums, council office extensions, in fact everything that we were getting on alright without in 2007 before the crisis hit?



19) What does a true leader do at times of crisis? If you’re FDR you give money to the poor to help them build a new life for themselves (admittedly not much of a life, but its better than making them homeless). If you’re JFK you try to right the wrongs of a prejudiced America (eventually, after two years of procrastination). If you’re Churchill you inspire people with your speeches, whether your actions are equal to your words or not. If you’re Barack Obama you make people believe that you’re listening to them, even if your hands are tied by congress. And if you’re William Taft – well, you stay in the bath and don’t come out, probably. What’s David Cameron done? U-turn after u-turn after bloody u-turn. He’s not even had the decency to stick up for his policies and see them through regardless, in case he offends someone, becausze he genuinely believes they’ll work (yeah, like the tuition fees and benefit changes are popular!) That’s a sign of a weak mind. Do we really want Cameron to be leading us into some future unknown battle when he can’t even agree on what he wants? And why haven’t there been more speeches anyway? Surely he should be keeping us informed of his decisions, leading us into battle together, instead of posing for cheesy photo opportunities!



20) And finally, I am so sick of hearing about his bloody family. How much he cares for them. How he’s always there for them. How he wishes he could see more of them. How he’s upset when something goes wrong to someone he loves. Well, why the hell did you take the job then, because less than a third of the electorate asked you to take it! And we all have families with no time to spend with them (well, unless you’re one of the people Cameron’s just made unemployed of course!) Do you think its going to make you liked or seem more human? In fact, are you even human?  Are you even of this planet because you don’t seem to care for the people on it very much?



Well, that about covers the major points! Hopefully next week will see more music and less politics (but then again...)

A NOW COMPLETE List Of Top Five/Top Ten/TOP TWENTY  Entries 2008-2019
1) Chronic Fatigue songs http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/news-views-and-music-issue-1-top-five.html

2) Songs For The Face Of Bo
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/news-views-and-music-issue-2-top-five.html

3) Credit Crunch Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/news-views-and-music-issue-3-top-five.html

4) Songs For The Autumn
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/news-views-and-music-issue-4-top-five.html

5) National Wombat Week
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/news-views-and-music-top-five-national.html

6) AAA Box Sets
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/news-views-and-music-issue-6-top-five.html

7) Virus Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/news-views-and-music-issue-7-top-five.html

8) Worst AAA-Related DVDs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/news-views-and-music-issu-8-top-five.html

9) Self-Punctuating Superstar Classics
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/news-views-and-music-issue-9-top-five.html

10) Ways To Know You Have Turned Into A Collector
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/news-views-and-music-issue-9-top-five.html

11) Political Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/news-views-and-music-issue-11-top-five.html

12) Totally Bonkers Concept Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/news-views-and-music-top-five-totally.html

13) Celebrating 40 Years Of The Beatles' White Album
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/top-five-issue-13-40-years-of-beatles.html

14) Still Celebrating 40 Years Of The Beatles' White Album
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/news-views-and-music-issue-14-top-five.html

15) AAA Existential Questions
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/news-views-and-music-issue-15-top-five.html

16) Releases Of The Year 2008
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/news-views-and-music-issue-16-top-five.html

17) Top AAA Xmas Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/news-views-and-music-issue-17-top-five.html

18) Notable AAA Gigs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/01/news-views-and-music-issue-19-top-five.html

19) All things '20' related for our 20th issue
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/news-views-and-music-issue-20-aaa-songs.html

20) Romantic odes for Valentine's Day
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/news-views-and-music-issue-22-top-five.html

21) Hollies B sides
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/news-views-and-music-issue-23-top-five.html

22) 'Other' BBC Session Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/news-views-and-music-issue-24-top-five.html

23) Beach Boys Rarities Still Not Available On CD
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/news-views-and-music-issue-25-top-five.html

24) Songs John, Paul and George wrote for Ringo's solo albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/news-views-and-music-issue-26-top-five.html

25) 5 of the Best Rock 'n' Roll Tracks From The Pre-Beatles Era
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/news-views-and-music-issue-27-top-five.html

26) AAA Autobiographies
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/news-views-and-music-issue-28-top-five.html

27) Rolling Stones B-sides
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/news-views-and-music-issue-29-top-five.html

28) Beatles B-Sides
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-30-top-five.html

29) The lllloooonnngggeesssttt AAA songs of all time
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-31-top-five.html

30) Kinks B-Sides
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-32-top-five.html

31) Abandoned CSNY projects 'wasted on the way'
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-33-top-five.html

32) Best AAA Rarities and Outtakes Sets
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/06/news-views-and-music-issue-34-top-five.html

33) News We've Missed While We've Been Away
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/news-views-and-music-issue-35-top-five.html

34) Birthday Songs for our 1st Anniversary
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/news-views-and-music-issue-37-top-five.html

35) Brightest Album Covers
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/news-views-and-music-issue-37-top-five.html

36) Biggest Recorded Arguments
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/news-views-and-music-issue-38-top-five.html

37) Songs About Superheroes
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-39-top-five.html

38) AAA TV Networks That Should Exist
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-40-top-five.html

39) AAA Woodtsock Moments
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-41-top-five.html

40) Top Moments Of The Past Year As Voted For By Readers
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-42-top-five.html

41) Music Segues
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/news-views-and-music-issue-43-top-five.html

42) AAA Foreign Language Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/news-views-and-music-issue-44-top-five.html

43) 'Other' Groups In Need Of Re-Mastering
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/news-views-and-music-issue-45-top-five.html

44) The Kinks Preservation Rock Opera - Was It Really About The Forthcoming UK General Election?
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/news-views-and-music-issue-46-top-five.html

45) Mono and Stereo Mixes - Biggest Differences
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/news-views-and-music-issue-47-top-five.html

46) Weirdest Things To Do When A Band Member Leaves
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/nerws-views-and-music-issue-48-top-five.html

47) Video Clips Exclusive To Youtube (#1)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/news-views-and-music-issue-49-top-five.html

48) Top AAA Releases Of 2009
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/news-views-and-music-issue-50-top-five.html

49) Songs About Trains
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/news-views-and-music-issue-51-top-five.html

50) Songs about Winter
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/news-views-and-music-issue-52-top-five.html

51) Songs about astrology plus horoscopes for selected AAA members
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/news-views-and-music-issue-53-top-five.html

52) The Worst Five Groups Ever!
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/news-views-and-music-issue-54-top-five.html

53) The Most Over-Rated AAA Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/news-views-and-music-issue-56-top-five.html

54) Top AAA Rarities Exclusive To EPs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/news-views-and-music-issue-57-top-five.html

55) Random Recent Purchases (#1)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/news-views-and-music-issue-58-top-five.html

56) AAA Party Political Slogans
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/news-views-and-music-issue-60-top-five.html

57) Songs To Celebrate 'Rock Sunday'
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/news-views-and-music-issue-61-top-five_21.html

58) Strange But True (?) AAA Ghost Stories
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/news-views-and-music-issue-61-top-five.html

59) AAA Artists In Song
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/news-views-and-music-issue-63-top-five.html

60) Songs About Dogs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/news-views-and-music-issue-65-top-five.html

61) Sunshiney Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/news-views-and-music-issue-67-top-five.html

62) The AAA Staff Play Their Own Version Of Monoploy/Mornington Crescent!
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/news-views-and-music-issue-68-top-forty.html

63) What 'Other' British Invasion DVDs We'd Like To See
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/news-views-and-music-issue-69-top-five.html

64) What We Want To Place In Our AAA Time Capsule
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/news-views-and-music-issue-70-top-five.html

65) AAA Conspiracy Theroies
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/news-views-and-music-issue-72-top-ten.html

66) Weirdest Things To Do Before - And After - Becoming A Star
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/news-views-and-music-top-ten-aaa-stars.html

67) Songs To Tweet To
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/news-views-and-music-issue-74-top-five.html

68) Greatest Ever AAA Solos
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/news-views-and-music-issue-75-top-ten.html

69) John Lennon Musical Tributes
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/news-views-and-music-issue-77-top-five.html

70) Songs For Halloween
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/news-views-and-music-issue-78-top-five.html

71) Earliest Examples Of Psychedelia
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/news-views-and-music-issue-79-top-five.html

72) Purely Instrumental Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/news-views-and-music-issue-81-top-five.html

73) AAA Utopias

74) AAA Imaginary Bands
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/news-views-and-music-issue-82-top-five.html

75) Unexpected AAA Cover Versions
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/news-views-and-music-issue-83-top-five.html

76) Top Releases of 2010
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/news-views-and-music-issue-84-top-five.html

77) Songs About Snow
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/news-views-and-music-issue-85-top-five.html

78) Predictions For 2011
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011_01_02_archive.html

79) AAA Fugitives

80) AAA Home Towns
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/news-views-and-music-issue-88-home.html

81) The Biggest Non-Musical Influences On The 1960s
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/news-views-and-music-issue-89-top-five.html

82) AAA Groups Covering Other AAA Groups
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/news-views-and-music-issue-90-top.html

83) Strange Censorship Decisions
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/news-views-and-music-issue-91-top-ten.html

84) AAA Albums Still Unreleased on CD
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/news-views-and-music-issue-92-top-five.html

85) Random Recent Purchases (#2)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/news-views-and-music-issue-93-top-ten.html

86) Top AAA Music Videos
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/news-views-and-music-issue-94-top-ten.html

87) 30 Day Facebook Music Challenge
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/news-views-and-music-issue-95-top.html

88) AAA Documentaries
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/news-views-and-music-top-five-aaa.html

89) Unfinished and 'Lost' AAA Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/news-views-and-music-issue-97-top-ten.html

90) Strangest AAA Album Covers
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/newsa-views-and-music-issue-98-top-ten.html

91) AAA Performers Live From Mars (!)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/news-views-and-music-issue-99-top-ten.html

92) Songs Including The Number '100' for our 100th Issue
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/news-views-and-music-issue-100-top-five.html

93) Most Songs Recorded In A Single Day
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/news-views-and-music-issue-101-top-five.html

94) Most Revealing AAA Interviews
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/news-views-and-music-issue-102-top-five.html

95) Top 10 Pre-Fame Recordings
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/news-views-and-music-issue-103-top-ten.html

96) The Shortest And Longest AAA Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-views-and-music-issue-104-top-ten.html


97) The AAA Allstars Ultimate Band Line-Up
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-views-and-music-issue-105-top.html

98) Top Songs About Sports
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-views-and-music-issue-106-top-ten.html

99) AAA Conversations With God
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-views-and-music-issue-107-top-ten.html

100) AAA Managers: The Good, The Bad and the Financially Ugly
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/news-views-and-music-issue-108-top-ten.html

101) Unexpected AAA Cameos
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/news-views-and-music-issue-109-top-ten.html

102) AAA Words You can Type Into A Caluclator
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/news-views-and-music-issue-110-top-five.html

103) AAA Court Cases
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/news-views-and-music-issue-111-top-five.html

104) Postmodern Songs About Songwriting
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/news-views-and-music-issue-112-top-five.html

105) Biggest Stylistic Leaps Between Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/news-views-and-music-issue-113-top-ten.html

106) 20 Reasons Why Cameron Should Go!
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/news-views-and-music-issue-114-top.html

107) The AAA Pun-Filled Cookbook
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/news-views-and-music-issue-115-top-five.html

108) Classic Debut Releases
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/news-views-and-music-issue-116-top-five.html

109) Five Uses Of Bird Sound Effects
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/news-views-and-music-issue-118-top-five.html

110) AAA Classic Youtube Clips Part #1
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/news-views-and-music-issue-119-top.html

111) Part #2
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/news-views-and-music-issue-120-top.html

112) Part #3
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/news-views-and-music-issue-121-top.html

113) AAA Facts You Might Not Know
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/news-views-and-music-issue-122-top-ten.html

114) The 20 Rarest AAA Records
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/news-views-and-music-issue-123-top.html

115) AAA Instrumental Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011_12_04_archive.html

116) Musical Tarot
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/news-views-and-music-issue-125-top-23-i.html

117) Christmas Carols
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011_12_18_archive.html

118) Top AAA Releases Of 2011
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011_12_25_archive.html

119) AAA Bands In The Beano/The Dandy
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/news-views-and-music-issue-128-top-five.html

120) Top 20 Guitarists #1
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/news-views-and-music-issue-129-top-ten.html

121) #2
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_01_15_archive.html

122) 'Shorty' Nomination Award Questionairre
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_01_22_archive.html

123) Top Best-Selling AAA Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_01_29_archive.html

124) AAA Songs Featuring Bagpipes

125) A (Hopefully) Complete List Of AAA Musicians On Twitter
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_02_19_archive.html

126) Beatles Albums That Might Have Been 1970-74 and 1980
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_02_26_archive.html

127) DVD/Computer Games We've Just Invented
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_03_11_archive.html

128) The AAA Albums With The Most Weeks At #1 in the UK
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_03_18_archive.html

129) The AAA Singles With The Most Weeks At #1 in the UK
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_03_25_archive.html

130) Lyric Competition (Questions)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_04_15_archive.html

131) Top Crooning Classics
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_04_22_archive.html

132) Funeral Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/news-views-and-music-issue-142-top-five.html

133) AAA Songs For When Your Phone Is On Hold
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/news-views-and-music-issue-143-top-five.html

134) Random Recent Purchases (#3)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/news-views-and-music-issue-144-top-five.html

135) Lyric Competition (Answers)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/news-views-and-music-issue-146-top.html http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/news-views-and-music-issue-145-top-five.html

136) Bee Gees Songs/AAA Goes Disco!
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/news-views-and-music-issue-147-top-five.html

137) The Best AAA Sleevenotes (And Worst)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/news-views-and-music-issue-148-top-ten.html

138) A Short Precise Of The Years 1962-70
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/news-views-and-music-149-top-eight.html

139) More Wacky AAA-Related Films And Their Soundtracks
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/top-five-for-news-views-and-music-150.html

140) AAA Appearances On Desert Island Discs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/top-eight-aaa-desert-island-discs.html

141) Songs Exclusive To Live Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/news-views-and-music-issue-153-top-10.html

142) More AAA Songs About Armageddon
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/aaa-armageddon-songsalbums-top-5-for.html

What difference does a name make? Arguably not much if you’re already a collector of a certain group, for whom the names on the album sleeves just...

This week’s top ten honours the humble motor car. The death trap on wheels, the metaphor for freedom, the put-down of capitalism, a source of...

This week we’re going to have a look at the 10 AAA singles that spent the most weeks at number on the American chart ‘Billboard’ – and it makes for...

Following on from last issue’s study of the American Billboard charts, here’s a look at which AAA albums spent the most weeks on the chart. The...

There are many dying arts in our modern world: incorruptible politicians, faith that things are going to get better and the ability to make decent...

This week we’ve decided to dedicate our top ten to those unsung heroes of music, the session musicians, whose playing often brings AAA artists (and...

Naturally we hold our AAA bands in high esteem in these articles: after all, without their good taste, intelligence and humanity we’d have nothing to...

What do you do when you’ve left a multi-million selling band and yet you still feel the pull of the road and the tours and the playing to audiences...

‘The ATOS Song’ (You’re Not Fit To Live)’ (Mini-Review) Dear readers, we don’t often feature reviews of singles over albums or musicians who aren’t...

In honour of this week’s review of an album released to cash in on a movie soundtrack (only one of these songs actually appears in ‘Easy Rider’...and...

Hic! Everyone raise a glass to the rock stars of the past and to this week’s feature...songs about alcolholic beverages! Yes that’s right, everything...

154) The human singing voice carries with it a vast array of emotions, thoughts that cannot be expressed in any other way except opening the lungs and...

Everyone has a spiritual home, even if they don’t actually live there. Mine is in a windy, rainy city where the weather is always awful but the...

Having a family does funny things to some musicians, as we’ve already seen in this week’s review (surely the only AAA album actually written around...

Some artists just have no idea what their best work really is. One thing that amazes me as a collector is how consistently excellent many of the...

159) A (Not That) Short Guide To The 15 Best Non-AAA Bands http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/a-not-that-short-guide-to-15-of-best.html%20%0d160

160) The Greatest AAA Drum Solos (Or Near Solos!) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/the-greatest-aaa-drum-solos-or-near.html%20%0d161

161) AAA Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame Acceptance Speeches http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/aaa-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame.html%20%0d162

162) AAA Re-Recordings Of Past Songs http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/aaa-re-recordings-of-past-songs-news.html%20%0d163

163) A Coalition Christmas (A Fairy Tale) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/a-coalition-christmas-news-views-and.html%20%0d164

164) AAA Songs About Islands http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/aaa-songs-about-islands-news-views-and.html%20%0d165

165) The AAA Review Of The Year 2012 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-aaa-review-of-year-2012-news-views.html



166) The Best AAA Concerts I Attended
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-best-aaa-concerts-i-attended-news.html

167) Tributes To The 10 AAA Stars Who Died The Youngest http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/tributes-to-10-aaa-stars-who-died.html



168) The First 10 AAA Songs Listed Alphabetically
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-first-10-aaa-songs-if-listed.html


171) The 10 Best Songs From The Psychedelia Box-Sets ‘Nuggets’ and ‘Nuggets Two’ http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/the-best-of-two-nuggets-psychedelia.html%20%0d172

172) The 20 Most Common Girl’s Names In AAA Song Titles (With Definitions) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/girls-names-in-aaa-song-titles-from.html 








180) First Recordings By Future AAA Stars http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/first-





185) A Tribute To Storm Thorgerson Via The Five AAA Bands He Worked With http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/a-tribute-to-hipgnosis-via-five-aaa.html



188) Surprise! Celebrating 300 Album Reviews With The Biggest 'Surprises' Of The Past Five Years Of Alan's Album Archives! http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/celebrating-300-album-reviews-10.html


190) Comparatively Obscure First Compositions By AAA Stars http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/comparatively-obscure-debut.html



193) Evolution Of A Band: Comparing First Lyric With Last Lyric: http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/evolution-of-band-comparing-1st-lyric.html







200) The Monkees In Relation To Postmodernism (University Dissertation) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/university-dissertation-monkees-in.html


202) Carly Simon's 'You're So Vain': Was It About One Of The AAA Crew? http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/carly-simons-youre-so-vain-was-it-about.html















217) AAA 'Christmas Presents' we'd most like to have next year http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/aaa-christmas-presents-wed-most-like-to.html




221) Dr Who and the AAA (Five Musical Links) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/01/dr-who-and-five-musical-links-to-alans.html

222) Five Random Recent Purchases http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/01/five-random-recent-purchases-news-views.html

223) AAA Grammy Nominees http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/02/aaa-grammy-nominees-top-twelve-news.html

224) Ten AAA songs that are better heard unedited and in full http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/02/ten-aaa-songs-that-are-better-unedited.html

225) The shortest gaps between AAA albums http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-shortest-gaps-between-aaa-albums.html

226) The longest gaps between AAA albums http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-longest-gaps-between-aaa-albums.html

227) Top ten AAA drummers http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/03/top-ten-aaa-drummers-news-views-and.html

228) Top Ten AAA Singles (In Terms of 'A' and 'B' Sides) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/top-ten-aaa-singles-and-b-sides-news.html

229) The Stories Behind Six AAA Logos http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/the-stories-behind-six-aaa-logos.html

230) AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!! The Best Ten AAA Screams http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/the-best-aaa-screams-top-ten-news-views.html

231) An AAA Pack Of Horses http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/aaa-songs-about-horses-top-ten-news.html

232) AAA Granamas - Sorry, Anagrams! http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/aaa-anagrams-news-views-and-music-issue.html

233) AAA Surnames and Their Meanings http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/aaa-surnames-and-their-meanings-news.html

234) 20 Erroneous AAA Album Titles http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/twenty-erroneous-aaa-album-titles-news.html

235) The Best AAA Orchestral Arrangements http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/fifteen-great-aaa-string-parts-news.html

236) Top 30 Hilariously Misheard Album Titles/Lyrics http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/top-thirty-hilariously-misheard-aaa.html

237) Ten controversial AAA sackings - and whether they were right http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ten-controversial-aaa-sackings-news.html

238) A Critique On Critiquing - In Response To Brian Wilson http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/a-critique-on-critiquing-in-response-to.html

239) The Ten MusicianS Who've Played On The Most AAA Albums http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/the-ten-musicians-whove-played-on-most.html

240) Thoughts on #CameronMustGo http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/thoughts-on-cameronmustgo.html

241) Random Recent Purchases (Kinks/Grateful Dead/Nils Lofgren/Rolling Stones/Hollies) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/six-random-recent-purchases-kinksg.html 

242) AAA Christmas Number Ones http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/aaa-christmas-number-ones.html 

243) AAA Review Of The Year 2014 (Top Releases/Re-issues/Documentaries/DVDs/Books/Songs/ Articles  plus worst releases of the year) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/aaa-review-of-year-2014.html

244) Me/CFS Awareness Week 2015 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/mecfs-awareness-week-at-alans-album.html

245) Why The Tory 2015 Victory Seems A Little...Suspicious http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/why-tory-victory-seems-deeply.html

246) A Plea For Peace and Tolerance After The Attacks on Paris - and Syria http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/a-plea-for-peace-and-toleration.html

247) AAA Review Of The Year 2015 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/the-aaa-review-of-year-2015.html

248) The Fifty Most Read AAA Articles (as of December 31st 2015) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-fifty-most-read-aaa-posts-2008-2015.html

249) The Revised AAA Crossword! http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016_07_10_archive.html


251) Half-A-Dozen Berries Plus One (An AAA Tribute To Chuck Berry) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/an-aaa-covers-tribute-to-chuck-berry.html

252) Guest Post: ‘The Skids – Joy’ (1981) by Kenny Brown  https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/guest-post-skids-joy-1981.html


254) Guest Post: ‘Supertramp – Some Things Never Change’ by Kenny Brown https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/06/guest-review-supertramp-some-things.html

255) AAA Review Of The Year 2018 https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-aaa-review-of-year-2018.html

256) AAA Review Of The Year 2019 plus Review Of The Decade 2010-2019 https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-alans-album-archives-review-of-year.html



257) Tiermaker https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2019/06/alans-album-archives-on-tiermaker.html

258) #Coronastock https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2020/04/coronastock.html

259) #Coronadocstock https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2020/05/coronadocstock.html