April 15th:
Dear all, I’m not quite sure when you’ll be getting this newsletter as we’ve got a busy few weeks ahead: a trip away, loads of forms to fill in, tax returns, you name it we’ve got it; you may have noticed that the dates on our last few websites have been a bit further ahead of ourselves than normal, that’s to cover ourselves while we’re away although we might well end up being an issue down all the same by the time I’ve rested. It looks like we’ll definitely be missing one issue while I fill in my next dreaded incapacity form and my next tax returns and a few other Jobcentre forms (how kind to send them all at once and expect immediate replies to them all!) but we will be back with a post by the 29th of April assuming nothing else happens between then and now. Either way here’s another issue to be published, umm, sometime, and by my adding up that makes it article no 249 for this site – expect there to be a big party when I do eventually have the time to write the next issue! There’s also a heap of news stories we’ve missed and aren’t even on I-player anymore sadly, like Roger Waters on the BBC6 music hour. On the plus side I’ve got a bundle of new CDs including the new McCartney ‘crooning’ CD and the deluxe Quadrophenia set at last so expect review of those sometime soon. Anyway you’ll need a couple of weeks to research this week’s top 20, which just so happens to be our third competition (not that anyone actually entered our first two...)
♫ Grateful Dead News: The mother of all Dead DVDs is here as a – blimey – 14 disc set featuring almost all previously released Dead concerts, biographies and documentaries is released. ‘All The Years Combine’ features the concert-with-extras ‘Grateful Dead Movie’ from 1974, the documentary ‘So Far’ from 1987 and some live material from 1989-91. That’s a staggering 38 hours of Grateful Dead shenanigans, although the set is already causing some fury in Dead circles for only featuring material from the Dead’s ‘comeback’ in 1974 and none of their earlier shows (OK, so there isn’t that much material around from the sixties except for the ‘Playboy After Dark’ set but there’s lots from the band’s tour of Europe in 1972). Annoyingly, there’ no sign opf the set on Amazon yet so I can’t give you a release date or fill in what the other discs contain, but the review of the set have started appearing in magazines and papers so it must be due out fairly soon. STOP PRESS: The set is released on April 17th and features the above listed sets and ‘The Closing Of The Winterland’ (a concert from 1978) ‘Dead Ahead’ (a concert from 1980, featuring skits from ‘Saturday Night Live’) ‘Truckin’ Up To Buffalo’ (a show from July 4th 1989)‘Ticket To New Year’s (a pioneering pay-per-view show from New Year’s Day 1987) ‘All Downhill From Here’ (a complete show from one day in 1989) ‘Backstage Pass’ (the 1992 documentary directed by Justin Kreutzmann, drummer Bill’s brother) and ‘View From The Vault Volumes 1-4’ (concerts from 1990 and 1991, including the Dylan tour), plus an exclusive bonus disc of extras.
♫ Small Faces News: A bit more info on those four deluxe Faces re-issues we told you about a few issues back. Here’s the list of extras album by album: ‘Small Faces’ (1966): The full album in mono, EP tracks and B-sides ‘’I’ve Got Mine’ ‘Whatsa Matter Baby?’ ‘Grow Your Own’ and ‘Patterns’, plus alternate versions of nine of the album and EP songs and alternate mixes of another five; ‘From The Beginning’ (1967): the full album in mono, classic B-sides ‘I Can’t Dance With You’ and ‘Understanding’, the ‘Decca’ version of ‘Just Passing’, session tapes for ‘I Can’t Make It’, the unreleased ‘Almost Grown’, the backing track for the unfinished ‘Picaniny’, alternate takes of five album songs, alternate mixes of six album songs and backing tracks to a further four; ‘The Small Faces’ (1967 and AAA classic album 12): The full album in mono and stereo, five period A and B sides including the band’s best moment ‘Tin Soldier’, period PP Arnold duet ‘If You Think You’re Groovy’ and the outtake ‘Don’t Burst My Bubble’ as re-issued often during the 1980s, alternate takes of ‘Green Circles’ and ‘Things Are Going To Get Better’, plus session tapes for ‘I Can’t Make It’, a backing track for ‘Groovy’ and alternate mixes of three album songs; finally ‘Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake’ (1968 – see news and views 69): the album in mono and stereo, with extended versions of ‘Mad John’ on the former and ‘Happydaystoytown’ on the latter, an early take of the title track and ‘Mad John’, an alternate take of the title track, a backing track for ‘Happiness Stan’, the outtakes ‘Bun In The Oven’ and ‘Kamikaze’, the backing track for ‘The Fly’ and alternate mixes of seven album tracks plus popular outtake ‘Every Little Bit Hurts’. Alas there’s no deluxe re-issue of AAA classic album 28 ‘The Autumn Stone’ planned, which still leaves a handful of songs missing from this re-issue series. Ah well, at least that little lot should keep fans going for a while! All these four CDs will be available on May 7th.
ANNIVERSARIES: It’s that birthday time of year for the following AAA members (born between March 28th and April 3rd): Graeme Edge (drummer with The Moody Blues 1965-present) turns 70 on March 30th; Ronnie Lane (bassist with The Small Faces 1965-68) would have been 66 on April 1st and Simon Cowe (guitarist with Lindisfarne 1970-94) turns 65 on April 1st. Anniversaries of events include: Pink Floyd’s debut single ‘Arnold Layne’ charts (March 30th 1967); the same band’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ also starts its ridiculous two decade run on the charts (March 31st 1973); Brian Wilson won’t want to be reminded now he’s back with them, but April 1st 1969 was the date The Beach Boys sued Capitol Records for $2 million in unpaid royalties, putting and end to one of the most prolific runs of the 1960s; The Who set a record by selling out all 80,000 seats at Madison Square Gardens (April 1st 1974); There’s so much demand for tickets to the 1976 Rolling Stones tour that, for the first time, attendance is decided by ballot (April 1st 1976); Things get even more complicated for The Beach Boys and record company after signing for Caribou Records on April 1st 1977 despite still owing second company Reprise another album; The two most famous Beatles compilations (officially named ‘1963-66 and 1967-70’ but better known as the ‘red’ and ‘blue’ sets) are released (April 3rd 1973) and finally, Beatlemania is in full swing in the States where The Beatles are at no 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 14, 44, 49, 69, 79, 84 and 88 in the singles charts in a single week! (that’s every Beatles single released by April 3rd 1964 including ‘My Bonnie’ backing Tony Sheridan!)
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