June 2nd:
Dear all, we’re never happy to sit still here at the AAA, so this week we’ve been busy adding a new ‘sister’ site to this one at http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/Rest assured they won’t be getting anything you won’t be getting, but one of the bits of feedback we’ve had from people is what a pain it can be to have to go to a different page, download and article and then open it up again (if there was a way round it we’d have fixed it by now, honest, but frankly the internet wasn’t built for what we want to do with it). As a result we’ve made our sister site a blog where each article will be posted along with the top five/tens (we may add the anniversaries, news and intros at a later date if we have time). Alas we can’t post our groovy graphics from clipart, there’s less of a search engine to find your articles and it’ll still take a fair bit of clicking pages to find the article you want. But this might be easier for some of you. In the meantime, we’ll keep posting up every article we do to this site at the same time and keep lots of links between the two sites back and forth (if you lose this sister address it’ll be at the top of this site’s home page). If nothing else, having two sites in search engines should hopefully allow the site to grow a bit quicker and in the future we may be able to add more Amazon adverts or go back to using Google Ad Words to help ensure our future – although to be honest I’m mighty pleased with the speed we’ve reached 17,800 views (as of this morning) considering that I still only vaguely know what I’m doing. Thanks to all of you who are still here reading these newsletters – please keep spreading the word and we’ll do our bit here (hopefully) entertaining you all. Remember if you have any ideas or suggestions for reviews (AAA albums only, remember!) keep posting them on our forum page, ‘welcome’ page or via email to pattin82@yahoo.co.uk
In the meantime, all my favourite songs crashed out of Eurovision yet again (the best ones didn’t even get through the semi-finals) and Sweden’s winning entry meant the weirdest song of the night won yet again (this is becoming a habit).For the record Latvia’s Eurovision history song was my favourite, even if it didn’t advance past the semis and Spain was my favourite in the final (it came 9th, which is pretty good for me – usually my favourites come last!) Shame the Russian grannies didn’t win though – perhaps if they’d sent those pastries to all the judges round the world they’d have got more points? (They’d certainly have got my vote that way, little hint!)
Oh and it’s looking ever more likely that Cameron’s career might be over; a badly timed bit of swearing at Labour’s Ed Balls mean that Cameron was given a dressing down in the House of Commons (and in the papers, too, which is great news). Incidentally did you hear this year’s national meeting of GPs voted overwhelmingly without one voice of dissent to overthrow the current benefit system (where poorly trained recently hired doctors at ATOS get to decide whose ‘sick’ and who can ‘work’)? No, I thought you hadn’t – whether due to a conspiracy or negligence all the links to the meeting mysteriously got pulled from the internet about an hour after the announcement. This Government really is doing everything it can to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes and make them think their overspending money on problems that don’t have an easy solution and end up making worse is the right course to take – but we know better than that, dear reader?#CameonGoneByChristmas
Oh yes, you may also have noticed that I’ve gone back to reviews of ‘proper’ albums this week after the marathon box sets of the past three issues. Truth be told there’s still a few more I could review but I’m worn out. Hence too why you’re getting the answers to our lyric competition (in issue 140) now (because it’s easier to write!) We didn’t have much response this year to say the least, but no matter – we will keep plugging away at these competitions and see if we can make a success of them! In the meantime, happy eading and it’s on with the news...
♫ Hollies News: As revealed last week, BBC2 are busy repeating a new selection of Top OF The Pops 2 compilations in their 6.30pm slot, including some rarer material only just recently added to the archives. We promised to keep you posted about anything rare – and here it is. Last Wednesday (May 23rd) featured The Hollies performing a live version of Gasoline Alley Bred, quite different to the mimed one you occasionally see. As Mark Radcliffe’s text points out, the producer of the 1969 series messed up and featured a shot of Bernie Calvert’s bass during Tony Hicks’ guitar solo, but that aside it’s classic Hollies – how those harmonies sounded so good live under so much pressure I’ll never know!
♫ Lulu News: What a strange programme the Piers Morgan Show is. Caught halfway between Parkinson’s reverentialness and the chest-beating of the Jeremy Kyle show, you wonder what on earth the participants get out of it, seeing as they usually end up in tears somewhere down the line. Lulu cried more than most, revealing how her alcoholic dad used to beat up her mum, Davy Jones ‘broke her heart’ by revealing that he’s been living with another girl whilst seeing Lulu, how she and Maurice Gibb were ‘too young to be married’ , her miscarriage, her son staying behind in America while she pursued her career in Britain and her regrets over how she left her manager-companion since the age of 15. To be honest, if I’d lived the life that Lulu had I’d been crying too and I nearly was along with her – though, like her autobiography, you get the feeling that Lulu stayed too long in other people’s shadows and would have had a better career still had she followed her peers and friends, not managers and record company executives. Throughout the whole interview though Lulu remained a likeable figure, always trying to do right thing and brave indeed in the way she kept away from the sex and drugs scandals that rocked so many others she hang around with. Worth watching if you get a chance to see it (the programme was on last Friday on ITV and should be around on I-player for a bit), if only to work out why none of the guests have been offended enough to hit Piers Morgan in the face yet (it only took two programmes in the American Apprentice!)
♫ Rolling Stones News: there’s a BBC6 repeat of the fascinating first radio show by The Stones, back when they were very much a blues band lead by Brian Jones. Recorded in early 1964 –somewhere between the ‘C’mon’ and ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ singles, this is among the most fascinating of all the ‘Live Music Hour’ broadcasts that radio station has made in the past few years and a real treat if you haven’t heard it already. The show will be on in the early hours of Tuesday, June 6th at 3am and will also feature the Georgie Fame and the Blue Fames, who were headliners at the show (yes, the Stones were just a supporting act back then – incredible!)
ANNIVERSARIES: Put those balloons away and bottle up those party poppers because it turns out that there were no AAA birthdays for this week’s date of May 30th-June 5th. Awwwww. Then open them again for this list of events having an anniversary this week: CSNY’s classic album ‘Deja Vu’ is released on it’s way to #1 in America (May 30th 1970); John and Yoko record their first single ‘Give Peace A Chance’ during their second bed-in at a Montreal Hotel (May 31st 1969); The Who break the record for the loudest ever concert at a show at Charlton Athletic’s Football Ground using a 76,000-watt ampage system (May 31st 1976); The Rolling Stones land at JFK airport for the first time, kick-starting a 45-year love affair with the United States (June 1st 1964); The Beatles release ‘Sgt Peppers’ (June 1st 1967); Ronnie Wood plays his first gig with the Rolling Stones on his 28th birthday after jamming with them the previous year (June 1st 1975); The Rolling Stones make their first V appearance in America – being laughed at by host Dean Martin for their long hair, ho ho they got the last laugh by finishing off his career! (June 3rd 1964), Ringo Starr collapses with tonsillitis, forcing the other Beatles to tour with last-minute replacement and ‘sixth or seventh Beatle’ Jimmy Nichol (June 3rd 1964), The Searchers release their debut LP ‘Sweets For My Sweet’ (June 4th 1963); Murray Wilson, manager and father to 3/5ths of The Beach Boys dies of a heart attack, accelerating the decline of elder son Brian (June 4th 1973); The Hollies – with Graham Nash back in the ranks for the first time since 1968 – score their first hit in nearly a decade with ‘Stop! In The Name Of Love’ (June 4th 1983) and finally, Copyright laws in Russia are relaxed, leading to Western groups getting royalties for the first time – the Rolling Stones are the first group to benefit under the new law for some strange reason (perhaps ‘Beggar’s Banquet’ translates as a communist manifesto or something?!) (June 5th 1976).
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