News, Views and Music Issue 134 (Intro)

February 24^th:

Hello again, dear readers! You may have noticed we’ve been missing for a week – don’t worry, we haven’t stopped, we just took a little ‘pause for the cause’ (to quote Stephen Stills) and had a go at getting to grips with our latest April Fool’s Day edition. Yeah, I know, it’s only February – but April looks like being a busy month and the job centre are being even more of a pain than normal. Thankfully it doesn’t affect me – yet – but keep your eyes open to the latest pointless and excruciating measure ‘workfare’, which is forcing those on benefits for even a short time to work back-breaking shifts for no pay, just benefits (Tesco’s is the first company to go all out and advertise a job for no wage whatsoever and, quite rightly, they’re taking a huge amount of flack for it). This includes people who are dying, people who can’t walk, people who can’t talk, people who can’t be held responsible for their actions because of danger to them or others, people like me who don’t know from one hour to the next whether they’re going to feel vaguely human or spend the rest of the night in bed groaning and pleading with the pain to go away. Quite frankly, its slavery and something that only our reckless, underhanded, devious Governments could stoop to – and something that only our reckless, cowardly, misguided media could allow to happen without a big fuss. So be aware of it and fight it where you can – in these days of strange measures and cuts for no good reason, it could happen to any of us any day without warning. We have to put things right where we can. We have to treat our fellow humans humanely or we forfeit the right to be human and turn the corner towards something darker, it’s that simple.

On a happier note, our april fool’s day edition has now been sent in via a timeloop, black hole and a gap in the space-time continuum vortex and we’ll be publishing it soon! Did anyone see the finale of last year’s Dr Who season where all time fell apart and seemed to exist at the same time? Erm, that might have been our fault as well, so if you suddenly end up seeing your long-dead ancestors peering in through your window or your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren call round to have a look at your record collection that might be our fault too. Oops... Back in this time-zone, though, it’s on with the news...  

                                

♫ Beatles News: Shock! Horror! There’s a member of Alan’s Album Archives in the UK top 3 album chart (for the first time in more than five years if you discount the various members of Oasis!) Even more amazingly its Paul McCartney, who last scored a top 10 hit in 1997 (with – yuk – ‘Flaming Awful Pie’) and its with an album full of pre-WW2 cover versions! ‘Kisses On The Bottom’ made it all the way to #3, one place higher than Adele whose ’21’ album has been in the charts for over a year now. If you’re quick you can also hear two Macca radio interviews plugging the album, from Jamie Callum’s surprisingly good chat last Tuesday, March 7^th on Radio 2 (he’s so much better as a presenter than a musician!) and Front Row last Thursday, March 9^th on R4. Even more amazingly there’s another AAA star in the top 3 of the singles chart – read on to find out who!

♫ Kinks/Lulu News: At long last we can finally mention the three-part re-run of classic TOTP clips on Saturday nights because, in the last part, we finally have not one but two AAA stars. Our bet is either ‘You Really Got Me’ from 1964 or ‘Days’ from new year’s eve 1969 for the former and either ‘Shout’ from 1964 or ‘The Boat That I Row’ from 1967 for the latter...STOP PRESS: Due to our week’s delay I did get to see this compilation before publishing and we were right on the Kinks but wrong on the Lulu clip (it was ‘You Really Got Me’ for the former – when Ray Davies’ cold was still really bad – but *shudder* it was ‘Boom-Bang-A-Bang’ from ‘A Song For Europe 1968’ for Lulu. Horrors...By the way, the best clip in the whole series came right at the end of the third part with a recently-returned-to-BBC-archives clip of The Walker Brothers (never have I seen such a long close up on a singer as at the beginning of this clip!)

♫ Rolling Stone News: The other AAA star in the charts this week is Mick Jagger, who is guest on the latest spin-off single by Black Eyed Peas star Will-i-am and had made it all the way up to 3 in the UK singles chart (strangely enough the same number as Macca in the albums chart – a hint of the old rivalry there?!) Amazingly this is the first time since 1985 that Mick has made the top 10 of a singles chart (and that was for ‘Dancing In The Street’ with David Bowie, raising money for LiveAid – the Stones haven’t had a top 10 hit since ‘Start Me Up‘ in 1981!)

BREAKING NEWS: Thursday March 1^st sees The Rolling Stones’ ‘Some Girls’ featured as Johnnie Walker’s classic longplayer (see the news story below), alongside some Rod Stewart rubbish.

♫ Paul Simon/Cat Stevens News: Apologies for the delayed mention (caused by our absence last week) but Johnnie Walker has recently started a  documentary series studying two albums by different artists each week. ‘JW’s Longplayers’ sounds similar in style to the great and much missed ‘classic album series’ and can be heard each Thursday on Radio 2 in the 11pm slot. Last week (Thursday, February 16^th) featured Paul Simon’s ‘’Still Crazy After All These Years’ (alongside some Lou Reed nonsense) whilst this Thursday features Cat Stevens’ ‘Tea For The Tillerman’ (AAA classic album no 41 dontchaknow!) alongside some David Bowie trash.

♫ Small Faces: Breaking news from record label Universal is that they are going to be re-releasing deluxe 2CD versions of all five Small Faces records for Decca and Immediate (that’s ‘Small Faces’ (1965) ‘Small Faces (1967), Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake’ (1968) and the two compilations ‘From The Beginning’ (1967) and ‘The Autumn Stone’ (1968) this May. Amazon have started taking orders already and have revealed the pictures (the sets look very like the Who and Cat Stevens deluxe sets with ‘fold-out double CD covers and a slipcase reading ‘deluxe edition’), but no one has revealed any track listings yet. Candidates for issue include mono/stereo mixes (so far only ‘Ogden’s and a few of the singles have been available on CD in mono), the various alternate mixes included on the hard-to-find Small Faces box set and various low-budget compilations, the alternate ‘Green Circles’ and rare b-side ‘Understanding’ only available on the ‘Tin Soldier’ Steve Marriott anthology, the handful of oddities, backing tracks, live recordings and backing-for-PP-Arnold songs included in the excellent ‘Darlings of Whapping Wharf Laundrette’ compilation. There’s also two tracks available on Youtube but officially unreleased: ‘Get Ready’ and ‘Jump Back’. We’ll keep you updated if we hear anything else!

ANNIVERSARIES: Birthday greetings to this week’s varied bunch of AAA stars, born between February 14^th and 20^th: Mick Avory (drummer with The Kinks 1964-85) turns 68 on February 15^th, Yoko Ono who turns 79 on February 18^th and Alan Hull (singer-songwriter with Lindisfarne 1970-74 and 1978-95) who would have been 67 on February 20^th. Anniversaries of events include: The Who play a gig at Leeds University that will go on to be one of the most famous live records of all time when released as ‘Live At Leeds’ (February 14^th 1970); JohnandYoko begin a week-long stint as guest hosts on the Mike Douglas show, introducing guests including Chuck Berry (February 14^th 1972); ‘Meet The Beatles’ – the first American Beatles album made up of singles and tracks from the band’s first two albums – begins a then-record 11 week stint at the top of the charts (February 14^th 1964); The Who play the first of their ill-fated ‘Lifehouse’ shows at London’s New Vic Theatre for a film of the project that will never be released (see ‘news and views 81’ for the full story); The Beatles leave the cold winter weather of Britain to fly out to India to study transcendental meditation under the Maharishi (albeit only John, Cynthia, George and Patti fly out on this day, February 16^th 1968); The Beatles release their first recordings after an unprecedented six-month gap, ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘Penny Lane’ (February 17^th 1967); Pink Floyd premiere their new live show ‘Eclipse: Songs for Assorted Lunatics’ which, after a few changes, becomes the album ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ (February 17^th 1972); The Beach Boys release their last album for four years ‘Holland’ (February 17^th 1972); John Lennon releases his last album before his four-year sabbatical, the covers album ‘Rock and Roll’ (February 17^th 1975); The Who release their first single (under that name at least) ‘I Can’t Explain’ (February 18^th 1965); David Gilmour officially joins Pink Floyd, appearing alongside an ailing Syd Barrett for a few shows before taking over the role completely (February 18^th 1968); Lulu marries Bee Gee Maurice Gibb in a Buckinghamshire Church at the age of just 20! (February 18^th 1969); Otis Redding releases his best-selling album ‘Otis Blue’ (AAA album no 4, remember!; February 19^th 1966); Paul McCartney and Wings have their single ‘Give Ireland Back To The Irish’ banned by the BBC (February 19^th 1972) and finally, George Harrison is found guilty of plagiarising The Chiffons’ ‘He’s So Fine’ on ‘My Sweet Lord’ in one of the silliest court cases that has ever been held (February 19^th 1976).

And for week two: Amazingly there are no birthdays for AAA musicians born between February 21^st and 27^th. Instead here are anniversaries of this week’s events: A busy day in 1964 sees ‘breakthrough’ discs by two AAA bands – The Stones’ first top five hit ‘Not Fade Away’ and the Hollies’ first top five hit ‘Just One Look’ (February 21^st); The Beatles start filming for their second film ‘Help!’ following a busy month at Abbey Road recording the first side of the soundtrack album (February 22nd 1965); Lennon’s last pre-retirement hit ‘#9 Dream’ charts – at no 9 very neatly – in America (February 22^nd 1974); 10cc sign with Mercury Records after two years with Jonathon King’s UK label (February 22^nd 1975); Cat Stevens’ first LP is released: named ‘Matthew and Son’ if you live in Britain and ‘Cats and Dogs’ in most of the rest of the world (February 24^th 1967); The Byrds fly away for good after a farewell show at New Jersey’s Capital Theatre on February 24^th 1973; The Beatles’ first American single is released – no, not Capitol’s record breaking ‘I want To Hold Your Hand’ but the smaller Vee Jay label with an un-charting ‘Please Please Me’ (February 25^th 1963 – the band are infamously mis-spelled as ‘The Beattles’ on the label!); A bill proposing to ban all sale of r and b and rock music is rejected in the American House of Representatives. Thank goodness for that – or this website would be talking about the 101 greatest Garden Gnomes or something equally unlikely (February 26^th 1954); Pink Floyd’s first ever recording session takes place at Abbey Road – it results in debut single ‘Arnold Layne’ (February 27^th 1967); Paul McCartney releases his first solo single ‘Another Day’ February 27^th 1971) and finally, the watershed moment in Rolling Stones history takes place – Keith Richards’ drugs bust in Toronto which came close to seeing him spend the rest of the 70s behind bards – takes place on February 27^th 1977.

News, Views and Music Issue 68 (Intro)

July 23:

♫ Hello and welcome to another News and Views, full of all the latest theories, queries and everything else we feature in this series. There’s a lot more news items than usual this issue, so hurrah to the AAA groups for finally giving me something to write about – oh and while we’re at it a big boo for the search engine that wasted an hour of my time last week filling in a ‘free’ submission form before telling me the only way to stop it being rejected was to pay for it. I hope you feel well and truly snubbed once this site becomes world famous (we’re meant to be no 19 by the year 2109 according to our April 1^st issue). Till the next time, happy reading!

                                                                   

♫ Beatles News: The first of two surprise reunions on our website this week. Paul McCartney was the special guest at a Ringo Starr All Starr concert last week, celebrating Ringo’s 70^th birthday with a surprise reading of, suitably, ‘Birthday’ from the Beatles’ White Album. This was the first the two have performed in public since the Concert for George in 2002 (although Macca did guest on Ringo’s album ‘Y Not?’ earlier this year) and the first time the pair have played on that track together since the album sessions 42 years ago!

And in other news, listen out for a BBC6 repeat of the classic 1980s ‘At The Beeb’ series, featuring two full hours of Beatles re-recordings and links (only a small portion of which is available officially on the ‘Beatles at the BBC’ set). The show is on next Saturday and Sunday (July 31^st/August 1^st) and follows several others in the series including AAA favourites The Rolling Stones...

♫ Pink Floyd News: The second surprise reunion is David Gilmour guesting at a Roger Waters charity, some five years after the last big Floyd reunion at Live 8.  The news comes as quite a shock to fans as Gilmour has been denying rumours of a full-scale Floyd get-together for some time – especially after the sad death of Rick Wright in 2008. More news if and when we hear it.

♫ Rolling Stones News: As mentioned above, BBC6 are repeating many of their classic ‘BBC Sessions’ programmes from the 1980s and include The Rolling Stones on Thursday (July 29^th). Now, unusually, I’ve never heard this programme but it’s meant to be good. Let’s hope BBC6 keeps repeating classic documentaries like these and then it might get so many listeners its future will never be in doubt. Well, either that or they can go back to repeating 1970s heavy metal rubbish and watch their audience fall to zero again.

♫ Small Faces News: A DVD we meant to tell you about last month before DellBoy went wrong, ‘All Or Nothing 1965-68’ is a fantastic new documentary-come-rare footage set from production team ‘Reelin’ In The Years’ (famous for their jazz and motown stuff). The show features the absolutely fantastic footage from ‘Beat Beat Beat’ in 1966 (we’ve mentioned it a few times on this site already – never has rock and roll been rawer or more exciting!), the complete ‘Odgen’s ‘ episode of ‘Colour Me Pop’ featuring Stanley Unwin’s  unfathomamothabilitusis narration and various promo videos. The footage is linked by narration from the archives of Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane (from his last interview in the 1980s) and new interviews with Ian Mclagan and Kenney Jones although – in one of the best moves by a DVD company ever – you can choose to watch just the footage without the modern bits in the middle (even if one or two tracks seem to be missing when you do this). This first batch of the series, labelled ‘The British Invasion’, also features sets by Gerry and The Pacemakers, Herman’s Hermits and Dusty Springfield. Let’s hope for some releases by The Who, The Hollies, The Kinks, The Stones et al in batch two!!

♫ Cat Stevens News: A new biography simply titled ‘Cat Stevens’ is due out in August. The set, which is being advertised on Amazon for around £10 at the time of asking, is part of the ‘Biography Channel’ season (they did one on the Grateful Dead we mentioned a while back, although we still haven’t got round to buying it yet) and is only the third Cat Stevens DVD we know about (along with ‘Cafe Sessions’ and ‘Majikat’).

ANNIVERSARIES (July 19-25^th): Happy birthdays to the following AAA musicians: two sadly missed members of the AAA fraternity on July 19^th – Clarence White (guitarist with The Byrds 1968-72) who would have been 66 and Keith Godchaux (keyboardist with The Grateful Dead 1973-79) who would have been 62; also John Lodge (bassist with The Moody Blues 1967-present) who turns 67 on July 20^th and Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam who turns 63 on July 21^st. Anniversaries of events include: One of Otis Reddings’ last projects, with Carla Thomas, ‘Tramp’ reaches the charts (July 19^th 1967); Simon and Garfunkel begin their first reunion tour, which will break down in recriminations a few months later (July 19^th 1983); Jane Asher shocks the music press by announcing her six-month long engagement to Paul McCartney is off, after the couple have spent nearly five years together (July 20^th 1968); 4000 fans unable to get tickets to a Beatles show in Blackpool rush the arena and the Beatles have to get flown in by helicopter (July 21^st 1963); The Beatles’ first American album ‘Introducing...’ is released on the small label Vee Jay Records. It becomes the only Beatles LP to miss the charts in America (July 22^nd 1963); The Dire Straits’ first eponymously titled record hits the LP charts (July 22^nd 1978); Four days after his 31^st birthday Grateful Dead keyboardist dies in a car crash (July 23^rd 1979); Jefferson Airplane receive their only gold disc for ridiculously high sales of their second album ‘Surrealistic Pillow’ (July 24^th 1967); Brian Jones’ last ever Stones concert – and the last any of the band did for three years – takes place in San Francisco (July 25^th 1966); A year later The Beatles publish their infamous advert in The Times calling for the legalisation of marijuana (how the band ever got Brian Epstein to sign too I’ll never know...) (July 25^th 1967); Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin release their second, last and best loved album ‘Cheap Thrills’ (July 25^th 1968); Neil Young’s first performance with CSN, barely a week after the trio’s debut album came out (July 25^th 1969) and finally, The Beach Boys return to their old hit making ways – briefly – with well received LP ‘Surf’s Up’ (July 25^th 1971).  

News, Views and Music Issue 50 (Intro)

                                             December 18:

                                       ♫ Hello everybody and welcome to our 50^th issue! Sorry once

                               again for the delay in newsletters for the past few weeks – it’s

                              my health that’s got in the way this time, not my laptop’s for

                             once! This may prove to be our last newsletter of the year as

                            well so – just in case – we wish all our members a happy xmas

 and look forward to seeing you in the new year. As a special treat, this will be an extended version of the newsletter, taking in an extended ‘top 5’ and all of the news items we’ve missed over the last week or two as well as our usual review. And of course we will be taking our yearly look back at the year’s releases, celebrating the highs and lows of 2009. What a year it’s been, dear readers -  33 newsletters taking in everything from talking cows to articles sent back to us through time with lots of great great music in between. There’s been a new lease of life for The Beatles, a return to form from Cat Stevens, the end of Oasis and a sad goodbye to Buffalo Springfield drummer Dewey Martin. As for our AAA artists, they’ve given us wit, wisdom, laughter and some more great CDs, although sadly most of them seem to be re-issues again this year. More on that story later, as they say, for now we say adios to 2009 and hope that 2010 will be another stellar year in terms of new releases.

                                                   

♫  Beatles News: In our original draft for this newsletter we were all set to say what a quiet end to the year The Beatles were having after all that hoo-hah in September when everything fab four-related seemed to be back on the shelves again (I swear I even saw a yellow submarine lunchbox!) But now Paul McCartney has a new DVD out, or will have once we go to press, entitled ‘Good Evening New York City’ and catching the fab one live with his current band during a gig at the Citi Field. Like most things modern and Macca it comes in a myriad of different versions: a 2 CD and 1 DVD set and a 2 CD and 2 DVD set featuring bonus footage. The set will also be available as a digital download, apparently, but I wouldn’t have a clue about that.

An even weirder – and expensive – xmas for the Beatles pundit this year is a storage case for htis year’s Beatle re-issue frenzy, bookended by two books detailing the discographies of the US/UK and in the second book the rest of the world with rare picture sleeves to boot. Very nice, but the second book isn’t really relevant when the set only replicates the UK versions of the records (barring the US version of ‘Magical Mystery Tour’) and has a £82 price tag. Ouch! (I got my set of the music for £135!)

Finally, what better way to see out the year than in the company of the fab four? Paul Gambaccini offers yet another take on the Beatles’ history on Radio 2 on December 30^th and 31^st with ‘Here, There And Everywhere’, ambitiously trying to tell in two hours what the Beatles’ Anthology series failed to do in ten.

 ♫ CSN News: Well, its not strictly a CSN release but they are one of the lynch-pins of a well-received new book of photographs about the artists who lived in Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon. The book, titled ‘Canyon Of Dreams: The Magic And The Music Of Laurel Canyon’, is written by Harvey Kubernik and published by Sterling.

♫ Jefferson Airplane/Starship News: A welcome discovery that’s slipped out quietly during the last few months – with no mention in any music papers that I saw – is the first ‘proper’ CD release of the first five Jefferson Starship albums (some of them have been out before, but only on a series of increasingly head-scratching two-for-one combinations). The set includes mini-CD replica sleeves for the superlative ‘Dragonfly’, the over-rated million-selling ‘Red Octopus’, the under-rated piddling-selling ‘Spitfire’, the weak ‘Earth’ and the energetic ‘Freedom At Point Zero’, although the only bonus tracks are a handful of alternate takes and demos for ‘Red Octopus’. It’s a nicely presented set, though, that will look good on the shelf next to the Jefferson Airplane 5 CD set (which contains Takes Off!/Surrealistic Pillow/Bathing At Baxters/Crown Of Creation/Bless It’s Little Pointed Head – everything you need for a truly psychedelic trip in other words, although of course these albums have been out on CD individually for decades now in different formats)

♫ Monkees News: This Saturday, December 19^th, Radio 4 will attempt to tell the story of The Monkees in, erm, half an hour. The show, entitled ‘Here We Come’, is already causing controversy due to Davy Jones’ allegations that everything that went wrong with the band was down to Mike Nesmith.  And we thought the BBC were ambitious trying to tell the fab four’s story in two hours...

 ♫ Oasis News: Liam Gallagher will definitely be continuing his recording career under his own name backed by the other band members, while brother Noel has been keeping uncharacteristically quiet about his future. However, Noel has been in the news enthusing over the remix of Oasis track ‘Falling Down’ by Amorphous Androgynous – a four-minute work of promise from the band’s final album ‘Dig Out Your Soul’ now extended into a 22-minute epic.

 ♫ Pink Floyd News: A tape of the Floyd’s early Top Of The Pop’s appearance plugging ‘See Emily Play’ in July 1967 has come to light after being mis-labelled for decades in an anonymous music archivist’s collection. The show from Jul 6 1967, along with another from July 27 that year, will be screened as part of the ‘Missing: Believed Wiped’ event at London’s SouthBank on January 9 next year. Another TOTP discovery was made by the family of comedian Dick Emery, recently, who discovered that one 1974 show in his collection was not in the BBC archives.

♫ Rolling Stones News: Two big big anniversaries for the Stones this month: First up, it’s 40 years since Altamont (or was on December 6^th anyway), the Stones’ free festival that ended up with four deaths (including one murder) and effectively ended the trend for free festivals begun so wonderfully by Woodstock just 4 months before. Radio 2 celebrated, if that’s the right word, by way of a fascinating documentary looking back at all the factors that went to make up the mess and included a few snatches of performances and interviews that haven’t been broadcast before. BBC 4 also repeated the ‘Gimme Shelter’ film of the concert – planned with such enthusiasm for the stars taking part and instead twisted to become a moving and harrowing glimpse at how so many good intentions can go so bad so fast. The scene of Meredith Hunter’s death from a Hells Angel’s knife still has the power to shock to this day, as do Mick Jagger’s increasingly frustrated attempts to calm the crowd down. However, it’s sad that only the Stones’ part in events ever seems to get mentioned – CSN performed, albeit briefly while Jefferson Airplane singer Marty Balin – the unsung hero of the festival - even got beaten up by a Hell’s Angel in an attempt to stop an argument going on in the front row while the rest of the band play on, horrified (Paul Kantner’s neat response: ‘to the hell’s angel whose just beaten up our lead singer...gee, thanks for that!’)

It’s also 40 years since the second and for most people definitive Stones live album ‘Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!’ The show, recorded during the Stones’ tour of 1969 is yet another example of the Stones producing live albums from their weakest tours not their best but is still well regarded by many a Stones fanatic. The latest re-issue includes a DVD of performances from the same period and the restored opening sets by Tina Turner and BB King. Paint it black, you devils!

♫ Cat Stevens/Yusuf News: There’s a repeat hearing of the nicely intimate ‘Radio 2 Live’ perfomance from earlier this year on December 22nd, which features plenty of classic songs (including some rarities such as early song ‘Portobello Road’ and film soundtrack song ‘Don’t Be Shy’) as well as songs from Yusuf’s impressive new album ‘Roadsinger’.

♫ Neil Young News: A surprise and welcome showing of the 2005 Neil concert film ‘Heart Of Gold’ took place on Channel Five the other week. A shame the UK premiere of this Nashville concert had to take place in the early hours but still, it was an unexpected bonus for us British fans and reveals the film to be a rather lopsided affair featuring the whole of the patchy but still best-in-a-decade album ‘Prairie Wind’, followed by some old acoustic friends dominated by 1992’s ‘Harvest Moon’ with a delightful ‘Comes A Time’ and thoughtful ‘Old Man’ the highlights.

                                    

♫ ANNIVERSARIES: (December 5-11^th) Happy Holidays to the following AAA musicians – Jim Messina (bassist with The Buffalo Springfield 1968) who turns 62 on December 5^th and Bobby Elliott (drummer with The Hollies 1964-present) who turns 67 on December 8^th. Anniversaries of events include: The Rolling Stones hold a ‘Beggar’s Banquet’ to celebrate the release of their new album – it quickly turns into a food fight between the band and the media (December 5^th 1968); The Beatles fan club posts the very first fab four xmas flexidisc to thousands of members (December 6^th 1963); it’s 40 years since four people died at the Rolling Stones’ hosted free concert at Altamont Speedway. AAA groups CSNY and Jefferson Airplane also appeared (the Grateful Dead were due to play but refused due to the ‘bad vibes’) (December 6^th 1969 – the ‘Gimme Shelter’ film outlined above is premiered on the same day in 1970); The Beatles appear on the pop panel show Jukebox Jury in a well remembered TV appearance sadly missing from the archives (December 7^th 1963); CS and N announce to the press their intention of working together in the future – the trio begin recordings the following summer (December 7^th 1967); On the same day The Beatles’ Apple Boutique begins its ill-fated run in London’s Baker Street (December 7^th 1967); The Beach Boys release their first single ‘Surfin’ which becomes a minor hit on the national charts (December 8^th 1961); Pink Floyd release ‘The Wall’ 30 years ago this week (December 8^th 1979); John Lennon dies 29 years ago this week on December 8^th 1980 at the age of just 40; the same week in 1972 saw the first issue of Lennon’s ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’ single which surprisingly flops the first time round, having been issued too close to yuletide to reach most radio playlists (December 9^th); The Moody Blues’ first line-up, including Wings’ Denny Laine on lead vocals, release their famous single ‘Go Now’ (December 10^th 1964); The Minbenders release their first single with future 10cc member Eric Stewart on lead vocals ‘Groovy Kind Of Love’ (December 10^th 1965); Gentle Giant Otis Redding dies in a plane crash at the age of 27 (December 10^th 1967) and finally, Lennon releases his ‘primal scream’ album, Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, the record that waves goodbye to the Beatles in more ways than one (December 11^th 1970).

Anniversaries (December 12-18^th): Happy Birthday To You if your name is Ray Jackson (singer and harmonica player with Lindisfarne 1970-75 and 1978-93) who turns 61 on December 12^th, Frank Allen (bassist with The Searchers 1964-present) who turns 66 on December 14^th, Tony Hicks (guitarist with The Hollies 1963-present) who turns 66 on December 16^th and Keith Richards (guitarist with The Rolling Stones 1963-present) who turns 66 on December 18^th. Anniversaries of events include: Pink Floyd’s first ever concert outside their local college for charity Oxfam as part of an all star cast of young hopefuls at the Royal Albert Hall (December 12^th 1966); The Rolling Stones Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus is recorded during a marathon 22-hour session from the early hours of December 12^th-13^th December 1968. It won’t be seen by anyone outside the band for another 25 years; the first ever solo Beatles concert takes place when the Plastic Ono Band, with a guesting Eric Clapton on lead guitar, perform a set at the Toronto Peace Festival (December 12^th 1969); The day after sees The Who playing their new rock opera Tommy at London’s Colosseum Opera House (December 13^th 1969); Mick Taylor leaves the Rolling Stones to make way for Ronnie Wood (December 14^th 1974); George Harrison is deported from Hamburg for playing a club while under-age (the rest of the Beatles sheepishly make their way back to Liverpool without him, after a short brush with the police who charge two of the makeshift Beatles for trying to set their employers’ club on fire; December 16^th 1960) and finally The Who call it a day – for the next seven years at least – with a farewell show at Canada’s Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, with The Small Faces’ Kenny Jones on drums (December 17^th 1982).  

And finally, hip-hip hooray to those between December 19-25^th: Carl Wilson (guitarist and so much more with The Beach Boys 1961-2003) who would have been 63 on December 21st and Ian Burden (keyboardist and programmer with the Human League) who turns 52 on December 24^th. Anniversaries of events include: Keith Moon’s first on-stage collapse (of many during his 12 years in the limelight), as early as The Who’s 1965 UK tour (December 19^th 1965); Paul Simon scores what is to date his only #1 solo single with ’50 Ways To Leave Your Lover’ (December 20th 1975); The Beatles begin their 1963 Christmas Show tour (December 21^st); Janis Joplin is the special guest star vat a one-night only Stax super-star soul night (December 21^st 1968);  Small Faces drummer Kenny Jones officially joins The Who in the wake of Keith Moon’s death in September (December 22^nd 1978); Paul McCartney performs his last ever gig with Wings at the fondly remembered Kampuchea Benefit concerts in London – there are rumours of a Beatles reunion too, reportedly the closest all four members ever came to an agreement. The gig is also special because its the first time McCartney is meant to have met Elvis Costello, his future writing partner, who is also performing at the event (December 22^nd 1979); Tom and Jerry, aka Simon and Garfunkel, release their first ever single at the tender age of 14. ‘Hey Schoolgirl’ is a bit local hit that becomes a minor national chart entry (December 23^rd 1957); Mike Smith of Decca Records travels to the Cavern Club to see the Beatles play – contrary to popular opinion about Decca, the label are really interested in the band until Brian Poole and the Tremeloes comes along and the label demur over signing two such similar bands at the same time come January (December 23^rd 1961); Poor Brian Wilson has a pretty miserable xmas in 1964, after suffering his infamous breakdown on a plane leaving home for yet another American tour – this is the last time he will be a regular sight on a Beach Boys stage (December 23^rd); Ready Steady Go goes away forever when the last edition of this iconic series is broadcast on December 23^rd 1966; Blues singer Johnny Ace dies when a game of Russian roulette goes wrong on December 24^th 1954 – his death will help inspire the classic Paul Simon song ‘The Late Great Johnny Ace’ in 1983; The Who chart with their first album ‘My Generation’ in the UK (December 25^th 1965) and finally, Paul McCartney and Jane Asher announce their engagement on December 25^th 1967. The relationship only lasts a few months after this, however...