News, Views and Music Issue 166 (Intro)

October 24:

Dear all, we’ve reached that magic point in our history when we are – gulp – exactly halfway through our trawl of all things AAA. Yes, I really am mad enough to have counted up how many reviews I will have to write (502 to be exact) – and that’s assuming that a) no more come out during the next five years and b) special editions, april fool’s issues, choice reunion albums and solo albums don’t count on that list (otherwise I’ll still be writing it when I’m 903 and have genetically mutated into a timelord) although if I have the time and energy I’d like to write those too before the end. What have we learnt so far on our travels? Erm, don’t trust Governments then and now (Cameron is the re-incarnation of Nixon for sure – and there I was spending a decade thinking it was Blair), albums can fade or rise in different eras when they’re ripe for re-discovery and music is the only answer we have to what life throws at us.
Around 0.001% will be interested to learn how, statistically, each AAA member has been covered so far. The top three most covered groups (in terms of albums reviewed so far) are Dire Straits, Small Faces and Janis Joplin on 75% - but then the first one only released six albums and the others four; the highest of our longterm AAA men covered is John Lennon at 71.4%. The lowest members, which we’ll have to get a bit of a move on with include Jefferson Airplane/Starship at 38.8%, The Beach Boys at 36.6% and this week’s review group Pentangle now at a lowly 33.3%. We’ll be trying to concentrate on some of the lower-banded artists in the weeks to come in an effort to work out these reviews roughly equally, so bear with us!

By the way this is a slightly shorter newsletter than normal this week because I’m absolutely whacked out with another chronic fatigue outbreak after another busy week (although at least I’ve managed to get most of my Christmas shopping done!) We should be back up to full length next week (I hope!)

In other news, I can’t believe what I’m hearing from this year’s Tory conference. In one breath the Conservatives announced that they would be dropping the Lib Dem-invented wealth tax on millionaires – and in the same breath announced a further £1 billion cuts to welfare despite the fact that everyone in the country except cabinet members have already considered what they’ve done to be a really bad idea. A whole host of celebs still paying tax in the UK have come forward and said they don’t think they’re paying enough, so what does our beloved overpaid leader do? He helps himself to a fortune by renting out his second house paid for by taxpayer’s money, that’s what! And if the Government really were interested in saving money then why not say adios to unemployment company G4S and disability testers ATOS, both of whom have repeatedly broken the law and proved themselves to be a shambles (instead of which both have been given bonuses and more control in the coming years). Frankly I’m getting scared about the powers and corruption of this controlling man who didn’t even win the election and yet has forced through more longer-term changes in our history than any other leader since Napoleon (and even he wasn’t as nuts as Cameron is). I’m even more scared by the inability of the world’s media to report what’s really going on and how badly people are suffering and want this corrupt sinister presence out of our lives (click here for what the public really thinks of David Cameron, all comments posted during his first hour on Twitter). Let’s hope the world really does end this December – because with another year of the Coalition there won’t be anything left of the country to save.

More news: apparently One Direction think they’re the new incarnation n of The Beatles. Apparently one of them saw the documentary ‘Beatles in the USA’ and said he really ‘recognised our personalities’. Hmm, I get it now, you’re a band made up of four Ringos! That explains a lot...
In the meantime, cheer yourself up by rummaging through our latest news column (the link is below!)

http://paper.li/f-1347835090

KINKS News: The one item extra to report is that BBC4 are repeating their previous Kinks night on Friday, October 19th, first shown about last Christmas. I’m particularly grateful as my copy of the Ray Davies doc ‘Imaginary Man’ was ruined by my DVD recorder giving up the ghost, while doc on brother Dave Davies ‘Kinkdom Kome’ (which I do still have a copy of) is every bit as good. Best of all there’s a new compilation of Kinks material from the BBC archives, collected from old TOTPs, Old Grey Whistle Tests and various TV shows down the years.



ANNIVERSARIES: Unusually there are no AAA stars celebrating birthdays this week (October 17th and 23rd) and to be honest not many events happening either. Anniversaries of events this week include: The Beatles make their first TV appearance, singing ‘Some Other Guy’ at the Cavern Club for TV show ‘People And Places’ (October 17th 1962), The Dick Lester film ‘How I Won The War’ starring John Lennon receives its premiere at London Pavilion (October 18th 1967); An early riot at a Stones gig in France where 150 people are arrested for causing £1400 of damage to the stadium and nearby buildings (October 20th 1964) and finally, The Who – then still gigging under the name ‘High Numbers’ – are rejected after an audition at EMI (October 22nd 1964)

News, Views and Music Issue 159 (Intro)

Dear all, I know these newsletters are coming thick and fast now but due to circumstances I feel as if I’m running out of time a bit to tell you about all the albums that really need to be heard and re-assessed. The jobcentre are on my back and want me to either stop or earn more money from this site – neither of which is likely to happen. Not co-oincidentally all the stress means my body is suffering chronic fatigue symptoms like never before. Frankly if I was a dog they’d have put me down by now to prevent further suffering but as the hideous laws against assisted suicide continue to rumble in the press (RIP Tony Nicklinson) it looks like I;m here for the seeing future, struggling to walk, struggling to think, struggling to cope. Luckily my ears are still working fine and I can just about cope with the pain in my fingers so here is another newsletter for you all, one on the theme of ‘balance’ – ironic, really, given how many times I’ve fallen over this week. A review of the Moodies’ fifth album, I can’t help think of another Moodies track ’22,000 Days’ (the average life expectancy when the song was released in 1981): our first site at www.alansalbumarchives.moonfruit.com passed 22,000 hits this week, which means one hit for every day I’m likely to live. We leapt up 100 hits in a day last week – which is odd because I’ve actually been spending most of my time on the evolution of our second site at www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk – which has actually fallen in hit rates to about 20 a day from about 40. Hmm, let’s see if we can get those statistics up a bit this week... ♫ Beatles News: Hot on the heels of last month’s DVD/Blu-Ray release of Yellow Submarine (and its blu meanies!) comes the news that TV special ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ will be available in October. News is sketchy as yet, with no ideas as to whether there will be any bonus material (there was quite a lot on the ‘Submarine’ disc), but the set will be in better quality than the ‘semi-official’ European release that was doing the rounds about six or seven years ago. This release will mean that, apart from ‘Let It Be’, every Beatles film will be available in the UK rather than simply being in import – for the first time ever! (And long overdue!) ♫ Kinks News: Ray Davies recently announced a competition to kover a Kinks Klassik. Any Kinks song is up for grabs, including the big hits and the b-sides that few people outside the AAA know! Videos or audio recordings are both being accepted and the winner gets to spend the day with ray in the Kinks’ famous Konk studios in North London where their cover version will be ‘professionally’ produced! (Two nights accommodation in a nearby hotel is also part of the deal!) Original Kinks drummer Mick Avory (with the band from 1964 to 1985) will also be on hand to help out. Two runners up will receive the Kinks at the BBC sessions box set and some Kinks vinyl signed by Ray. The Kompetition came about when Ray was looking for a ‘new’ way to publicise this month’s ‘Kinks at the BBC’ box set. Ray said: “This is a great opportunity for musicians to display their talent by re-interpreting some classic Kinks songs. Good luck, enjoy, be creative… be outrageous!" You can enter or vote for entries in the competition here: http://www.talenthouse.com/collaborate-with-the-kinks#description ANNIVERSARIES: Presents galore for AAA birthday boys (born between August 29th and September 4th: Al Jardine (guitarist with The Beach Boys 1961-1989) who turns 70 on September 3rd and Gene Parsons (drummer with The Byrds 1968-72) who turns 67 on September 4th, not to mention Alan’s Album Archives which officially first came online at www.alansarchives.t35.com on September 2nd 2008 and is now four years old (don’t bother looking for the site though – it doesn’t exist anymore!) Anniversaries of events include: 15-year-old George Harrison plays with The Quarrymen for the very first time (August 29th 1958); The Beatles play their last ever concert at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park (August 29th 1966); John and Yoko’s ‘One To One’ benefit concert takes place for disabled children and is pretty much the last Lennon concert we get (barring a TV performance of ‘Imagine’ and a guest spot with Elton John) (August 30th 1972); Drummer Denny Seiwell becomes the second member to quit Wings as the band are all packed for Lagos and ‘Band On The Run’ (August 30th 1973); Paul Simon releases AAA classic no 78, ‘One Trick Pony’ (August 30th 1980); the completely ridiculous court ruling that George Harrison stole the hook from ‘My Sweet Lord’ from the Chiffons’ ‘He’s So Fine’ is passed (George clearly got it from the Hawkins’ Singers’ ‘Oh Happy Day’; August 31st 1976, a full five years after the single came out!); The Rolling Stones join their old pals The Beatles in suing manager Allan Klein for ‘falsely representing’ them with ‘intent to deceive’ (September 1st 1972); 10cc’s eponymous debut album hits the UK chart for the first time (September 1st 1973); Keith Richards’ house ‘Redlands’ suffers its second devastating fire in 10 years (September 2nd 1982); The Hollies finally score their American breakthrough surprisingly late, with Graham Gouldmann’s ‘Bus Stop’ (September 3rd 1966); The Beatles attend their first official recording session at Abbey Road, recording 17 takes of first single ‘Love Me Do’ (September 4th 1962); The Who, already deep in debt, have £5000 worth of equipment stolen from their touring van which is – wait for it – parked outside Battersea Dog’s Home whilst the band’s managers enquired about buying a guard dog. You can’t make these stories up can you?... (September 4th 1965) and finally, The Rolling Stones release ‘Street Fighting Man’, the second Stones single to be banned in a year (for ‘inciting riots’ – don’t the censors actually listen to these songs?! September 4th 1968).

News, Views and Music Issue 157 (Intro)

My dear AAA brethren, my apologies if this issue isn’t quite up to scratch. You see, Mondays are my sacred writing days and always have been since starting this project. They could drop the atom bomb at midnight Sunday and you’d still find me sitting in my chair come Monday Afternoon struggling to condense all of my thoughts onto the page. It makes me feel as if I’ve actually got something done with my week, even if I have a chronic fatigue relapse and can’t write again till the following Monday and I do everything in my power to make sure I’m well enough to hit my laptop and write on that day. Only this week the jobcentre, who have no reason to see my anyway, have insisted on seeing me on a Monday – preventing me from doing my ‘proper’ work in other words in order to make me nod, go ‘hmm’ every so often and then remind them for the umpteempth time that as I’ve been found ‘fit for work’ I don’t actually have to do anything they tell me (I still have to turn up, though, or else apparently. Yeah because threats are great for people recovering from illness). So, to cut a long story semi-short, I’ve had to write two reviews this week – and boy am I feeling it now. Never mind, though, because it looks like I have a whole new bunch of AAA followers out there to talk to. I think I’ve mentioned before in these pages (certainly the links page of our www.alansalbumarchives.moonfruit.com site) how great the ‘Kinda Kinks’ site at www.kindakinks.net is, full of every snippet and factual nugget about what the various members of the band are up to (its proved invaluable when our AAA groups are having a slow news week). I sent the link for our review of ‘Kinda Kinks’ off to the site last week and I’ve never seen such a hive of activity! We actually peaked at 350 views in 48 hours, a record for us, and it looks as if readers have been hanging around to view our other reviews (including several Kinks ones, naturally). A big welcome to you all! Please keep visiting us whenever you can – I can already feel another Kinks review coming on! Finally, whether you’re a new reader or an old faithful one whose followed us from the start (way back in 2008, how young we all were!), if you have enjoyed my writing then please please please will you nominate me for inclusion for a new book that’s coming out? ‘Best Music Writing’ has been published every year for 12 years and has always featured the best of the ‘official’ music magazines and websites out there. A new switch to independent publishers means they can now include submissions from fan sites like mine. You can nominate up to five articles by any music writer you enjoy reading (it doesn’t have t be me, though obviously I’d be thrilled to be included) and can do so here: http://www.feedbackpress.org/best-music-writing-ballot/ We desperately need the publicity that being featured in a ‘proper’ tome would give us, so please if we’ve done anything to help you navigate your way through your record collection then please help us out now! Thankyou! Now on with the news... ♫ Beatles/Beady Eye/The Kinks/Pink Floyd/The Who News: The London Olympics closing ceremony was a good mixture of the talent and incompetence we’ve seen throughout the rest of the Olympics. If the opening ceremony was a frustratingly missed opportunity (full of confusing hard-to-follow bits about the industrial revolution that seemed to hop around the centuries like a natterjack toad and some awful shtick about the Queen parachuting in with James Bond – with her ma the only actress around wooden enough to compete with Daniel Craig – thunderbirds puppets would have been more entertaining!), the ending promised much for the closing ceremony (a huge cauldron on fire, the sensible concept of skipping the celebs to give some promising teenagers a chance to light the flame and Paul McCartney to finish!) Which it half delivered on. Officially the closing ceremony was meant to represent ‘every era’ – something which must have disappointed every 50s, 70s and oos fan as hardly anyone from those eras turned up (Bowie on a screen, Kate Bush on a radio and two members of Queen hardly compensated). But us 60s (and even us 90s) kids were well catered for, centring around the great old battle between the Kinks and The Who for supremacy as London’s best (sadly the Stones were a no-show – I’m surprised we had no one covering ‘I Can’t Get No Satisfaction’ anywhere, but perhaps that’s just the message I wanted to sum up the olympics!) Ray Davies arrived by taxi and looked a little frail but considering he had just a guitar and (at the end) a booming choir for accompaniment his ‘Waterloo Sunset’ was goosepimplingly intimate. Rumours of a Pink Floyd reunion were, sadly, unfounded but we did get to see drummer Nick Mason performing ‘Wish You Were Here’ as part of a supergroup featuring various members of Genesis and the Stranglers plus new kid Ed Sheeran. It was a great performance, actually, though I got a bit lost what the tightrope walking was all about (non-Floyd fans must have been even more confused as to why the dummy at the end of the tightrope caught fire – its the front cover for Floyd album ‘Wish You Were Here’, folks, although I’d still rather have had a flying pig. The Beatles had already been covered by Macca’s fine (if acoustically flawed) performance of ‘Hey Jude’ in the opening ceremony, but there was a neat on-screen tribute to John Lennon, accompanied by a signing choir from Liverpool performing ‘Imagine’ which was far more moving than the song usually is (Lennon would surely have hated it though!) Hopes were high for an Oasis reunion after a ‘Beady Eye’ drum kit was spotted in the arena but alas Noel Gallagher was a no-show and we got a rather subdued Liam and co instead. That said I think most of the crowd probably missed the significance: after ‘resting’ the song during the last couple of Oasis tours and the band going their own ways this meant that last weeks’ performance of ‘Wonderwall’ was the first in a decade. Best of all, though, were the ‘Orrible ‘Oo, who followed up a pretty decent cover of ‘Pinball Wizard’ by the Kaiser Chiefs with a storming closing set that had more passion and energy within 10 minutes than the past rather dragging three hours. Great performances of ‘Baba O’Riley’ ‘Listening To You’ and an emphatic ‘ My Generation’ almost made up for having to sit through an interminable 10 minute set from the Spice Girls who performed on top of five taxis (presumably so when the crowd started throwing things they could make a quick getaway. Joke of the night: ‘I know why the Spice Girls were on late. Posh got mistaken for a javelin and locked away in a cupboard by accident’! ‘Wannabe’ is a song that really hasn’t gotten better with age and the crowd looked sick to be honest, as the commentators tried to explain how ‘girl power’ among teenagers was all the rage in the 1990s and still powerful and significant, despite the fact the song was written by a 50 year old male for money. At least the girls (or should that be OAPS?) didn’t kung-fu kick anyone this time around! So then, pretty mixed, with some highlights but nothing as great as the highlight of the whole Olympics: Boris Johnson getting stuck on a zip-wire a week into the games for a full quarter of an hour! ♫ Monkees News: Shock announcement this week is that the band are reuniting for a series of shows in the States. This is a shock a) because sadly Davy Jones died in February and all previous reunions were at least partly at his suggestion and b) because this means Mike Nesmith will be back in the band for the first time since 1997. The news was announced on Mike’s ever entertaining facebook page where, in typical Nesmith style, he announced ‘Amazing News!...I’ve made a gazpacho!...Oh and Micky and Peter and I are going to be doing 12 concerts here in the States!’ News reports say that the band will be playing their own instruments on stage, just as they did in 1967 on tour, and that Davy will be represented by multimedia of him singing and playing with the band in true Monkees style, backed by the others playing live. The other exciting news is that much of the set will be derived from our classic AAA Monkees album ‘Headquarters’, an album never played much on tour (see review no 10). The tour is due to start in November. Hopefully the tour will extend to other cities and countries but that’s all the news we have right now. ANNIVERSARIES: The only birthday boy this week (August 15th-21st) is Carl Wayne (vocalist with The Hollies from 1999 to his death in 2003) who would have been 68 on August 18th. Anniversaries of events include: The Beatles play their record-breaking show at New York’s Shea Stadium, with 56,000 screaming fans –an attendance record that won’t be beaten until CSNY in 1974 (August 15th 1965); the first day of Woodstock, an anniversary we covered in detail a year ago in these very pages (August 15th 1969); George Harrison publishes the closest we’ve yet had to a Beatle autobiography, the frustratingly short and originally expensive ‘I Me Mine’ (August 15th 1980); Paul Simon plays to his biggest crowd for his ‘Concert In Central Park’ (August 15th 1991); The Beatles’ still mysterious sacking of their most popular member Pete Best and replacing him with...Ringo (think about that for a minute) who plays his first gig with the band two days later (August 16th 1962); The Beatles’ first performance in Hamburg at the Indra Club (August 17th 1960); The second of two records featuring Jagger, Richards, Lennon and McCartney from the summer of love is released – the Stones’ best single (as far as my tastes are concerned) ‘We Love You’ (August 18th 1967 – the other record is the Beatles’ ‘All You Need Is Love’); Mick Jagger accidentally hurts his hand in a pistol fight staged for the seemingly cursed movie ‘Ned Kelly’ (August 18th 1969); The Moody Blues begin their highest grossing UK tour, some nine years after their original split (August 18th 1981); The Beatles begin their first American tour, playing to much bigger crowds than they are used to in England (August 19th 1964); American radio station KNOW ban all Beatles tracks from the air after hearing that the ‘Sgt Peppers’ LP may contain drugs references – thankfully most of the other stations simply ban that LP (August 19th 1967); The Rolling Stones release one of their most famous songs ‘Satisfaction’ (August 20th 1965); Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham creates Immediate Records with The Small Faces, lured from Decca, one of their first signings (August 20th 1965) and finally, The Rolling Stones and 10cc co-headline a prestigious gig at London’s Knebworth (August 21st 1976).

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 132 (Intro)

February 4^th:

Alright readers, here’s a picture of my life at the moment. Every night I struggle to get to sleep, some nights not managing any and even if I do I generally don’t get any sleep until around 6am. As a result I don’t wake till 1 or 2 in the afternoon. All this is common to chronic fatigue sufferers and has been written about on my jobcentre forms several times. In my remaining spare time I just about to struggle to fit in two visits to friends and family per fortnight, on alternating weeks so I don’t tire myself out. My remaining spare amount of time when I’m not rolling around the floor in pain, coping with jobs other people would do in minutes that take me all day or sleeping off the fact that I didn’t sleep at all in the night is spent working on this site, re-adapted though not started on a jobcentreplus initiative and turned into a time-consuming (though an undeniable joy to work on) business, complete with tax returns and four letters a year to the jobcentre people about how I’m doing. As those of you who are regular readers will know, I also spent a far longer chuck of my time than expected filling in a whopping great 40 page form that still didn’t leave me enough room to put my point across (you may have noticed that I write too much...) and fighting the trick-questions at a medical that was such a horrible experience I very nearly walked out in protest. Now, some six weeks after hearing that I’m passed, I’m having to fight it all again, with a jobcentre appointment in February at 10am (do these people never learn?!) where I’m going to have fight the fact that I can’t work regular hours or travel far all over again, this despite the fact that I’m already one of their ‘tick-box’ projects for pushing ahead with this business! I’m so sick of having to spend all my time fighting people, I’m worn out enough from fighting this illness. As has been commented lots of times the worst thing for me is stress and the best cure is to be left alone to recover – and yet, here I am again, having to learn all the pitfalls and traps of the ‘personal advisor’ appointments so that I don’t end up doing a job I can’t handle for people who don’t want me and will sack me when I fall asleep at my desk or black out in the staffroom. I’m loathe to give up writing these newsletters because that’s the only part of the week I feel vaguely human and that my life isn’t all about pain and tiredness, although if this carries on I might have to, so just thought I ought to let you know. And as for those jokers trying to limit claims of this benefit to just one year, no matter how long-term an illness would be, it will be almost a relief to live off nothing and spend my time on the streets if it means I don’t have to keep fighting, fighting, fighting all the time. This is Alan’s Album Archives, over and out – and nearly down and out too...let’s hope for better next week...

On a happier note, thankyou to my friends at www.besteveralbums/com for making my list ‘chart of the day’ – thankyou to anyone whose taken me up on the plugs for my website and happy reading to you all!

                                      

♫ Beatles/Byrds/CSNY/Hollies/Rolling Stones/Searchers News: Sorry for the late heads up but far from  the Beatles-heavy unadvertised déjà vu experience I expected it to be, BBC4’s latest series on the British Invasion of America in the 1960s was actually a decent effort with tonnes of AAA footage. Taking its cue from the way that British bands in the 60s exploited the sounds of America in the 50s before America replied in kind, this was a scattershot compilation of talking heads and archival footage that covered the story from the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show up to the psychedelic years. AAA members speaking included Paul McCartney (how the hell did the film-makers get him?!), The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn (who downplays his band’s role in the whole thing but was fascinating nonetheless), Graham Nash (also seen in some fascinating footage with 10cc’s Graham Gouldmann and Herman’s Hermit’s Peter Noone arguing over whether music should be political – see our rant a few issues back to see why we agree with Graham), The Hollies’ Tony Hicks and Bobby Elliott (plus some priceless rare footage of the band on tour in the US I’d never seen before) and The Searchers’ Mike Pender, as amusing an interviewee as ever. Not bad at all, despite having absolutely no attention whatsoever – let’s hope the next part, based around the 70s, is as good. You can still catch it on the I-player if you’re quick – the programme’s subtitle was ‘Go West’ (a phrase actually spoken by Nash in a 1965 interview clip) in case it’s listed under that instead.

♫ Byrds News: Three bits of news to excite Byrds fans, who’ve been somewhat starved of news on these pages of late. The first is that my personal favourite of all of Gene Clark’s solo albums ‘Two Sides To Every Story’, is finally getting its first proper CD re-issue. This 1977 album won’t contain any bonus tracks but does contain some of the finest music Gene ever made on the second half of the record, especially the thrilling trilogy of ballads ‘Hear The Wind’ ‘Past Addresses’ and ‘Silent Crusade’ and the under-rated ‘Sister Moon’. The first side is nothing like as good but, hey, that’s always the problem for the Gene Clark collector.

The second bit of news is that Johnny Rogan’s definitive book on the band has just got even more definitive. The slab of a book that’s been propping up my bookshelves for the past few years ‘Timeless Flight’ has now been thoroughly re-written, with several new interviews included and a new sections on what each of the many Byrds members got up to after the band finally split in 1973. To be honest, the old book was so thorough, packed with a lot of research and one hell of a lot of love, that it seems hard to imagine what could have been added. You see, the book used to run to an impressive 700 pages but now totals nearer 1200. The ‘new’ book has been given the title ‘Requiem For The Timeless’ to distance itself from the old work and, rather worryingly for our bank balances, is apparently subtitled ‘volume one’. We’ll let you know if we hear about volume two... 

Finally, a belated mention of a box set that actually came out before Xmas but had passed me by until now. ‘The Complete Album Collection’ is a mopping up of all 12 Byrds albums (everything but the pre-fame tracks and the reunion album for Asylum), all with bonus tracks and retailing at the highly reasonable price of £30. Considering I easily paid twice that to buy all of these albums individually 10-15 years ago that’s a mighty fine bargain for the few fans around that don’t already own all this stuff.  

♫ CSNY News: Just a word to let you know that I’ve stumbled across some great rare long lost footage of the band on Youtube, apparently shot during a show at the Winterland Arena in 1973. The concert  is around 45 minutes long – probably just a third of the running time of the original show – and includes plenty of then-new songs in the tracklisting including ‘New Mama’ from ‘Tonight’s The Night’ a full two years before its official release, a very early outing for Stills’ song of wisdom ‘As I Come Of Age’ (again not released till 1975), two songs from Nash’s ‘Wild Tales’ from the following year and ‘Human Highway’, the intended title track of the band’s 1974 reunion album that was never completed (CSNY never did last long enough to record this song, which makes its appearance here all the more special. The footage is pretty grainy and the concert isn’t up to the standards of the excellent (and hopefully soon to be officially released) Wembley Stadium gig of 12974, but it’s still well worth a look if you’re a curious fan: 

Part One: http://youtu.be/4h4IPstMw24 (Helplessly Hoping/Wooden Ships/Blackbird)

Part Two: http://youtu.be/fGck3m6h8jY (As I Come Of Age/Roll Another Number/Human Highway)

Part Three: http://youtu.be/LCcABWUAYoM (New Mama/And So It Goes/Prison Song)

Part Four: http://youtu.be/ZDy20zD7SE4 (Long Time Gone/Change Partners)

♫ Kinks News: Considering that four of their albums haven’t been seen on CD for over 20 years now, you’d think that The Kinks had plenty of mileage for re-issue series anyway. However the collector now has yet another package of the band’s iconic 1960s material to collect, with all of their 60s studio albums appearing on mono, some – like ‘Face To Face’ - on CD for the first time (sadly ‘Lola Vs Powerman’, their last album for Pye, was only released in stereo). There are also spate discs containing the four Kinks EPs (out as bonus tracks on any of the first three Kinks albums). Sadly these discs aren’t being reissued separately, which is a pain for the collector who already owns the mono editions of the first three albums and the mono/stereo sets of ‘Something Else’ ‘Village Green’ and ‘Arthur’, but to soften the blow Pye have included an extra 2CD disc of ‘Kinks Kollectibles’, featuring alternate mono mixes from around the globe. The packaging – most of it gatefold sleeves with rare photos and sleeve-notes, plus a booklet by Record Collector editor Peter Doggett, are also said to be wonderful. Whether all that is worth the hefty £118 price tag, though, is up to you...

♫ Monkees News: Finally, news that Rhino’s seemingly limited edition of ‘Instant Replay’ as a box set has now become an unlimited mainstream release. That seems puzzling given that the only new things added to this set compared to the old CD issues from the 90s are some alternate mixes that aren’t that different and even the rarest stuff here used to be widely available on the excellent ‘Missing Links’ series – and the fact that there are so many juicy things still left in the vaults. Of all the record company/band relationships around, though, The Monkees and Rhino enjoy one of the very best, with this set containing some stunning packaging and an informative booklet. 

♫ Neil Young News: After a gap of nine years, Neil Young has agreed to work with long-term backing band Crazy Horse again – or at least that’s what he announced to the delight of the crowd at a recent gig in Utah. The Horse last backed Neil on the patchy concept album ‘Greendale’ in 2003, with their last gig together taking place in March 2004. Although the Horse have come and gone several times down the years, with various reports from Neil that he would never work with them again, this is the longest gap the two have been apart to date, after releasing albums in 1969, 1975, 1979, 1981, 1987, 1990, 1993, 1997 and 2003. The two sides seemed to have parted amicably back in 2004, though that said there were rumours of a rift with drummer Ralph Molina when the drummer was unceremoniously booted off Neil’s 2008 tour in favour of younger musician Chad Cromwell, Neil’s favourite percussionist as of late. There was also an album project, nicknamed ‘toast’, that never saw the light of day in 2000 – some reports say this latest, as yet untitled project will feature songs from that album. In other news, it now seems likely that the promised Buffalo Springfield 2012 tour won’t happen, for reasons unknown – perhaps it’s just that, in the same way that last year mirrored the sudden impetuous beginnings of the band in 1966, the band have gone off the idea a year or so later? 

ANNIVERSARIES: Happy birthday to you and you and you and you to AAA members born between January 31^st and February 6^th: Skip Battin (bassist with The Byrds 1970-72) who would have been 78 on February 2^nd, Graham Nash (guitarist with The Hollies 1963-68 and Crosby, Stills and Nash various dates since 1969) who turns the big 70 on February 2^nd, Eric Haydock (bassist with The Hollies 1963-65) who would have been 69 on February 3^rd and Dave Davies (guitarist with The Kinks 1963-93) who turns 65 on February 3^rd. Anniversaries of events include: The Beatles officially abandon their intended eighth album project of childhood songs and start recording what will become the title track of ‘Sgt Peppers’ (February 1^st 1967); Beatles music publisher Dick James dies (February 1^st 1986);   The beginning of the end for The Beatles, when three of them officially hire Allen Klien as their manager against the wishes of Paul McCartney (February 3^rd 1969); The Who headlines their first concert, surprisingly late in their career, at London’s Finsbury Park (February 4^th 1966); The Rolling Stones releaser ‘19^th Nervous Breakdown’ (February 4^th 1966); John and Yoko begin what the American courts call their ‘trial separation’, beginning an 18-month ‘lost weekend’ (February 4^th 1974); Jefferson Airplane’s Paul Kantner offers up his prize guitar as one of the lots in a San Francisco musical auction to help Save The Whales – the first real music charity auction of its kind (February 4^th 1979); Paul Simon released his first single without Art Garfunkel, ‘Mother And Child Reunion’ (February 5^th 1972); The Rolling Stones switch labels to join The Beatles at EMI (February 5^th 1977) and finally, Three Beatles enter a recording studio for the first time in seven years, when Paul and Ringo guest on George’s tribute to John ‘All Those Years Ago’, eight weeks after his death (February 6^th 1981).