News, Views and Music Issue 162 (Intro)

September 28th:
Dear all, under protest my ATOS form is done and all I have to do is wait for what fun and games my latest application for the esa benefit will inspire (remember, I still haven’t heard if I passed my second application yet despite only sending that in May, four months ago not six – what the hell are they playing at?!) However its becoming clear that doing all the different strands of this website (the news, the review and the top 10) plus living a chronic fatigue-induced life of pain that something has to give. I’ve been trying to give this a lot of thought and I’ve decided that as I love writing the reviews and I’ve been having too much fun with the top tens that it’s the news section that has to go (you may have noted its been getting a bit thinner on the ground as of late!) However, I might have just found the solution, thanks to ‘paper.li’, a website that’s allowed me to create a mock newspaper full of the news stories published on various official music websites in the past 24 hours from a total of 25 different news sources (so I’ve chosen either official website rss feeds or the official twitter feeds of every AAA artist I could think of). Now clearly this won’t cover everything (there wasn’t space to add entries from some of the lesser covered groups on this list, for instance),is rather biased towards which artists tweet/update their websites the most and it won’t add the odd TV/Radio repeat or DVD review that we’ve been offering elsewhere. However, it will cover the basics of what you readers might want to read and I can always to add to it with my own news items afterwards. Please note that, in time, you’ll be able to view ‘past issues’ by clicking on the calendar icon – I wouldn’t bother doing it now, though, because this is the first edition! – and if you want to bypass this site you can subscribe direct to the ‘paper.li’ feed and keep an eye on news stories in between issues (in fact someone seems to have done that already, which is a bit alarming seeing as the site is less than an hour old and I havenb’t advertised it yet!) Anyway, let’s give it a try and see how it works: you can read the first ever ‘paper.li’ version of our newsletter here (or alternatively have a look for it down the bottom of our home page on www.alansalbumarchives.moonfruit.com or the right hand side of the home page of www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk ):

http://paper.li/f-1347835090

I’ve actually been a busy bee this week and have also re-posted all of my own compositions on Soundcloud, with a link on our ‘links’ page on the blogspot site (readers of our moonfruit site can still hear the tracks via their own page) so you can all listen to some music while you read. There’s a handful of explanations I’ve cut and pasted from my old notes for the songs back in 2008 when they were first posted, but if anyone wants any more info on any tracks just let me know. Alas there isn’t enough space to post all of them but most of the best ones are there – and the bonus is you can download them to your computer’s download directory to keep or transfer to your I-pod (in fact two people have done just that – though quite what my Russian visitor makes of ‘Rain On My Window’ I dread to think; perhaps I ought to change the title to ‘snow’?!) While I’m on the subject, if you’ve got some recordings you want me to hear/comment on/plug remorselessly on this site and you’re already on Soundcloud (I always discover these great sites a year after everybody else!) then add me as a friend and drop me a note. The site is here (and my username is ‘Alan Pattinson’ if you want to add me/have a listen!)

http://soundcloud.com/dashboard

Finally, and best of all, Martin Kitcher’s wonderful ‘ATOS Song’ (‘You’re Not Fit To Live) is being issued this week as a fully fledged download in aid of charity. The song only costs 89p to download and, as we told you last week, is well worth it, seeing as it sums up perfectly the casual way this Coalition Government are treating the disabled and vulnerable in the UK. Please buy a copy from all online music websites (and from Amazon.com if you want a hard copy) and help take a stance against this tyrannical period in our troubled Government’s history. The Itunes page for it is here if anyone wants to buy a copy http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/not-fit-to-live-aka-atos-song/id562910152
And that really is that (finally!) It’s off to our smaller-than-usualnews column for our latest radio news...



♫ Beatles News: As said above, we’re going to use this space more for radio/Tv repeats and non-CD reviews that won’t make the ‘main’ list (ie films, documentaries and DVD releases) and, as ever, its a BBC6 repeat we havwe to tell you about. This week saw a repeat of the two part BBC6 ‘Beatles at the Beeb’ series, broadcast in the station’s 3am documentary slot last Sunday and Monday. It should be available on I-player for a while and is well worth a listen if you missed it last year, being the only official place where fans can hear a good hour or so’s material of the fab four at their rawest and most powerful.

♫ Dire Straits: Another unexpected BBC6 radio repeat was a longer version of the band’s 1978 session, back when the band were plugging second album ‘Communique’. Some 15 minutes of the show was repeated back in the Spring – hence the fact we didn’t bother telling you about it – but there was one extra track at the end, a sprightly version of ‘Lady Writer’, which was cut from that repeat. It was broadcast last Thursday in the 4AM ‘in session’ slot and should be available on I-player until this Thursday.

♫ Oasis News: In a busy week on BBC6, Oasis’ show at Clapham Grand Theatre (which if I remember rightly was around the time of ‘Shoulders Of Giants’ in 2000) is being repeated this Saturday, September 22nd at 2AM in the channel’s ‘Classic Concert’ spot.



ANNIVERSARIES: Birthday boys this week (September 19th-25th) include Beatles manager Brian Epstein, who would have been 78 on September 19th and Linda McCartney Linda McCartney (Wings and various McCartney solo projects 1970-97) who would have been 71 on September 24th. Anniversaries of events include: short-flighted Byrd Gram Parsons died in the Joshua Desert in still unexplained circumstances at the age of just 27 (September 19th 1973), Simon and Garfunkel re-united on stage for the first time at New York’s Central Park (September 19th 1981), Paul McCartney is arrested for drug possession for the second time in his career after a passing sniffer dog uncovers cannabis plants in his Mull Of Kintyre greenhouse (September 20th 1972), the Rolling Stones score their last non-compilation number one with AAA review no 58 ‘Goats Head Soup’ (September 21st 1973), the Stones also become one of the first rock and roll groups ever to play at the Albert Hall (September 22nd 1966), John Lennon signs an ill-fated contract with new label Geffen Records just three months before his death (September 22nd 1980 – his ‘replacement’ Neil Young has a horrid time trying to live up to being Geffen’s ‘big star name’ and ends up being sued by his former manager David Geffen), Paul McCartney is dead – or so a writer for the Illinois University declares for the first time on September 23rd 1969 (the rumours continue to this day - you can see a three-hour documentary about it on Youtube!), 10cc chart for the first time (under that name, anyway) with the release of debut single ‘Donna’ (September 23rd 1972), ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’ finally makes number one 29 years after its original release, giving The Hollies the then-record of biggest gap between number one UK records (September 24th 1988; their only other #1 is ‘I’m Alive’ in 1965) and finally, Wings get the European leg of their world tour off to a good start by playing a forgotten charity gig for the restoration of water-damaged art treasures in Venice, raising $50,000 along the way (September 25th 1976).

News, Views and Music Issue 139 (Intro)

Welcome to another issue of news, views and music-coloured hues. Good news: we actually have some, err, good news on this site at last. Things are looking promising for AAA artists this year, after a rather barren three months, with news this issue of the next McCartney deluxe edition, a new B+S album (sort of...) and a much-waited-for Hollies BBC set. Let’s hope there are plenty more by the end of the year so we can keep up our run of strong ‘top five releases’ at the end of December. In website news we’re whistling past the 1500 mark and have welcomed yet more friends to Twitter so – deep breath – things really seem to be looking up here at the AAA (yes, we haven’t much chance to use that catchphrase recently, have we?!) Better still, David Cameron is out of the country – has anyone else noticed how better run things seem to be this week when he’s not here to interfere? – and he’s only angering me on every other news bulletin instead of each and every one. The only gloom on the horizon is yet another job centre appointment telling me that struggling to keep up to date with this site for nine hours a day while struggling with a heinous illness isn’t enough for them anymore (the fuss about ‘workfare’ may have died away but the policies haven’t – and that includes people in the ‘work’ group of employment and support allowance, despite medical evidence that work is impossible). Ah well, I knew it was too good to last to get through a whole introduction without a single complaint! Anyway, on with the news because b...

                                              

♫ Beatles News: The much delayed fourth volume in a series of deluxe Paul McCartney re-issues has been confirmed as ‘Ram’, long rumoured to be the next in the set. The album will be available in single disc, double disc and deluxe-with-book sets on May 29^th this year, although MPL haven’t yet released any info about what the extra tracks on the album and the DVD might be (‘Heart Of The Country’ is the only promo around and as far as we know there weren’t any TV tie-in programmes from the era, although there are a fair few outtakes and alternate versions of the songs knocking around on bootleg. Perhaps one of the discs will be a re-issue of the hard-to-find orchestral version of ‘Ram’ Macca released under the pseudonym ‘Thrillington’ in 1978?!

♫ Belle and Sebastian News: The band, who have been quiet since the release of ‘Write About Love’ in 2010, are back...sort of. A second volume of B+S’ ‘Night Tales’ is ready for release on March 26^th – for those who don’t know about the ‘Late Night Tales’ brand its a compilation of songs from artists that different bands admire, usually remixed. (B+S have already made one compilation for the series in 2002, though sadly they’re the only AAA band to have done so to date). Traditionally bands record their own cover version of a song they can’t get the rights to and/or want to do their way – this time around its ‘Crash’ by ‘The Primitives’ – the previous volume featured a rather dull cover of ‘Cassico Marrom’ by Evinha.

♫ Hollies News: Remember when we told you about how EMI had finally listened to our demands and issued the ‘Clarke-Hicks-Nash’ box set, with lots of unreleased and hard-to-find tracks nestling amongst the usual suspects for a cheap price? We said what we wanted to see next was a set of the band’s BBC sessions – and nine months on that’s what we’ve got! The Hollies ‘Radio Fun’ is due out on May 4^th and features lots of fascinating looking audio even over and above the wonderful 15 odd tracks out on Youtube. Highlights are set to include covers of ‘Shake’ and ‘Ride Your Pony’ (never recorded by the band), several tracks from the band’s ‘Butterfly’ album of 1967 (with the Hollies re-creating their exotic landscapes of sitars and sound effects on their everyday instruments) and some unreleased-and-rare-till-the-1980s/90s ‘She Said Yeah’ ‘Wings’ and ‘Little Bitty Pretty One’. There’s also a gorgeous front cover of the band circa 1964 that I’ve never seen before and sleevenotes by the band’s archivist and drummer Bobby Elliott. Roll on May!

♫Monkees News: We were expecting a heap of Monkees re-issues after Davy Jones’ untimely passing last month –and here they are. Record label Rhino, who have so superbly handled the band’s back catalogue in the past, have added a ‘deluxe’ edition of three-way Monkee reunion ‘Pool It!’ from 1986 onto their schedules. No news yet what the bonus tracks are, but they may include the 1983 reunion single ‘That Was Then, This Is Now’ and it’s rare B-side ‘Kicks’ plus a handful of songs we know were up for the running for the original album. The Davy Jones post-Monkees single for Bell Records are also set for a re-release and would make for quite a nifty 12-track album (‘Lady Jane’,Davy’s only solo charting single, is a classic!) Both sets e due for release on April 24^th this year. More news if and when we hear it!

♫ Oasis News: Did you know that we have a national record store day in Britain? No, neither did I but there are quite few goodies lined up for the 2012 one on April 21^st: Noel Gallagher is releasing an exclusive EP containing the B-sides from both of the ‘High Flying Bird singles’ in a set that won’t be made available on line. So far I only know two of the tracks but both of them are much better than Noel’s album, which got rather short shrift from us when it came out last year – both are moody laidback songs akin to Noel’s B-sides for the last few Oasis singles, with ‘Let The Lord Shine A Light On Me’ particularly strong. Noel’s always been a big activist for traditional record collecting activities and also came out in favour of bringing back Top Of The Pops in an interview for the Radio Times last month, saying that were he director general BBC he’d ‘bring it back in a shot’. The other ‘record store day’ exclusives? Lots of acts I’ve never heard of and a new BBC set of Dr Who sound effects! (I own the ’30 years at the radiophonic workshop’ CD and its one of the best things I ever bought – now whenever I want to sound like a voord or a chumbley I can!)

♫ Neil Young News: The surprise announcement that Neil had dropped his solo engagements in favour of a tour with Crazy Horse would most logically be followed by news that the band have split again. But no – there in the Reprise schedules is word of a new album due in June 5^th. The album has the working title ‘Americana’ and – get this – feature electric re-workings of traditional American folk songs such as ‘Tom Dooley’ ‘Clementine’ ‘Oh! Susannah!’ and (gulp) ‘God Save The Queen’ (!) (although the one promising looking cover is ‘High Flying Bird’, a song fellow AAA members Jefferson Airplane made their own in the 1960s). Has Neil finally flipped or has he just been listening to too much Johnny Cash?!

Psst! Wanna learn about some AAA birthdays? Well, OK – here are the ones for between March 21^st and 27^th: Susanne Sulley (vocalist with The Human League 1981-present) who turns 49 on March 26^th. Anniversaries of events include: Pete Best’s mum phones up Cavern Club DJ Bob Wooler and manages to get a slot for The Beatles to play at the venue that will forever be linked with their name (March 21^st 1961); John and Yoko celebrate their honeymoon in true johnandyoko style, with a bed-in at the Amsterdam Hilton hotel promoting world peace (March 21^st 1969); final Beatles single ‘Let It Be’ is released, a full year after it’s recording (March 21^st 1970); the first batch of Beatles CDs are released and – unlike last year – hold down the first four spots on the US top 100 (‘A Hard Day’s Night’ is #1 by the way, March 21^st 1987); The Rutles’ documentary ‘All You Need Is Cash’ is shown on television for the first time (March 22^nd 1978); The Beatles are persuaded by Brian Epstein to drop their leather outfits for a gig at the Barnston’s Women’s Institute on March 23^rd 1962 – they rarely use their old suits again; John Lennon’s first book ‘In His Own Write’ is published at the height of Beatlemania – Bless you, Lennon, you’ve got a lucky face (March 23^rd 1964); Simon and Garfunkel release their latest single ‘Homeward Bound’, some three years after Paul Simon first composed it (March 24^th 1966); The Who’s film version of ‘Tommy’ premieres 35 years ago (March 26^th 1975) and finally, Ronnie Lane releases to the press the sad news that he is suffering with multiple sclerosis after checking into a Florida hospital for treatment (March 27^th 1982).     uman HH      

News, Views and Music Issue 133 (Intro)

February 11^th:

Before I get any further, a big thanks to the two readers who asked me how I was following last week’s outburst. Yes, I’m feeling a bit better this week, mainly courtesy of my new toy, Phillip the 4^th, my latest MP3 player which is now filled with lots of talking books and spoken word goodies to help me get off to sleep (mainly dr whos, hancock’s half hour and the excellent Clive Merrison Sherlock Holmes series). I’m still suffering badly but have recovered enough to carry on with the website this week. And what a newsletter we have for you, dear readers, full of thrills, spills, chills and, err, bapipe drills.

Right with that out the way here’s a question for you readers. What the hell drugs were Hanna-Barbera thinking when they commissioned ‘The Banana Splits’? For thoiise who don’t know, this series features four men (three of them brothers, so I’ve read) dressed in costumes and playing in a band: Fleegle the Beagle (who sounds mighty like Disney’s Tigger, unsurprisingly given that he shares the same voice artist) and just as bossy as Mike Nesmith, Bingo the Gorilla (who looks very much like Micky Dolenz), Drooper (the peace-and-love Peter Tork of the band)and Snork, an elephant whose mute (erm, he’s not really much like Davy Jones but that’s what I’m forced to conclude). All four animals are out-of-work musicians and live in a crazy, very 60s pad – notice any similarities? I found a copy of the first series in a secondhand shop the other day and bought it to see whether my memories of it as the most surreal thing I’d ever seen were true. After all, I first got into the Monkees at the same time it was on and there are undoubtedly similarities, plus the fact that our resident drunken dog Bingo may or may not have been named after the seven foot grinning orange gorilla from this series (he may also have been named after the dog in ‘Rupert’ – its not only Paul McCartney whose a fan you know!) I’ve seen the first six episodes now and I’m gobsmacked, both at the fact that I actually made it to the end of six episodes and that this surreal headache-inducing plotless cacophony ever made it to television in 1968 (not to mention the fact that it was repeated at least once during my childhood in the 1980s). Despite all that, though, my inner five-year-old is enjoying it very much and at least I know now why I took to the Monkees’ equally surreal ‘Head’ movie so well (you can track a clear line between my university dissertation on that film in relation to postmodernism and my childhood viewing...) God the songs are bad, though (in Banana Splits I mean, not ‘Head’, that’s a classic). Do any of you readers have similar childhood experiences to recount? Why not add them to our forum?

Finally, my other news is my latest wonderful discovery on Youtube: no less than 20 minutes’ worth of the Monkees audition tapes! We already know the Mike and Davy clips, of course (they were tagged onto the end of the 1966 TV pilot episode) but I’ve never seen the bits featuring Micky and Peter – very like their characters Peter barely says a word, speaking with his guitar, and Micky doesn’t shut up and let the others in his audition group get a word in edgeways (he’s also hedged his bets by wearing an odd pair odd shoes, unsure what the producers want – a trait that would get him fired straight away from most jobs but fitted neatly into the Monkees concept). Even better there are two sequences using the four Monkees with four people who didn’t get the job who attempt the ‘emotional’ scene from ‘The Royal Flush’ and an unused audition piece involving a father trying to buy a record or his teenage daughter. Aside from seeing The Monkees that could have been (and presumably exist in a parallel universe), its interesting to see that producers Rafleson and Schneider clearly had the four ‘characters’ in mind from the beginning and are trying all the actors in different roles for size (so we get the very odd glimpses of Peter Tork being bossy and Mike Nesmith playing the dummy!) The link is here if you want to have a look for yourselves: http://youtu.be/63nhSFFFfJ4

Finally, our site visitors have now reached a staggering 13841 – thanks to everyone whose visited us and we hope you come back soon! Meantime, here’s our latest haul of news stories...

                                    

♫ Moody Blues News: Many thanks to Ms Carnogan who pointed out to me that last week’s documentary ‘Vox Pop: How Dartford Powered The British Beat Boom’ wasn’t just a contender for the oddest title of a music documentary but featured an interview with Justin Hayward among others. Justin even gets to play six notes’ worth of his solo from ‘Lovely To See You’, although frankly we could have done with more.  Dartford the swinging in place that singlehandedly created a revolution? I don’t think so, but having caught up with a copy of this documentary it was sweet to see so many old rockers going gooey-eyed over amplifiers. Look out for footage of the Beatles and local lads The Rolling Stones too.

John Lodge, meanwhile, cropped up on the second part of the surprisingly excellent BBC4 series about the ‘British Invasion’, titled ‘Go West’ (and available on I-player for a while yet). Poor John didn’t get much airtime but he did get to deliver the classic Moodies story of how they had their own personal jet, complete with fireplace, at the height of their fame. Elsewhere Paul McCartney popped up again near the end to talk about Wings and we saw footage of the Stones, The Who and Neil Young (quite why we saw Neil Young, seeing as he’s Canadian, rather passed me by though!) All in all much better than expected, although I don’t hold out too many hopes for more AAA bands in part three next Friday, seeing as we;re onto the ‘hateful eighties’...

♫ Oasis News: Another unfair blow to Beady Eye (against all odds the talented half of the old ban for most of last year) was Liam Gallagher being presented a ‘villain of the year’ award at the 2012 NME bash. Just to rub it in Noel got presented with a ‘hero’ of the year award, despite his very disappointing debut album. Is there no justice? (not with a coalition Government in charge, no).

ANNIVERSARIES: Birthday greetings to our latest crop of AAA musicians born between February 7^th and 13^th: Peter Tork (bassist and keyboardist with The Monkees 1966-68 and various reunions) who turns 66 on February 13^th. Anniversaries of events include: The Beatles arrive in America for the first time, to be greeted by hoards of fans at JFK airport (February 7^th 1964); The Kinks make their first TV appearance, miming to ‘Long Tall Sally’ on ‘Ready Steady Go!’ (February 7^th 1964); Ringo has his tonsils removed, interrupting a Beatles tour of Australia (February 7^th 1965); Stephen Stills becomes the first musician to ever make a digital recording, although alas the results still aren’t released even now (February 7^th 1979); Pink Floyd play the first of just four ‘Wall’ shows (February 7^th 1980); two years on from The Beatles’ demise, when it seems clear they aren’t getting back together, their fan club officially closes its books, having hit a peak of membership in 1965 that’s never been equalled by another fan club in any media since (February 8^th 1972); The Beatles’ historic first appearance on the Ed Sullivan TV show, still the highest-rated music-linked programme in history (February 9^th 1964); Wings play their first ever gig, after randomly turning up at Nottingham University and asking if they can play(February 9^th 1972); A sign of the times when the American office of the Beatles fan club closes its doors two years before the UK fan-base officially folds (February 10^th 1968); the infamous 10 hour Beatles recording session at Abbey Road for the ‘Please Please Me’ album that sees 10 tracks recorded and ends with a blistering ‘Twist and Shout’ (February 11^th 1963); Two days after their appearance on ‘Ed Sullivan’, the Beatles play their first live gig in America at Washington’s Coliseum (February 11^th 1964); Ringo Starr becomes the third Beatle to get hitched when he marries his first wife Maureen Cox (February 11^th 1965); Graham Gouldmann releases his first solo single ‘Bus Stop’ – although it won’t be a hit until The Hollies cover it later on in the year (February 11^th 1966); Ringo’s first non-Beatles film ‘The Magic Christian’ premieres in New York with a theme song featuring Apple band Badfinger singing a Paul McCartney song (February 11th 1970); The infamous raid on Keith Richards’ house Redlands takes place and will dominate Rolling Stones proceedings for the rest of the year (February 12^th 1967) and finally, Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ beats the record for longest run in Billboard’s top 200 when it logs up its 402^nd week (February 13^th 1982).

News, Views and Music Issue 127 (Intro)

                                                                           Well here we are again

                                                                                                                                 dear readers, at the

                                                                             end of what has been

                                                                                 a difficult year, for me

                                                                               for most AAA artists

                                                                          and probably for most

                                                                            of you as well.

This year we’ve seen horrendous talentless 12-year-olds filling up the charts, tacky re-treads of old ideas and outtakes and some disappointing and pricey re-issues (yes Pink Floyd, I’m looking at you!) In addition we’ve had most of our better laws stripped away, the ones that really do protect us and give us a fighting chance of liberty, amnesty and mercy, and had them replaced by draconian welfare and NHS reforms, unsound economic policy decisions and a complete disregard for any protests made. Things, surely, can only get better and we look towards 2012 in a much more hopeful light, not least because Old Moore has predicted the fall of the Coalition by the end of the year (and he’s never wrong – well, almost never, well, sometimes). Keep going readers, they can’t keep this up indefinitely without some sort of fight back en masse.

Meantime, not all of 2011 was quite as grim as this: we had welcome returns from Paul Simon and Noel Gallagher (even if their albums weren’t up to much), classy additions to the catalogues of Beady Eye/Oasis and Human League and some pretty spiffing (or at least some spiffing ideas) for re-issues for Paul McCartney, The Beach Boys, The Who and especially The Hollies. You can read our top five albums, top three songs, top three documentaries and top three DVDs below in our specially extended ‘top five/three’ below.

If you had one of these albums/DVDs/downloads waiting under your Christmas tree this year then a) I want a downloadable xmas tree too! And b) why not tell us what you thought in our forum. We want to make the AAA as much about you as it is about us so if you think our opinion is totally and utterly wrong then why not put the record straight and let us know? In the meantime, it’s on with the last news stories of 2011 and I take it back – there actually was quite a lot on the radio about AAA groups after all (it’s just that, sadly, BBC6 hadn’t updated their ‘information listings’ in time for last week’s issue – apologies that some of these progs are getting to you late; have a try on I-player if there’s something here you missed).  Oh and sorry if this week’s review isn’t quite up to standard; it was looking tremendous before my computer promptly shut down and lost half of it. Even re-written I can’t get it back to where it was so sorry about that. Perhaps it’s because I dared to mention the you know who’s (starting with the letters HL) in the above introduction (I’m beginning to think there really is a curse now!) Let’s hope for a break from our technological gremlins next year...                                                                                                                                                                        

                                                   

♫ Beach Boys News: Brian Wilson is the first of many AAA artists featured on BBC6 this week in their ‘interview’ slot. The interviews all come from the channel’s relatively recent ‘The First Time’ programme. Brian’s interview is repeated at 3am in the early hours of Christmas Eve.

♫ Beatles News: A reminder that the Alexei Sayle programme ‘The Beatles at Christmas’ is on Radio 4 at 11am on Tuesday, December 27^th. How Radio 4 will manage to fit all those Christmas #1s (albums and singles), ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ and the Beatles’ 1964 Pantomime into half an hour is anyone’s guess...

There’s also a repeat of Ringo’s ‘The First Time’ interview on Thursday, December 29^th at 4am, followed by a tie-in ‘Live Music Hour’ featuring Beatles BBC sessions!

In other news, Paul McCartney has announced that February 2012 will see the release of his new album – and it’s going to be yet another first for the ex-Beatle, a series of covers of standards! At first my thought was ‘Oh God o, he’s doing a Rod Stewart’, but actually the first song released from the album as a ‘teaser’ is actually pretty good. In fact ‘My Valentine’ (one of a handful of McCartney original in a similar style to the ‘covers’ a la ‘Run Devil Run’) is on first hearing his most impressive song for quite some time (visit the Mojo Magazine website if you want to hear it!) The album also features a guest appearance by Eric Clapton on guitar. In other Macca news, we’ve finally heard a track listing from his last tour (which actually ended last week but never mind!) and it includes such ‘firsts’ as ‘Sing The Changes’ (one of the best tracks from the ‘Fireman’ album ‘Electric Arguments’), classic Wings single ‘Junior’s Farm’ (strangely never played by that band live), ‘The Night Before’ (a forgotten song from ‘Help!’), 1985 (from ‘Band On The Run’ and again strangely never played live with Wings), Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da (from the ‘White Album’), A Day In The Life (now a set regular after Macca first sang it with Neil Young in 2009), ‘Wonderful Xmas Time’ (not included down the years due to overwhelming public demand but added for a one-off Xmas gig in Liverpool), Lennon tribute ‘Give Peace A Chance’ (not heard live since a one-off gig in Liverpool in 1990), another forgotten Beatles classic ‘The Word’ (from ‘Rubber Soul’) and, most curiously of all, the song Paul gave away to Badfinger in 1969 ‘Come and Get It’! Not a bad list of additions to your live set when you reach the age of 69!

♫ Janis Joplin News: Meanwhile, 1970s singer Suzi Quatro goes in search of some talent, err no sorry I meant Janis Joplin on Boxing Day (that’s Monday to you), filling up a whole two hour stint from 8-10pm with tales of Janis’ brief career. This is a new show to be broadcast on Radio 2, but sadly it’s yet another Joplin documentary given the ‘celebrity’ treatment when Janis’ career should be strong enough to sell itself. See later in this newsletter for another AAA star to get Quatroed...

♫ Kinks News: Another artist getting a yuletide repeat of their ‘First Time’ interview is Ray Davies at 3am on Tuesday, December 27^th in the BBC6 ‘Interview’ slot. What’s more interesting to us fans is a repeat of The Kinks’ Christmas gig at the Rainbow in 1977 an hour later in the ‘Live Music Hour’ slot, with The Kinks on Kracking form.

♫ Oasis News: There will be rare Oasis BBC audio featured as part of BBC6’s ‘Live Music Hour’ on Thursday, December 29^th at 4am, along with some Beatles sessions. We don’t know what these will entail at the time of going to press, though chances are its either the 2002 concert (repeated on the channel not long ago) or the mighty rare ‘first recordings’ from 1993.

Later the same day at 6pm BBC6 feature highlights from ‘Iammo’s interview programme, featuring an interview with Noel Gallagher about his debut album which I must admit I missed first time round.

♫ Yoko Ono News: Radio 4’s ‘Food For Thought’ discussion of food as seen through the eyes of five celebrities seems a weird enough idea for prime time radio over Xmas. They’re not the sort of people you associate with food either – including AAA star Yoko Ono, who takes to the discussion on Tuesday, December 27^th at 1.45pm and will be talking about both her Japanese childhood beverages and her favourite American meals with John Lennon.

♫ Otis Redding News: Otis the other poor AAA star to get ‘Quatroed’ (see Janis, above), when Suzi discusses his lifetime and work for a full two hours from 8pm on Tuesday, December 27^th on Radio 2.Again, worthy subject matter, long overdue – but why can’t we have a ‘proper’ presenter doing this?!

♫ Rolling Stones News: Our final ‘First Time’ interview is with Charlie Watts, broadcast in the ‘bewitching hour’ of midnight Christmas Day and no doubt repeated on I-player.

Anniversaries: Festive Birthdays this week (December 27^th-January 2^nd) include Mike Pinder (mellotron and various other keyboards with the Moody Blues 1964-78) who turns 69 on December 27^th, Ray Thomas (flautist with The Moody Blues 1964-2004) also turns 69 on December 29^th, no less than two Monkees – Mike Nesmith and Davy Jones – are born on December 30^th (and turned 69 and 66 respectively) and finally, Pete Quaife (bass player with The Kinks 1963-68) would have been 68 on December 31^st. Anniversaries of events include: The Beatles play their first ‘welcome home’ gig at the Cavern Club following months away in Hamburg – this well received gig is seen as a turning point in their careers (December 27^th 1960), Beach Boy Dennis Wilson drowns after diving from his boat to collect belongings thrown off it years before in a temper tantrum while intoxicated (December 28^th 1983), Bert Berns, the songwriter who wrote ‘Twist and Shout’ for the Isley Brothers before the Beatles made it world famous, dies four years after his composition tops the EP charts (December 31^st 1967); The Beach Boys play their first show using the name that will make them world famous – they drop their previous name The Pendletones from now on (December 31^st 1961); Paul McCartney seeks a legal dissolution of The Beatles’ partnership at a London court (December 31^st 1970); The Beatles record their less-than-successful audition at Decca studios, little knowing they will finally sign to EMI just nine months later (January 1^st 1962); The Beatles begin their first UK tour – in Scotland (January 1^st 1963); TV show Top Of The Pops debuts on TV starring the Hollies and the Stones (January 1^st 1964) and finally, The Winterland Theatre –  a second home for the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane – closes down after the venue’s last in a popular series of ‘new year’s eve’ concerts (January 1^st 1979).