News, Views and Music Issue 146 (Intro)

June 2^nd:

Dear all, we’re never happy to sit still here at the AAA, so this week we’ve been busy adding a new ‘sister’ site to this one at http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/Rest assured they won’t be getting anything you won’t be getting, but one of the bits of feedback we’ve had from people is what a pain it can be to have to go to a different page, download and article and then open it up again (if there was a way round it we’d have fixed it by now, honest, but frankly the internet wasn’t built for what we want to do with it). As a result we’ve made our sister site a blog where each article will be posted along with the top five/tens (we may add the anniversaries, news and intros at a later date if we have time). Alas we can’t post our groovy graphics from clipart, there’s less of a search engine to find your articles and it’ll still take a fair bit of clicking pages to find the article you want. But this might be easier for some of you. In the meantime, we’ll keep posting up every article we do to this site at the same time and keep lots of links between the two sites back and forth (if you lose this sister address it’ll be at the top of this site’s home page). If nothing else, having two sites in search engines should hopefully allow the site to grow a bit quicker and in the future we may be able to add more Amazon adverts or go back to using Google Ad Words to help ensure our future – although to be honest I’m mighty pleased with the speed we’ve reached 17,800 views (as of this morning) considering that I still only vaguely know what I’m doing. Thanks to all of you who are still here reading these newsletters – please keep spreading the word and we’ll do our bit here (hopefully) entertaining you all. Remember if you have any ideas or suggestions for reviews (AAA albums only, remember!) keep posting them on our forum page, ‘welcome’ page or via email to pattin82@yahoo.co.uk

In the meantime, all my favourite songs crashed out of Eurovision yet again (the best ones didn’t even get through the semi-finals) and Sweden’s winning entry meant the weirdest song of the night won yet again (this is becoming a habit).For the record Latvia’s Eurovision history song was my favourite, even if it didn’t advance past the semis and Spain was my favourite in the final (it came 9^th, which is pretty good for me – usually my favourites come last!) Shame the Russian grannies didn’t win though – perhaps if they’d sent those pastries to all the judges round the world they’d have got more points? (They’d certainly have got my vote that way, little hint!)

Oh and it’s looking ever more likely that Cameron’s career might be over; a badly timed bit of swearing at Labour’s Ed Balls mean that Cameron was given a dressing down in the House of Commons (and in the papers, too, which is great news). Incidentally did you hear this year’s national meeting of GPs voted overwhelmingly without one voice of dissent to overthrow the current benefit system (where poorly trained recently hired doctors at ATOS get to decide whose ‘sick’ and who can ‘work’)? No, I thought you hadn’t – whether due to a conspiracy or negligence all the links to the meeting mysteriously got pulled from the internet about an hour after the announcement. This Government really is doing everything it can to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes and make them think their overspending money on problems that don’t have an easy solution and end up making worse is the right course to take – but we know better than that, dear reader?#CameonGoneByChristmas

Oh yes, you may also have noticed that I’ve gone back to reviews of ‘proper’ albums this week after the marathon box sets of the past three issues. Truth be told there’s still a few more I could review but I’m worn out. Hence too why you’re getting the answers to our lyric competition (in issue 140) now (because it’s easier to write!) We didn’t have much response this year to say the least, but no matter – we will keep plugging away at these competitions and see if we can make a success of them! In the meantime, happy eading and it’s on with the news...

                                               

♫ Hollies News: As revealed last week, BBC2 are busy repeating a new selection of Top OF The Pops 2 compilations in their 6.30pm slot, including some rarer material only just recently added to the archives. We promised to keep you posted about anything rare – and here it is. Last Wednesday (May 23^rd) featured The Hollies performing a live version of Gasoline Alley Bred, quite different to the mimed one you occasionally see. As Mark Radcliffe’s text points out, the producer of the 1969 series messed up and featured a shot of Bernie Calvert’s bass during Tony Hicks’ guitar solo, but that aside it’s classic Hollies – how those harmonies sounded so good live under so much pressure I’ll never know!

♫ Lulu News: What a strange programme the Piers Morgan Show is. Caught halfway between Parkinson’s reverentialness and the chest-beating of the Jeremy Kyle show, you wonder what on earth the participants get out of it, seeing as they usually end up in tears somewhere down the line. Lulu cried more than most, revealing how her alcoholic dad used to beat up her mum, Davy Jones ‘broke her heart’ by revealing that he’s been living with another girl whilst seeing Lulu, how she and Maurice Gibb were ‘too young to be married’ , her miscarriage, her son staying behind in America while she pursued her career in Britain and her regrets over how she left her manager-companion since the age of 15. To be honest, if I’d lived the life that Lulu had I’d been crying too and I nearly was along with her – though, like her autobiography, you get the feeling that Lulu stayed too long in other people’s shadows and would have had a better career still had she followed her peers and friends, not managers and record company executives. Throughout the whole interview though Lulu remained a likeable figure, always trying to do right thing and brave indeed in the way she kept away from the sex and drugs scandals that rocked so many others she hang around with. Worth watching if you get a chance to see it (the programme was on last Friday on ITV and should be around on I-player for a bit), if only to work out why none of the guests have been offended enough to hit Piers Morgan in the face yet (it only took two programmes in the American Apprentice!)

♫ Rolling Stones News: there’s a BBC6 repeat of the fascinating first radio show by The Stones, back when they were very much a blues band lead by Brian Jones. Recorded in early 1964 –somewhere between the ‘C’mon’ and ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ singles, this is among the most fascinating of all the ‘Live Music Hour’ broadcasts that radio station has made in the past few years and a real treat if you haven’t heard it already. The show will be on in the early hours of Tuesday, June 6^th at 3am and will also feature the Georgie Fame and the Blue Fames, who were headliners at the show (yes, the Stones were just a supporting act back then – incredible!)

ANNIVERSARIES: Put those balloons away and bottle up those party poppers because it turns out that there were no AAA birthdays for this week’s date of May 30^th-June 5^th. Awwwww. Then open them again for this list of events having an anniversary this week: CSNY’s classic album ‘Deja Vu’ is released on it’s way to #1 in America (May 30^th 1970); John and Yoko record their first single ‘Give Peace A Chance’ during their second bed-in at a Montreal Hotel (May 31^st 1969); The Who break the record for the loudest ever concert at a show at Charlton Athletic’s Football Ground using a 76,000-watt ampage system (May 31^st 1976); The Rolling Stones land at JFK airport for the first time, kick-starting a 45-year love affair with the United States (June 1^st 1964); The Beatles release ‘Sgt Peppers’ (June 1^st 1967); Ronnie Wood plays his first gig with the Rolling Stones on his 28^th birthday after jamming with them the previous year (June 1^st 1975); The Rolling Stones make their first V appearance in America – being laughed at by host Dean Martin for their long hair, ho ho they got the last laugh by finishing off his career! (June 3^rd 1964), Ringo Starr collapses with tonsillitis, forcing the other Beatles to tour with last-minute replacement and ‘sixth or seventh Beatle’ Jimmy Nichol (June 3^rd 1964), The Searchers release their debut LP ‘Sweets For My Sweet’ (June 4^th 1963); Murray Wilson, manager and father to 3/5^ths of The Beach Boys dies of a heart attack, accelerating the decline of elder son Brian (June 4^th 1973); The Hollies – with Graham Nash back in the ranks for the first time since 1968 – score their first hit in nearly a decade with ‘Stop! In The Name Of Love’ (June 4^th 1983) and finally, Copyright laws in Russia are relaxed, leading to Western groups getting royalties for the first time – the Rolling Stones are the first group to benefit under the new law for some strange reason (perhaps ‘Beggar’s Banquet’ translates as a communist manifesto or something?!) (June 5^th 1976).

News, Views and Music Issue 142 (Intro)

May 5th:

Dear friends, sorry this is such a sombre newsletter but it’s been a rotten week, trying to manage a bad case of chronic fatigue and having to catch up with all things while I’ve been away. Goodness knows why but everything seems to have happened during the past fortnight and I’ve been swamped under like never before so, inevitably, I’ve crashed out quite badly. Hence this week’s top five – which probably won’t be mentioned again but had to be included here, just in case.

In happier news, Cameron’s position in the UK cabinet is looking ever more fragile, thanks to the latest scandal and sleaze (culture Secretary James Hunt’s links to the media), another dip in the UK’s economic growth (well, duh, we told everyone months ago that the growth was because of Xmas and was bound to fall again) and accusations that he isn’t working hard enough. Seeing Cameron squirm more than ever through another Parliament question time was a real sight for sore eyes (sore because I’ve had to fill that infernal medical form in six weeks early and with a shorter deadline than ever before) and it can’t be long before the Coalition are gone (#coalitiongonebyxmas). For those of you who don’t know, this site features links to all the verifiable news stories of those who have lost their lives either because of suicide or stress under the Caolition’s welfare reforms and it makes for very shocking reading indeed: http://calumslist.org/ More people need to know the truth and truth (as well as music) is what this site is all about, so please, pass the message on and remember them in time for the local elections next week (honestly, you’d think the Conservatives had got mixed up with the Monster Raving Loony Party, except their policies actually make a lot more sense).

What can possibly make things better given such a mess? Why The Beach Boys ‘Smile’ box set, that’s what...so without any more delay its on with the news and the reviews...

                                                    

♫ Beatles News: The story of Apple Records has long deserved a film to itself – a proper one to go alongside the fly-on-the-wall zaniness of house hippy Richard De Lallio’s sterling ‘Longest Cocktail Party In The World’. Now it has one, thanks to a new DVD called ‘Strange Fruits’ and featuring potted biographies of what happened to Mary Hopkins, James Taylor et al, plus the greatest and most lasting Apple discovery Badfinger and the undeservedly forgotten Beatle friend Jackie Lomax. None of the Beatles are interviewed, of course, but a number of other people involved are. Worryingly, though, the DVD is set to come out on a label with the wonderful name ‘Sexy Intellectual’(!), which is hardly a name that goes hand in hand with the scholarly work such a topic deserves.

♫ Hollies News: To celebrate the new Hollies at the BBC set, Radio 2 are repeating their excellent (aside from the title) documentary ‘They Ain’t Heavy, They’re The Hollies’ from 2007. The programme, in two parts, will be broadcast in the 9pm slot on Wednesday, May 9^th and the following Wednesday, May 16^th.

♫ Paul Simon News: Regular fans of this column will know that I don’t really care much for ‘Graceland’, an album often heralded as the masterpiece of the 1980s but for me by far the weakest solo LP Paul Simon ever made. Still, the story of the making of the album is a good one and that’s what a new documentary DVD, ‘Under African Skies’, is studying. Intriguingly Paul Simon admits for the first time that maybe he was wrong to break the boycott against working with African musicians (put in place in protest at the apartheid in the region) when last I heard Paul was being heralded as a left-wing hero for doing precisely that. The documentary is also being released in selected cinemas in the UK (though no dates have been released as yet) and will be a ‘bonus’ feature in the forthcoming 25^th anniversary Graceland set.

♫ 10cc News: Lawrence Creme has been steadily building up a ‘third career’ for himself as a producer the past 15 years or so, after stints as 10cc’s guitarist in the 70s and as a music video pioneer in the 80s. So it seems logical that he should be involved with an exciting new project labelled simply ‘The Producers’ along with three other leading lights of contemporary record producing (alongside Trevor Horn, who produced the Belle and Sebastian album ‘Dear Catastrophe Waitress’ which we reviewed three issues back). The quartet’s new album ‘Made In Basing Street’ is out now

♫ The Who News: here’s an example of how organised, cultured and sophisticated the UK Olympics team is this year. Apparently the organisers of the opening ceremony thought that The Who might like to get together – they secured cautious approval from Pete and Roger but two original members wasn’t enough. So they sent a messenger round to the last known address of Keith Moon to urge him to take part in the show. Unfortunately, Keith Moon died in 1978 and they hadn’t updated their records (or seen any news bulletins about the band in the past 34 years!) Honestly, this whole thing is hopeless – what do we want an Olympics for anyway, we’ve already had one in the living memory of most people (1956) and that was a disaster too due to unemployment, strikes, rationing and a dissolving Government in ruins (nothing ever changes does it?!)

ANNIVERSARIES: Birthdays from April 25^th to May 1^st: Klaus Voormann (Beatle friend, illustrator and bass player) turns 70 on April 29^th and amazingly two CSN girlfriends have their birthdays on May 1^st, Judy Collins (who turns 73 this year) and Rita Cootlidge (who turns 68). Anniversaries of events include: The official dissolution of Wings 18 months after their last recordings (April 25^th 1981); the Rolling Stones release their first LP imaginatively titled ‘Rolling Stones’ (April 26^th 1964); Ringo Starr and his twin Ognir Rrats starr in a rather odd TV special ‘Prince And The Pauper’ plugging the ‘Bad Boy’ album (April 26^th 1978); It’s a good week for Ringo in fact – he marries second wife and former Bond girl Barbara Bach on April 27^th 1981; Andrew Loog Oldham sees the ramshackle Rolling Stones perform for the first time at their ‘home’ club the Crawdaddy and signs a contract with them to be their manager the next day (April 28^th 1963), Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of the Moon tops the American charts – for a total of one week, despite staying in the top 200 charts for a ridiculous 15 years (April 28^th 1973), The Kinks, supported by The Yardbirds, headline their first UK tour (when they actually get it together enough to turn up – cancelled Kinks shows are legendary among fans, April 30^th 1965) and finally, Roger Daltrey’s film ‘McVicar’ about the escaped and reformed convict premieres in London – the other members of The Who get a credit for ‘musical supervision’ (April 30^th 1980).

News, Views and Music Issue 141 (Intro)

April 22^nd:

Well, here we are again after our time away and we’re back with a ‘normal’ issue of everyone’s favourite monkeynuts newsletter for you (well, if you can call a review of an album of easy listening songs by one of our foremost rock and roll singers and a similar top 10 in any way ‘normal’). Did you miss us?! We really didn’t mean to leave such a break but I came to find not only my next medical questionnaire waiting for me (a full six weeks early because – and I quote – ‘the department want to keep on top of things’. This from the same company who have an 18 month delay in hearing appeals and complain that they make so many mistakes because they are understaffed!), but a request for my last four months of earnings (and while I’m digging out the figures for that I thought I might as well go ahead and complete my second tax return...) Hence the extra week’s absence, sorry. The good news about being away, though, is that I have a bucket-load of AAA music with me that I’ve been waiting to review properly for some time – so expect review of the latest Art Garfunkel and Nils Lofgren albums that I never got a chance to buy in the past few months and reviews of last year’s box sets dedicated to The Beach Boys’ ‘Smile’, The Who’s ‘Quadrophenia’ and Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ ‘Wish You Were Here’ and ‘The Wall’ (perhaps as a three-way review,I’m not sure yet).

Meanwhile, the world seems to have gone mad. Someone is suing the Government – but not the Coalition who deserve it but the past Labour Government (this will start a trend...), there was a protest at the annual British Boat Race about ‘elitism’ by a protestor who was neither unemployed or particularly poor (what a waste that protest could have been...), the new Titanic nearly came to blows on the 100^th anniversary of her doomed voyage (what a shame I missed Radio 2’s unprecedented eight hours of coverage based on news reports of events happening 100 years past – and they’d better do the same for the 100^th anniversary of Monterey and Woodstock!), the Minister for Water got into trouble for breaking his own announcement of a hosepipe ban and through it all David Cameron sickly grinned and explained how we really are in it together, all of us except for politicians and millionaires who did rather well out of the budget this year (can it be right that the Lord of a house pays less tax than his cleaner?! Hmm...) Worst of all, Britain’s 2012 Eurovision entry has been announced and, lordy, it’s a strange choice; I take back everything rude I ever said about Jedward representing Ireland because we’ve got...Englebert Humperdinck. Yes that’s right, the same man who stopped The Beatles getting a near-clean run of #1 singles. And believe me, age hasn’t suited him, he looked (and sounded) middle aged in the 60s but now...(something tells me we aren’t going for the youth vote this year). And why on earth aren’t we allowed to pick the songs anymore?...

One other thing I’ve purchased this month is the DVD of ‘The Three Cabelleros’, the Disney film that always gets forgotten nowadays, possibly because its release during WW2 meant less people than normal got to see it. Despite the time-period it’s clearly psychedelic in both colour and sound (and weirdness come to that!). I’m willing to bet that more than a few of the AAA crowd saw it in childhood and thought ‘I’ll have a bit of that...’ (you could make a similar claim for parts of ‘Fantasia’, in fact I feel an AAA cartoon-driven top five coming on...) Anyway, if surrealism-filled brightly-coloured anarchy is your thing, I urge you to see it (if it isn’t then go see ‘Bambi’ or ‘Dumbo’, two other classics unfairly dropping off the Disney radar these days, or if imaginary green dragons keen on huming is more your thing then see ‘Pete’s Dragon’, the main theme ‘Candle On The Water’ is by far the best song to appear in a Disney film and the fact that at long last we have a decent vocalist for it (Helen Reddy) is the icing on the cake). By the way, have you ever been to Baia? No me neither, let’s go... (you might need to be a Disney fan to get that reference!)

Right that’s enough moaning (till the next issue!)  It’s on with the news...

                                                

♫ Beatles News: We mentioned last issue that ‘Ram’ was set to be the fourth release in the ‘Macca Deluxe’ series and with a due release date of the end of May. We can now tell you that there’s a release date of May 22^nd and that the contents look more exciting than they did for two of the past releases ‘McCartney’ and ‘Band On the Run’. Like all the other releases ‘Ram’ will be available in a variety of releases including a remastered single disc, 2 disc set with bonus tracks and the full whammy with hard-back book and DVD. Unusually, though, this album will be made available in mono and stereo – quite why a mono mix was made as late as 1971 though is  not explained (the last previous Beatles-related album to come out in mono was ‘The White Album’ back in 1968)  Bonus tracks include the single ‘Another Day’ and B-side ‘Oh Woman Oh Why’, plus period B-side ‘Little Woman Love’, two popular refugees from the ‘Cold Cuts’ rarities album, the superb ‘A Love For You’ (still not officially released) and ‘Hey Diddle’ (not released till 1990 as the B-side of ‘Put It There’), two outtakes from the ‘Rupert Bear’ film started after ‘Ram’ and back when it was still intended as a long-running film not a short cartoon (‘The Great Cock and Seagull Race’ and ‘Sunshine Sometime’, although sadly the best Rupert outtake track ‘Sea-Storm-Cornish Wafer’ is not included!) and the noisy jam ‘Rode All Night’. There’s also a re-release for the rare ‘Thrillington’ album made up of crooner easy listening instrumental arrangements of the ‘Ram’ album, released by McCartney under a pseudonym in 1978! (See, what we tell you below about Macca always threatening to make albums like this really is true!) The DVD looks better than the others in this set too, containing a documentary on the making of the album (frankly, something the other three sets badly needed for the money involved), promos for ‘3 Legs’ (rare) and ‘Heart Of The Country’ (common as cow muck), Macca working on ‘Hey Diddle’ and a rare clip op of the first line-up of Wings on tour playing ‘Eat At Home’. Best of all might well be the menus, featuring clips from the top-10-Beatles-rarities promotional disc for Ram ‘Brung To Ewe’ (Macca makes up[ his own songs and jingles and everything!) And the music itself is of course superb for the most part (I still don’t get the fuss over ‘Uncle Albert’, one of Macca’s most ordinary songs) – ‘Ram’ is one of only four Macca albums to make our ‘classic’ albums list (see review no 47) and features some of the most unfairly overlooked songs in the solo Beatles’ canon. We await the chance to get re-acquainted with this album with baited breath.

In other words, Paul was at Liverpool’s Cavern Club some 49 years after he last played there as part of the Beatles (alright clever clogs he was back there in 1999 as well), this time to be there for son James who was making one of his rare appearances on these shores to promote his debut album. James has a particularly nice cover of Neil Young’s ‘Old Man’ in his set, as can be seen on Youtube!

♫ Hollies News: More news on the ‘Radio Fun’ 2 CD set of BBC sessions we mentioned last issue. The full tracklisting has been revealed, alongside a rather lovely six minute preview on Youtube (visithttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czwfF-8mKxQ to hear extracts from seven of the songs). They are: Here I Go Again, Jennifer Eccles, Bus Stop, I’ve Got A Way Of My Own, Wings, Step Inside, Wishyouawish, Shake (never released on album!), Put Yourself In My Place, Ride Your Pony (never released on album!), I Take What I Want, Little Bitty Pretty One, Away Away Away, Charlie and Fred, I can’t Let Go, Hard Hard Year, If I Needed Someone, That’s How Strong My Love Is, To You MY Love, So Lonely, Nobody, Set Me Free, She Said Yeah!, You Must Believe Me, Lawdy Miss Clawdy, Too Many People, Look Through Any Window, Too Young To Be Married, I’m Alive, The Games We Play, He Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother. Av salivating list of tracks I’m sure you’ll agree, especially the ones from AAA classic ‘Butterfly’ heard on ‘normal’ instruments and the version of ‘Wings’ as heard on the Youtube preview even includes a ‘missing’ verse cut from the final version! (Not that many people know even that version...) Hopefully all the chat and interviews between songs will be intact too (at least, that’s what we heard when this project was announced a few months ago). Two points though: where are possibly the two best Hollies BBC songs I’ve heard, ‘Nitty Gritty’ (from The Beatles’ Ticket To Ride’ special 1965) and ‘Pegasus’?   Incidentally, did you know that the Hollies once covered ‘Let It Be’ in concert? No I didn’t either before it ended up on Youtube! The album is due for release on May 7^th, expect a review sometime then!

♫ Pentangle News: We just missed including it in our last issue but last Monday (April 16^th) saw the broadcast of a rare BBC set from the short-lived group The Bert Jansch Conundrum in 1980. Running to about 25 minutes, it was the main feature of that day’s ‘Live Music Hour’ slot on BBC6 and featured a rare chance to hear Bert’s guitar backing and harmonies wrapped around not his own or Jacqui McShee’s voice but that of his bandmates.

ANNIVERSARIES: Happy birthday to the AAA clan who share a birthday in the weeks since our last issue. First up, April 4^th-10^th: Spencer Dryden (drummer with the Jefferson Airplane 1966-70) who would have been 73 on April 7^th and Gene Parsons (multi-instrumentalist with The Byrds 1968-72) who turns 67 on April 9^th. Anniversaries of events include: The Beatles occupy all five places on the top five American singles chart, a feat never equalled before or since (April 4^th 1964: Can’t Buy Me Love/ Twist and Shout/ She Loves You/ I Want To Hold Your Hand/ Please Please Me – a further seven Beatles singles are also registered in the top 100 for that week!); The official first day in the office at the Beatles’ ‘Apple’ headquarters in London (April 6^th 1968), the date in 1962 when two r and b loving teenagers called Mick Jagger and Keith Richards first meet Brian Jones in his guise as bluesman ‘Elmo Lewis’ and agree to form a band (April 8^th), the premier of Neil Young’s ‘shakey’ film ‘Journey Through The Past’ (April 8^th 1973), the death of ‘fifth Beatle’ Stuart Sutcliffe after suffering a brain haemorrhage aged 21 – an event that had huge ramifications for the bands’ music (April 10^th 1962) and finally, eight years later McCartney announces that the Beatles are to break up (well that’s what’s gone down in history anyway, he actually says that he can’t see a time in the near future when the four will play together again as part of a questionnaire released with copies of his first album ‘McCartney’ out on April 10^th 1970).

Next AAA birthdays and anniversaries between April 11^th and 17^th: Jack Casady (bassist with Jefferson Airplane 1965-72) who turns 67 on April 13^th and Billy Kreutzmann (drummer with the Grateful Dead 1965-93) who turns 66 on April 17^th. Anniversaries of events include: April 12^th saw the premier of the film ‘That’ll Be The Day’ starring Ringo as a teddy boy and various members of the Who backing Billy Fury (1973); The Beatles record Help! on April 13^th 1965, Pete Townshend performs his first ever solo concert at London’s Roundhouse on April 14^th 1974, the Rolling Stones release two very different LPs on April 15^th ten years apart in 1966 and 1976 – ‘Aftermath’ and ‘Black and Blue’ respectively, British viewers get to see the very weird TV special ‘James Paul McCartney’ on April 16^th 1973– screened as part of a deal with publisher Lew Grade to drop a publishing dispute arguing that Paul’s wife Linda couldn’t possibly have had a hand in writing some of the ex-Beatles’ biggest songs and finally, Janis Joplin’s posthumous album ‘Pearl’ becomes a runaway success in the charts after its release on April 17^th 1971.

Finally, AAA birthdays between April 18^th and 24^th: Erm, there aren’t any. Sorry about that. Moving on, anniversaries include: The Cavern Club is sold on April 18^th 1966 after gradually falling revenue; The first meeting between the Beatles and the Stones during the latter’s gig on home soil at London’s Crawdaddy Club. Despite what you may have read in biogs and press releases of the time the band gets on very well indeed and become firm friends over the next decade (April 21^st 1963); Janis Joplin wows the crowds at London’s Royal Albert Hall during her first – and as it turned out only – European tour (April 21^st 1969); as part of the conditions of not giving Keith Richards a life sentence for drugs possession, the Stones perform the first of two shows for the blind in Toronto – rumour has it a blind fan Keith had looked after on each of the Stones’ Canadian tours wrote to the judge telling him how kind the guitarist had been to her hence the rather odd court condition (April 22^nd 1979) and finally, John Winston Lennon changing his middle name to Ono ‘because she changed her surname and my name now has more O’s in it which is considered lucky’ or something like that; April 22^nd 1969).