YOU CAN’T ALWAYS GET
THE ROLLING STONES a cult band? With a multi-million following? No way, you may think, but you’re not one of the STONES, who decided to sell their “Four Flicks” (tracklistings) exclusively through the Best Buy stores. The sum paid for securing the rights must have been huge, and the company plans to run an equally huge marketing campaign, yet there are other companies that objected to such an operation.
Three Canadian music stores including HMV, and U.S. TransWorld removed all the STONES products from their shelves in protest, which prompted Mick Jagger to strike a defensive pose saying that music DVDs don’t sell as good as movies and there’s no big sense in selling them in the regular shops. The singer added that the band care about the fans all along, the Best Buy partnership allowing them to buy the 4 DVD set for about $30 instead of $60.
Well, yes, except for one little thing: Best Buy informed DME that the company is yet to start serving customers from abroad the U.S. – it means, unless you live in America, or at least have a good mate there, “Four Flicks” aren’t for you.
BOY, HE WAS FAB
November 17th is the release date for the DVD and CD “Concert For George”, a document of the 2002’s Albert Hall performance dedicated to the loving memory of George Harrison. Sad it could have been – yet wasn’t, and George would have surely been glad to see his closest friends playing his music from the Fabs’ and solo years. The DVD set is comprised of two discs, one with complete concert, including performances not featured in the theatrical version, and the other containing the theatrical version featuring concert highlights, interviews with the performers, rehearsals and behind-the-scenes footage.
With a line-up like this, including Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Eric Clapton who produced the show, the set is a must and can lose only in competition with THE BEATLES’ “Let It Be… Naked” album and the “Lennon Legend” DVD, all out on the same day.
| 1. Sarve Shaam 2. Your Eyes – Anoushka Shankar 3. The Inner Light – Jeff Lynne & Annoushka Shankar 4. Arpan – conducted by Anoushka Shankar 5. Sit On My Face – MONTY PYTHON 6. The Lumberjack Song – MONTY PYTHON 7. I Want To Tell You – Jeff Lynne 8. If I Needed Someone – Eric Clapton 9. Old Brown Shoe – Gary Brooker 10. Give Me Love – Jeff Lynne 11. Beware Of Darkness – Eric Clapton 12. Here Comes The Sun – Joe Brown 13. That’s The Way It Goes – Joe Brown 14. Horse To The Water – Jools Holland & Sam Brown |
15. Taxman – Tom Petty and THE HEARTBREAKERS 16. I Need You – Tom Petty and THE HEARTBREAKERS 17. Handle With Care – Tom Petty and THE HEARTBREAKERS & nbsp; with Jeff Lynne & Dhani Harrison 18. Isn’t It A Pity – Billy Preston 19. Photograph – Ringo Starr 20. Honey Don’t – Ringo Starr 21. For You Blue – Paul McCartney 22. Something – Paul McCartney & Eric Clapton 23. All Things Must Pass – Paul McCartney 24. While My Guitar Gently Weeps – Paul McCartney & Eric Clapton 25. My Sweet Lord – Billy Preston 26. Wah Wah – Eric Clapton 27. I’ll See You In My Dreams – Joe Brown |
BREAKING THE BLUES
John Mayall is still to become 70, on November 29th, but the celebrations already started, and the British scene veteran has already played his 70th Birthday Concert, having invited the former BLUESBREAKERS’ Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor and Chris Barber to join him on the stage. They did, and the recording of that historic show is out on both DVD and CD now, hot and nasty as usual. It seems, the blues is the thing which keeps a man alive and well and kicking.
| 1. Grits Ain’t Groceries 2. Jacksboro Highway 3. Southside Story 4. Kids Got The Blues 5. Dirty Water 6. Somebody’s Acting Like A Child 7. Blues For The Lost Days 8. Walking On Sunset 9. Oh, Pretty Woman |
10. No Big Hurry 11. Please Mr Lofton 12. Hideaway 13. All Your Love 14. Have You Heard 15. Hoochi’ Coochi’ Man (with Eric Clapton) 16. I’m Tore Down (with Eric Clapton) 17. It Ain’t Right 18. California 19. Talk To Your Daughter |
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WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD
British label Angel Air has all the reasons to be proud having achieved much in terms of pure reverence from those who love good music and are eager to hear everything their favorite artist had done. 2003 ends great for the company who re-releases MOTT THE HOOPLE’s Island catalogue, so plans for the next years are aplenty: there’ll be titles from Ian Hunter and Mick Ralphs (they toured together in 2001), GREENSLADE (the band march into a studio in March, says bassist Tony Reeves, The RATS (is that Mick Ronson’s band?), AFFINITY (scrapping the barrell continues) and IAN GILLAN BAND. Details on these later, but some recordings are ready to make it to the CD, the first being…
…“Live, Wembley, 17 December 1982” by GILLAN. Back in 1982, the band was riding high, having notched another success with “Magic”, and no one could have predicted the break-up following Ian Gillan’s recuperation from the throat problems. So the Wembley gig was the last for the ensemble which at the time included also keyboard player Colin Towns, guitarist Janick Gers, drummer Mick Underwood and bassist John McCoy, from whose archives this recording emerged; and the singer’s next concert would be with BLACK SABBATH.
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1. Second Sight 2. What’s The Matter 3. Bluesy Blue Sea 4. Black Night 5. Trouble 6. Born To Kill 7. M. A. D. 8. Hadely Bop Bop |
9. Dead Of Night 10. Thunderwood 11. Bite The Bullet 12. Gers Guitar Medley Vol 11 13. Smoke On The Water 14. New Orleans 15. Towns Toons 16. Helter Skelter |
Another batch of gems of old – called, accordingly, “Hidden Gems & Treasured Friends” – comes from Mike d’Abo who first scored hits with Manfred Mann’s combo and then moved to pastures all new, including King Herod’s part in original “Jesus Christ Superstar” recording and writing hits like megapopular “Handbags & Gladrags”. Some of the singer’s work has not been heard at all, so here’s a chance to re-value Mike’s output with this collection featuring, among other tracks, an album recorded in 1972 yet never released.
| 1. Poor Old Joe 2. I’m A Ram 3. May 4. For Jackson 5. Soldier, Sailor 6. All At Sea 7. Relax 8. Fuel To Burn 9. The Day War Broke Out |
10. Slim Pickings 11. Mighty Quinn (instr.) 12. I Don’t Want To Be There 13. Salvation Song 14. West Is Best 15. Little Miss Understood 16. My Life Is Starting From Today 17. Fuel To Burn 18. Handbags & Gladrags |
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THEIRS IS NOT DISGRACE
Expectations for the YES‘ upcoming 30th anniversary DVD, “YesSpeak”, out on November 24th, are high. Its features have been written about before, but now the musical content is revealed, looking like this.
| 1. Siberian Khatru 2. Magnification 3. Don’t Kill The Whale 4. In The Presence Of 5. We Have Heaven 6. South Side Of The Sky 7. And You And I 8. To Be Over 9. Clap 10. Show Me |
11. Rick Wakeman Solo 12. Heart Of The Sunrise 13. Long Distance Runaround 14. The Fish 15. Awaken 16. I’ve Seen All Good People 17. Roundabout 18. Yours Is No Disgrace 19. No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed |
Feels like any classic rock fan won’t refuse to have the DVD, even if he doesn’t like the band: there’s not been any YES release that could come close to this.
NIGHTINGALE AND BOMBER
He was the one and only, Roy Orbison, сasting spells with his nightingale’s voice and bombing people with emotions – and he never let his listeners down, even when they didn’t reciprocate with love. Orbison’s performances were unique experiences, and the best way to take a bite of what Roy’d been up to may be “The Authorized Bootleg Collection”, three new titles of which – all called “Roy Orbison Over England” – represent the singer in different decade – 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. You can choose, yet the difference is just in the songs, not in delivery.
The 60’s: May 9th, 1969, Batley Variety Club:
| 1. Only The Lonely 2. Crying 3. Dream Baby 4. Blue Bayou 5. In Dreams 6. Mean Woman Blues 7. My Friend 8. Break My Mind 9. Running Scared |
10. Lana 11. When I Stop Dreaming 12. Land Of 1000 Dances 13. Its Over 14. Money 15. Help Me Rhonda 16. Loving Touch 17. Go Go Go 18. Oh Pretty Woman |
The 70’s: October 18th, 1975, The Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch:
| 1. Only The Lonely 2. Crying 3. Dream Baby 4. Mean Woman Blues 5. Too Soon To Know 6. Penny Arcade 7. Leah 8. Lana 9. Evergreen |
10. Go Go Go 11. Pretty Paper 12. Candyman 13. Blue Angel 14. Drift Away 15. Running Scared 16. Ooby Dooby 17. Its Over 18. Oh Pretty Woman |
The 80’s: March 25th, 1980, The Fiesta Club, Stockton:
| 1. Only The Lonely 2. Dream Baby 3. In Dreams 4. Mean Woman Blues 5. Blue Angel 6. Lana 7. Too Soon To Know 8. Penny Arcade 9. Blue Bayou 10. Candyman |
11. Crying 12. Ooby Dooby 13. Hound Dog Man 14. Working For The Man 15. Go Go Go 16. Leah 17. Its Over 18. Oh Pretty Woman 19. Running Scared 20. Running Scared Reprise |
THE DUDE BEHIND THE GLASSES
While the MOTT THE HOOPLE re-issue programme’s unfolding, the band’s erstwhile singer, Ian Hunter, comes up with his first live DVD, which has a companion in a form of a 2CD-set, both releases called “Strings Attached”. His voice’s never been great, yet that charisma… Even though there were live albums of Hunter’s before, like "Missing In Action", the new set seems to be the definitive one.
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Disc One:1. Rest In Peace |
Disc Two:12. Rollerball
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