I've just been looking at Amazon and top of the New For You offerings is a Little Feat album titled American Cutie (yeuchh!). It's out at the end of February.

The notes say it was recorded at Ebbets Field on July 19th 1973 and is an FM recording. It's the second of two shows performed that day, with the bonus of three tracks from the earlier show that didn't feature in the later one. It's for sale for an apparently reasonable £7:86 + p&p. The label is Left Field Media, which is one I've never heard of so I suspect it is one of those quasi bootleg albums that is slipping through from which the band will make either nothing or not very much.

However you can get it for free because it's already available now on the Internet Audio Archive. Indeed you can get both shows in their entirety. The files are in both flac and mp3 format. So unless you're desperate for some not particularly inspired cover art, I say don't bother. There is artwork for the late show in the files on the archive anyway.

Both shows:

http://www.archive.org/details/lf1973-07-19.flacf

Late show plus extra tracks:

http://www.archive.org/details/lf1973-07-19.LateNightTruckStop.flac16

Maysles film on BBC4 yesterday evening. Mostly Ed Sullivan show clips. Fascinating. A band of four, young Liverpudlian musicians visit America, have largest ever TV audience, become a sensation and Ringo got to sing as well. It was interestimg watching, knowing what was to follow in their lives. Halfway through their performance of She Loves You it was almost like the beginning of the modern age.

That Paul McCartney gig is oan the telly again. I started bubbling last time it wiz oan the TV. Now I am doing it again. 5 or 6 pts of Guiness have been downed but is this normal? After all these years? And I've almost finished the Peter Doggett book. Get back Jojo.

and I love it even more today. Easily George's best HJH song it is perfect for a Friday evening - jangly guitars 'n all. But the best reason for posting it is that it's Mrs B's birthday tomorrow and it's her fave (even though it was recorded * years before she was born).

I Need You The Beatles

I came across this video,which is a computer animation of construction followed by a fly-through of Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural masterpiece.

It was built for a family known as the Kaufmans in the late 1930s, but since 1963 it's been a museum. It is somewhere on my list of places I must see, but isn't too near any other places I'm likely to want to visit.

Any members of the Massive been there and like to share their impressions?

http://vimeo.com/802540

The recent book-of-the-doc George Harrison: Living In the Material World has a couple of photos of George's visit to see his sister Louise in the USA in late 1963. Of course, by then the Fabs were H-U-G-E in the UK, but they meant nothing in America and it's striking to notice how, even in a tourist hotspot such as Staten Island, no-one is paying the slightest bit of attention to him, not even to his comparatively odd appearance.

A mere couple of months later however, the whole country would fall to the Beatles and young American men would desperately be trying to grow and comb their hair forward like those weird-looking guys with the strange accents that, suddenly, all the girls seemed to like...

There's a rumour just posted on the No Depression website that Robert Plant and Patty Griffin have got married. Does anyone here have access to any information source that can confirm whether or not this is true?

If it is true, best wishes to the happy couple.

However would this scotch the chances of another Robert Plant / Alison Krauss album or can we anticipate a a Plant / Griffin / Krauss album? Sounds good to me.

Please take part in my survey. It's Sunday afternoon, there's nothing much else to do: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SG3ZJ5D
Who Are You? Survey
www.surveymonkey.com

Please remove if this breaks the rules.

There is a piece in The Guardian that runs under the above title.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/08/pathetic-female-film...

However the oldest film listed is Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, released in 1984. Which means the list ignores about 3/4 of the history of cinema.

Would anyone care to nominate any pre-1984 characters?

At the moment I'm struggling to think of any really pathetic characters, but off the top of my head I'll suggest two Katherine Ross roles - Elaine in The Graduate and Etta Place in Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid.

No idea if this is of interest to anyone - and I know the group appeared on the Over-rated Musical Artists thread but iTunes is giving away a free Beatles ebook/iBook/whatever.
It's The Yellow Submarine with digital knobs on. A bit too small on my iPhone (slow page transitions too) but would look quite pretty on an iPad, I would think. There's a link on the top right of the iTunes homepage if you're interested.

This year I ran a classic album night at my local independent the Tbneside Cinema.

All played on vinyl, it proved to be a huge success. But, and here's always a but...
The last week of the season came with a dark cloud hovering above it's head.

The Record Player prides its self in bringing a relaxed atmosphere, a place to take time out from the day, a place to listen.

Sadly when we spun Abbey Road played a scuffle broke out during Maxwell's Silver Hammer.

Further investigation revealed the scuffle wasn't over the merits of the song. It was members of the audience attempting to suppress a triangle player. He'd brought the triangle along to 'enhance the vibe'. I gave the audience a stiff talking to.

Afterwards, some came along to aplogise. They admitted to bringing along the following - a stylophone to Dark Side of the Moon, a comb and paper to The Stone Roses, marimbas to Ziggy Stardust and harp to Bon Iver.

I feel guilty for not noticing. I'd thought these new sounds were coming out from the uncompressed beauty of vinyl.

Turns out it was some kids fannying on with instruments they'd brought along.

I never thought I would have to say this, it saddens me that I should have to. From here on in - NO MORE INSTRUMENTS.

Although the end of this year is still a fortnight away, it looks like 2012 is going to be great year for gigs (and an expensive one) with plenty of artists planning to come over from the States for those of us who like music with country, blues, folk, gospel and other rootsy roots.

So far we have tours scheduled for Josh Rouse, Ron Sexsmith, Zoe Muth, Shelby Lynne (only two UK dates in Liverpool & London), Tom Russell, Rosanne Cash, Todd Snider (only two UK dates in Belfast & London), Kathleen Edwards, Chris Smither, Gretchen Peters, Lambchop, The Jayhawks now with the added bonus of Chuck Prophet as support, Rachel Harrington, The Civil Wars and The Felice Brothers.

That just takes us up to the end of March. I hope we don’t get hit by a drought after all that.

Buzzfeed.com have posted what might be the most depressing set of music facts I have ever read, many of which I didn't know. It's still worth a read.

1. Creed have sold more records in the US than Jimi Hendrix

2. Led Zeppelin, REM, and Depeche Mode have never had a number one single, Rihanna has had 10 (to be fair, Led Zep weren't big on singles).

3. Ke$ha's “Tik-Tok” sold more copies than ANY Beatles single

4. Flo Rida's “Low” has sold 8 million copies – the same as The Beatles' “Hey Jude”

5. The Black Eyed Peas' “I Gotta Feeling” is more popular than any Elvis or Simon & Garfunkel song

6. Celine Dion's “Falling Into You” sold more copies than any Queen, Nirvana, or Bruce Springsteen record

7. Same with Shania Twain's “Come On Over”

8. Katy Perry holds the same record as Michael Jackson for most number one singles from an album

9. Barbra Streisand has sold more records (140 million) than Pearl Jam, Johnny Cash, and Tom Petty combined

10. People actually bought Billy Ray Cyrus' album “Some Gave All…” 20 million people. More than any Bob Marley album

11. The cast of “Glee” has had more songs chart than the Beatles

12. Justin Bieber exists.

Bob's thread about opening a cafe / deli just put me in mind of the last winners of Raymond Blanc's competition The Restaurant.

For those who didn't see it, the third and final series was won by a couple of, I can only describe them as, dickheads, against all expectations. They certainly didn't appear to have much cooking / front of house ability, unlike others, and their expertise lay in making cocktails. Perhaps they slipped Raymond and his sidekicks a Micky Finn.

Has anyone, anywhere in the country spotted this pair and their restaurant, or did Raymond decide that opening a restaurant with them was going to be as much use as a bonfire of £20 notes?

Good heavens, have you only been listening to The Archers for the last couple of weeks, thus forming the impression that Helen & John Archer are the worst, most tiresome characters?

No, No. The worst characters are William Grundy - whiny monotone voice, humourless git, moaning about pretty much everything saving most venom for brother Ed and not a single saving grace and Ruth Archer - near adulteress who finds so much to laugh about, but whose scenes with Usha which are so, so, so very funny she that she can't stop laughing, but for the rest of the world are the most excruciating thing heard on the radio since the crucifixion scene in the Oberammergau Passion Play.

As for the best characters; how has the blessed Eddie Yates been forgotten? Binman, boozer, wishful wide boy, comedian, petty criminal, golden hearted, Stanley to Stan Ogden's Ollie (or maybe the other way round).