tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56879043500457720492024-03-12T17:59:43.456-07:00NIGEL GOODALLTHE OFFICIAL BLOG - 11 YEARS ONLINENigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.comBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-9163811637708087992021-11-07T03:28:00.009-08:002021-11-25T10:32:29.771-08:00Olivia's Physical At 40<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aE473z1pWPs/YWoivgOs4sI/AAAAAAAAJfc/vNVOJzeC7f4NiwzeMd_UVhl54Oc_kE2igCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/IMG_20211014_011753.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aE473z1pWPs/YWoivgOs4sI/AAAAAAAAJfc/vNVOJzeC7f4NiwzeMd_UVhl54Oc_kE2igCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h400/IMG_20211014_011753.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-align: left;">In the latter part of last month, the long awaited deluxe edition of Olivia Newton John's iconic 1980 </span><i style="text-align: left;">Physical</i><span style="text-align: left;"> album was finally issued by Primary Wave Music. The album is now available in the U.S, and in the UK from later this month, as a 2CD+DVD digipak 40th anniversary set, which i</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-align: left;">ncludes the original album, 21 bonus tracks and a DVD of the original video album (the first of its kind, that won a Grammy for "Video of the Year" in 1983), </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">and the </span><i style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">Olivia</i><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"> </span><i style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">In Concert</i><i style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"> </i><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">television specia</span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">l</span><i style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"> </i><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">that was filmed over two nights at the Weber State University Hall in Utah in October 1982, during her </span><i style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">Physical</i><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"> tour of North America, both of which have been remastered in both sound and picture, and are released here on DVD for the first time. Although many of us had the original vinyl LP, beautifully packaged in a gatefold sleeve, with inner bag featuring photos, song lyrics and album credits, and seen the TV specials, and owned the VHS, Beta and Laserdic releases of the DVD content, they have never been seen in such outstanding picture and sound quality as they do on this new 40th anniversary set. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w3IlTC_sLTo/YX7PHFYMGFI/AAAAAAAAJkI/WwFx9xGtacYn79R3e3SkHFdPIxMIQ_0OwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/inner%2Bbags.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w3IlTC_sLTo/YX7PHFYMGFI/AAAAAAAAJkI/WwFx9xGtacYn79R3e3SkHFdPIxMIQ_0OwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h200/inner%2Bbags.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">The front and back of the original inner bag for the 1981 vinyl <br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span><span>If we go back 40 years, the tracks for <i>Physical</i> were recorded between October 1980 and June 1981. Upon its release in October 1981, it went top ten in eight countries around the world including the States</span></span><span><span>, but quite surpisingly in the UK, only managed to reach #11.</span></span> It provided Olivia with three hit singles including the title track, <i>Make A Move On Me</i> and <i>Landslide</i>. The title track and lead single, released one month before the album </span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">was an immediate hit with over two million copies shipped to the U.S alone and had a chart stay of ten weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 - the longest run of any song in the 1980s, and overall equalled Elvis Presley's <i>Hound Dog i</i>n 1956. It contained O</span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">livia's most assertive and sensual vocal ever with lyrics like... "</span><i style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">There's nothin' left to talk about/unless it's horizontally..." </i><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">It was enough to get the record censored and banned by a number of radio stations.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><i style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FEaES8oTFg4/YWwAy8ETcbI/AAAAAAAAJhI/TGzBlSMP1NM5Jsr0l6QJEx0pUcuMrK0vgCLcBGAsYHQ/s768/received_263079579018773.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="757" data-original-width="768" height="394" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FEaES8oTFg4/YWwAy8ETcbI/AAAAAAAAJhI/TGzBlSMP1NM5Jsr0l6QJEx0pUcuMrK0vgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h394/received_263079579018773.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">One of the original master reel tape boxes for the 1981 vinyl</span></td></tr></tbody></table><i style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: normal;">T</span><span style="font-style: normal;">aking a closer look at the new Deluxe Edition,</span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"> the original 10 track album has been expanded with six bonus tracks on the first disc and a further fifteen on the second disc, all remastered from the original master tapes by Vinny Vero. The bonus tracks (many new to CD) include a duet with Barry Gibb from 1984, plus material from the soundtrack of Olivia's 1983 film, </span><i style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">Two of a Kind,</i><i style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"> </i><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">plus</span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><i>Heart Attack</i> and <i>Tied Up </i></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: normal;">that were recorded for her </span></span><i style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">Greatest Hits Vol. 2</i><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"> album in the U.S, and included on her <i>20 Greatest Hits</i> in the UK, both </span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">put out on the back of <i>Physical's </i>success. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">As one would expect on a set like this, there are plenty of </span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">alternate mixes and single edits, plus a couple of live recordings</span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"> that first appeared as B-sides on a couple of 1983 UK singles.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RHyAD9uSQ7Y/YX7M0ocWyLI/AAAAAAAAJkA/cBxWH6MB8HsK6hAUFSiTuyA-38lGT0PbwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1190/onj%2Bc.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="1190" height="199" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RHyAD9uSQ7Y/YX7M0ocWyLI/AAAAAAAAJkA/cBxWH6MB8HsK6hAUFSiTuyA-38lGT0PbwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h199/onj%2Bc.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">The 1983 UK singles with live B-sides, <i>Physical</i> and <i>Jolene</i> <br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For those who are wondering if there any outtakes from the <i>Physical</i> sessions, the answer is no. According to comments made by Vinny on Facebook, t</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">here were no demos sung by Olivia or unreleased songs from the <i>Physical</i> sessions. "In fact, there are only a small handful of unreleased recordings across Olivia’s entire career and even fewer demos. For the first ten years of Olivia’s career, she was contracted to record and release two albums a year. That’s a total of 20 songs a year. Part of Olivia’s success was due to worldwide visibility. She toured, did television appearances, and hosted her own specials. That didn't leave a lot of time for her to be in the studio. So she and John Farrar had to be economical with studio time. John would prepare arrangements and recordings while Olivia was on the road. Then she would return home to work in the studio on the songs John had prepared. Olivia often lived with a very full schedule".</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The DVD content is as good as can be expected. As </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Vinny explained in another FB comment, "the footage has been cleaned up and color corrected, but it hasn’t been upscaled due to the way it was originally shot, and Blu-ray wasn’t an option because the footage would have been a bit pixelated. There are certain limitations.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> I was able to locate the original 1" videotape masters and use them as the source material".</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kGZuN85weFU/YWwVPAhaciI/AAAAAAAAJhw/zCLDIlFXDRIJWLvl5Qk5_K_W_IgtfgingCLcBGAsYHQ/s1330/IMG_20211017_132009.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="824" data-original-width="1330" height="248" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kGZuN85weFU/YWwVPAhaciI/AAAAAAAAJhw/zCLDIlFXDRIJWLvl5Qk5_K_W_IgtfgingCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h248/IMG_20211017_132009.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Deluxe Edition Postscript: Thoughts from Olivia</span></b></h3><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">I</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">t’s hard to believe that it has been 40 years since </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Physical</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> was first released and I am thrilled that it’s getting this beautiful 40th anniversary Deluxe Edition. I am so proud of this record as it not only allowed me to try new things musically, but it became such a part of pop-culture history. It also gave me the chance to work (again) with fellow Aussies – my amazing friend, songwriter and producer John Farrar and Steve Kipner, who co-wrote </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Physical</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">. I remember being so nervous that I had gone too far with the title song’s cheekiness that I told my manager at the time, Roger Davies, to pull it off the album. He laughed and said ‘"Luv, it’s too late it’s gone to radio and is climbing the charts" I was banned for </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Physical</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> – can you imagine? – I can actually say I was banned! That song is a lullaby compared to what’s on the radio today!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mu5GPuW2rhY/YYScUSuJCTI/AAAAAAAAJmA/SSYQJ2AspqsfYqgkGndfY4JTySKPY2XcACLcBGAsYHQ/s1495/IMG_20211105_024742.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1485" data-original-width="1495" height="398" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mu5GPuW2rhY/YYScUSuJCTI/AAAAAAAAJmA/SSYQJ2AspqsfYqgkGndfY4JTySKPY2XcACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h398/IMG_20211105_024742.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">In her personal note from the CD booklet, Olivia reminds us that s</span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">ome anniversaries come and go, passing without fanfare. But others are really worth acknowledging. </span><i style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">Physical</i><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"> at 40 happens to be to be one worth celebrating. This album is a significant milestone to be sharing with us again</span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">. "Thank you all for making my musical journey a magical experience. I am filled with immense gratitude knowing that some of the songs on this album have woven themselves into the soundtrack of our lives - bringing back some wonderful memories. Many people have made countless creative contributions throughout the years as </span><i style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">Physical</i><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"> travelled from song concepts to recording studio, from radio play and music stores to chart positions and concert tours. But most of all, l have enjoyed singing - from my heart to yours".</span></div><div><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div></div><div><h3 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Afterword</span></h3><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Having been a fan since 1971, I am often asked which is my favourite Olivia album, and my answer is always <i>Physical</i>, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to be asked to contribute to the Deluxe Edition, and have my name included in the special thank you credits. My involvement however was very different to my past inputs on CD album projects, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">in that I was asked to supply scans of her single picture bags and sleeves from around the world, which were originally intended for the </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">discography pages in the CD and vinyl booklets. One of my favourites is shown below.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HDz6vSkdnYc/YXKTGBZnOKI/AAAAAAAAJjE/FPhlWx4GMWMEZ0e8E57l5Gh_kMqN940jQCLcBGAsYHQ/s896/received_6708054239212378.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="889" data-original-width="896" height="398" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HDz6vSkdnYc/YXKTGBZnOKI/AAAAAAAAJjE/FPhlWx4GMWMEZ0e8E57l5Gh_kMqN940jQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h398/received_6708054239212378.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p></div>Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-82788020543975094092021-06-06T03:56:00.013-07:002021-11-01T05:03:26.952-07:00Olivia's First Album Revisited <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MeLsxb8YSSI/YLuGCL9lXrI/AAAAAAAAG8M/ohR9kF8yLhE5VFQ-UqE2qpvgCe-X26klQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1108/FB_IMG_1622888043559.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1108" data-original-width="1108" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MeLsxb8YSSI/YLuGCL9lXrI/AAAAAAAAG8M/ohR9kF8yLhE5VFQ-UqE2qpvgCe-X26klQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h400/FB_IMG_1622888043559.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><br /></span></span></div>Back in the 70s, me and my wife (now ex-wife) had this habit of buying an album each whenever we went shopping for a new album. Back in November 1971, she bought <i>Tapestry</i> by Carole King, and I chose Olivia Newton John's self-titled first album! By the time her album was released, Olivia had already come to British pop prominence with two top twenty singles, that were<i> </i>both<i> </i></span><span>featured on the album. She had also recorded a duet with</span><span> C</span><span>liff Richard the year before, done </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">the backing vocals on the Shadows version of Cliff's </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">The Day I Met Marie </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">on their </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">From Hank, Bruce, Brian and John</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> album in 1967, and </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">was appearing regularly on Cliff's BBC-TV Saturday night series, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>It's Cliff Richard! </i>One year after her album hit the shops, she was touring the UK as a support act with Cliff and the Shadows, who with John Farrar, had reformed as Marvin, Welch & Farrar. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">But Olivia's climb to fame had started a few years before, not that I was very aware of it, or even who she was! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>In 1966, Olivia released her debut single on Decca Records,</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span> a cover</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span> of Jackie De Shannon's </span><i>Till</i><span> </span><i>You Say You'll Be Mine, </i>which</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> is a</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>lmost unrecognisable as an Olivia Newton-John record that </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>sank quietly into oblivion. Four years later in 1970, she won an audition to join the manufactured group Toomorrow as the lead singer. They </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">made</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> a film, which was a sort of futuristic new take on the Monkees, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">and released an accompanying </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">soundtrack album, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">both of which turned out to be a critical and commercial disaster.</span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4m46m6M3lNo/YFNznm_VPjI/AAAAAAAAFF8/qxm85jORtOwB41WfPqyqZ_UC2VgRw-7-wCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_20210318_153311.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2018" data-original-width="2048" height="394" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4m46m6M3lNo/YFNznm_VPjI/AAAAAAAAFF8/qxm85jORtOwB41WfPqyqZ_UC2VgRw-7-wCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h394/IMG_20210318_153311.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Photo call for the <i>Toomorrow</i> film and album, London 1970</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>After these failed attempts to launch her career, manager Peter Gormley (who also managed Cliff, The Shadows and Frank Ifield) signed her to Festival Records in Australia to make an album that was </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>simply titled <i>Olivia Newton-John </i>when released by the Pye International label in the UK, but in Australia and the U.S, released on</span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span> the Interfus</span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>ion and UNI labels, </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>was titled after the successful lead single,</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">If</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Not for You. </i>Production on the album started in early 1971 </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">at the legendary Abbey Road Studios that had been made famous by The Beatles. <i>If Not For You</i> was the first song she recorded for the album, but didn't really like it, even though she later </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">praised its production. At the time she was far from convinced it would suit her. She simply didn't think it was her type of song and admitted to having a little trouble being convincing in putting it over, but because everyone in the studio was so enthusiastic about it, she eventually came round to liking it. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">In her memoir, <i>Don't Stop Beleivin'</i>, she recalls Abbey Road was </span><span style="text-align: left;">where she spent her days with her dog Geordie at her feet. "There was a moment when he actually knocked the mic stand during a guitar solo in </span><span style="text-align: left;"><i>If Not For You. </i></span><span style="text-align: left;">We left the sound on the album and it still makes me smile when I hear it. It also makes me smile when I remember that The Beatles were in the next studio with George Martin recording their new album. I was lucky enough to meet them all </span><span style="text-align: left;">as Bruce was good friends with the most famous band of all time. </span><span style="text-align: left;">In fact, he told me that Paul offered him his publishing on a song, but first he would want to give it a listen. Paul pulled his guitar out of his car boot and played a few bars of the song to Bruce, who turned it down. It had a different working title then, but it was </span><span style="text-align: left;"><i>Yesterday</i>!"</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KYDxxv0CKq0/YFVQ4gITAKI/AAAAAAAAFHE/blkPABTOZgE9_TuJ8VNPMwESLKTjVdtIQCLcBGAsYHQ/s893/received_722627741767880.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="893" data-original-width="749" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KYDxxv0CKq0/YFVQ4gITAKI/AAAAAAAAFHE/blkPABTOZgE9_TuJ8VNPMwESLKTjVdtIQCLcBGAsYHQ/w335-h400/received_722627741767880.jpeg" width="335" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Olivia at Abbey Road Studio 2, 1971</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Although the album featured all cover versions, it would be a mistake to think these are all mere covers, warned most reviewers and music critics </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">at the time of its original vinyl and cassette release, t</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">he production and arrangements by Bruce Welch and John Farrar are innovative and worthwhile. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">As Joe Viglione from <i>AllMusic</i> noted years later, when the album was released on CD, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">"</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">there is a moving version of the traditional American country song, <i>Banks of the Ohio.</i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The interpretation of Richard Manuel's <i>In a Station</i> is respectful and intuitive. Music from Big Pink was only three years old when this recording was pressed, and it is one of the few albums to survive the hype and get better with age. Olivia dipping into the Big Pink songbook was a stroke of genius. Label mate Elton John released Leslie Duncan's <i>Love Song </i>on his <i>Here and There </i>live album, but that version doesn't have the sensitivity of this spiritual reading. Both Kris Kristofferson tunes, <i>Me and Bobby McGee </i>and <i>Help Me Make It Through the Night</i>, have arrangements that bring new life to what had became bar band favourites in the early 70s. <i>Where Are You Going to My Love? </i>was covered by the Brotherhood of Man and the Osmonds, but finds its niche here, as does the superb version of Duncan's <i>Lullaby</i>. Tom Rush's <i>No Regrets</i> and Gordon Lightfoot's <i>If You Could Read My Mind</i> are well done, but it is Olivia</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">'s cover of Bob Dylan by way of George Harrison's <i>All Things Must Pass </i>which garnered her first top ten hit. <i>If Not for You</i> brought Olivia the attention she deserved. The musicianship by Lou Reed/David Bowie sessionman, Herbie Flowers along with Dave Richmond, John Farrar, and the ever present Brian Bennett is top notch. H</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">earing Livvy</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> sing so many familiar tunes, and performing them so well, is utterly charming." </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zeFr_vU84FA/YFkwfo7FNII/AAAAAAAAFHs/-XnMA5c1ePIV2gd_Ov3-vem6_ule8vYXQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1776/IMG_20210323_000003.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1776" data-original-width="1675" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zeFr_vU84FA/YFkwfo7FNII/AAAAAAAAFHs/-XnMA5c1ePIV2gd_Ov3-vem6_ule8vYXQCLcBGAsYHQ/w378-h400/IMG_20210323_000003.jpg" width="378" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Pye Press Release for Love Song, June 1971</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There were five other songs recorded at the sessions that didn't make it onto the album during the album's creation process, mostly</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> due to the running times for a vinyl LP. In those days, a 17 track pop album would have been unheard of, but of course there were other reasons they weren't selected for inclusion. As the album had evolved into what was essentially a covers album, Pye Records felt they didn't fit in with the the rest of the album and would be best relegated to B-sides. I first heard the acetate demos of the discarded tracks a couple of years ago, which included </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">The Biggest Clown</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">, <i>It's</i> </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">So Hard To Say Goodbye</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> and </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Would You Follow Me</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">, before the remakes were recorded. The finished masters were first </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">released on the flip sides of her first three singles from the album, </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">If Not for You</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">, </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Love Song</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> and </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Banks of the Ohio. </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">The other two, </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Game of Love</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> and </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Round And Round </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">were passed on completely and never remade. To this day, they have never surfaced in any form. There are, of course, bound to be different takes and alternate versions of all the songs </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">recorded for</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> the album. It's very rare for an artist to lay down the master take first time, although three years later in 1974, the same year she represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest, Olivia did exactly that with </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">I Honestly Love You.</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> S</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">he did three takes of it in all, but it was take one that ended up as the master take and the version that was released.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>When the album was released in the UK, the front sleeve had a full size 12 x 12 head and shoulder shot of Olivia that was printed on </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>a matt texture finished card</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span> with </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>softened colours that became</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> a 70's cover art trademark. The untextured white card back sleeve was black and white, and featured two photos of Olivia recording the album at Abbey Road Studios, plus the usual side 1 and 2</span><i style="font-family: inherit;"> </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">track list with songwriter and album credits, but unlike the Australian issue didn't have any sleeve notes. What the sleeve did however was set the pattern for her future albums to always have a full size photo adorning the front cover. She was so photogenic that every one looked like the photographer had just pointed his camera at her and snapped. What is surprising though, is that despite the album winning rave reviews, producing two hit singles, and tipped to be a sure fire winner, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">it still failed to make the UK album chart</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">. </span></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NvkWcRWvt1A/YF-89g-bqhI/AAAAAAAAFKg/iWsOAbhbiZQeNgu-V8cd2oPEYupw0RR5gCLcBGAsYHQ/s2029/IMG_20210327_224952.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1987" data-original-width="2029" height="391" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NvkWcRWvt1A/YF-89g-bqhI/AAAAAAAAFKg/iWsOAbhbiZQeNgu-V8cd2oPEYupw0RR5gCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h391/IMG_20210327_224952.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><h3 style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The Australian Sleeve Notes</h3></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Olivia Newton-John is the girl Cliff Richard chose to join him on his first duet record - Olivia is also the girl Harry Saltzman chose for the starring part in his film Tomorrow. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now Olivia Newton-John has started her solo career on record with a world-wide hit in the form of Bob Dylan's If Not For You. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Oddly enough Olivia wasn't born into a showbusinesss family (in fact her Welsh-born father had an academic background and her German-born mother was the daughter of a Nobel Prize winning physicist) but somehow showbusiness entered Olivia's blood at an early age. By the time she was five her family had moved from Wales to Australia and it was there in Ormond College, where her father became Master of the College, that Olivia while</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">d away the hours making up tunes on the family grand piano.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">She also entertained friends with her own musical comedies, and by the time she was twelve years of age, at her sister's insistence, she entered a local cinema contest to "find the girl who most looked like Hayley Mills".</div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">Two years later she and and three other girls started a singing group called The Sol Four. But when The Sol Four began interfering with school work the act was disbanded and Olivia then began singing on her own in a coffee lounge owned by her sister's husband.</div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">It was a customer who suggested to Olivia that she enter a contest being held by Johnny O'Keefe. Olivia won the contest but because she was at school at the time it was more than a year before she could enjoy her prize - a trip to London. It was soon after arriving in London that Olivia formed a double act with another Australian girl, Pat Carroll.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">"We sang and danced, did a lot of Club work and had several spots on BBC Television," recalls Olivia. It was, in a short space of time, a successful combination, until Pat Carroll's Visa ran out and she was forced to return to Australia.</div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">Happily Olivia stayed, made solo records and even became part of the Tomorrow group. Now signed to Festival Records International, Olivia's interests away from showbusiness are "listening to records and being anywhere where there is sun. I'm also mad about my two red-setter dogs and horse riding". Olivia's latest single is Banks of the Ohio/Love Song.</div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2047" data-original-width="2048" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RLcYzsBkWig/YFN2mK0egRI/AAAAAAAAFGU/1BjKzvwj0Bw5loP1AsMvsWipRBRp6almACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h400/IMG_20210318_154904.jpg" width="400" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span><span style="color: #cc0000;">From the album cover photo shoot by David Steen</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>With thanks to Jeff Point for his help and sharing pieces of his collection,<br /> including a mammoth amount of scans and other information.</i></span></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div>Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-59437167162274813622021-02-22T06:51:00.017-08:002021-06-13T10:19:41.430-07:00The Story of Elvis UK3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-66EVu3A9-CQ/YDA-U0Eh-8I/AAAAAAAAFBo/LMEUtOqPpTkycyEk0qFDUFxQaJ0SL7DRACLcBGAsYHQ/s1474/IMG_20210219_214708.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1474" data-original-width="1041" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-66EVu3A9-CQ/YDA-U0Eh-8I/AAAAAAAAFBo/LMEUtOqPpTkycyEk0qFDUFxQaJ0SL7DRACLcBGAsYHQ/w283-h400/IMG_20210219_214708.jpg" width="283" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">As some of you know, l was asked sometime ago to contribute details and background stories to all of the Elvis CD projects I worked on from 1996 to 2004 for Sony, BMG and other third party labels for a new book that was being put together by John Townson and Gordon Minto, and has taken almost six years to research and produce. That book is <i>Elvis UK3</i>, which was launched as a digital online flip book this week. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span>The book follows their</span><span> previous works, the groundbreaking <i>Elvis UK</i>, published in the p</span><span>re-digital era of 1987, and<i> </i>the<i> </i>self published <i>Elvis UK2</i>, published 15 years later </span><span>in 2002.</span><span> Both
books were extremely well-received by collectors, earned critical
acclaim, and have become invaluable reference sources for Elvis
collectors all over the world. This latest reference work is
bigger and more comprehensive than either of their two original works. </span></div></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The new book comprises 1400 pages (containing over a million words), and
features 4,000 plus high quality black and white and colour
illustrations, many of which were provided by my good friend Tony King
whose photo archive is probably one of the largest in the world, and has been utilised by many Elvis authors, book publishers, FTD and Sony. The book
also provides the definitive guide to Elvis’s UK compact disc releases,
and details the development of the medium from the 3 CD set <i>The</i> <i>Legend, </i>which<i> </i>was<i> </i>the world’s first ever Elvis compact disc in 1983, in meticulous and unprecedented detail.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8ggz8LHDweQ/YCABw9YczuI/AAAAAAAAE-g/TpS2dAQt8hcK_Wo-n5kM8s06-pE9JuiBACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/elvis%2Buk%2Bbooks%2B1%2B2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1390" data-original-width="2048" height="271" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8ggz8LHDweQ/YCABw9YczuI/AAAAAAAAE-g/TpS2dAQt8hcK_Wo-n5kM8s06-pE9JuiBACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h271/elvis%2Buk%2Bbooks%2B1%2B2.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Every single, RCA, BMG, FTD and third party album (all 450 of them!) issued up to 2005 are written about individually in fascinating detail, arranged in chronological order, carefully cross-referenced, while charting and describing company and industry developments along the way. It has been painstakingly researched over many years, and features many contributions by former RCA/BMG personnel who helped with key background information, along with many others, who like myself, have contributed to some of the CD releases featured. In my case they include <i>The</i> <i>Hillbilly Cat</i>, <i>Artist Collection </i>(including discarded artwork and omitted liner note passage), the 2002<i> </i>JXL<i> </i>remix of <i>A Little Less Convesation</i>, the final batch of <i>Millennium Master</i> sets (<i>Elvis 50s</i>,<i> 60s</i>,<i> 70s, </i><i>Hits</i>) and the <i>Live Greatest Hits</i>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The book also includes sections on various artist CDs containing Elvis material, as well as company promos, presenters and BMG in-house CDs. The huge song index is presented in forensic detail, indicating exactly where each master (and any known outtakes) can be located and, in the case of live performances, when and where they were recorded. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">And in what is almost a first for such a project, this incredibly detailed book is presented using Flip technology for use on your own digital device – a computer, laptop, iPad, smartphone, Kindle and tablet. Once you have the link, accessing the whole book is simple. The system allows the reader to access any part of the book in seconds thanks to a very sophisticated, but easy to use, range of navigational tools. Hardback specialist reference books of this sort have become extremely expensive to buy and post, and of course are notoriously difficult to handle and store. Not so with Flip. The book can be accessed on any device and has the advantage of being portable: it can go where you go – and once on your device, it does not deteriorate at all. Another major advantage is that the price to buy such a book is much cheaper than an equivalent hard-copy would have been, and as there are no prohibitive post and packing charges to factor in, it is readily available to anyone interested, wherever they are in the world. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">As a bonus, the authors have compiled a unique digipak CD to give away with the book, that includes an 8-page illustrated booklet with extensive liner notes detailing the rationale for the content. <i>Beyond The Legend </i>includes 22 UK single chart entries, plus the 1956 <i>Truth About Me</i> interview, not included on the original 1983 <i>Legend</i> set, and will be sent out to all UK buyers free of charge. Overseas fans however will be asked to pay for post and packing costs.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> <br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M5HisPebrfs/YETspw3BR-I/AAAAAAAAFDE/_bTdQ_9p0u45TWNxT1EEJrHDs9mCItMrwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2684/Beyond%2BThe%2BLegend%2B%2528UK3%2529%2BBack%2BFront%2B2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1172" data-original-width="2684" height="175" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M5HisPebrfs/YETspw3BR-I/AAAAAAAAFDE/_bTdQ_9p0u45TWNxT1EEJrHDs9mCItMrwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h175/Beyond%2BThe%2BLegend%2B%2528UK3%2529%2BBack%2BFront%2B2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Anyone wanting more details of this magnificent and authoritative reference work should visit the <a href="http://www.elvisukbooks.co.uk" target="_blank">website</a> where many more details are available, including the option of accessing some free sample pages to try out, as well as how to buy the book.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Footnote</h3><div><br /></div><h3 style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0crSutfQ23Y/YIG6wNlRXXI/AAAAAAAAFM0/uq1i384ieVES2TM9-CYEc7p8bgATg1NswCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/The%2B%252756%2BSessions%2BVol%2B2%2BLP%2BArt.jpg"><img border="0" data-original-height="2033" data-original-width="2048" height="398" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0crSutfQ23Y/YIG6wNlRXXI/AAAAAAAAFM0/uq1i384ieVES2TM9-CYEc7p8bgATg1NswCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h398/The%2B%252756%2BSessions%2BVol%2B2%2BLP%2BArt.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></h3><div style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Many readers and contributors will find lots of interesting facts and behind the scene stories in the book. For me personally, one of the most fascinating was for the 1992 album <i>From The Heart</i>. I was intrigued to read the back story to the release as I knew Lee Simmonds (who compiled it) from his days of running the RCA International catalogue, during which time, we became friends and allies during my days as a struggling graphic artist. He was among my first encounters with RCA at Bedford Avenue in London. Among other things, he introduced me to Roger Semon, when Roger was a part time salesman and was already loosely involved in the early years of the Elvis catalogue, got me and my ex tickets for the 1984 Bucks Fizz tour and was always giving me freebie albums! Lee and me remained in touch when he moved to EMI, QED and later to Sanctuary Records, when Roger was MD! Beyond Elvis he was responsible for the marketing and promotion of the 1981 <i>Glen Campbell Live </i>album, which featured my gatefold sleeve artwork. In his office he had the original illustration that was used on the cover of the Elvis <i>56 Sessions Volume 2 </i>album (as shown above). As readers will discover, one of Lee's Elvis projects at QED was <i>The Hillbilly Cat</i> for which he asked me to do the liner notes, and which became the first Elvis album I wrote a liner note for.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1z7JrGsDAWM/YB9E6gdCasI/AAAAAAAAE98/MJcbHfuGUe4GG3wW_MVsq8NhS2vA-t4YwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/elvis%2Bmm%2Bfront%2Band%2Bback.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1460" data-original-width="2048" height="285" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1z7JrGsDAWM/YB9E6gdCasI/AAAAAAAAE98/MJcbHfuGUe4GG3wW_MVsq8NhS2vA-t4YwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h285/elvis%2Bmm%2Bfront%2Band%2Bback.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div><p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Postscript</h3><p style="text-align: justify;">Back in 1989, I was sitting in a meeting room at Blandford Press in London, with <span style="font-family: inherit;">friend</span>, writing partner and co-author, Peter Lewry, waiting for editor Stuart Booth to arrive. We were there to discuss our book project on Cliff Richard's recording sessions. While we were waiting we browsed the selection of books that were displayed around the room, and the one that caught our eye was <i>Elvis UK</i> by John Townson, Gordon Minto and George Richardson. We had both heard about the book when it was first published two years earlier, but the hefty retail price of £45 made it a pretty prohibitive buy that neither of us could afford at the time, even though it was probably the one Elvis book we wanted most. Now in our publishers office, and well aware they were the same publisher that had published this mammoth work on Elvis' record releases, we now had the chance to take a closer look, and wow, the information inside was quite staggering, even for the most serious and ardent Elvis collector. What we found in this book was something else, there were things listed that were completely new to us, and what we discovered took us completely by surprise. Did RCA UK really make that many goofs in the marketing of their crown jewel artist? According to this book, yes they did, and it had been going on for years, long before I started collecting Elvis back in 1963.</p><h3 style="text-align: justify;">Further Reading</h3><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Elvis - The Man and His Music</i> (No. <a href="https://www.nowdigthismagazine.co.uk" target="_blank">116</a>, <a href="https://www.nowdigthismagazine.co.uk" target="_blank">117</a>, <a href="https://www.nowdigthismagazine.co.uk" target="_blank">118</a>): <i>Elvis UK Revisited </i><i>by Gordon Minto.</i></span></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fRY7gWA-cNw/YCfA27i0JlI/AAAAAAAAFAI/zbfT7W-kXQ08dC6itSH6pf6c_K0UAVCNACLcBGAsYHQ/s2545/Elvis%2BMan%2Band%2BHis%2BMusic%2BCovers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1236" data-original-width="2545" height="194" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fRY7gWA-cNw/YCfA27i0JlI/AAAAAAAAFAI/zbfT7W-kXQ08dC6itSH6pf6c_K0UAVCNACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h194/Elvis%2BMan%2Band%2BHis%2BMusic%2BCovers.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-44662329573333284302020-12-01T02:45:00.003-08:002021-05-25T00:32:03.235-07:00My Life in Music - An Interview with Vic Rust<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dxzH_s0ylBI/X7w85WuzXFI/AAAAAAAAEqw/fMYXveoHpmE3a_bDvCqksaPeBYap78g7gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1361/FB_IMG_1606089786916.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1361" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dxzH_s0ylBI/X7w85WuzXFI/AAAAAAAAEqw/fMYXveoHpmE3a_bDvCqksaPeBYap78g7gCLcBGAsYHQ/w318-h400/FB_IMG_1606089786916.jpg" width="318" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Back in 1997, when <i>Titanic</i> was released into cinemas, I remember seeing an interview with the film's director James Cameron in which he said there is no point in retelling a story unless you are going to cover new ground! Cliff told me much the same when recording a cover version of an original hit, whether one of his own or by another artist. It has to be different to what's gone before. That is certainly true of Vic Rust's book on Cliff's recordings, which was published almost twenty years after me and Peter Lewry had researched, written and published our book on Cliff's recordings sessions. What Vic's book did was go one stage further by literally discussing and analysing every song Cliff had recorded in detail, something the sessions book didn't cover! The result was a very different book.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Although most would consider Vic a researcher and writer, he himself considers himself a musician with good reason! In a recent conversation I had with him, he told me why, and when looking back on his past, it's easy to understand.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">As Vic told me, he grew up with music all around – quite literally. "My father, Brian, was the foremost vintage jazz and popular dance music discographer, who worked from home, had a weekly radio show on the fledgling Capital Radio, and regularly wrote sleeve notes, articles and reviews for a wide variety of labels and artists and genres. The point is that I can’t really remember a time when there wasn’t some sort of music – usually his beloved jazz – playing as the soundtrack to my youth."</div></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Vic was born in the year when Cliff Richard’s <i>Summer Holiday</i> was packing them in at </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">cinemas across the country,</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> and Gerry and the Pacemakers were at number one with <i>How Do You Do It? </i>(curiously enough, his twin sister has no interest in performing music, although she does like listening to pop music. Vic's musical tastes are wide and varied, so maybe this adds a footnote to the nature versus nurture debate?)</span></div></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"B</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">ecause of my dad’s job, I was steeped in music from birth, so it came as no surprise to me (on reflection) that my future would be welded firmly to the art. My earliest clear musical memory was overhearing a record that my dad happened to be reviewing, and which stopped me in my tracks as I listened enthralled. I crept into my dad’s study and sat on the shabby visitor’s chair and asked if he could play it again. And again. I loved the sound of the guitars, the timbre of the lead singer’s voice, the blending of the exquisite harmony vocals and the perfect rhythm... That record was </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Blue Turns to Grey </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">by Cliff and the Shadows and it holds a special place in my heart because it set me on the course that has culminated in what I’m doing today - researching and writing!</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SaVyE-wnr6U/X7xNq2zOU5I/AAAAAAAAErQ/5NYbkxVy1UQNtLn2njUhuNm3dGrU9TSAACLcBGAsYHQ/s586/IMG_20201123_172230.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="586" height="394" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SaVyE-wnr6U/X7xNq2zOU5I/AAAAAAAAErQ/5NYbkxVy1UQNtLn2njUhuNm3dGrU9TSAACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h394/IMG_20201123_172230.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"My upbringing was unconventional from the point of view that my dad worked from home and drip-fed me music, when I went to school, it was a source of immense confusion to realize that no-one else’s father in my class did the same thing, but it also helped me to understand how fortunate that, by dint of hard work and steel-eyed focus, he was able to make a living out of doing what he loved. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">And it sowed the seeds for me to consider it as a sideline in my later life, although it was not something that I was immediately conscious of. Instead, I became a voracious consumer of the records that my parents had in their collection, from the performances of classics of Beethoven, Bach, Rachmaninov, Debussy and so on to the comedy gold of Allan Sherman’s parodies, Flanders and Swann, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Anna Russell and Victor Borge.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"And, in between, I listened avidly to the radio, swept up in the joy of the welter of popular music, and especially rock and roll and its derivatives. At the same time, there were some fantastic books being published, such as <i>The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles</i>. I read it from cover to cover, such was the thrall the information had over me, and I started looking for patterns and cross-referenced information, writing lists of the bits of details that weren’t in there, such as the composers of the titles. It was my first toe-dip into the world of research (in the days when the local library was the source rather than the ease of the internet today).</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At the same time, it was established that I had a rather good treble voice. Inevitably, I was pushed by my mother to audition for the local church choir – hated that bit, but I loved the performance of some of the most powerful choral pieces in the world. As I started secondary school, it was obvious that I was going to join the school choir, and I was deemed to be good enough to be asked to be part of the more elite Motet Choir, which afforded me my first journey out of England as we toured Germany.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"At home, music enveloped me every waking hour as usual, not the least because I had taken up learning to play the piano, clarinet and guitar – although not simultaneously! And my dad still received records and tapes on a regular basis to review. Once he’d done that, he passed them over to us and I would happily sit listening to them, reading the liner notes, the composers, the music publishers, copyright notices, everything was important and interesting to me! I remember when World Records produced a six-disc boxed set called <i>The Cliff Richard Story</i>, that was all I played for a fortnight, as I was introduced to not only Cliff’s early work, but also to the Shadows’ witty and wonderful instrumentals.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PiiXVIxfMEw/X7xzIw_zS-I/AAAAAAAAErc/7NzZJEB3_Xg6KsoiZfEX9VMoqBSmed3UwCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/IMG_20201124_023920.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="784" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PiiXVIxfMEw/X7xzIw_zS-I/AAAAAAAAErc/7NzZJEB3_Xg6KsoiZfEX9VMoqBSmed3UwCLcBGAsYHQ/w393-h400/IMG_20201124_023920.jpg" width="393" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"But I also found another skill, which would help me in my future career – I could identify what an instrument was, even in an ensemble performance. My dad recognized this and I was pulled in to help him in his research for his books on jazz and dance music. “Was that a pizzicato violin or a banjo?” I remember my dad smiling with pride when I was able to identify the instrumentation. I also helped him sift through poorly-written session cards from RCA and EMI that were falling apart to pluck out the key pieces of information. There was nothing so exciting as seeing my name written in a proper book for the first time!</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"I’ve always been a sucker for a great harmony and especially where they are performed using the human voice (this is why Cliff is especially appealing – he does such a great line in vocal harmony). So I jumped at the chance to be a founder member of a barbershop group (there were around twelve of us, so think Kings Singers), which was called <i>The Calico Consort </i>(after a piece we performed at the first concert called <i>Calico Pie </i>and because of its alliterative qualities). What set this apart from the school choirs was that it was more intimate – no instrumentation to support us and the opportunities for solos. It was</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">also cheap to put on gigs!</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"In the summer of 1981, just as the incumbents were about to fling themselves into higher education at university, the group went on tour to Germany. It was a great experience (even though I had severe laryngitis on the last day) and we were sad to bid farewell to the <i>Calico Consort</i>. Then I had the idea of going into the recording studio to set some of our repertoire down for posterity. This was where my fascination with records and the recording process was given a further fillip. In the September, I had organized three evening sessions for the group at a local studio. I was in the role of performer, soloist… and producer. I just loved sitting behind that mixing desk and working through the tapes and putting the record, Patchwork, together. So much fun was had – particularly where I was concerned – we agreed to get together each year for performances and it spawned two further records with me in the production chair – <i>Moonlight and Magnolia </i>and <i>Calico Christmas.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">While I was at university in Colchester, naturally one of the clubs I joined was the University of Essex Choir, which put on a performance at the end of the first and second semesters. This was where I met Richard Cooke, who directed the performances and was also the newly-appointed director of the London Philharmonic Choir. I had subsidized vocal coaching from him and, as a result, when I applied to join the LPC after university (as far as I know) I was the only member who didn’t have to go through the audition process.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"What the experience afforded me opened up completely new and exciting worlds for me. I remember the first time I went through the stage door at the lovely Royal Albert Hall, performing at the BBC Proms, appearing on television for the first time, looking out at the audience at the Royal Festival Hall, singing solos… the adrenalin rush was phenomenal and I was smitten.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"But the best part of it was my involvement in so many different recordings, nearly all of them in Studio 1 at Abbey Road, and occasionally in the hallowed quietness of Studio 2, where the Beatles and Cliff and the Shadows had laid down the majority of their tracks until the seventies. I was fascinated and a little over-awed. It was this experience that fed into some of the plot of <i>Puppet on a String</i>.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Unfortunately, life kind of got in the way and, in the mid-nineties, I had to leave the choir. I was the Business Manager then, but rehearsing and recording and performing in London, living in Kent and having a day-job at Heathrow Airport was just too much stress and, after much heart-searching I left.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"I was in the Tonbridge W. H. Smiths when I found <i>The Complete Recording Sessions</i> by Nigel Goodall and Peter Lewry. I had maintained my interest in Cliff’s music and the minutiae of his recording process and resultant records, so it was as if this book had been specifically written for me.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"I wrote a couple of novels and then worked on <i>The Moody Blues Encyclopaedia</i> as an exercise in maintaining my interest in research and writing. It also gave me an unnecessary excuse to listen to music at every opportunity! Come 2009, the world was in financial straits and I took the opportunity to abscond from Heathrow and take redundancy.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"It allowed me to focus on my next project, which became <i>The Cliff Richard Recording</i> <i>Catalogue</i>, helping me to visualize Cliff and the Shadows recording in Abbey Road and how the records were developed. And that has largely been my life for just over a decade. Having interviewed Cliff on a number of occasions, Nigel invited me to</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">submit the sleeve notes for Cliff's 2017</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Stronger Thru the Years </i>album as he felt I </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">was better suited to write what Warners want</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">ed</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> tha</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">n he was, which </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">culminated in being asked to write the discography appendix for his 2020 autobiography, </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">The Dreamer.</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> I have made great friends with the Cliff community, and, in particular, with Nigel, who has been so helpful with background information from his time as co-curator of Cliff’s EMI back catalogue."</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x07gm3vIals/X67HOwJrONI/AAAAAAAAEow/YYX-0He3XE06beU0sdPdO_BF2OlXO9WjACLcBGAsYHQ/s1500/IMG_20201113_174706.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1500" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x07gm3vIals/X67HOwJrONI/AAAAAAAAEow/YYX-0He3XE06beU0sdPdO_BF2OlXO9WjACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h400/IMG_20201113_174706.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Vic is often asked if he has finished with his work on documenting Cliff's recordings! Like Ernst Jorgensen who looks after Elvis Presley's catalogue, the answer in no! Not as long as Cliff continues to release singles and albums, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">there will always be something to write about, and collect more information to add to what would be the fourth edition of his book. As long as there is a market for more editions of his most successful book, then his work won't be finished! </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">And it's not just confined to Sir Cliff! He is currently working on an Olivia Newton-John recording catalogue, and along with me and Juliette from Leo's Den is involved with our joint plight to get Cliff and Olivia's</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> long lost 1972 TV special, </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">The Case,</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> released on DVD and Blu ray. And despite his fascination to write about Cliff's recordings, he still considers himself a musician at heart, but now a musician who writes about music!</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Vic Rust is the author of The Cliff Richard Recording Catalogue, and the editor-in-chief of the charity book, Thank You for a Lifetime – To Sir, with Love.</i></span></p>Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-62901678468105151082020-11-12T00:41:00.005-08:002021-03-29T01:05:57.249-07:00That's The Way It Was Bonus Blog<p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y3bROIb_7cI/X1A9uzyCzII/AAAAAAAAEYE/0OKQyb3naEUaZ39P0QBnOCXccGEhc9WhACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/TTWII%252520w%252520dennis%252520sanders.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2023" data-original-width="2048" height="395" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y3bROIb_7cI/X1A9uzyCzII/AAAAAAAAEYE/0OKQyb3naEUaZ39P0QBnOCXccGEhc9WhACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h395/TTWII%252520w%252520dennis%252520sanders.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div></div></div><div id="yiv3365821696yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910859648" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910729696" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In September 1970, Ann Moses, then the editor of <i>Tiger Beat</i> magazine, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">conducted this exclusive i</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">nterview with Dennis Sanders, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">director of </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Elvis - That's The Way It Is</i>, which was then being completed for theatrical release that autumn. During the shooting of the film, he had</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> contacted Ann as one of Elvis' fans and used her definition of being an Elvis fan in the picture. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">In return, he gave her</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> this </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">interview about filming Elvis, which Ann has kindly allowed me to reproduce it here as part of my two-part piece </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">on the 50th anniversary of the film...</span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910859648" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann Moses: When you were chosen to do the Elvis film, where did you begin? How much did you know about Elvis Presley?</i></b></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910861660" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Denis Sanders: I didn't know that much about Elvis. but I do know a lot about American music. I was not one of the earliest jazz buffs in this country. I have one of the major Jazz collections. Since I was twelve I have been collecting records.</span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann: So, you were really deep into music when Elvis first came out?</i></b></span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders:<b> </b>Oh, I knew about Elvis! I liked him right from the very beginning.</span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>Ann: So, where does one start when you make a movie? Did you look at any of his old films?</b></i></span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910875311" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders: No, mainly because the film that I'm doing is about Presley as an entertainer, with a quarter of it his show at the International. The other elements that I have chosen to emphasise were the putting together of a show and the fan phenomenon. In a way, its a film by one professional about another professional in another field. So I have no interest, really, in his personal life, I really don't. My interest is solely in Elvis as a performer </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">and as a musician. And as an organiser of his show. And, as a matter of fact. I wouldn't even take an assignment of doing a story of the personal life of a professional like Elvis, because then we'd be arguing about my view versus all kinds of other people's views. I'd be in the same difficult position all biographers are in when it's an authorised biography. But really, in this case, its not a controversial film. Oh, there might be a few areas, like my view of Las Vegas might not be or coincide with everybody else's, but it is my view.</span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann: What about Elvis' contribution to the film? Did you sit down with him and ask him what he thought should be in the film? Or is it strictly your ideas?</i></b></span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910910232" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders: I told him the elements I was interested in. I told him I wanted to be privy in addition to the show and to the rehearsals and to the process of putting a show together. So would he try to. when I was shooting a rehearsal, organise that rehearsal in such a way that it would be a bit more lucid than if it just completely happened.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> It would completely happen, but where he felt he needed to make a comment he would, and to me that's not out of context of the film.</span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann: When was your first meeting with Elvis? How did it go?</i></b></span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders: I met with him in his dressing room at MGM, surrounded by hordes of people - his contingent, the Colonel's contingent, my contingent. It was a summit meeting!</span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann: Did you get anything accomplished with so many people there?</i></b></span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders: Well. I sort of got over next to him and while everybody was talking with everybody else, I sort of put my head next to his head and told him what I was going to try to do. And at that point all the other noise ceased and we could talk, and l had to use the time fruitfully!</span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>Ann: Did you get the impression that he was excited about the film? So many of his films have been criticised, one disappointing script after another. There's no script at all for this one. Did he seem excited?</b></i></span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders: Without question! In fact, he thinks it's the first film he'll approve of!</span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann: When you decided to do the film, why did you feel that fans had to be included?</i></b></span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders:<b> </b>Because I feel you don't have an entertainer without an audience. I feel that they are completely interrelated. Some sense of his effect on his audience is as much a part of the drama as the entertainer himself.</span></div><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: start;"><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann: Did you have any idea when you began that the fans would be like the ones you've put on film?</i></b></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders: No. I didn't know anything about Presley fans.</span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann: Where did you start?</i></b></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910931964" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders: With two girl fans and they put me in touch with other girls who</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> had been in fan clubs, or were in fan clubs, and then the whole thing snowballed. Part of the problem on a picure like this is not only to do what I'm saying, but to do it in a short period of time, because I didn't have too much time. Function as a detective, follow the leads, follow where all the lines run as best you can, at least locally. I could neither spend the money or the time to fly all over the world. I also wanted to get a cross-section. I didn't want to have just girls of 18. I also wanted everything from teenyboppers to old ladies. men, different nationalities, and I had to find them. I found you that way. I got in touch with you from a fan that said: "Go see Ann Moses, she's a fan."</span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann: Thanks! Will you be making any statements about the fans, like your opinion of them? Or will it be an objective view?</i></b></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910945804" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders:<b> </b>I never work in generalities. The only generality I could say is that generally I don't think generalities are meaningful. The fans are all alive and they're talking. I try to choose a fan who can quickly, in the little time they have before the cameras, convey to the audience a whole sense of who they are. That the tip of the iceberg reveals the whole iceberg, or at least is sensed by the viewer. There is no narration. I don't say anything.</span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>Ann: The early press releases on the film stated that the Elvis film was "going to be a Woodstock on Elvis." Do you think that's an accurate description of your film?</b></i></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders: The only picture like <i>Woodstock</i> is <i>Woodstock</i>! The only picture like <i>Elvis</i> is <i>Elvis</i>!</span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dY6kSTJSOQQ/X33W8izCkYI/AAAAAAAAEcg/CUrINYp0FnUUWsqf8fFxghsyzZ1kw_nFQCLcBGAsYHQ/s720/20060930_160333.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="293" data-original-width="720" height="199" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dY6kSTJSOQQ/X33W8izCkYI/AAAAAAAAEcg/CUrINYp0FnUUWsqf8fFxghsyzZ1kw_nFQCLcBGAsYHQ/w489-h199/20060930_160333.jpg" width="489" /></a></div><br /><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann: How have you found working with Elvis?</i></b></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910960591" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders: Well, if I needed something, I always got it. I never abused it. When I asked, it was never for anything trivial. That's the secret of working with most people anyway. You don't use up your shots on trivial things, but you make it very clear that when you finally ask for something it's for something very important. So the lights are going to come up in the audience and it's going to bother him, but he's going to have to live with it and he did. He knew I had to have it. I didn't bother him for most of the week, once I had the lights up on opening night. And the final night we were shooting I just said I had to. I had to get the audience. I could have said: "I left you alone all week." but I didn't need to say that. And if Elvis was bothered, he'd say: "Kill it, kill the lights." And I'd kill it. That was the deal.</span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann: Do you feel you've caught the "real" Elvis or some portion of the "real" Elvis?</i></b></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders: Every time the cameras were rolling he knew it. He's very suave about it. He's made too many movies to not know whether the camera is on or off.</span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann: Will we have a glimpse of Elvis when he's not "on"?</i></b></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders:<b> </b>Yeah. I have a scene backstage opening night. It may be heightened a little by the fact that he knew the cameras were on but still his problems were bigger than my camera at that point. And that's true generally when you're doing a documentary. If you can be there when they've got to cope with something unexpected, then finally they are functioning as they would without cameras. As I say there's probably still some mixture of the sense of theatrics and what was really happening, except that what was really happening was really happening!</span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann: Are there any amusing incidents involving putting Elvis on film?</i></b></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910989781" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders: Well, his boys razz him occasionally and at one rehearsal they were really kind of giving him the "business." I thought it was pretty funny. I sort of set it up. I said: "Let's go give him the business and I'll shoot it. "There was one line he was singing in rehearsal that went "I've lost you . . ." and they were razzing him and he started to sing "I've lost you . . ." and one of the guys said something like "You certainly have!"</span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann: When you finally got to the International. What did you want to record on stage?</i></b></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders: I wanted to get as varied a series of views of the performance as possible - close on his face and full figure, the orchestra itself, the girl singers, everything.</span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann: You had never seen Elvis on stage before. Did your opinion of Elvis change when you saw him perform?</i></b></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910012292" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598911007577" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders:<b> </b>I think he's fantastic. I knew he was fantastic the very first time I saw him in rehearsal. I knew where he was. From then on I knew what I wanted to go after. He's got what Brando had at that perfect moment in his career where you couldn't anticipate Brando as an actor. That's what Presley has. The audience can't anticipate him.</span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910485844" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910453665" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910453665" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann: Did anything unexpected happen to make you say to yourself "We have to get that" or hope we got that"?</i></b></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910453665" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598911016164" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders: It would have to be "I hope we got that!" I'll tell you about something that got away from me which had to do with Elvis indirectly. I'm so sorry about it. You know when he kisses the ladies during "Love Me Tender." One gal had a hammerlock on him and he sort of pulled free and her wig fell off! It was a great movement but my camera wasn't rolling because they had just run out of film! She suddenly went from a blonde to a brunette! I wish I had that! That's the miss that breaks my heart the most!</span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598911016164" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910453665" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann: After working with Elvis on this film, Would you like to make a scripted movie with him?</i></b></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910453665" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910453665" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders: I'd love to. It would have to be the right piece of material. Cast right, there's no question about it. I think the mistake with Presley would be to put him into things that are too close to his own personality, But if he could touch the part with his own life experiences, without too much difficulty, then I think he'd be sensational!</span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910453665" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910453665" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann: Would you call yourself an Elvis fan?</i></b></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910453665" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910453665" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders: If I were to use your definition, Ann which I filmed for the movie, "It's like falling in love and one day you wake up and you're an Elvis fan" then no, I'm not a fan! To the extent that I'm never a fan, I'd say, yes. I am a fan.</span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910453665" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910453665" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann: Would you pay to see his show again?</i></b></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910453665" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910453665" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders: Oh, sure! I'm a professional fan. He moves me as a member of an audience. I admire his great sense of theatrics, and so I'm a fan in that sense. But I don't fall in love with entertainers.</span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910453665" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910453665" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann: How much would you say Elvis contributed in the way of creative ideas?</i></b></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910453665" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598911054300" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders: I don't know. He said a few things to me, but then things would filter to me through the Parker office. I have no first-hand knowledge. Obviously, I was given access through the joint discussions between Elvis and Col. Parker as to what they considered the proper elements of the film. I'm sure some thought was put into the creative matters. But it is difficult to assess how much creative thinking on time part or the Elvis Presley - Col. Parker group was instigated by Elvis himself. But Elvis does the whole show. He's it. He puts it all together. He's the captain of the ship.</span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910453665" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910453665" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Ann: You said you thought Elvis was going to be proud of his film?</i></b></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598910453665" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598911078103" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sanders:<b> </b>I think he will. It's going to be one hell of a picture!</span><span style="color: #990000; font-size: small; text-align: center;"> </span></div><div id="yiv4966342838yMail_cursorElementTracker_1598911078103" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qy2ZXF4aIRA/X1GKzghJ3gI/AAAAAAAAEZU/Ko0c0CHKs8E0fy3aVxk6MnQDS1DQI9h8wCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/That%2527s%2BThe%2BWay%2BIt%2BIs.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="2048" height="390" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qy2ZXF4aIRA/X1GKzghJ3gI/AAAAAAAAEZU/Ko0c0CHKs8E0fy3aVxk6MnQDS1DQI9h8wCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h390/That%2527s%2BThe%2BWay%2BIt%2BIs.jpg" width="400" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #990000;">Interview previously published in</span><span style="color: #990000;"> the </span><span style="color: #990000;">2014</span><i style="color: #990000;"> That's The Way It Is </i></span><span style="color: #990000; font-size: x-small;">Deluxe Edition booklet</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rweXofPO6ds/X6yU5JA8F8I/AAAAAAAAEoI/CMvgL6gEWsAS9frPUf6hoXUuMrrrYliRACLcBGAsYHQ/s1526/IMG_20201112_014719.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="644" data-original-width="1526" height="169" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rweXofPO6ds/X6yU5JA8F8I/AAAAAAAAEoI/CMvgL6gEWsAS9frPUf6hoXUuMrrrYliRACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h169/IMG_20201112_014719.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000;">Read Ann's fantastic article <b><i>Yes, I Was In An Elvis Movie</i></b></span><span style="color: #990000;"> <a href="http://annmoses.com/yes-i-was-in-an-elvis-movie/">here</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>With thanks to Tony King for the photo of Elvis with Dennis Sanders and the booklet scan </i></span></div></div></div></div>Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-65815066329605523932020-11-11T00:28:00.006-08:002021-08-30T01:55:10.407-07:00That's The Way It Was<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4ORKa3skS5I/Xv2_tnrbpsI/AAAAAAAAED4/3pvjbhrF17wqBG_liGYHK2LI6lBgKWioACK4BGAsYHg/s1669/IMG_20200702_120536.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1669" data-original-width="1638" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4ORKa3skS5I/Xv2_tnrbpsI/AAAAAAAAED4/3pvjbhrF17wqBG_liGYHK2LI6lBgKWioACK4BGAsYHg/w393-h400/IMG_20200702_120536.jpg" width="393" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you're an Elvis fan, it would be hard not to know that this month marks the 50th anniversary of <span style="text-align: justify;"><i>Elvis: That’s the Way It Is</i>, the original theatrical documentary film, directed by Denis Sanders that focused on Elvis' Summer Festival engagement at the International Hotel in Las Vegas in August 1970. It was released </span>in the U.S on November 11, 1970, and in the UK, on April 25, 1971, and was his first non-dramatic film since the beginning of his movie career in 1956. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although the majority of the film took place on stage at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, there were several other parts to the film that took place elsewhere, such as the opening credits sequence which was shot at Elvis’ show at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix on September 9, 1970, which marked the first show of Elvis’ first tour in 13 years. The rest of the film showed Elvis and his band rehearsing at the MGM Studios in Culver City, California, and inside the showroom and convention centre of the International in Las Vegas. Additional footage took cinema audiences to an Elvis Appreciation Society convention in Luxembourg that was filmed on September 5, 1970 where Radio Luxembourg DJs Tony Prince and Peter Aldersley were on hand to lead the festivities. A tandem bicycle owned by Elvis (which I was lucky enough to ride around Heanor in Derbyshire during my fan club branch leader days) was raffled off to a lucky fan in the audience. Additionally, various musicians are seen performing their own versions of Elvis’ songs. The movie also featured interviews with an assortment of “fans,” interviewed and seen throughout the movie in small segments.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As Ann Moses, the editor of <i>Tiger Beat </i>magazine observed in her website article, <i><a href="http://annmoses.com/yes-i-was-in-an-elvis-movie/">Yes, I Was In An Elvis Movie</a></i>, there was the nerdy guy who calls Elvis “The Willie Mayes of entertainment,” and tells Denis “If I don’t like your film I’m going to write you a dirty little letter.” There’s the church lady who tells us that being an Elvis fan is “more than just following his music, real Elvis fans devote part of their lives to him.” and then there's the 50ish grey haired woman and her 80ish white haired mother, who says she likes Elvis, “because he’s a religious boy and he respects his parents.” And the daughter tells us, “He puts so much into a show. Mother likes lots of action. She doesn’t like it when they shoot him from the waist up. She likes to see him move and I admit I do too. He sets my Phi Beta Kappa key a janglin’.” </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y4zD5ouoT3o/X5YmZGVxXGI/AAAAAAAAEi4/vtfHXUojbiEs_M9NzksiB5XLRHj9sZG_gCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/rex_419189m.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1357" data-original-width="2048" height="265" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y4zD5ouoT3o/X5YmZGVxXGI/AAAAAAAAEi4/vtfHXUojbiEs_M9NzksiB5XLRHj9sZG_gCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h265/rex_419189m.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">And of course, there's the interview with Ann who told us, “It’s so hard to describe what an Elvis fan is. It’s like a phenomenon like falling in love. You can’t describe how it happens, it’s just you’re in love and you know it, and it’s the same with being an Elvis fan. I always go to every opening. I cover them for the <i>New Musical Express </i>in England, but even if I didn’t write for the paper, l know I’d be there. I just couldn’t miss it.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The movie was recut in 2001 and released as a new special edition version</span> with remastered picture and sound in March of that year, for which I attended the premiere at the Warner West End multiplex in Leicester Square. The new version eliminated much of the documentary material and non-Elvis content to make room for additional performances of Elvis rehearsing and in concert. Oddly enough, the new edition ran 12 minutes shorter than the original, so there seems no valid reason to cut out and omit the interviews or some of the originally included songs, including most notably, the film's biggest hit, the concert performance of<i> I Just Can't Help Believin'</i>, even though the new version still retained footage of Elvis being concerned about remembering the lyrics and asking them to be placed on a stool on stage.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It would have been much better if the special edition had left the original version intact with new additional unseen footage added, and been reworked as an "Extended Cut" version for DVD and Blu ray instead of theatrical. Obviously the perfect version would have been a "Director's Cut" but as Dennis Sanders passed away in 1987, that wasn't possible.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Personally I prefer the original 1970 version from a nostalgic point of view and although many fans wouldn't agree, l think it has a better vibe as that was how it was released and cut for theatrical release, and is long overdue for a remastered 4K version! Yes there are some cringe worthy moments and scenes but feel the continuity, pacing and editing is better and despite the cringe moments, it has a better feel to it! And above all that is how we all remember it! When ever I watch <i>That's The Way It Is </i>at home, I always go for the 1970 version because of it's time piece value, its more of the period and has in my opinion, a better feel and vibe to it! Above all else it gives us an idea of what it must have been like to see Elvis in person in 1970!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although the one day cinema presentation of the film in August this year was a #1 box office hit in the UK, l still feel it should have been the original 1970 version that was shown rather than the 2001 re-edited special edition! If the one day presentation was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the movie, then surely it should have been the original, not the recut version.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;">Postscript</h3><div style="text-align: justify;"><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">For those interested to know what happened to Elvis' tandem bicycle, pictured above, it was purchased by Ian Baily in 1974 from the second owner, and according to Ian, it was in a sorry state (wheels rusty, spokes missing). Ian had it for 20 years where it was housed at the Heanor Record Centre in Derby, but in the end decided to give it to his son Scott who was setting himself up in business. But before that, after</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Ian had it refurbished at a great cost to restore it to its original condition when Elvis owned</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> it to ride around movie lots during his Hollywood years, he decided to put it up for auction in Las Vegas with Bothams after he offered it to Graceland, who offered him peanuts for it. It now belongs to a collector in Texas.</span></div><div><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rlx601AtKhc/XwrT_JnFwTI/AAAAAAAAELY/jIHong-Htuk3uOrqT6hjTL-zAYIIlCghgCLcBGAsYHQ/s960/FB_IMG_1594120053767.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="761" data-original-width="960" height="318" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rlx601AtKhc/XwrT_JnFwTI/AAAAAAAAELY/jIHong-Htuk3uOrqT6hjTL-zAYIIlCghgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h318/FB_IMG_1594120053767.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: x-small;">Special thanks to Tony King for the header photo, adapted from</span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: x-small;"> the </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: x-small;">original dust jacket of the 1971 Jerry Hopkins biography</span></div>Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-18390686074477361122020-10-14T00:26:00.013-07:002021-05-24T07:37:20.230-07:00 Cliff Richard, 80 Today! A Guest Blog<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">As most Cliff Richard fans will know, today marks his 80th birthday, and to celebrate this milestone, there is a new Cliff book released today, but this one is unlike any other Cliff book before it, so I invited one of the book's team, Vic Rust, to share the story of how the creation and making of the <i>Thank You For A Lifetime</i> birthday and charity book came about, and reveal the story behind the evolution of the project, how it progressed and evolved from an idea into a fabulous looking book, especially as I had been invited to write the forward for it, which l have included at the end of this blog. Below is what Vic told me and will no doubt enthrall every Cliff fan, reader and contributor of this truly amazing book!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Vic's Story</span></i></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Sitting here, holding my copy of the <i>Thank You for a Lifetime </i>charity book a week before Sir Cliff Richard’s 80th birthday, it seems incredible how much effort and energy has been expended in the last sixteen months to make this beautiful book happen.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XbFi3mVFZKw/X39j1mtUmqI/AAAAAAAAEdM/Y0uPNfvIoLQ12EKZx8zST0FkSgaMQ10tACLcBGAsYHQ/s1088/FB_IMG_1602183959060.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1088" data-original-width="771" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XbFi3mVFZKw/X39j1mtUmqI/AAAAAAAAEdM/Y0uPNfvIoLQ12EKZx8zST0FkSgaMQ10tACLcBGAsYHQ/w284-h400/FB_IMG_1602183959060.jpg" width="284" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Terrie Hope, a regular contributor on the internet radio station Cliff Richard Radio, had been in contact with me as she regularly used my book <i>The Cliff Richard Recording Catalogue</i>, to assist with compiling her show, and I had contributed a Cliff-based quiz for her to use on air. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">We had been talking about the <i>Diamond</i> project, which had raised a lot of money for Cliff’s charities by creating a CD of a song (<i>Diamond</i>) based on lyrical submissions from fans. It was she who raised the interesting prospect of creating a book to mark Sir Cliff’s 80th birthday on 14 October 2020, featuring contributions from fans.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">I was as keen as Terrie was, if we were going to go ahead with it, to make this a great book, and I set to work on designing a process to manage obtaining all the contributions from fans and getting them into book form. It was clear from the outset that we had something potentially wonderful and extraordinary on our hands.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">From the beginning, I was eager for the contributions to mean something and to weed out the inevitable fantasies and offers of marriage. One of our clear priorities was to ensure that all submissions should be focused on how Cliff had inspired them – through his performances, his music, his talent and his faith.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Why did it need to be so complex? That part was simple. We were inviting contributors to donate £5 to put 250-word (max.) memory into the book. But each contribution needed to be vetted to ensure that they were legible and didn’t malign anyone, and specifically Cliff. In addition, we were allowing pictures to be included, which created extra work in tracking down and verifying copyright for their use (it was here that we quickly realized that a lot of the photos coming in were taken by Birch Photography at Cliff’s various wine-signings in Portugal, and we were so grateful to Dan Birch for allowing us blanket use of those photographs).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A3B3LPI6A44/X39rHHfoF4I/AAAAAAAAEdY/Q6gkwC7aAzY7eFax27lQ--rgS-FzS5ubgCLcBGAsYHQ/s827/received_1405021963025513.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="619" data-original-width="827" height="390" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A3B3LPI6A44/X39rHHfoF4I/AAAAAAAAEdY/Q6gkwC7aAzY7eFax27lQ--rgS-FzS5ubgCLcBGAsYHQ/w520-h390/received_1405021963025513.jpeg" width="520" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Terrie's <i>Thank You For A Lifetime</i> production office, where she multitasked on three screens</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The project was still evolving. I had the idea of contacting a few celebrities for a contribution to the book, drawing up a possible list, which including the likes of Garth Hewitt, Chris Eaton, the Shadows and many more. I was also keen to get Nigel Goodall involved as he was co-curator of Cliff’s recordings for almost 20 years, to write the foreword. We started getting the responses in from fans and celebrities and it became evident very quickly that we were being overwhelmed by all the work that needed to be done. Terrie was on her own with managing the welter of emails coming in asking questions, making charity payments, providing photos and textual submissions and so on, while I was working at formatting the text and checking the quality of each of the photographs.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In came help from Jane Pinder, who primarily managed the promotional efforts on Facebook, proofread the sections of the book I had formatted, and helped with the huge backlog of emails. She also took up the challenge of contacting celebrities and came up with a magnificent list of them, which were very quickly added to the book, lifting an already brilliant project further.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then another stroke of fortune came to the project: Mish Kloboucnik, who had provided the famous “Cliff leaping” photo for much of Cliff’s 75th birthday publicity, generously offered us a brilliant selection of photos. The inclusion on the front and back cover as well as montage sections within the book elevated the project even further.</span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The cycles of submission, verification, proofreading, managing communication continued until the beginning of August 2020, when we closed the doors. Now I had to produce the book (reining in the talents of my wife, Jane, to help with the cover)! To receive the draft copy of a book is always a thrill and both Terrie and Jane loved the result, with only a handful of tweaks needed.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At this time, as we raised the curtain to take pre-orders from those who had contributed, the tsunami of emails came in again. We needed more help and were very lucky to exploit the many skills of Trina Harris, who quietly and diligently crested the huge wave of emails and gave great assistance in the management of the orders, particularly as Jane initiated our plan for promotion around the various Facebook pages.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, with the book completed, I am happy to say that our efforts have been more than rewarded by the wonderful comments from those who have seen at least part of the book. But, when Terrie approached me about this project all those months ago, we agreed that we wanted to raise as much as possible for The Sir Cliff Richard Charitable Trust: That has been more than granted. At the time of writing this blog, we have raised over £10,000 and that figure is rising by the day.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In some ways, it’s sad to see this project completed (in others – neglected housework, lack of sleep, square eyes staring at multiple screens, etc. – it’s a relief!). It really has been a team effort to get this extraordinary and beautiful book out. But, without the heartfelt contributions from fans and the involvement of people with whom Cliff has worked, the book would be a considerably lesser beast than it is.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><i>My Foreword</i></span></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I wasn't old enough to remember Cliff Richard at the start, when he was the new British singing sensation of the late 50s. In fact it wasn't until the early 1960s that my sister got a record player. Like so many others of my age, l was primarily exposed to Cliff's early material, songs like <i>The Young Ones</i>, <i>Do You Wanna Dance</i>, <i>Summer Holiday</i>, and the one that really caught my attention - <i>We Say Yeah</i>. To most teenagers, music was very much a question of choice! And in my day the choice was simple. Cliff Richard or Elvis Presley.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">But that all changed very quickly - soon the choice was the Beatles versus the Rolling Stones - and over the next few years Cliff and Elvis faded into the background leaving the most die-hard fans to admit that they still bought Cliff and Elvis records. And even though l wasn't one of those diehards l continued to collect Elvis records, while my sister collected Cliff - a treasury of wonderful and exciting music for both of us! Soon l had become fascinated not just with the records, but with the movies too! But never in my wildest dreams, did l expect to become part of that magical world by writing about Cliff's recording sessions or becoming one of the curators and reissue producers of his EMI catalogue from 1996 to 2018, and never did l expect to meet or interview him on so many occasions, observe him at work in the studio, trawl though hundreds of tape boxes at Abbey Road's tape library or discover a wealth of unreleased material that would now be made available for the first time! I still find it hard to believe that when l watched Cliff on the big screen in <i>Summer Holiday</i> at my local picturehouse, or listened to the soundtrack album my sister gave me for my 13th birthday that 40 years later l would be working on a special edition of that very same album which would now include never before released alternate versions of the same songs that had enthralled me and so many others during the early months of 1963. It wasn't something l ever expected to play a role in! Neither as a teenager could l have foreseen that l would be asked to write a foreword for a book of birthday tributes from fans, musicians, and personal friends for the 80th birthday of the boy, who in 1958, we were told by Jack Good, was going to rock the world!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-abbSnzilTeE/X4AW6BMyw_I/AAAAAAAAEeI/2rjBvVEw-ygqFb8kiM_5m1pH0fJihckXgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1366/FB_IMG_1602229410304.jpg"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1366" height="281" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-abbSnzilTeE/X4AW6BMyw_I/AAAAAAAAEeI/2rjBvVEw-ygqFb8kiM_5m1pH0fJihckXgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h281/FB_IMG_1602229410304.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Postscript</span></i></h3><div><i><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Since the publication of the book, <span style="text-align: start;">Terrie, Vic, Jane and Trina (the editorial team), received a thank you letter from Cliff's Secretary and Charitable Trust Trustee, Tania Hogan, at CRO about the money raised so far from sales of the book. It read: "</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thank you all as the editorial team, for your sterling work in producing the fabulous book of messages to Sir Cliff for his 80th Birthday, together with the associated fundraising from all the fans. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">I banked the latest £10,600 cheques last week, and previously 3 cheques totalling £218 from you, so the current total on this project stands st £10,828 for The Sir Cliff Richard Charitable Trust. A fabulous sum of money, for which Sir Cliff and the Trustees are incredibly grateful. These funds will enable the Trust to support a number of worthy charities who appeal for funds - in such a difficult time for all charities. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: start;">Thank you is not enough really - but rest assured every penny of these funds raised will be well </span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: start;">used to help others. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: start;">Please do pass on our grateful thanks, and best wishes to everyone concerned in the fabulous book - it's certainly one to treasure."</span></div></div></div>Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-28727523187746019352020-06-25T05:07:00.018-07:002021-06-20T03:02:47.213-07:00The Story Behind Elvis' 18th #1
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span></span></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></font></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SKyX0HJN3ZI/Xu9Or6nkhwI/AAAAAAAAD6g/IjCWsIGPfvQCRIgRHK3GLsTV-k-DWx8dQCK4BGAsYHg/s912/tom-holkenborg-junkie-xl-elvis-vs-junkie-xl-a-little-less-conversation.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="912" data-original-width="912" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SKyX0HJN3ZI/Xu9Or6nkhwI/AAAAAAAAD6g/IjCWsIGPfvQCRIgRHK3GLsTV-k-DWx8dQCK4BGAsYHg/w400-h400/tom-holkenborg-junkie-xl-elvis-vs-junkie-xl-a-little-less-conversation.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">When l was asked by BMG in early 2002 to provide a track and discography history for Elvis' recording of<i> A Little Less Conversation</i>, I was surprised that they were asking me and not their Elvis catalogue producers and curators, Ernst Jorgensen and Roger Semon. What they really wanted to know was where the alternate vocal version featured in the <i>Ocean's Eleven</i> movie had come from. Even more surprising was that they were planning to release it as a new single. It was surprising because the original track had been a mediocre movie song that was released without much attention being paid to it! Of course that was before it had been remixed by JXL as a dance mix, had been sent out as a 12-inch advance promo to clubs for DJs to test club goers reaction to it and got picked up by Nike for their inescapable FIFA Word Cup advertising campaign, so I told them what I knew, and had been asked to research!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">What I came up with was this ... the original single version was released in November 1968 with <i>Almost In Love</i> on the B-side. In the US, the single had been released two months earlier with both sides reaching the Top 100 at #69 and #95 respectively. In the UK, without any official cinema release of Elvis’<i> Live A Little, Love A Little</i>, in which both songs were featured, the single failed to reach the chart at all.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Recorded during the MGM soundtrack sessions at Western Recorders in Los Angeles on 7 March 1968, and with no soundtrack album to accompany the movie, the song was not issued on LP until November 1970, as one of ten tracks on the <i>Almost In Love</i> budget album.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">A new vocal version using the original film backing track was taped on 24 June 1968, again at Western Recorders, during the studio recordings for the Elvis NBC-TV Special. With various portions of the show abandoned once other segments had been decided upon, <i>A Little Less Conversation</i> was cut from both the final production of the television show and simultaneous soundtrack album. It did not surface until 1998 on<i> Memories: The 68 Comeback Special</i>. Another previously unreleased performance, found on an acetate (a disc cut for evaluation purposes only) turned up three years later on the movie soundtrack for the 2001 remake of Frank Sinatra’s 1960<i> Ocean’s Eleven</i> starring George Clooney.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The original 1968 single version was re-mastered for release on <i>Command Performances: The Essential 60’s Masters II</i> in 1995, and in the same year, with the longer 1970 album version, on the <i>Doubles Features </i>set for <i>Live A Little, Love A Little, The Trouble With Girls, Charro!</i> and <i>Change of Habit</i>. The vocal track used on the JXL remix and in the World Cup 2002 Nike commercial was the one featured on the<i> Ocean’s Eleven</i> soundtrack, and whether from single, film or television tapings, only ever existed on an acetate.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The<i> Elvis Vs JXL</i> remix version was released on 25 June 2002, and debuted as a rather surprising #1 in the UK, preventing Kylie Minogue's latest single<i> Love At First Sight</i>, her third from her globally successful <i>Fever</i> album, reaching the top spot. The Elvis remix marked the first time an artist (namely Junkie XL, aka Tom Holkenborg) outside the Presley organisation has been allowed to remix an Elvis song. According to the Official Chart Company, it sold a staggering 243,000 copies, and gave Elvis his 18th UK Number One single logging four weeks at the top, and went on to be 2002's fifth best selling single with 634,000 copies sold that year.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h3 style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Postscript</span></h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">According to Piers Beagley of the Elvis Information Network, some years after the track history and research I supplied to BMG in 2002, and the remix had been a #1 hit, and featured as a bonus track on the <i>30 #1 Hits</i> album that October, Ernst Jorgensen changed his mind about the NBC acetate, and has since said that it was in fact take 2 from the <i>Live A Little, Love A Little</i> sessions, which was the same version used in the Clooney film. Originally, the acetate was found among the NBC demos, but it was in fact for Elvis to listen to, and was not actually a new vocal take. What fooled Ernst and others at the time (apparently) was that the acetate had a fabulous thumping audio mix compared to the original session tapes, so they presumed it had to be an alternate version as it sounded so different.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3wP6iBYGLnE/XvIxBmfUElI/AAAAAAAAD-Q/6c7Mzy8saNAfBfDPpeZafEcEuo1YJ3FZACK4BGAsYHg/s2780/Image284.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2780" data-original-width="2766" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3wP6iBYGLnE/XvIxBmfUElI/AAAAAAAAD-Q/6c7Mzy8saNAfBfDPpeZafEcEuo1YJ3FZACK4BGAsYHg/w398-h400/Image284.jpg" width="398" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i style="color: #b51200; font-size: x-small;">With thanks to Tony King for the scan</i><span> </span><i style="color: #b51200; font-size: x-small;">of the original 1968 picture sleeve</i></div></div></div>Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-58710609799368161672020-06-06T13:12:00.008-07:002021-05-10T02:43:24.730-07:00Elvis' Most Historic Live Audience Recording<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0usLb1EvOnA/XoTxP69yn8I/AAAAAAAADvE/iMPrZThuBocOZw_YjuhJLQTRuMjM7yXUQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/New%2BYears%2BEve%2B-%2BFront.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1590" data-original-width="1600" height="398" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0usLb1EvOnA/XoTxP69yn8I/AAAAAAAADvE/iMPrZThuBocOZw_YjuhJLQTRuMjM7yXUQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h398/New%2BYears%2BEve%2B-%2BFront.jpg" width="400" /></a></b></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">It is the early part of 1977 and I am standing outside a small independent record store in Shoreditch staring at an Elvis album displayed in the window that I had not seen before! That album was a 2 record set bootleg that has since been tagged as Elvis' most historic live audience recording that was simply light years ahead of anything that had been released during his lifetime! Even the sleeve notes were light years ahead of anything that RCA had given the Elvis fan! It was obvious that this was no ordinary live album! It was an attention grabber, the likes of which we had never seen before! My thoughts now, as back then, were how come, it took a bootleg record label to deliver the kind of live album, both in sound and packaging, that Elvis fans at that time, had craved to see released for years!</div><div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<p align="justify" class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><i></i><p></p>
</div><div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
The album was recorded on two C120 compact cassettes by superfan, police officer John Herman, who
placed two tape decks on top of the stage, which explained the high
quality audio, even though John’s original plan was to plug his tape recorders
into the the sound system, with the help of sound engineer Bill
Porter, to create a soundboard recording, that didn't work out as planned. Looking at the album jacket today, it's still a stunning piece of cover art that at the time put RCA firmly in the shade. Not only did it feature 16 great photos shot by John, and Bob Heiss, from the actual show, but also included the kind of insightful sleeve note that we never had on any officially released live product. Printed on a bright
blue background, the overall design was
exceptional, and considering the fact that it was an audience
recording, the sound quality was equally out of this world for its time. It’s no wonder that it
sold out so quickly, and resulted in
multiple reprints over the years since its original 1977 release. If there were any awards for
bootleg records, this one would have walked away with every one for sound, design and marketing, and due to its popularity would have, by today's standards, easily earned itself a certified gold or platinum status.</p>
</div><div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wDOHP-vnBZ0/Xtr4j2MeIaI/AAAAAAAAD10/SXtVYjNPNoQYnRzaT19an1SwzKC8BQzjgCK4BGAsYHg/s7292/New%2BYears%2BEve%2B-%2BInner%2BB.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3737" data-original-width="7292" height="274" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wDOHP-vnBZ0/Xtr4j2MeIaI/AAAAAAAAD10/SXtVYjNPNoQYnRzaT19an1SwzKC8BQzjgCK4BGAsYHg/s320/New%2BYears%2BEve%2B-%2BInner%2BB.jpg" width="535" /></a></div><div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></div><div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">The whole thing was perfectly summed up in the sleeve note by J.J.R... <i>Whatever
it is that Elvis Presley has when it comes to generating excitement
in a live audience, he has always had. Early on it was evident.
Pandemonium. Chaos. If you would ask HIM what it is, he would
probably say, “Beats me Jack.” But the fact remains almost from
the first time he stepped on stage, audiences have been caught in the
magnetism, charisma, (or whatever the hell you want to call it) of
the man.</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>
The
screams, the yells, the shouts. It had never happened before. True,
Sinatra had generated an incredible excitement, but they swooned for
“Frankie boy.” The screams and shouts that accompanied Elvis
were in keeping with the unleashing of the raw power being generated
by Tupelo, Mississippi’s favourite son.
</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>
Then
for a long time the screams and shouts were silenced.</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>
I
mean who can scream to HE’S YOUR UNCLE NOT YOUR DAD and the rest
that those of us who dug Presley were forced to sit through in the
movie houses?
</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>
And
just then, when most of the civilized world had counted Elvis Aron
down and out, he unleashed the raw power once again, and about ten
years ago the screams and shouts, this time accomapnied by swoons and
shrieks, made a comeback. The man was working ‘live’ again. And
when you refer to a Presley concert as ‘live’ you can bet your
Sun 78’s that ‘live’ takes on a whole new meaning.
</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>
A
Presley audience is special. Watching them is part of the show. But
then watching them is impossible, because if you’re watching them
it means you’re in the same room. And if you’re in the same room,
it means you’re one of them. It’s that kind of vicious circle.
</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>
Which
brings us to this record. <br /></i></div><div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4tmmPDlGrzo/XtrPPNnmgHI/AAAAAAAAD1U/2UlpmgQ08_AIuXCmHWu7w5AbvRReRkqNACK4BGAsYHg/s1260/Side%2B3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1260" data-original-width="1242" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4tmmPDlGrzo/XtrPPNnmgHI/AAAAAAAAD1U/2UlpmgQ08_AIuXCmHWu7w5AbvRReRkqNACK4BGAsYHg/w395-h400/Side%2B3.jpg" width="395" /></a></div><i><br /></i></div><div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>
Why
another live recording? Well one of the disadvantages of Elvis’
re-emergence as a live artist was the lack of originality on the
part of his record company and management people with regard to
record releases. The Presley-record buying public was a victim of
over-kill. One live recording after another was released, and the
Elvis fans like dutiful collectors they are, bought one package
after another. Until finally it’s to the point, where even the
die-hard collectors are thumbing their collective noses at the little
pooch listening attentively to the gramaphone. We’ve had it. I mean
how many versions of CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE does one need
before the message comes across?
</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>
Alright,
now granted CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE is included in this
recording, as are many of the other songs Elvis continually does in
his act night after night. That can’t be helped. After all, it’s
what the people pay to see. But here for the the first time on
record, is the excitement of an Elvis Presley concert in its
totality.
</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>
December
31, 1976. The hands of the clock nearly straight up approaching
midnight and a new year. Within these album jackets are the moments
as they happened. Nothing deleted. Not just the high’s but also the
quieter moments – which in their strange ways are as exciting as
the fever-pitch moments. A man being called to the stage by Elvis,
and then presenting Presley with an appropriate Bicentennial gift of
a “Liberty Bell”. (The man is Jim Curtin, a long time Presley
afficiando from Derby, Pa.) Elvis introducing his “daddy” and
little Lisa. And then there’s his introduction of the song FAIRYTALE, which he describes as “the story of my life.” Most
astonishing is his compliance with spontaeneous requests from the
audience.</i></div><div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i></i></div><div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>
He
was having a good time, and wanted everyone to be happy. It was like
the man was entertaining the 16,409 people in the Pittsburgh Civic
Arena that night in his own living room. You know how you get when
you have a bunch of friends over on New Year’s Eve to celebrate –
their wishes are your commands. You wait on them hand and foot. You
mingle with them, talk with them, and by the time everyone splits
half-gassed with lamp shades on their heads, everyone had a hell of a
good time. And you as the host are the one responsible.
</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>
Well,
that’s the feeling one gets after listening to this recording. It
was like, everyone was invited to Graceland, and Elvis threw this
unbelievable bash, and a good time was had by all.
</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>
Not
that the evening didn’t have it’s musical highlights. It
assuredly did. Some of the songs are here for the first time on a
live recording. BIG BOSS MAN, FAIRYTALE, HURT, RECONSIDER BABY, the
beautiful EARLY MORNING RAIN, LOVE LETTERS, two surprise ‘oldies’
LITTLE SISTER and IT’S NOW OR NEVER. And the whole evening is
capped off by Elvis sitting at the piano and performing RAGS TO
RICHES and the haunting UNCHAINED MELODY.</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>
No
shortcuts here. Ninety minutes of non-stop Presley. No edits. No
hype, No canned connection. Back to the days of the one-night stands
down South. Audiences saw him then for the first time. Not quite sure
what he made happen, but enjoying whatever it was.</i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i>
If
throughout the rest of the year there was a Presley drought,
listening to the man belt them out as ‘76 gave way to ‘77, one
could stop, ponder, and say “it was a very good year!” </i></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br />
<div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nf7guwjoSx8/XoTzJjBlj6I/AAAAAAAADvY/abqxNMWyomcyluSwLdcQZF5c47aEXV5mwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/New%2BYears%2BEve%2B-%2BBack.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1593" data-original-width="1600" height="397" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nf7guwjoSx8/XoTzJjBlj6I/AAAAAAAADvY/abqxNMWyomcyluSwLdcQZF5c47aEXV5mwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h397/New%2BYears%2BEve%2B-%2BBack.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="color: #b51200;"><font size="1"><i><br /></i></font></span></div><div class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #b51200;"><font size="1"><i>With thanks to Tony King for the sleeve and label scans </i></font></span><br /></div></div>
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Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-55673596876113216032020-04-23T03:12:00.003-07:002021-04-22T00:37:47.485-07:0042 Years On: My First Elvis Monthly Review <div align="justify" style="line-height: 150%;">
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Back in 1978, when I was the Sussex Branch Leader of the Official Elvis Presley Fan Club of Great Britain, long before I was a graphic designer or a writer, even though I was producing fan club newsletters with various articles, news and reviews, when RCA Records in London sent me a review copy of Elvis' latest gospel compilation album, I had the idea to write a review for <i>Elvis Monthly</i>, which was published in the August 1978 edition, and to this day remains my first published work in a magazine. What follows is the result... <br />
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It is not the easiest of tasks to find something new to say about an
album of reissued tracks, for this is the case with the Elvis LP, <i>He
Walks Beside Me </i>(RCA 12772). Instead of repeating what has
already been said regarding the material, I have decided to give a
factual account of the songs; including dates of the recording
sessions, original releases and other relevant information, together
with a look at the sleeve design, which seems to have had a little
more thought put into its presentation than usual.</div>
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So let’s start with
the sleeve. The front has a really good close-up shot from the <i>Aloha</i>
TV Special, one which I don’t think has been used before; to the
right of the photo, Elvis’s name is stylishly printed in a white
ornate style of flourished lettering that looks highly impressive
against the black coloured background. Immediately below is the
album’s full title<i> He Walks Beside Me – Favourite Songs of
Faith And Inspiration </i>printed in smaller type. The reverse side
of the sleeve has a centre panel mounted on a black background. At
the top of this panel a photograph of a church spire is displayed.
Immediately below are the song titles together with a few credits,
such as “Reissue produced by Joan Deary” and “All the material
previously released except <i>The Impossible Dream </i>and<i> If I
Can Dream</i>” – and that is basically it. A sleeve that in my
opinion uses some imagination, and is both eye-catching and
mood-setting for an album of Gospel selections, which are as follows
:-</div>
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<i>Side One</i><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>HE
IS MY EVERYTHING</b> Recorded 9 June, 1971, RCA Nashville. Originally
issued in 1972 on </span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">He
Touched Me </span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">LP
(LSP4690).</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>MIRACLE OF THE ROSARY</b> Recorded 15 May, 1971, RCA
Nashville. Originally issued in 1972 on</span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">
Elvis Now </span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">LP (LSP
4671).</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>WHERE DID THEY GO LORD</b> Recorded 22 September, 1970, RCA
Nashville. Originally issued in 1971 as the flip side to the </span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Rags
To Riches</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> single (RCA
2084). UK chart position: No.9. Never before issued as an LP.</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>SOMEBODY BIGGER THAN YOU OR I</b> Recorded 27 May, 1966, RCA
Nashville. Originally issued in 1967 on </span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">How
Great Thou Art </span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">LP
(LPM/LSP 3758). The session that produced this track and the album
was the first in 28 months that Elvis recorded anything else than
movie soundtracks. It also marked the debut of producer Felton
Jarvis. The album received a Grammy award for Best Sacred Performance.</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>AN EVENING PRAYER</b> Recorded 18 May 1971, RCA
Nashville. Originally issued in 1972 on </span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">He
Touched Me </span></i>LP (LSP4690).<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>THE
IMPOSSIBLE DREAM</b> </span>Recorded 16 February 1972, Hilton Hotel, Las
Vegas (live recording for RCA). Previously unreleased. Already
released version appears on the <i>Madison Square Garden</i> LP,
recorded 10 June, 1972. Difference between the two takes is not
highly noticeable.</div>
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<i>Side Two</i><br />
<b>IF I CAN
DREAM</b> Recorded 29 June, 1968, NBC Studios, Burbank. The second of
the so-called new tracks which is a slightly different version to the
one previously released as a single in 1969, in that the back-up
vocals are missing, and that is about the only noticeable
difference.<br />
<b>PADRE </b>Recorded 15 May, 1971, RCA Nashville.
Originally issued in 1973 0n <i>Elvis</i> LP (APL1 0283).<br />
<b>KNOWN
ONLY TO HIM</b> Recorded 31 October 1960, RCA Nashville. Originally
issued in 1961 on <i>His Hand In Mine </i>LP (LPM/LSP 2328), also
issued as a single in the US during 1966, coupled with <i>Joshua Fit
The Battle</i>.<br />
<b>WHO AM I</b> Recorded 22 February, 1969, American
Sound Studios, Memphis. Originally issued in 1971 on <i>You’lll
Never Walk Alone </i>LP (CAL 2472).<br />
<b>HOW GREAT THOU ART</b>
Recorded 25 May, 1966, RCA Nashville. Originally issued in 1967 on
award-winning album of the same name. Also issued in 1967 on <i>A
Legendary Performer Volume 2</i> LP (CPL1 1349), also as a single
(US only) in 1969, coupled with <i>His Hand In Mine</i>. A live
version appears on the album: <i>Elvis As Recorded Live On Stage in
Memphis </i>(CPL1/APD1 0606), released in 1974.</div><div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PhyLx4HMalE/YIEnDpcwL_I/AAAAAAAAFMU/umXGiocAagYkGzYruN6NF4ya9P4nSQX-wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1590/IMG_20210421_122757.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1579" data-original-width="1590" height="398" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PhyLx4HMalE/YIEnDpcwL_I/AAAAAAAAFMU/umXGiocAagYkGzYruN6NF4ya9P4nSQX-wCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h398/IMG_20210421_122757.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
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Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-25028407938526303992020-02-20T01:58:00.007-08:002021-04-25T00:44:04.678-07:00Cilla - The Lost Sleeve Notes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
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Back in the mid 60s, two years into my teenage years, I was like most other teenagers of that era, and spending most of my pocket money on records. With the release of Cilla Black's previously unreleased single last week, recorded a decade later when rock music came of age, just as I did, I am reminded of when her first album hit the streets, which last year was celebrated with the release of an expanded edition on Cherry Red Records. It was recorded in the
same studio as her mates, the Beatles recorded their first album, was produced by the same producer George Martin, and released on the same Parlophone label with a sleeve that was typical of the period with a full colour photo on the front, but above all, it showcased, somewhat surprisingly, a wide array of song material and musical styles. With an expanded edition already released as part of Cherry Red's original album series, that includes both the mono and stereo versions of the LP, I would say, it is arguably, Cilla's most iconic.<br />
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One of the joys of buying records in the 60s was looking through the racks of album sleeves in record stores, spotting them displayed in the window, listening to them in one of the listening booths that were common place in most record shops, or reading the sleeve notes on the back cover to find out more about the album! Some records you would come across by chance, and others you would know about from browsing through the pages of the NME (New Musical Express) for news of new releases and reading reviews.<br />
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When Cilla's album was first released in January 1965, mono was then the popular format, and it was the
mono version I remember queuing up for at my local record store in
Tunbridge Wells at the time. What I also loved about albums back in those days, were the sleeve notes. For Cilla's album, the Beatles press officer Tony Barrow wrote them, and to this day, are a stark reminder of the fabulous details we got on the back of an LP record sleeve. For those that have the Cherry Red CD release, and have never seen or read what Tony wrote all those years ago, here they are for you to enjoy, together with Tony's track annotations... <br />
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<i>Side One</i><br />
<b>GOIN’ OUT OF MY HEAD </b>Just right for Cilla. Originally recorded by America’s Little Anthony and The Imperials.<br />
<b>EVERY LITTLE BIT HURTS </b>Soulful, dramatic. Featured previously by one of Cilla favourite American songstresses.<br />
<b>BABY IT’S YOU </b>Cilla said about this one: “It brings back memories of the Beatles in their Liverpool days. John used to sing it. Call it one of my all time favourites”.<br />
<b>DANCING IN THE STREET </b>Often used with great success in Cilla’s stage act. Another of her personal favourites.<br />
<b>COME TO ME </b>Music by George Martin; lyrics by Bobby Willis. Lots of words to just a few notes.<br />
<b>OL’ MAN RIVER </b>Surprised to find this one here? A great old standard.<br />
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<i>Side Two</i><br />
<b>ONE LITTLE VOICE </b>Italian origin. Beautiful lyrics.<br />
<b>I’M NOT ALONE ANYMORE </b>A new song composed by Clive Westlake and singer Kenny Lynch. Brilliant orchestral arrangement.<br />
<b>WHAT’CHA GONNA DO ABOUT IT </b>Cilla harmonises with herself.<b><br />LOVE LETTERS </b>Accompaniment by Cilla’s favourite backing group. Another song used in her stage performances.<br />
<b>THIS EMPTY PLACE </b>Lovely tender ballad. Showcases Cilla’s considerable range.<br />
<b>YOU’D BE SO NICE TO COME HOME TO </b>A Cole Porter evergreen which Cilla has always admired.<br />
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This is Cilla Black’s first LP. Making an album gives any artiste a
wonderful freedom of choice which is not readily available in the
restricted field of singles. Cilla has taken full advantage of this
occasion by selecting twelve songs from a very wide range of
material. Among there is a new number, <i>Come To Me</i>, which was
written by Cilla’s road manager, Bobby Willis, in collaboration
with her producer, George Martin. Normally a new album can be
produced at four of five lengthy recording sessions. This one was
months in the making. The main reason was that Cilla’s studio
activities were limited to a series of short afternoon sessions
during a seven-month run of the London Palladium production STARTIME
in which she appeared between May and December of 1964. There was
one other reason for the delay. Cilla is a meticulous songstress and
until everyone was around her was totally happy about each title, she
would never pass on to another number.</div>
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Cilla was was born in Scotland Road, Liverpool on 27th May 1943, a
year or so after the enemy bombing on Merseyside’s nearby dockland
came to an end. She made her stage debut nine years later in a school
production of LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD, and when she was twelve she
played in an end-of-term interpretation of JULIUS CEASER. She left
school in July, 1958, to begin a secretarial college course, and it
led to her engagement as a typist with a Liverpool firm of cable
manufacturers at the end of the following year.</div>
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By now Cilla was taking an active interest in Merseyside’s thriving
beat scene. She was a regular visitor to the city’s network of
cellar clubs where folk like The Beatles, and Gerry and The
Pacemakers, were making their first impact. In time she became
friendly with many of the young musicians and she was asked up to the
microphone at a number of their after-hours jam sessions. For a spell
she made regular club appearances with two different groups and was
billed as <i>Swinging Cilla. </i>
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By the end of 1961, Brian Epstein had signed his first artists and
was becoming a familiar figure in Liverpool’s clubland. Inevitably,
Brian heard Cilla’s name and her singing.
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Meantime, despite approaches from several enthusiastic managers,
Cilla had to decide to shelve any ideas of a professional
show-business career. She was making good progress in the office and
was a part-time cloakroom attendant at a city beat club in her lunch
hours and during her free evenings.</div>
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Although Brian was convinced of her potential as a performer, he
realised the wisdom of postponing any formal approach until Cilla was
ready to welcome his proposals.</div>
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In September, 1963, Cilla’s first single, <i>Love of the Loved</i>,
was issued. Under Brian's guidance she set out on the road which has
led her so swiftly and so triumphantly towards the top of her
profession. The following year brought a series of
entertainment-world accolades, not the least of which were the
extended London Palladium season, and her appearance in the 1964
Royal Variety Show. Before the end of the year she topped several
popularity polls. 1965 began splendidly with an announcement that
Cilla had collected far more votes than any her Top Twenty
contemporaries (male or female) in the poll organised by FABULOUS
magazine.</div>
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The release of this album is, in itself, another noteworthy landmark
in her remarkable career. For the vivacious young lady who was
christened Priscilla Maria Veronica White (and who switched to Cilla
Back because she was persuaded that the darker shade suited her style
of singing), the future looks good. Very good.</div><div align="justify" class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CYiosPX9dOA/YIUdN9rh-3I/AAAAAAAAFNo/AMtJ28IqJzI9zSL7yXv1Av00IgcK5kKOgCLcBGAsYHQ/s600/IMG_20210425_084007.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="600" height="399" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CYiosPX9dOA/YIUdN9rh-3I/AAAAAAAAFNo/AMtJ28IqJzI9zSL7yXv1Av00IgcK5kKOgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h399/IMG_20210425_084007.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-59894938093391088822019-08-21T02:16:00.002-07:002021-04-01T03:51:13.721-07:00Q&A with Lily Collins<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I recently had the opportunity to experience the love, friendship and adventure of an iconic
storyteller in the film biopic of J.R.R Tolkien. From the legendary halls of Oxford to the
grim and bloody trenches of World War I, this enthralling biopic
explores the early years of J.R.R Tolkien (played by Nicholas Hoult) and the
relationships that defined the legendary author he would become.
Chronicling his romance with Edith Brant (played by Lily Collins), as well as
the various members of the Tea Club, Barrovian Society, Tolkien
slowly grows from a shy and bookish young man into one of history’s
most beloved writers, seasoned by life, and everything that comes
with it.</div>
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In a Q&A interview with Lily Collins, she talked about the role she played in this remarkable movie. For those who are not familiar with Lily's work, she broke out as an actor with the likes of <i>Priest,
Abduction </i>and<i> Mirror Mirror</i>, where she played Snow White.
She then starred in <i>The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Stuck
in Love The English Teacher </i>and<i> Love, Rosie</i>. She won a
Golden Globe nomination for <i>Rules Don't Apply</i> and earned much
praise for <i>To the Bone</i> and the TV miniseries <i>Les
Miserables</i>.
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<b>In what ways did the story of Tolkien resonate with you, Lily?</b></div>
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<b>Lily Collins</b>:
Something that resonates with me very strongly in the story is that
one can have a soulmate and it doesn’t even have to be romantic. It
can be a friendship, and in this story we deal with Edith and
Tolkien’s love, and that from a very young age was a soulmate
connection. But he also has these three friends who are very much
soulmates in their own right. You don’t necessarily know the impact
you are going to have on someone and vice versa. It could be years
later that you are still having that impact on them. Also, Tolkien,
to me, is a creator of stories that deeply impacted my wanting to be
an actor.</div>
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<b>How so?</b></div>
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<b>LC</b>: I lived
in the English countryside when I was little. It was very Shire-like
and I used to go around the garden pretending that there were magical
creatures everywhere. I would read the books and disappear into this
world in my head and I wanted one day to translate that to other
people. Acting is exactly what that does for me and, ironically, I
ended up doing a movie about the man behind that. Tolkien found the
magic in the mundane and in nature and that felt very connected to me
from such a young age.
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<b>Did you read
other books in that genre? C. S. Lewis, maybe?</b></div>
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<b>LC</b>: Anything
fairy tale. C. S. Lewis, Harry Potter, Tolkien, anything fantasy
based. I also loved reading the darker side of fairy tales, like the
Grimm stories, which maybe are not the Disney versions we all know.</div>
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<b>Who did you want
to be in the Tolkien books? </b>
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<b>LC</b>: The elven
characters resonated very deeply with me because I used to run around
the garden pretending there were elves and fairies everywhere. I
auditioned for one of the Peter Jackson films to play an elven
character, one of hundreds of people, probably, and didn’t end up
getting it. But then again, eight years later here I am playing the
woman who partly inspired her and was quite muse like in that regard
for all the elven characters. That was something I felt naturally
inclined to.</div>
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<b>What happened at
your Peter Jackson audition, Lily?</b></div>
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<b>LC</b>: I didn’t
do well. There was no script to read, just these sides that were
quite confidential. Don’t ask me to do it now because I won’t be
able to but we had to speak Elfish! And we had to make it up because
they hadn’t given us a proper language. It was the role Evangeline
Lilly played [Tauriel], so another Lilly, but not this Lily! It was
just an honour to just go in for it.</div>
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<b>Was Peter there?</b></div>
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<b>LC</b>: No, it
did not get that far. So he probably never even saw it.<br />
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<br />
<b>Both these
characters follow their dreams so how important was that for you, to
be true to yourself and to follow your dreams?</b></div>
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<b>LC</b>: Something
that I have always been taught me from an early age is to follow your
gut and your heart and to do what it is that pleases your soul. But
that doesn’t always come easily. Growing into adulthood has been a
journey of discovering what it is that I really enjoy and why I enjoy
it, as well learning about myself, and getting to know that road
blocks are going to come your way; it is how you deal with them that
defines who you are and where you end up. That is pretty much the
book I wrote a couple of years ago — the book dealt with those
kinds of things, too. It is an ever-evolving process and the goal is
always to stay true to what makes you happy and to find people to
surround yourself with who respect that, and maybe share some of your
interests.
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<b>What are your own
experiences with writing? </b>
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<b>LC</b>: I used to
write for magazines when I was younger. I wrote for US and UK
magazines, online stuff, and then I wrote a book two or three years
ago which was a memoir of sorts.</div>
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<b>What inspired you
to write the book?</b></div>
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<b>LC</b>: I was
receiving a lot of messages on social media, specifically Instagram,
from young women all over the world expressing to me their
insecurities and fears and feelings about themselves and always
prefacing them by saying, ‘I know that you cannot relate to this
because you are an actress and live in Hollywood, but this is my
insecurity, my issue.’ I thought they were so brave because on
Instagram your photo is right there so it isn’t anonymous and I
thought, ‘If they are going to be brave and do that, I am going to
be brave and do that.’ They are feeling alone and if they don’t
feel alone, maybe it will help them get through it and maybe I will
find something therapeutic about that, too. So it was really just me
trying to say, ‘You are not alone so be brave.’ And for me, I
felt I had a lot of baggage that I was carrying around, not that
anyone knew about it but I thought I had to get rid of that in order
to take on the baggage of any characters I played.</div>
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<b>Was it difficult
deciding what to sift out when writing the book?</b></div>
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<b>LC</b>: I’m not
sure that there was a lot that I left out, to be honest. Maybe there
will be a Part 2! At the beginning when I started to write it, my
editor said, ‘Don’t sell yourself short. You can go a little bit
deeper here, here and here.’ It was interesting because as I was
writing, I was shooting <i>To The Bone</i>, which is about a subject
matter that I write about [anorexia]. And my experiences within
acting greatly influenced my understanding of some of my chapters.
Therefore, I went deeper into those chapters and came to an inner
peace more because I had worked through them. It was really
interesting that they both married with each other.</div>
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<b>Who introduced
the Tolkien books to you? </b>
</div>
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<b>LJ</b>: I just
remember the time period of being in elementary school and having
always had this love of magic and fantasy, knowing the world of Harry
Potter and then also Tolkien; they took me away to different worlds.
I used to go to the library as a kid in school and I would just sit
and read them. It was a private time and a sense of escapism in a
way. And then I would look forward to the Peter Jackson films when
the trailers were coming out. I got really excited and I would look
at the release date and go with friends and I still have all my
ticket stubs; I keep all my ticket stubs.
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<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b>Lily, how did it
feeling turning 30?</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>LC</b>: It was
great. I had a great time. It was gong to happen regardless so I
thought I had better have a good attitude about it. I was filming in
Birmingham, Alabama and my mom flew up for my actual birthday. But
then the next weekend two of my best friends from the age of five
flew out. We took a road trip to Nashville. It was so fun. We had 36
hours. We rode horses and went to all of the honky tonks, we went to
the bars, wore cowboy boots and cowboy hats. It was great, just pure
innocent fun and then I drove back and I went to work the next day.</div>
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<b><span style="color: #660000;">TOLKIEN
debuts on Digital Download on August 26 </span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #660000;">and Blu-Ray & DVD on September 9</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #660000;"><i> <span style="font-size: x-small;">With thanks to Sadira Cunningham at Fetch Publicity </span> </i></span></div>
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Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-12121983340885814662019-07-31T06:20:00.002-07:002021-04-01T03:52:08.983-07:0050 Years Ago Tonight Ann Moses Met Elvis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
As many of my regular readers and visitors to this blog will
remember, last year, Ann Moses, the former editor of <i>Tiger Beat</i>
and the Hollywood correspondent for Britain’s <i>NME</i> wrote a
fabulous <a href="https://nigelgoodall.blogspot.com/2018/09/guest-blog-elvis-week-experience.html">guest blog</a> for me about her first ever trip to Graceland as
a guest speaker at Elvis Week 2018, and provided me with some
excellent shots of her visit, so for this blog piece, to mark the
50th anniversary of Elvis’s first live appearances in Las Vegas at
the International Hotel, I called on Ann again, to ask her if it
would be okay for me to reproduce a passage from her autobiography
(<i>Meow, My Groovy Life with Tiger Beat’s Teen Idols</i>) as she
was there on the opening night, and to this day, her account of how
it was, is probably the best I have read of Elvis’s opening night
50 years ago tonight. I
must also thank Ann for supplying the lead picture of her with Elvis at the after show
press conference, just eleven days before man landed on the moon during
the historic Apollo 11 space flight. A slightly different pose of the same shot appeared on the cover of <i>Elvis Monthly</i> in May 1970, that featured a six page article by Ann entitled <i>An Elvis Fan, Then and Now.</i>
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If
you haven’t read Ann’s book, you really should, as it includes a
lot more Elvis. As many Elvis fans know, Ann was seen on the famous
1968 TV Special, sharing the screen with Elvis when her face was
superimposed with his during <i>Can’t Help Falling in Love</i>,
visited him on the set of his final scripted movie, <i>Change of
Habit,</i> went to many of the Vegas shows, appeared in the 1970
concert movie <i>Elvis – That’s the Way It Is</i>, interviewed
director Dennis Sanders, which was featured in the book of the 2014
deluxe 8 disc box set and also wrote the liner notes for the 2013 FTD
<i>On Stage Season</i> 2-CD set as well as writing countless reports
about Elvis in Vegas for the <i>NME</i> in England. What follows is Ann's story of Elvis’ opening live show in Vegas, as it appears in Chapter 19 of her book: <i>Elvis Goes to Vegas (and I follow)</i>...
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The
day of Elvis’ July 1969 concert in Las Vegas finally arrived. I
left early in the morning, hoping to avoid much of the desert summer
sun, because my VW Bug had no air conditioning. By noon, it was 107
degrees in my tiny car, even with both windows rolled down. The
air-conditioned lobby of the brand-new International Hotel, with its
ten-foot-high letters spelling out Elvis’ name, felt wonderful.<br />
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The
Colonel had arranged for a carnival-themed Elvis fantasyland, with
young women in straw hats handing out free Elvis swag. Comical and
exciting at the same time, there were custom-made banners, pennants,
posters, oversized cardboard records, and Elvis pictures plastered on
every pillar and wall, both inside and outside the hotel. Nick Naff,
the International’s publicity director, gave me a tour of the
thirty-story hotel. It had been open less than a month and, with
1,500 rooms, was the biggest hotel in the world. The main showroom
seated 2,000 and was the largest room of its kind anywhere, with a
sixty-foot-wide stage bigger than Radio City Music Hall’s in New
York City. The International set out to capture a first-class
clientele with Japanese, Italian, French, and Bavarian restaurants
and crystal chandeliers imported from Czechoslovakia. Each floor was
decorated in Spanish, French provincial, and Oriental decor—as far
removed as could be from the Vegas strip hotels with their five-cent
slot machines and two-dollar buffets.
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After
my tour (during which I’d peeked into the lounge showroom where Ike
and Tina Turner were rehearsing), I killed an hour on the quarter
slots and watched tourists play roulette, craps, and blackjack until
the showroom opened. My mom had made me a sleeveless, embroidered
lace mini-dress from the latest French Vogue pattern book. It was
simple but elegant, and I felt stunning. Unlike the concerts
presented in Vegas today, the Elvis shows back then followed the
traditions of an old-time Vegas dinner show. When the magic hour
arrived, I was led to a table just to the right of center stage - as
front-row-center as I could get. From my seat, after dinner, I could
see Elvis arrive in the wings.
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“Elvis
live, again!” I wrote in my NME article. “And I was there to see
it for you!” I went on to promise that Elvis could hold his own
with the new stars of the day, and pointed out that even the deep
breaths he drew between songs elicited applause. He performed medleys
of all his hits, as well as new material like “Memories,” which
he’d introduced on the comeback special. Designed by Bill Belew,
Elvis’ black tunic shirt with the four-inch turned-up collar would
very soon be copied by everyone from the Osmonds to the Jackson 5,
but on that night, it was an original.
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So,
too, was his humble approach to his audience. “I’d like to do my
latest release; it’s been a big seller for me,” he told us, then
added shyly, “something I really needed.” He performed two
Beatles songs and introduced a new song, “Suspicious Minds,”
which would go on to be another million-seller for him. He wrapped
things up with the Ray Charles hit “What’d I Say,” clutching
the microphone, shaking his legs, and doing karate punches as he
screamed the lyrics. Almost before the song ended, Elvis walked off
the stage to a standing ovation.
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As
Elvis performed his encore number, “I Can’t Help Falling in
Love,” Graylon slipped behind me and whispered in my ear, “There’s
a press conference in Room C3. Get there as fast as you can!”
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I
practically ran to the conference room, where I grabbed a chair in
the front row. Elvis greeted us by saying, “I’m really beat. That
was the fourth time I did that show today,” referring to the three
dress rehearsals he’d done earlier in the day. He didn’t look
beat; he looked confident as he basked in the glow of a wonderful
performance. He answered questions for more than an hour, after which
Col. Parker told us if we’d like to have a picture taken with
Elvis, to please line up. I was third in line for that opportunity,
and I have the greatest picture of me looking up into his handsome
face. He shook my hand, and, when I told him how much I’d enjoyed
his show, he replied with his trademark, “Thank you very much.”
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I
raced back to my hotel room, typed out my story about the show for
<i>NME</i>, and the next morning, took a cab to the nearest post office so I
could send my copy out via airmail, the fastest way to get written
material overseas at the time.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QzA5_5YmKqk/XTWGACFDlKI/AAAAAAAADhg/HdJ-NV2n6w0SIL28k-zt3lAf8W-wqtawACLcBGAs/s1600/Meow%2BMy%2BGroovy%2BLife%2Bwith%2BTiger%2BBeat%2527s%2BTeen%2BIdols.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="915" data-original-width="1274" height="286" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QzA5_5YmKqk/XTWGACFDlKI/AAAAAAAADhg/HdJ-NV2n6w0SIL28k-zt3lAf8W-wqtawACLcBGAs/s400/Meow%2BMy%2BGroovy%2BLife%2Bwith%2BTiger%2BBeat%2527s%2BTeen%2BIdols.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ann's book is available from <span style="color: blue;"><u><a class="western" href="https://www.amazon.com/Meow-Groovy-Tiger-Beats-Idols-ebook/dp/B071JPPS15/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536522432&sr=8-1&keywords=meow+my+groovy+life+with+tiger+beat%27s+teen+idols">Amazon</a></u></span> - or for an autographed copy go <span style="color: blue;"><u><a class="western" href="http://annmoses.com/autographed-personalized-copy-of-meow-my-groovy-life/">here</a></u></span></span></td></tr>
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Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-43333832132902259612019-06-13T04:20:00.001-07:002020-08-10T14:40:04.216-07:00How I Almost Got Physical with Olivia Newton-John<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Back in the early 80s, I was a graphic designer that specialised in the design of record sleeves and tour merchandise, such as tour books, posters, and flyers, and in January 1983, I was on my way to London from Brighton to meet with Arthur Sherrif, Roger Davies' UK rep, who was Olivia Newton-John's manager. The idea of our meeting was to discuss the possibility of me doing some artwork for what was to be the UK leg of Olivia's successful <i>Physical </i>tour which had only a few months earlier finished playing a record breaking 64 shows around North America during a 50 date concert tour, and was expected to visit Britain next on what was originally planned to be a world tour in support of her then best selling <i>Physical </i>album. From a set list, dated one month before the tour kicked off, seen by yours truly, it was obvious that a world tour was on the cards, as an asterisk note denotes three songs (<i>Come On Over</i>, <i>Jolene</i> and <i>Landslide</i>) might not be performed in South Africa. <br />
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Although a concert tour wasn't something she had planned to do at that time, or was even keen to do, when the <i>Physical</i> album exceeded 10 million sales, and the single placed her at number one in <i>Billboard's </i>single chart for ten weeks, and became the equal second longest chart-topper in US pop history behind Elvis Presley’s <i>Hound Dog</i>, she knew it was time to hit the road, for what would turn out to be the biggest and most successful tour of her career. Most of the dates across North America were staged in large stadiums and arenas and were pretty much sold out, but the one that attracted the largest audience, and had fans going mad for tickets was at the open air CNE Grandstand in Toronto on the 26 August 1982. For author Darlene L'Archeveque, then a 17 year old fan who had travelled on a Greyhound bus for three solid days from one side of Canada to the other, it was, she wrote in her award-winning book, <i>A World of Good</i>, one of the most magical moments of her life! Having been a fan since she first heard <i>Have You Never Been Mellow</i> seven years before, she couldn't believe she was now in the same place at the same time as Olivia.<br />
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"There were thousands and thousands of people just like me there waiting to see Olivia. We were all there for the same reason. Suddenly, loud crisp music began to play and the crowd burst into cheers. Flashes from the camera bulbs played with my vision. A giant video screen played a retrospective of Olivia's career from her Country days, to <i>Grease</i> and <i>Totally Hot</i>, to <i>Xanadu</i>, Cliff Richard, and then, <i>Physical</i>. The response from the crowd was deafening. Just when l thought it couldn't get any louder, from out of nowhere, Olivia appeared! I clapped along but I was as so captivated by the sight of her that I preferred to stand and take it all in. The atmosphere was spectacular. Even from a distance Olivia looked absolutely radiant."<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;">Equally excited was Brad Gelfond, then a young agent, who was involved in the booking of the tour, and spent a lot of his time on the road with the tour. "There was something really thrillingly excellent about being in the arena when the lights go down, and the fans start screaming for the artist. When the artist arrives on stage, it’s the greatest moment. I learned a lot about representing big, popular clients through working with Olivia. The coolest thing for me was that they were traveling by private jet. That meant that they would be based in a centrally located spot, like Atlanta, Nashville or Dallas, for a week or so, and on the afternoons of the shows, the touring party would hop in limousines to the airport. The plane would take off when we got there, and we would fly for about an hour to the next city, get limousines there, and then go to the backstage area of the arena. After the show, before the lights were even on in the arena, we would be in the limos on our way to the airport, then flying back to the city we were based in." Not that was always the case. In Toronto for instant, Olivia stayed overnight, in her tour bus, which also doubled up as a dressing room in certain cities that the tour visited. </span></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">With the success of the <i>Physical </i>TV special and video release the previous year, and the album now being in the Top Ten albums of the decade, it was no surprise that she became obligated to providing footage for a TV Special and video release of the tour. That footage was filmed during two shows at the Weber State University in Ogden at Utah on the 12th and 13th October, which to many seemed an odd choice as it was the very same city where two radio stations had banned <i>Physical </i>for its suggestive lyrics, but perhaps that was intended as a statement of just how popular Olivia and her #1 song had become. The final edit for the TV special and subsequent video release of the concert, with added special effects and several songs and video interludes cut </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">from her 90 minute set, was first shown on BBC1 in the the UK as a 60 minute special on 21 December 1982, one week before <i>Grease </i>had it's first UK TV airing on the same channel. In the States, HBO premiered the 90 minute version on 23 January 1983, as </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Olivia: Live in Concert, </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">and later released on both VHS and Laserdisc by MCA Home Video. As expected the TV special was quickly snapped up for worldwide distribution and ended up being shown on most television networks across the world, as well as being released on VHS video in most international territories. The project was another roaring success the world over, winning awards and accolades and added yet another dimension to what had now become the most successful period in Olivia's career. In Britain it was supported with the release of a new 20 track <i>Greatest Hits</i> compilation and a single featuring a remixed <i>I Honestly Love You</i> and an extended live version of <i>Physical</i>.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f9RMn1m1FVM/XIg_240GjsI/AAAAAAAAC_U/AUtOnniEWhAHudVJgSqUxq-XMi4OOEHTQCLcBGAs/s1600/olivia%2B82%2Btour%2Bcrew.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="712" data-original-width="1076" height="329" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f9RMn1m1FVM/XIg_240GjsI/AAAAAAAAC_U/AUtOnniEWhAHudVJgSqUxq-XMi4OOEHTQCLcBGAs/w500-h329/olivia%2B82%2Btour%2Bcrew.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #660000;">Olivia with her 1982 tour crew, rig truck and bus. Photo by Michael Landau</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span id="yMail_cursorElementTracker_1554715864258" style="text-align: justify;">Since
the album had been released I had collected a stack of promo material
from EMI, for my own private collection, as well as providing me with
all the necessary material to create some visuals for my art portfolio
to illustrate my graphic design abilities in my attempts to get bigger
and better artwork gigs! I produced a tour book cover, an EMI
Records ad and a backstage pass, simply to have her in my portfolio! U</span><span id="yMail_cursorElementTracker_1554716288325" style="text-align: justify;">nbeknown
to me at the time, they would provide me with enough material to show
Arthur what I was capable of as a graphic designer. But that was before I had seen the tour book that Arthur showed me in his office and told me to take home to take a closer look at it to give me some ideas. When l looked at it, it completely blew me away, simply because it was </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-align: justify;">so a</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">rty, creative and
imaginative, and was something I felt I couldn't have bettered or even equaled! To me, it was light years away from the kind of tour book I had been doing
at that time, which was simple tour book design for the likes of such
artists as Frankie Laine, Rita Coolidge and Glen Campbell. Olivia's tour book was what I called the top end of the pop market, the kind
that bands like Bananarama were producing.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span id="yMail_cursorElementTracker_1554716288325" style="text-align: justify;">Back in those days, of
drawing board graphics, and being pretty much a newbie in that field, I
was still some years away from doing tours for the likes of Elkie
Brooks, Chris Rea and Elaine Paige! I think that is when I realised I
couldn't better it, and had Olivia toured the UK, as was being planned
at that time, Roger Davies Management would have simply done the
customary thing and sent the U.S artwork to the British promoter for the
appointed merchandiser to change things like the itinerary, tour
credits, discography, update the programme notes to reflect her career
in the UK, and change the album page from her MCA catalogue to her British EMI releases,
so I realised pretty quickly that all I could hope to get out of it was
maybe artworking some of those changes, and perhaps designing a poster,
newspaper ads, and backstage passes! Back then, before I was a writer, I
was chasing several ideas for my Artsleeves design studio, all of </span><span id="yMail_cursorElementTracker_1554718767610" style="text-align: justify;">which
included designing for Elvis, Blondie and Dr Hook, and along with
Olivia, I did in fact have mock up visuals for all those artists in my
portfolio! What haunted me in early 1983 was the fact that this was
likely to be the last time Olivia would tour for some years, so it
was the perfect opportunity and my best chance yet of getting my foot in
the door, so to speak, despite the fact that it was at that time, out of my graphic design expertise. </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Having Olivia in my portfolio was a perfect
artist to have among my mock ups to show tour promoters,
merchandisers and record companies, but like with my ideas for the Elvis, Dr Hook and
Blondie album covers, nothing came out of it! Call it timing, inexperience or just unfortunate, but I was chasing something I wasn't quite ready for.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">When <i>Physical</i> came out in 1981, the album not only transformed her but also her fans, of which I was one, and had been since seeing her live at the Brighton Dome in 1971. It was like we had all suddenly been given permission to get physical from an artist who was thought of as a miss goody-two-shoes but actually wasn't. By her own admittance she regarded herself too old to be innocent. It was like she was duplicating her own coming of age and was telling a generation of musical virgins to lose their virginity to her album! The impact that the album, the tour, the TV specials and videograms made on me and a whole generation of Olivia and music fans was truly amazing to witness. You couldn't walk into a store in 1981 and not hear the album being played over the loudspeaker system, or see the VHS showing on TV screens that some shops had set up in their stores! Olivia and <i>Physical</i> was everywhere! She was the hottest name in music! More so than she had been in her entire career. And I wanted to be part of it, but sadly for me, there was nothing to be part of!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Chia3lC2gx0/XNPu2paUfaI/AAAAAAAADNc/c0JYJdVv7TE4NW4EynXgR3jp_amvr-LvwCLcBGAs/s1600/59234789_2192497274174640_3476095497133883392_o.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1286" data-original-width="1600" height="401" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Chia3lC2gx0/XNPu2paUfaI/AAAAAAAADNc/c0JYJdVv7TE4NW4EynXgR3jp_amvr-LvwCLcBGAs/w500-h401/59234789_2192497274174640_3476095497133883392_o.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #660000;">Olivia during tour rehearsals with Dennis Tuffano</span></td></tr>
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Four years later, I got a taste of what meeting Olivia could have been like, when I designed the tour book for the 1987 Elaine Paige UK tour, and had to take the artboards for Elaine to approve where she was rehearsing at the Nomis Studios in London. After we had been through the artwork page by page, I was invited to stay and watch her run through her show with just her basic band! To be in a tiny studio and observe Elaine sing live, just yards in front of me, was in the words of Olivia's 1980 hit, magic! Although I had listened to Elaine many times on record, nothing prepared me for how powerful her voice would be in person in such an intimate setting. Simply put, it was out of this world and to use an overused cliche, literally blew me away! I imagine that is exactly how I would have felt had I watched Olivia run through the set list for her <i>Physical</i> tour if she had brought it to the UK and had I got the gig!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i>With thanks to <b>Darlene L'Archeveque</b> for the scans from her private collection of the Toronto Star cutting, Michael Landau's tour crew photo and her after show guest sticker, and to<b> Sabrine Korsel</b> for allowing me to use the</i></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i> rehearsal shot she posted on the Official Olivia </i></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i>F</i></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i style="color: #660000; text-align: center;">acebook group, and to <b>Bri Leic</b> for the audience recording of Olivia's concert in Oakland on 10 October 1982.</i></span></div>
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Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-41178973192727568922019-04-29T02:42:00.002-07:002021-04-01T04:04:13.573-07:00Cliff and Olivia's Lost TV Special<div align="justify" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5wgw-npbgpU/XLexeveQPkI/AAAAAAAADJ0/F-cE6RTA-Rc7d7kqzajo09aGmlfH0mOtACLcBGAs/s1600/the%2Bcase%2B%2Btweak%2B1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1110" data-original-width="1600" height="276" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5wgw-npbgpU/XLexeveQPkI/AAAAAAAADJ0/F-cE6RTA-Rc7d7kqzajo09aGmlfH0mOtACLcBGAs/w400-h276/the%2Bcase%2B%2Btweak%2B1.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;">If you
were one of millions who tuned into the popular <i>It's Cliff Richard</i>
series on BBC TV on a Saturday night, and if you can cast your mind
back to September 1972, you most probably remember the hour-long
special titled <i>The Case</i>, which co-starred Olivia Newton-John
and Tim Brooke Taylor, and like me, are probably wondering why it has never
seen the light of day on DVD or Blu ray, or why pre-DVD, it was never
released on a commercial VHS, and are probably thinking it's long
overdue for a remastered and restored release, especially when you
consider Cliff's series was one of the most popular light
entertainment programmes of that decade and was the series that
contributed to launching Olivia's career in Britain.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;">For
those who don't know or remember, <i>The Case</i> was a comedy caper
that follows the farcical aftermath of a situation of mistaken
identity, and the unfortunate switch of two very similar bags, but
with very different contents. Cliff played himself and along with Tim
Brooke-Taylor (from <i>The Goodies</i>), are touring the <i>It’s
Cliff Richard</i> show around the Scandinavian countries, when a
television recording of the show over-runs, which means that they are
late in catching the train to their next destination. Meanwhile, a
pair of robbers have just held up a bank and are intent on making
their getaway with a large bag full of the money they have just
stolen. A fleeting, unknown meeting at the station results in Cliff
taking the bag of money and the robbers picking up his similar bag,
filled with the music for the television show.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;">Once
the thieves realise the mistake, they are determined to follow Cliff,
now split from Tim after missing the train, and do whatever they can
to recover their ill-gotten gains. From one country to another, by
car, train, even an overnight ferry, they get closer to Cliff, who,
reunited with Tim, does all he can to get away from them. Once the
police get involved, the situation is resolved to everyone’s
satisfaction – or is it?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;">As
per usual Cliff put in a great performance that showed his
versatility as an actor and comic, laying the foundations for some of
the slapstick that would appear the following year in the </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;">theatrical</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;">
release of </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><i>Take
Me High </i></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;">(recently
restored and released on DVD and Blu-ray), which he honed from the
years of working on his Saturday night light entertainment shows. As
with the majority of his full-length feature films, the narrative was
developed with a sense of fun and is interspersed with a number of
song performances, including a duet with Olivia, </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><i>If
I Was Close to You</i></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;">,
which shows the beauty and blend of their vocals when performing
together.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Broadcast
during the summer run of his television show in 1972, this special
has only been aired once and is now a significant rarity, a curio,
and an important document of Cliff’s career as a broader
entertainer rather than being pigeon-holed as Britain's Peter Pan of
Pop!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;">With the exception of Cliff's </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><i>Living
In Harmony </i></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;">and
Olivia's two solo numbers,</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"> the other songs were all recorded specially and exclusively for the special, and have
never been commercially released. The duet with Olivia is
particularly noteworthy as it was, at that time, only the second
recording they had made together, the first being the B-side track, </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><i>Don’t
Move Away</i>,</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"> and its extraordinary beauty shows that it deserves a broader release
for fans of both performers to see and hear. For Olivia fans, there was
footage of her performing her then current single </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><i>Just
A Little Too Much </i></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;">and
</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><i>Banks
of the Ohio, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;">the
second hit single from her first album, in specially filmed sequences. And for Cliff fans there was the new rendition of </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><i>Move
It! </i></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;">that combined and melded the guitar-driven approach of the original with the
orchestral arrangement that was released on his 1967 Top 30 album
</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><i>Don’t
Stop Me Now!</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">A
first-time ever release of this special is now crying out to be done
and for most film and TV buffs, would be perfectly suited to Network,
the video releasing company that seem more committed than most to
showcasing unique works of television and film, that have been
unjustly neglected and gathering dust in the vaults of TV companies.
With their encyclopaedic knowledge of TV and film archives and
library content, they have released a wealth of material in stunning
DVD and Blu ray packages with spectacular remastering and restoration
techniques that would have otherwise been left unseen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If
Network greenlighted </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>T</i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><i>he
Case</i></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> for release, the
opportunities for extras are endless. In keeping with their </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">vast
catalogue of </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">releases, it could include a
detailed booklet with synopsis, production notes, cast biographies, press items and an
image gallery of stills and photos, as well as some relevant PDF
material and a song only menu. As a bonus special feature, the
release could also include a collection of Cliff and Olivia's duet
performances and skits from </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><i>It's
Cliff Richard</i></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> between 1970 and
1974. Can you imagine how amazing it would be to see such material
scanned from the original camera negatives and extensively restored
to their original television </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">aspect ratio of 4.3? And even better to see it restored without any film
dirt, damage, instability, warping and density fluctuation. </span>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #990000;"><i>With thanks to Victor Rust, Juliette Iaciofano and <a href="http://www.leosden.co.uk/">Leo's Den Music</a></i></span></span><b> </b></span><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b> </b></span></span></div>
Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-55335729533573580592018-10-21T04:30:00.009-07:002021-05-25T15:41:59.325-07:00The Cliff Richard Diamond Liner Notes<div align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Last
Monday, the Cliff Richard Fan Club's charity CD single was released,
one day after Cliff's 78th birthday and he had been presented with a copy by the fan club, during a soundcheck at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The strictly limited CD edition of the single had been available on pre-order since 24 September from Leo's
Den, but had sold out in less than a week. For those unlucky enough not to have got a copy, here are the liner notes that I wrote
for the CD version, but not available with the MP3 download that is
currently available on <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Diamond-Helen-Hobson/dp/B07GCWYFQX">Amazon</a>...</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span>
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">T</span><span style="color: black;">he
story of how this very unique CD single came about started long
before it was decided to green light the project and turn it from an
almost impossible dream into a reality. It really started with an
email in November 2017 which Carol Hall, the president of the London
and Surrey Cliff Richard Fan Club received from Susanne Fritsch, one
of the club members, asking if there were any plans to present a gift
for Cliff from his fans to celebrate his 78th birthday on 14 October
2018, and to mark his 60 years in show business. Carol decided to
raise Susanne’s suggestion with the club’s Facebook page members
and run a poll to establish if the members would be interested in
donating to such an idea. It soon became apparent that they were!
Everyone it seemed loved the idea of a Birthday and anniversary song,
but the reality of making it happen was the part that needed careful
planning and execution. If this could be pulled off, then it would be
a fan club first that no other artist fan club had even got close to!
Far more important than that was the sentiment of the project. To
have a professionally written and produced song inspired by lyrics
and sentiments donated by fans, which would be an extraordinary and
unprecedented personal gift to Cliff. The big question was how to go
about it and make it happen?</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span>
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">By
her own admission Carol knew nothing about the record industry or
even how one would go about producing a song, let alone getting it
recorded. After commandeering the help of industry veteran Steve
Carroll, it became clear that the fund would have to cover the cost
of recording, studio time, mixing, mastering, artwork, packaging,
manufacturing costs, digital distribution, producer, vocalist,
musicians, and a load of other incidentals that Carol probably hadn’t
even thought of. In other words, a ton of money. Initial enquiries
came up with a ball park figure of around £4.5k to realise Susanne’s
idea for a song for Cliff, but what an achievement it would be! What
better way to thank Cliff for all the years of enjoyment he had given
his fans than through a specially written song in which every fan had
the opportunity to express their love and dedication! Carol launched
a fund raising campaign on Facebook and through her club magazine,
but little could she or Steve have imagined how fast and furiously
the money would start flowing in to what was now called “The
Diamond Song Project”.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span>
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">The
idea was to raise the budget needed for a song to be professionally
written, recorded and produced, made available to download as an MP3
to be released on 15th October, and to produce the limited edition CD
you now hold in your hands. This in turn would give the project the
added bonus of giving proceeds from its sale to one of Cliff’s
favourite charities, Tearfund, who are celebrating their 50th
anniversary during this same year as Cliff was celebrating his 60</span><span style="color: black;"><sup>th</sup></span><span style="color: black;">.
Cliff had announced a new concert tour, and that could just provide
the ideal opportunity to present the fan club’s gift to him, either
on or off stage, on his birthday at the RAH in London, but by no
means was this guaranteed. The presentation to Cliff would include a
copy of the CD, plus a specially framed ‘scroll of honour’, which
would include the name of everyone who had donated and contributed to
the project. In addition to offering fans the chance to donate to the
project, it also offered them the chance to submit up to two lines of
lyrics that might have been incorporated into the finished song.
Another Facebook poll meant that they could also vote on whether the
song should be an up-tempo number or ballad. They decided it should
be a ballad. When you think of the project in those terms and just
how complex it was, and what was involved in making it happen, it
was, without question, one of the most ambitious ever launched by a
fan club of any artist. Many would regard it impossible, a farfetched
dream, and above all, simply not feasible. 43 days after the idea was
put to fans though, enough money had been raised to make it happen,
so now the real work began to turn the dream into a reality.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span>
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">From
January onwards, Carol kept raising money through the fan club
Facebook page, and started to collate the lyrics that fans were
sending in with their donations. By the end of February, Carol had
contacted the UK Songwriters Guild and eventually found Paul
Whitfield who agreed to write the song, both music and words, based
on the lyrics Carol had collected from fans. Paul produced a demo two
months later in April. During this same period Carol was thinking
over who should sing the song, and agreed with her partner-in-crime,
Steve Carroll, that it should be a female. She got in touch with
Suzie Furlonger and Helen Hobson who were both honorary members of
the fan club. Suzie and her husband were expecting their first child
so declined the offer, but Helen, was delighted to become involved,
offering her professional services for free. It had been some years
since she had seen Cliff and had played Cathy to his highly acclaimed
portrayal of Heathcliff from 1996 to 1997, and so, the idea of being
able to sing a song dedicated to someone she admired, loved and had
worked with, simply delighted and thrilled her. Carol, of course, was
equally thrilled to have found her voice.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span>
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Steve
was busy pursuing more donations for the project, including a sponsor
for the presentation frame. Both Carol and Steve were busy trying to
improve every aspect of the project. Then in early June, another
unbelievable surprise happened, when Carol received a message from
none other than Alan Tarney who after being told about the project
had expressed an interest and was keen to come on board to produce
the track, also agreeing to offer his professional services for free
as it was a charity single. It was Carol’s icing on the cake, the
answer to her dreams to find someone to produce the song. She was
completely, as she put it, “beyond excited!” Alan, probably best
known for his production of Cliff’s ‘Wired For Sound’ and
‘Always Guaranteed’ Top 5 albums was the perfect choice to
undertake producing duties. On the 17th June, Helen laid down her
vocals at Alan’s studio, with Alan at the helm and John Brant
engineering the sound. The competed track was sent a few days later
to Cliff’s regular sound engineer, Keith Bessey, who Alan had in
mind from the start for mixing and mastering the track ready for MP3
download and CD production. Once again Carol was literally blown away
that she had managed to secure three </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">major</span></span><span style="color: black;">
players for her project that at one time or another, had and still
do, play a role in Cliff’s own recording career. What a literally
astounding result for a project that had started out as just an idea.
It was now happening for real and with three people she could have
only hoped for. When she broke the news on Facebook, the fans were
equally ecstatic, and who wouldn’t be? There was even more exciting
news around the corner for her to share with the fans. The project
has come in under the budget thanks to so many for giving their time
and expertise for free. Carol had collected - at the time of writing
this - a staggering £8.5k which meant the club’s donation to
Tearfund far exceeded what she hoped for, that anybody could hope
for. When she broke that news to Tearfund, they too were very
excited. No one had raised money for them in this way. A very unique
CD project!</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span>
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">When
Keith Bessey sent Carol the finished, fully mixed and mastered song,
she was suddenly and quite unexpectedly hit by the enormity and
emotion of everything she and the fans had achieved. You’ve bought
this song, and you have contributed to it. It is, as the cover
suggests, the perfect gift to Cliff from his fans to thank him for
all the fabulous years of pleasure he has given us through music,
movies, TV performances and concerts. This song... a specially
written, produced and beautifully crafted song, really says it all. </span></span></span>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span>
<div align="center" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">From
us to you!</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span>
<div align="center" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Thank
you Cliff, Happy Birthday and huge congratulations on your 60th
anniversary!</span></span></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UuSH8cxBoPw/YK18-4Q2mMI/AAAAAAAAFbY/CjvrLzQ0avkJdkm-Edi3mV8Ji-0IWrgQwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1630/cliff%2Bdiamond%2Bback.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1430" data-original-width="1630" height="351" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UuSH8cxBoPw/YK18-4Q2mMI/AAAAAAAAFbY/CjvrLzQ0avkJdkm-Edi3mV8Ji-0IWrgQwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h351/cliff%2Bdiamond%2Bback.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></div></div></div>Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-83493048270028599732018-10-03T01:35:00.006-07:002021-10-14T04:16:57.029-07:00The Oh Boy! Album - 60 Years On!<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9FUlvWkWEr0/W4_GblAiNyI/AAAAAAAACqI/lqidt8JonvMQ8j1pADp668IjtpemyRyQwCLcBGAs/s1600/OHBOY%2521%2Bsquared.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9FUlvWkWEr0/W4_GblAiNyI/AAAAAAAACqI/lqidt8JonvMQ8j1pADp668IjtpemyRyQwCLcBGAs/w400-h400/OHBOY%2521%2Bsquared.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Although many people think Cliff Richard's first album was the live set he recorded, backed by the Drifters, at Abbey Road Studio 2 in front of an invited audience of 200 fans in February 1959, simply titled <i>Cliff</i>, and released two months later, his first appearance on LP, was in fact on Jack Good's <i>Oh Boy!</i> soundtrack album of the hit TV show that was released on EMI's Parlophone label in October 1958, six months before his own debut album appeared the following year, so not only is Cliff celebrating the 60th anniversary of his first single, <i>Move It</i>, this year, but also his first appearance on an LP, that he shared with other artists from the show. What is remarkably interesting though, is that Cliff had more tracks on the album than any of the other artists featured. But perhaps that shouldn't be surprising when you consider this was the show that launched Cliff as "the boy who was going to rock the world!" Out of the twenty four selections, seven were by Cliff, while the rest of the album was made up by numbers from the other show regulars such as the John Barry Seven, the Dallas Boys, Vince Eager, Peter Elliot, Cuddly Dudley, Neville Taylor and the Cutters, and the Vernon Girls.<br />
<br />
When I was working on upgrading Cliff's catalogue for EMI with Peter Lewry, this was one of the albums we suggested should be put out as a special edition with bonus tracks, but sadly there were licensing issues due to getting clearances on the tracks by the other featured artists, despite the fact they had reissued the album a couple of times before, in the late seventies, through their own budget and mid price MFP (Music For Pleasure) label. Although we were unsuccessful in persuading them to re-release the original album, or produce a special edition, we did manage to include all the tracks that Cliff had recorded for the album on Disc 4 of the <i>Rock 'n' Roll Years</i> box set in 1997. What many may not realise is that Cliff was not at the recording session in Abbey Road's Studio 2 along with
everyone else on the evening that the album was recorded as he was playing Colston Hall in Bristol as one of the support acts on the Kalin Twins package tour, so he went into Studio 2 to record his seven tracks for the LP two nights later, all of which he had performed in various episodes of the TV
show, and like the rest of the album were taped without an audience, even though it was marketed as if there was.<br />
<br />
To celebrate this milestone, below are Jack Good's original album liner notes...<br />
<br />
This recording was made in one session on the evening of October 19,
1958, the day before ABC Television had transmitted the sixth edition
of 'Oh Boy!' and already the show was a smash hit. The number of viewers
had doubled. Stage shows and films were being mooted. And now the L.P.
In six short weeks 'Oh Boy!' had grown to the stature that '6.5 Special'
had taken nine months to achieve. For, by an odd coincidence, October
19, 1958 marked to a day the first anniversary of the session at which
the '6.5 Special' LP was made. And at that time '6.5 Special' had been
running nine months. Both discs were made by Norman Newell and at both sessions I held a
watching brief as producer of the television programme concerned. The
difference of these two occasions formed a clear reflection of the
changes that have taken place in the world of popular music.<br />
<br />
A year ago we were at the height of the coffee bar era. The music was
frantic, erratic and, for the most part, it had an intimate and amateur
flavour. Nowadays the whole thing has become much more streamlined and
professional. The music is no longer improvised to the large extent that
it was. All the "Oh Boy" numbers are carefully and brilliantly arranged by
our MD, Harry Robinson. Melody is now playing a much more important role
- though the beat is just as insistent and exciting. Singers are
currently set a much higher standard than in the early rock days. They
are expected to count bars and sing in key, two things formerly regarded
as frivolous refinements.<br />
<i><br /></i>
Summing all this up, the '6.5 Special' LP session had the excitement
and hubbub of a jumble sale; the "Oh Boy" session had the excitement and
organisation of a rocket launching. All the artists and all the numbers on this record have been featured pm the actual show and, just as in the programme, we race from one item
to another without pause. It was a very happy recording session. The
audience has a whale of a time (as you can hear) - so did the artists.
But then they always do. It is such a friendly team that every rehearsal
and transmission is like a party. That this atmosphere has been vividly
captured by the L.P. is a tribute not only to the skill of those at
E.M.I. who created it, but also to the imagination, faith - and, dare I
say, courage? - of A.B.C Television who gave the "Oh Boy" show a chance
to prove itself on the millions of television screens it serves.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gjpwcd7OKlE/W4_jp4BMXYI/AAAAAAAACqU/XuAbXO11nA8Dx7vufOEctC1ST0ZpNWMoQCLcBGAs/s1600/33msx1147_b.jpg"><img border="0" data-original-height="766" data-original-width="764" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gjpwcd7OKlE/W4_jp4BMXYI/AAAAAAAACqU/XuAbXO11nA8Dx7vufOEctC1ST0ZpNWMoQCLcBGAs/w399-h400/33msx1147_b.jpg" width="399" /></a></div>
Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-54415460481274891382018-09-12T12:22:00.001-07:002020-09-11T13:22:42.031-07:00Guest Blog: The Elvis Week Experience <div align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N-YMcGnmnzw/W5aSSx1d0uI/AAAAAAAACrM/JzWr4FngrDwimkPgokSU2PoKp-YnWYJsQCLcBGAs/s1600/37695323_10155859124889891_7606731133866213376_o.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1548" height="500" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N-YMcGnmnzw/W5aSSx1d0uI/AAAAAAAACrM/JzWr4FngrDwimkPgokSU2PoKp-YnWYJsQCLcBGAs/w481-h500/37695323_10155859124889891_7606731133866213376_o.jpg" width="481" /></a></div>
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I am thrilled that Ann Moses has written this guest blog exclusively for my blog about her recent trip to Graceland as a guest speaker during this year's <i>Elvis Week</i>. For those who may not have heard of Ann, or know who she is, she was the editor of the U.S <i>Tiger Beat </i>magazine<i> </i>from 1965 to 1972, sat on the
stage for Elvis’<i> 68 Comeback Special</i>, toured Elvis’ and Colonel
Tom Parker’s offices, observed Elvis filming <i>Change of Habit</i>, and attended
Elvis’ opening Las Vegas show in July 1969, so to most Elvis fans, she was one of the few reporters that got more access than most to Elvis in the late 60s and early 70s.</div>
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<br /></div>
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As we didn't have <i>Tiger Beat</i> in Britain, I first became aware of Ann through her "America Calling" column in Britain's <i>New Musical Express</i> <i>(NME), </i>and in particular, her reports about Elvis in Vegas. For anyone who was an Elvis fan, Ann was the Hollywood Correspondent who kept British fans up to date with the latest Elvis news, more so than any one else, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to see her pop up on screen in Elvis' 1970 movie,<i> That's The Way It Is</i>,
having been a fan and follower of her column. When she published her autobiography last year, I was equally thrilled, simply because I would now discover more about her work at <i>Tiger Beat</i>, her interviews with some of the biggest teen idols of the period, and how she ended up in the Elvis movie, so now you know who Ann is, and how she played a part in my life as an Elvis fan, here is her story of her first<i> Elvis Week</i> experience at Graceland...</div>
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It’s
been fifty years since I became a born-again Elvis fan (after falling
for him when he sang<i> Don’t Be Cruel</i> on the <i>Ed Sullivan Show</i>,
September 9, 1956, I strayed when the Beatles became a world-wide
sensation in 1964). Being one of the fortunate few who attended one
of the two tapings of his comeback special<i> </i>in 1968, simply titled <i>Elvis,</i> I
could have never imagined all the things that would take place after
that night.<br />
<br />
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Fast-forward
to <i>Elvis Week 2018</i> and here I was standing at the gates of
Graceland with a VIP lanyard around my neck, as an invited guest
speaker for <i>Conversations on Elvis: Connections</i>. Won’t you come
along with me as I tour Graceland for the first time, tell my stories
to moderator, Tom Brown, and the fans who are part of the reason any
<i>Elvis Week</i> is a phenomenal experience?</div>
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
Let’s
start with introducing the Guest House at Graceland, the 450-room
hotel which officially opened in October 2016. Before his passing in
1977, Elvis had plans drawn up for a guest house, for friends and
family. These plans and his ideas were the nucleus for what turned
into this five-star resort hotel, the perfect place to stay for Elvis
fans. The
first thing to strike me as we checked in was the Elvis music that
played 24/7 in the public spaces (all of them) at the hotel. It was
loud enough so I caught myself singing along as we went to our room,
but I laughed when I saw other guests doing the same thing! It was
infectious. The décor was unique and upscale. I loved that the floor
each had an original photo, usually close-ups of his costumes, as the
floor marker as you exited the elevator.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 150%;">
Wonder
why there are no photographs of Elvis in the Guest House? As
Priscilla Presley and Lisa Marie Presley were the principal designers
for the GH, they knew that Elvis would never have put up pictures of
himself in a guest house for family and friends. After our check-in and a
great burger at E.P’s Bar and Grill, we were off to see the main
attraction: Elvis’ home, Graceland. <span style="color: #1d2129;">Surprise
#1 on my first tour of Elvis Presley's Graceland: John Stamos narrates
the tour on the tablet each person receives - and he shares that his
character of Uncle Jesse on <i>Full House</i> was named after Elvis
Presley's stillborn twin, Jesse Garon Presley. </span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #1d2129;">My
impressions of touring his home were just that – that it was his
home, tailored for his lifestyle, a place designed for family and
friends that was comfortable and lived in. I was inside many famous
celebrity homes in Beverly Hills, but Graceland was unlike a
celebrity home (except for EP’s love of state-of-the-art technology
– like the TV room he had designed after he saw President LBJ’s
set-up with three TVs and an early microwave in the simple kitchen).
Many of the speakers at <i>Conversations </i>said the same thing “when
you’re inside Graceland, you just get the feeling that Elvis will
walk down the stairs at any moment.” </span><br />
<br />
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<br />
<span style="color: #1d2129;">The
photos on the walls are of family (his parents, Priscilla, some of
EP, and Lisa) – all from happier, more carefree times. As you are
touring his home, there is a warmth and friendliness in the
atmosphere, which let’s you envision Elvis sitting with friends and
enjoying a meal in the dining room, or everyone playing pool in the
billiard room, or Lisa Marie frolicking with her toys as Elvis plays
the piano. </span></div>
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<br />
All
the fabulous photos which mark every period of his legacy are on full
display throughout the attractions and exhibits of <i>Elvis Presley’s
Memphis</i>, which opened in March 2017. <i>EP’s Memphis </i>includes the
Graceland Mansion tour, Elvis’ Airplanes, Presley Motors Automobile
Museum, Presley Cycles Exhibit, Archives Experience, ICONS: The
Influence of Elvis Presley Exhibit, Elvis The Entertainer Career
Museum, Lisa Marie: Growing Up Presley Exhibit, VIP Exhibit and
Lounge, Elvis’ Tupelo Exhibit, Hollywood Backlot, Mystery Train:
The Sam Phillips Exhibit, Hillybilly Rock Exhibit and Graceland
Soundstage A.
</div>
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<br /></div>
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While
we enjoyed every exhibit, I could have spent days at the Archives
Experience – looking at every fascinating piece of paper or a
Presley possession. One is overwhelmed with the volume of the
Archives. One
of the coolest things about the Guest House, <i>Elvis Presley’s
Memphis</i>, the tour of the Graceland Mansion and even the shuttle
buses – no matter where you are, Elvis songs are playing 24/7, and
when you step off the bus in the middle of <i>Hound Dog</i>, you hear
the song continue as you walk up the entry, and then it continues
wherever you go next – and it’s all synced for the entire place.
It’s the most unique and perfect “attraction” for every Elvis
fan. And to think they have the playlist like no other, it reminds
you of the King’s legacy from his first release to his last.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YoQRhaniMbI/W5cjwlA4u7I/AAAAAAAACrs/yi0LafAgixUaOs1sPCqMzpQYBWDFcAa-wCLcBGAs/s1600/Graceland%2BShuttle%2BBus.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1036" data-original-width="1600" height="323" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YoQRhaniMbI/W5cjwlA4u7I/AAAAAAAACrs/yi0LafAgixUaOs1sPCqMzpQYBWDFcAa-wCLcBGAs/w500-h323/Graceland%2BShuttle%2BBus.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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<br />
Besides
the attractions, to me, the fans themselves are like an attraction.
We saw fans groups with matching tee shirts that had been around
since the <i>Heartbreak Hotel</i> days through today. We saw fans from
Scandinavian countries, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, the UK, and, of
course, the USA fans. There were grandparents, kids, entire
multi-generational families, women and men, boys and girls. Elvis
fans come in every ethnicity and country around the world. And yet
they all have Elvis in common. It’s a powerful atmosphere. And
because every one has a bond with the others, it’s like a
congeniality convention. No one hesitates to engage another person in
an observation or conversation. Too cool!</div>
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On the day we arrived at Graceland, we knew we had a special night ahead of us: 7:00 pm Graceland
Soundstage – <i>68 Special 50th Anniversary Celebration</i>.
But I had no idea how much of a celebration it would be. The event
was sold-out, gathering over 1,500 Elvis fans in the magnificent
soundstage auditorium. I had not seen the Special since it’s original air date of December
3, 1968. But it all came flooding back and the tape rolled. And all
of the excitement I had felt on that night 50 years ago, I was
feeling again as feelings of déjà vu overwhelmed me.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Before presenting each segment, the evening was enhanced with live,
on-stage appearances recounting the making of the Special from
Producer-director Steve Binder, musical director Billy Goldenberg,
and writer Allan Blye. Each shared their own candid memories before
introducing specific scenes. Dancer Tanya Lemani, who portrays the
belly dancer in the <i>Little Egypt</i> scene, made a surprise
appearance, dancing while donning a costume similar to what she wore
50 years earlier. Prerecorded reflections from Priscilla Presley,
Elvis confidant and collaborator Jerry Schilling, songwriter Mac
Davis and the late D.J. Fontana added even more perspective. The
Costumes For the first time, Elvis’ trademark costumes from the
original program, including that unmistakable black leather suit,
were displayed onstage during a <i>68 Special </i>screening.</div>
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So as each segment was aired, I found the dancing segments were
nostalgic, but didn’t hold up as well as the live,
Elvis-in-black-leather segments, backed not only by his buddies on
stage, but a full orchestra. It wasn’t until the musical director,
Billy Goldberg, told us how he had a full orchestra backing up Elvis
in the background that I became aware of how much that enhanced the
whole show.
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<br /></div>
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Yes, I counted seeing myself five times. It was one of the eeriest
feelings I’ve ever had. My folks never had a movie camera while I
was growing up, so I had no memories of how I acted as a kid, but
seeing myself at age 21 was so very cool! And to see myself, again,
with my face superimposed with Elvis’ as he sang <i>Can’t Help
Falling in Love</i>, was so mind-blowing and I hadn’t realized that
I was singing along as he sang. <span lang="en-US">But
nothing at Graceland is ordinary. And this night was no exception. I
had missed the Gospel celebrations earlier in the week, but on this
night, we and the entire audience were astounded when, as Elvis was
singing gospel songs on the big screen, below the </span><a href="http://www.tnmass.org/"><span style="color: blue;"><span lang="en-US"><u>Tennessee Mass Choir</u></span></span></a><span lang="en-US">
had gathered below the screen, live and rockin’ – and we were all
on our feet, moving and joining in the revival-style music of this
outstanding gospel choir. I had the same feeling that I had when we
attended a moving service at the Anglican Church in Parys, South
Africa.</span><br />
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<br />
I have to share this funny bit: a Graceland insider told me she was
surprised that the <i>Comeback Special</i> audience was an overflow crowd
because, “they can all watch the Comeback Special in their rooms at
the Guest House – it’s shown 24/7 on the Elvis Channel available
anytime in each room at the Guest House. Who knew? When we were in
our room, I was studying my previous articles on Elvis and the
<i>Comeback Special</i> published in the <i>New Musical Express</i> in 1968.
While I had continuing memories of that day/time, I didn’t want to
miss any detail, like some of the ad-libs those of us in the audience
heard as the special was taped, and I wanted to share all those
nuggets when I participated in <i>Conversations on Elvis</i>.
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The next morning, we woke to a slightly cloudy Memphis morning. By
the time we were ready to climb on the shuttle to the soundstage, the
clouds had cleared and it was sunny and very humid, which is what we
expected being in Tennessee. I was feeling nervous, as I have never
been too comfortable getting up in front of an audience. I have never
been, nor did I want to be, the center of attention. I always
preferred being on the “other” side of the camera. As I visited
with the other guests for Conversations-all performers who were used
to the spotlight-it came to mind that they were not all that
different than me, just folks who had a special talent. And while I
did not feel apart of the group with special talents – be it gospel
singing, back-up singing, country music or the like – I did have a
confidence inside because moderator Tom Brown had shared with me in a
warm-up phone call the week before that “Elvis fans love ALL the
details.” Armed with that info and becoming more comfortable as all
of us chatted in the green room, I was feeling a big better.
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They had wound up the segment before mine and my introduction came on
the big screen. Here I was, standing backstage at the foot of the
steps, and on the sound desk screen (which was huge), my face
suddenly appears on the screen. They had pulled my “interview”
from the documentary <i>Elvis That’s The Way It Was</i>, where Denis
Sanders is interviewing me at my desk at <i>Tiger Beat</i>, and cover shots
of me working with an art editor. Even though I have this DVD at
home, I had not watched it for years! There I was again, now age 22
and I’m talking about what it’s like to be an Elvis fan.</div>
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</div>
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And before I could even grasp that concept, I heard my name
introduced over the sound system by Tom Brown. I was massively
nervous walking on stage, but as Tom greeted me, I think he was going
in for a hug, but it just seemed right to smack a little kiss, so
that’s what I did, which prompted Tom to say, “I didn’t know I
was getting a kiss,” or something like that. The most unexpected
thing happened – I relaxed and as I sat down and began answering
Tom’s questions, I realized for the first time in my life, I was
comfortable and actually enjoying the experience of sharing my Elvis
experiences. It felt so freeing!</div>
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It was truly heartwarming to recount my experiences to an audience of
about 300 people, all of whom were hanging on every word. It was
empowering. They laughed at the funny bits, they cheered, whistled
and clapped when I told about kissing Elvis during the filming of <i>That's The Way It Is</i> in 1971, and sighed when I said Elvis came up and talked to
me one-on-one during a break in filming on the set of <i>Change of
Habit</i>. Note to audience: thank you for your enthusiastic response
– you truly have changed my life.
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="justify" lang="en-US" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Following the final Conversation on stage, we were asked to be
available for autographs at the back of the soundstage auditorium. I
was permitted to sell my book and autographed pictures of Elvis and
me, taken following his press conference after his first live
appearance at the International in August 1969. But still, it was my
first experience of people lining up and anxiously waiting to see me!
Unexpected and thrilling. And everyone was so sweet. They would ask,
“Can I take a picture of you,” and we would say, "Get over
here, let’s get a selfie,” my husband would run around the
front of the desk, grab their camera and get a shot of us. It was
such a blast for all of us.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J1PTW5Y0w6E/W5fV1-LArFI/AAAAAAAACsM/1T5WkKK4KdQnMQ-ELoH5PqObBCz5QwK2wCLcBGAs/s1600/Meow%2BMy%2BGroovy%2BLife%2Bwith%2BTiger%2BBeat%2527s%2BTeen%2BIdols.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="915" data-original-width="1274" height="286" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J1PTW5Y0w6E/W5fV1-LArFI/AAAAAAAACsM/1T5WkKK4KdQnMQ-ELoH5PqObBCz5QwK2wCLcBGAs/s400/Meow%2BMy%2BGroovy%2BLife%2Bwith%2BTiger%2BBeat%2527s%2BTeen%2BIdols.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Ann's book is available from <span style="color: blue;"><u><a class="western" href="https://www.amazon.com/Meow-Groovy-Tiger-Beats-Idols-ebook/dp/B071JPPS15/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536522432&sr=8-1&keywords=meow+my+groovy+life+with+tiger+beat%27s+teen+idols">Amazon</a></u></span> - or for an autographed copy go <span style="color: blue;"><u><a class="western" href="http://annmoses.com/autographed-personalized-copy-of-meow-my-groovy-life/">here</a></u></span></span> </div>
</div>
Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-2406833242679009392018-09-02T12:22:00.001-07:002020-09-11T12:48:34.232-07:00Winona Ryder - The Biography Revisited<div style="text-align: justify;">
In this first part of this special two-part blog article, I am thrilled to offer some background information on the making of my Winona Ryder biography that was published in the UK twenty years ago today in paperback by John Blake Publishing ... </div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;">My love of movies dates back to the early 1960s when I first went to the cinema, with my parents, to see <i>Carry On Constable</i>, or at least that is my recollection of the first time I was treated to a night out at the pictures, but then twenty-six years later something extraordinary happened, I went to see a movie called <i>Lucas</i>. As I watched the scenes that featured a total </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;">unknown
named Winona Ryder, I was moved by the vulnerability behind her huge
hypnotic brown eyes. She has captivated me ever since with her public
profile and each of the movies she has appeared in from the age of twelve. When I discovered in 1996, s</span></span>ome ten years and almost twenty films later, that there had never been a biography about her, I felt compelled to write one, which then consumed the next two years of my life, and with running a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/winonabook">Facebook</a> fan page for the book, still does to this day. </span></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;">Twenty years on from when it was published, I thought it would be interesting to reflect on what became a major turning point in my writing career as up to that point I had only written music reference books, with the exception of a lightly worded illustrated biography of the Rolling Stones first ten years, but now I was jumping in at the deep end to write a full length biography of my favourite actress. I also want to try and address some of the questions I am often asked about the book. Several questions persist. How and when did I get the idea to write the book, did I ask Winona to participate, how did I go about the research, who did I speak to, and when will I update the original book?</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;">Strangely
enough, I was hoping to publish a special 20th anniversary edition this
month, but could not find a publishing home for it. The idea for the
all new edition was to completely revise the existing book by doing a
new volume which would have been divided into three parts. The first
part would focus on revisions to the original manuscript that have come
to light since the book was first published, the second part would have
been the original biography as it was published in 1998, and the third
part was to go from where the original book left off up to the present,
<i>Stranger Things</i>, and her latest movie <i>Destination Wedding</i>. But every publisher that I approached with it didn't feel that now was the right time to be republishing, even with all the additional content and Winona's renewed profile. My feeling was and still is that there is no better time to re-access her life and career. As I told the editorial and sales teams, as an actress who changed the way cinema depicts women, and has championed for so many in the industry, she deserves a really good and up-to-date biography to be available, but sadly it was not to be. The new edition would have created a completely new portrait, which among other things would have told the exclusive untold story of her first and fascinating experience with the still camera some years before she was cast in her first movie, including my author interviews with photographer and stylist, take a fresh look at her early years from her first kiss on a playground carousel to her love of skateboarding and returning to the limelight in the medium she once swore she would never do, and to question why she still refuses to conform to the Hollywood ideal of fame. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
So how did the book all come about in the first place? Well, the initial idea came from Hannah MacDonald, then the publishing editor
at Virgin Publishing. I had called her to ask if she would be interested in commissioning me to write a biography of Olivia Newton-John. Hannah's reply was not really. She said she was looking for someone more current at that time, someone who was regarded as young, cool and hip, someone like Winona Ryder. What Hannah didn't know that just a few weeks before that call in June 1996, I had gone to see Winona's then latest film<i> How To Make An American Quilt</i> at the MGM multiplex in Eastbourne with my daughter Kim on <i>National Cinema Day</i> that was celebrating 100 years of cinema, when 742 cinemas across the UK showed selected films all day long and charged only one pound to see any film. There were over 150 films to chose from. As well as the current releases there were 27 previewing films and classics ranging from <i>Casablanca</i> to the <i>Sound of Music,</i> and one of the previewing films was Winona's movie. When we left the cinema I said to Kim, "It's no good, I have to write a book about her!" So can you imagine how excited I was when Hannah told me that Winona was the kind of biography subject they wanted to publish, and not ONJ. I was secretly thrilled and spent the rest of the call trying to persuade Hannah that I was the right person to write a book about Winona. I prepared a proposal, sent it to Hannah, which she presented at a number of publication meetings, but it was rejected, which although disappointing, still encouraged me to start touting it around other publishers. <br />
<br />
Most rejected it in their belief that Winona, although ranked among the
top ten box-office stars, and certainly one who encourages millions of
fans, still didn’t have the profile to warrant a book. I remember one
publisher telling me that most bestselling film biographies were the
ones about the male heartthrobs, or if female, the ones with a reputed
gay fan following, and as Winona didn’t fall into either category, I
didn’t find anyone rushing to do my book. The only publisher that showed any real interest was Robert Smith who owned Smith Gryphon Publishing, and had been producing a steady flow of celebrity and true-crime bestsellers since 1990. Although he could see how passionate I was about Winona as a biography subject, and had liked the attention of detail in my Stones book, he was still unsure about commissioning me unless the book was authorised, and I already knew that wasn't going to happen. Like Robert, I was only too aware, how difficult it is to encourage someone like
Winona to participate and contribute to a book project, and even though Robert shared my view that it is better for a celebrity to co-operate and/or authorise a
biography to ensure accuracy, not many Hollywood stars and their publicists shared that view.
Nevertheless I had a go. In fact, I approached Winona’s publicist several times with several ideas asking for Winona’s
co-operation and an interview, but as I have explained in my author
note, her publicist made it clear that they were uncomfortable with the
idea of a biography at that stage. When Hannah moved
from Virgin to Andre Deutsch, she came up with the idea of Winona
writing her own film dairies for a year or so, with me editing, but even that was a
no-no.<br />
<br />
Out of all the publishers I approached, Robert was the most interested, and despite turning it down to start with unless I could get Winona involved, he did eventually come back to me about eight months later, when I was about to put the book on the back burner, with an
offer for an unauthorised work, and gave me a weekend to consider his offer because if I was going to accept, he needed know two days later so he could include the book as one of the lead titles in his Autumn 1997 catalogue, which had to go to print the following week, so after chewing things over, and accepting his terms and conditions, I began writing in the early
part of that April, and quickly got up to speed as the manuscript had to
be delivered at the end of June for publication that October to
coincide with the landmark release of Winona’s twentieth film,<i> Alien Resurrection</i>.
But about two weeks before it was due to go to print, Robert told me that he was having to dissolve his Smith-Gryphon
publishing operation. The company and his entire catalogue of books would be offered for sale to other publishing houses, so my book, then titled <i>Winona Ryder: The Unauthorized Biography</i>, became stagnant, and was seemingly caught in the middle of a liquidation trap. <br />
<br />
After several offers were made to Robert's receivers, Smith Gryphon was eventually sold to Blake Publishing, who acquired the entire SG catalogue, but I still had no idea at that stage if they would publish my book or not, but as it turned out, once they had managed to rescue the book from Robert's printers, they scheduled a publication date for April 1998. The icing on the cake was the plan to publish it in hardback, now with two picture sections, rather than one, and with a new cover design. But their attempts to rush out my book
didn’t really work out. WH Smith, then the biggest and most powerful bookseller in the UK were reluctant to order a hardback, and
they also felt that they had not been given sufficient notice of
publication, which was rather strange since Virgin’s sales teams had
already been out selling the title for Smith Gryphon. Reluctantly Blake
put publication back to September, and also decided to produce the book
as a large format trade paperback instead of a hardback, simply because that's what WH Smith wanted and as they would be ordering more books than any other bookselling chain, Blake went along with their demands and decided to publish as a paperback edition only. The only
differences would be the price and would now be in soft covers rather than a hardback. Even though I'd had my heart set on a hardback edition for April, there were advantages. with the delay and different format. I now had the opportunity to ensure
that my book on Winona would be the most up-to-date published, which I
think it was at that time since it ended with the story of Winona dating Matt Damon. Something that surprised <i>Entertainment Weekly </i>when they had been sent a proof copy for review and interviewed me for their magazine. They seemed genuinely amazed it was so up to date. The delay had allowed me to do that. It also give me the opportunity to do some fine tuning and polishing to other parts the
manuscript. Not so good however was how we had to change the picture spreads due to some permission issues.<br />
<br />
Most of the film companies were reluctant to grant
permissions for some of the movie stills because the book was unauthorised, which was understandable. Although we could have licensed the stills from a number of picture agencies, my picture editor thought it was best not to since the film companies had objected to their use. I do remember calling Fox in the States to ask if we could use a publicity still from <i>Alien Resurrection</i>, whose response was yes as long as I got permission from Sigourney Weaver, Winona and the photographer, none of whom I had phone numbers for, and as Fox weren't about to share them with me, we didn't pursue it any further as it seemed out of our reach and a bit of a prohibitive exercise. With or without the<i> Alien Resurrection</i> shot, we lost a lot of images that we wanted to use. Mainly stills from <i>Mermaids</i>,<i> Edward Scissorhands</i>, <i>The Age of Innocence</i>,<i> The House of the Spirits</i>, <i>Reality Bites</i>, <i>Little Women</i> and <i>The Crucible</i>.
It was very disappointing, but we managed to replace them with some
relevant pictures, something that still had a connection wherever
possible. For instance, we used Winona receiving her Golden Globe for<i> The Age of Innocence</i>, and Winona and Daniel Day-Lewis at <i>The Crucible </i>premiere
in place of the actual movie stills.<br />
<br />
In fact, I think we ended up with a
selection of pictures that at that time hadn't been seen before, but then again it was in the pre-social media days and when the internet was still in its infancy, so yes, they were pretty rare for their day. Back then, I thought it made the plate section for the book far more interesting, personal and relative to the text. We actually ended up with some rather good shots. The most amazing find came from the<i> Petaluma Argus-Courier </i>who had shot Winona's very first publicity photo in her classroom at Petaluma Junior High in 1986. It's quite remarkable to look back on now because I don't remember there were any permission issues for the pictures in the Smith Gryphon version. Most of the photos had come from my private collection, and included some very iconic images of Winona, but I don't remember ever being questioned about ownership, but back in those days I was still a bit of a novice when it came to such things, and perhaps Robert wasn't too bothered about it either, or maybe, he thought I owned the photos or had clearance on them to use. <br />
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In the next part of this article, I revisit how I went about the research for the book, who I managed to speak to and interview, including a scheduled but cancelled phone interview with Winona, and look at the aftermath of the publication and how the book came a <i>Daily Telegraph</i> bestseller and got nominated for a literary prize!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The cover for the Smith Gryphon version of my book </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
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Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-80185591176676725522018-05-24T02:31:00.003-07:002021-04-01T03:55:10.756-07:00And Introducing Cliff Richard <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Back
in 1996, while working on the <i>Cliff At The Movies</i> double CD for EMI,
and while working on <i>The Ultimate Cliff</i>, the third Cliff book I co-wrote
with Peter Lewry, we were called on to help in the production of a
programme about Cliff’s movie career for a Polygram video release. Soon
after, we were given an uncut audio version of the interview Cliff
filmed for the video, some of which was not used in the final programme,
and so, for this article, I dug out the two C90 cassette tapes of the
interview from my box of Cliff tapes, took a listen and transcribed some
excerpts from the interview in which Cliff talks about life on set and
behind the scenes of his first two movies. <br />
<br />
“My
first reaction to being asked to be in a movie was just total
disbelief. You have to remember when my career started in 58, I was not
quite 18 when I had my first big hit record and I had only been out of
school for a year and a half, so I’d seen Elvis, the Ricky Nelsons of
this world, and all the people who were big influences upon me in my
career, I had seen what they had done, but I hadn’t dreamt I could
actually become a recording artist, let alone a film star, so when
<i>Serious Charge</i> came through, it was almost unbelievable, and I thought
what am I going to do. All I had done was the dramatic society at the
school, and I don’t know how good I was at that, so it was with a bit of
fear and trepidation that I arrived on that film set for the first
time, but they were fantastic. They must have known, and I must have
looked terrified and naive, very young, and they were wonderful, the
director, the other actors were fantastic to me, they were really
wonderful, and molly cuddled me all the way through it. I know it was
meant to be a B feature, but <i>Living Doll</i> was the song featured in the
film, and so therefore, the record went to number one and it created
this mood for the film, and the film became a big success. And it was
really fantastic to be part of that, and when watching that film, for
the first time, and even now, looking back, I have seen clips, shown now
and then, and there is one little scene where I’m driven away at the
end in a car, and the probation officer, a rather large lady, shuts the
door and tells me to be a good boy, and there’s just one look that I
give out of the window, and I thought ‘I can do it.’ Just that one look,
the fact that I could stop being me for that moment and be someone else
with someone else’s feelings, I thought ‘I can do this,’ and that’s
always stuck with me, that one shot, of me looking through the window of
a car, and I remember that moment a lot of times. Acting, after all, is
trying to be what you’re not and any moments that I see where I’m
really successful at it, I just store them away. <br />
<br />
“The
thing about going onto any film set - and I don't know whether actors
feel it now after a dozen films - but all the films I’ve made, every
single first day on a film set I find quite terrifying because you don’t
really know what’s going to be demanded of you, you don’t know anything
about the success or lack of success of the movie until after it’s
made, you don’t really know the people you’re going to work with,
they’ve all been cast, so you arrive there, you’re introduced to these
people, ‘This is going to be your father, your brother, this is going to
your friend,’ it’s all very strange. I’m not sure if anybody ever gets
used to that, I certainly haven’t. <br />
<br />
“I have to say because
<i>Serious Charge </i>was my first movie it seems like such a gigantic step in
my life. Even records, they were inaccessible to us at that stage. How
did you make a record? None of us knew where a studio was, now they’re
on every street corner, so to get my recording career off the ground was
a mighty triumph, and to be offered a film in the first three months of
my career was impossible, just impossible. I remember being driven to
the studio with this script under my arm, not knowing what it was going
to be like, I don’t think I had been so afraid, but being Curly was
really strange for me, because not only did they give me this name Curly
- if it had been an American film, I bet they would have changed my
name to match my looks - but no, they changed my hairstyle, so not only
was I making my first movie, I had to come out onto that stage set with
these curls in my hair, which I wasn’t very happy about I have to say,
but what do you say when you are not quite 18 and you’ve been asked to
make a movie. I guess you just do anything they tell you, so I did, but
it was quite terrifying. <br />
<br />
“Anthony Quayle, Sarah Churchill and
Andrew Ray, they were all wonderful to me, really friendly. Anthony
Quayle would say, ‘Don’t worry, let's do that one again, let’s rehearse
that again,’ and made me feel very comfortable, but it was Terence
Young, the director, who said to me, ‘You’re a natural,’ I didn't know
what that meant at first. I was heavily complimented. I realise now that
really he was saying you’re not acting a part, you just really being
yourself, and he said to me a number of times, ‘It’s not as easy as you
think, so don’t worry,’ and he kept on talking me through it, and he was
really, really kind to me, and again, the thing that’s really impressed
me about my time in the movies is how much fun it can be. I know it’s
hard work, we all know that your hours are whatever early hour in the
morning they call you in, usually at 6 or 7 in the morning, and you’re
supposed to look wonderful on camera a couple of hours later and have
that sustain throughout the day, and it’s tough work, but on the whole, I
found it to be totally fun. Even <i>Two A Penny</i> in which I had headaches
in trying to work out the scenes I had to play, was totally satisfying,
and I would still call it fun as well, so to have someone like Terence
Young, who was a director I never heard of, I’d hardly heard of any
directors before that time, to actually take the trouble to work on
someone who was absolutely a novice, one hundred percent novice, was
amazing. When you think there are so many actors out of work, they could
have got a million actors, a million times better than me to play that
part, but I think someone was being quite clever, they wanted a pop
singer, an up and coming pop singer, so first of all, I wasn’t very
expensive, but I was up and coming, and of course, during the shooting
of the film, my record went to number two, and subsequently <i>Living Doll
</i>next year was a number one, so that’s why I was there. But he was very
tough on the natural acting bit, ‘Be a natural and play it this way, and
listen to me, and you’ll be all right’ - and I think I was. <br />
<br />
“In
the days when I was offered those movies, <i>Serious Charge</i> and <i>Expresso
Bongo</i> were both X rated movies, which is ironic, isn't it, my first two
films would be X rated, and therefore my actual fans who were probably
in their early teens and younger wouldn’t have been able to officially,
legitimately see the films. I don’t think I had management at that time,
in fact I had no real management at that time. I had a chap with me who
discovered me, and we called him my manager, John Foster. He did
actually mutter the immortal words in a pub where I was singing, ‘I’ll
make you a star’ and he did. I have to say I owe John the beginning of
my career. All the steps that followed were what he gave me to start
with. But as I got older, and I’m sure John will forgive me for saying
this, he also had no experience, no idea of what management really
entailed, and we hadn’t got to that stage of deciding on routes and
ladders to climb, and areas not to go in. We just instinctively did what
was put in front of us, and when the opportunity came up for making a
film, there was no way we were going to decide not to make a movie, even
though <i>Expresso Bongo</i> did have sequences that were nude sequences, but
of course, they were only seen in France. They are probably now
available in Britain, but at that time, the sequences with Sylvia Syms
where she was supposed to be a striptease dancer, and Laurence Harvey’s
girlfriend, they filmed it in close and that was supposed to be the
English version, and then they said, ‘Right close the doors, we are now
going to do the French version.’ It was hysterically funny when you
think about it, and of course, we were all around watching these nude
scenes being filmed I have to say. When you look at the film now, you
wonder how it could have possibly been X rated. It’s impossibly bad
rating. <br />
<br />
“I wasn't in all the sequences, of course. In <i>Serious
Charge</i>, I wasn’t called on for the midnight skippy dipping shot, and I’m
really glad I wasn’t actually, I have often wondered why I wasn’t
because at that stage in my career I would understand it. There are
certain things that I feel are unnecessary and feel I don't want to be
part of, but its interesting when I see clips of that film now, it still
looks so innocuous, there was naivety and an innocence about it, that
in fact, makes it acceptable, whereas sometimes if you were to compare
the kind of things that happen in <i>Serious Charge</i> and <i>Expresso Bongo</i> with
the X rated movies of today, it’s almost Enid Blyton and pornography.
I’m not saying the films I watch today are pornographic, other than I
think the violence tends to be pornographic, and even some of the sex
scenes are, but I don’t want to generalise, but if you compare what we
did as an X rated movie to what we have now, we were really in the state
of Enid Blyton. <br />
<br />
“I think <i>Serious Charge</i> was meant to be a look
at what was happening in the youth culture at the time. The Elvis
phenomena had taken place, Ricky Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little
Richard, the Everlys, it was a fantastically musical time, and there was
this sort of liberating effect among teenagers, we suddenly had our own
art form, but at that time, I didn’t think of it as art form, it was
just frolics as far as I was concerned, but it was ours and nobody else
seemed to like it, and there was a generation gap, which I believe
doesn’t really exist anymore, but it was an insight. I remember the
scene where you had Anthony Quayle playing the vicar character of the
church suddenly coming in and seeing this young curly haired slob
singing a song, and everyone dancing and bopping, and throwing the girls
between their feet and lifting them up and swinging them round, and
there was this kind of violent look to it, or so the older generation
thought, and in the actual film, he stops it, and says ‘That’s enough of
that, let’s all cool, down!’ And it was meant to be a bit of a warning,
I suppose, but it wasn't really a warning, it was about this is what
kids do now. This is what they do and how are we going to deal with it.
It was probably one of the first films in Britain to be made where a
message was trying to handed across, but looking at the clips I have
seen recently, I don’t think in it was any kind heavy cane stick, it
wasn’t this is what we want, this is what we’re gonna do. There was no
demand from us as younger performers, it’s what we were and we did it.
It’s interesting, but I watched one of the clips recently, and blimey,
I’d forgotten Jess Conrad was there. I’ve acted alongside Jess Conrad
before he ever became the Jess Conrad that made records later, and
performed on the <i>Oh Boy! </i>show. <br />
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“I do think <i>Serious Charge</i> was
one of a type, and probably, almost certainly, not one of the best of
the type, but I don’t want to belittle the actors in the film or the
people who were involved in making it, after all it was a massive step
in my own move and in my career upwards, and so I will never totally put
it down, but if you compare it to the kind of things that the Brando’s
were doing in the States, the kind of gang warfare and stuff like that,
ours in comparison was pretty lightweight. But then again, certainly at
that stage, Britain has always been slightly more gentile, I suppose, so
we may look at the same programmes and we may look at the same
problems, but we don’t react in the same way, less so now, of course. <br />
<br />
“The
film industry is supposed to be, in some respects, notorious, has a lot
of people in it that would squash you flat, that will upstage you, but I
never had that. Robert Morley was wonderful to me in <i>The Young Ones</i>,
the actors in<i> Serious Charge</i> were absolutely incredible, Laurence Harvey
in <i>Expresso Bongo</i> was absolutely fabulous. I remember when we were
doing a scene, he actually said to me, after we rehearsed it, he came to
the side and said, ‘just listen to me one minute, try doing it like
this.’ I don’t know if that is normal or not, but I found it fantastic,
that he was actually willing to help me, improve my performance in a
scene in which he was participating. And if all these other rumours had
been true, he would have more likely, or should have just squashed me
and said ‘yes, you are fine Cliff,’ but he didn’t. <br />
<br />
“The story of
<i>Expresso Bongo</i> is interesting because it was supposed to be depicting
how perhaps life within showbusiness was lived, you know, managers
getting hold of naive young singers, exploiting them, and I’m sure
that’s happened. But I’ve been very lucky. In my whole career I’ve only
ever had... a manager who was put in as a kind of a probationary period I
seem to remember, a friend of Norrie Paramor’s, the producer who gave
me fifteen years of hits. He found me this guy, and said, ‘look, just
six months and if it doesn’t work we can forget it’, and sure enough six
months later, we did forget it, and I was with someone else, a man
called Tito Burns, who was my first real manager, and that lasted a year
or two, and then I met Peter Gormley, and when my contract with Tito
was over, Peter took over. And our relationship went right through to
the day Peter retired, and now I don’t have a personal manager. I have a
group of people that are a management team, and we work as a team, and
so, I feel very fortunate that I managed to somehow sidestep all of that
side, but the film did show what could happen and did happen in those
days. <br />
<br />
“I never actually wanted to be in movies as such, I had a
naive approach to life and the simplistic view for me was why would I
want to star in a movie, when in point of fact, so far, I had been
introduced and co-starred in two movies, so I wasn’t the star of either
of the films and yet I was revelling in the success of both of them, and
I had this thing about I wouldn’t star in a movie but I would co-star
in movies. I mean it’s ridiculous to think that way but that’s what I
wanted to do, and I thought if the film was a success I could say ‘Well,
I was in that film,’ if it failed I could say ‘Well, nothing to do with
me, I’m not the star of the movie.’ And that was my naive approach to
it.”<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-noeVsYnPaLI/WwVKhvrzuGI/AAAAAAAACiY/qydSUgj-WTUQLsBvMynqasktVKL2Iu6KwCEwYBhgL/s1600/expresso%2Bbongo_LI.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="910" data-original-width="1166" height="311" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-noeVsYnPaLI/WwVKhvrzuGI/AAAAAAAACiY/qydSUgj-WTUQLsBvMynqasktVKL2Iu6KwCEwYBhgL/w400-h311/expresso%2Bbongo_LI.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-8378948497119906022017-10-17T09:24:00.012-07:002021-05-27T01:27:11.023-07:00The Story Behind The Cliff Liner Note <div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3Bp8kHUQyM4/WeUorubYLUI/AAAAAAAACOo/ZwE5ljKjgGo247H_QYMWrBkvhFZ98BCYwCLcBGAs/s1600/A1ERkMitq-L._SL1500_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1500" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3Bp8kHUQyM4/WeUorubYLUI/AAAAAAAACOo/ZwE5ljKjgGo247H_QYMWrBkvhFZ98BCYwCLcBGAs/w400-h400/A1ERkMitq-L._SL1500_.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have to admit I was totally surprised when I received a call last month from colleague, Stephen Munns, who has for some years been servicing the Parlophone label with a number of very successful compilation album ideas and product, most notably the Cilla Black catalogue, to alert me to a new Cliff Richard compilation album that Warners were releasing on their Parlophone label in November. Stephen had quite unexpectedly been asked to write the liner notes, but knowing what the crew at Parlophone didn't, that I had spent 20-something years working on Cliff's catalogue when Warners were EMI, he turned down the gig, and suggested they ask me to do the liners as I was, in Stephen's words, <i>the go to for Cliff guy</i>. Within a couple of days, Warners had sent me an email outlining the project, sent the track listing, and asked if I could work up a liner note of about 500 words that could discuss the reflective nature of the songs in Cliff's career, and as this compilation was focusing more on Cliff's songs of love and reflection</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">, they didn't want a straight biog because it wasn't that sort of best of album, but they did want something that bought a fresh insight to the tracks featured on the album. I immediately knew that what they were looking for was not the type of liner note I did, or had done on any of the 50 or so Cliff catalogue albums, box sets and compilations I had worked on in the EMI days, so it was pretty clear to me that I would have to pass on it, or find someone who could do what they were after. And as luck would have it, I knew someone who I thought would be just right for it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Vic Rust had written and published a book on Cliff's recordings, writing about every song in the same reflective tone as Warners were now seeking for the liner note of the new album. Vic and his book were already well known to Cliff and his management team, and was involved, along with myself, in coming up with the 100th album figure for <i>The Fabulous Rock 'n' Roll Songbook</i> in 2013, and on top of everything else, his book had been highly praised by Cliff himself, so if I could get Vic on board the project, it would be the perfect solution. In the absence of not doing the liner note myself, it would provide Cliff and Warners with the kind of liner note they were after, keep me in the frame of things for any future ideas, and make Stephen's decision to pass the project over to me all worthwhile. I briefed Vic about the project, sent him the track list and told him if he wanted to have a go at it, purely on spec, I would submit it to Warners on his behalf for Cliff and his team to approve. Vic agreed, and less than a week later, he told me Cliff had chosen his liner note over and above another liner that had been submitted by a music journalist, and that it would indeed be used on the album, so as a taster of what to expect in the CD booklet, I am thrilled to share an exclusive first look excerpt from the opening paragraph of Vic's fabulous liner note... </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;">To
call Cliff Richard merely a singer misses the point: The techniques,
the versatility, the ear for strong melody and harmony all serve to
highlight the impact of his huge back catalogue. In an extraordinary
career of nearly 60 years, Cliff has recorded almost 1,300 songs,
making each one sound unique, contemporary, poignant and essentially
personal. The
important goal for any singer is for the audience, the individual, to
take something specific away from every one of their performances, be
it simple enjoyment, strength of belief, a powerful message to
ponder, or simply a hummable tune delivered to the best of their
capabilities. Throughout his long career, Cliff has excelled in
making this seem inordinately easy, which is one of the reasons that
his fan-base has remained so resolutely strong. Of
those hundreds of songs, most have understandably been about love
because that is what the general pop genre demands, but there have
also been many that talk about faith, and some that are quite pointed
environmental protest songs. The key to creating a successful
performance is to make the songs accessible to everybody at some
level, regardless of their personal beliefs, and this is a skill that
is often unrecognised. It is achieved by focusing on how the song is
put together and then evolved to become the final polished product,
so that every listener can take something that is important to them
away from it.</span></span></i><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i> </i></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Cliff Richard Stronger Thru The Years is released on 10 November. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></span></span></div>Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-57851792904623281932017-05-23T02:18:00.072-07:002021-07-05T16:29:01.156-07:00Olivia Newton-John In My Own Words<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8Sx25cvwXKA/X4rWZjRwyhI/AAAAAAAAEgI/Vl4xUiWO6dU2XudkV3zekuVi732dNZCWQCLcBGAsYHQ/s624/Billboard%2BOlivia%2BBanks%2Bof%2Bthe%2BOhio%2BPromo%2BAd%2BOct%2B02%2B1971_zpscqihwmsi.png_original%2Bpicture%2Bonly.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="624" data-original-width="613" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8Sx25cvwXKA/X4rWZjRwyhI/AAAAAAAAEgI/Vl4xUiWO6dU2XudkV3zekuVi732dNZCWQCLcBGAsYHQ/w393-h400/Billboard%2BOlivia%2BBanks%2Bof%2Bthe%2BOhio%2BPromo%2BAd%2BOct%2B02%2B1971_zpscqihwmsi.png_original%2Bpicture%2Bonly.jpg" width="393" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What a truly pleasant surprise it was to hear Olivia Newton-John telling her own story in her own words on BBC Radio 2 over the last couple of weeks. I say surprise because Olivia is not someone who is known for talking about her own life and career, has never written her own autobiography or participated in any book about herself, and there was a time when l wanted to do one, and is generally not someone who is known to give a lot of interviews or talk openly about her life of career, although since this blog was first published, Olivia has written and published her own memoir, <i>Don't Stop Believin'.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">
Not only did I want to write a book about her, with her co-operation, but with my Cliff Richard writing cohort, Peter Lewry, we made several attempts to interview her about the duets she had recorded with Cliff over the years for our book on Cliff's recording sessions. To this day, it is still a bit of a mystery why she didn't speak with us, but maybe it was down to the fact that she may have felt a little uncomfortable to talk to a couple of unknown wannabe rock writers putting together their first book on one of her favourite people, despite the book being approved and authorised by Cliff himself, unless of course she never received our request that was sent to her through Cliff's office, which can often happen and does. It is not unknown for interview requests never to reach the people they are intended for.
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We made other attempts to interview her, but again, without success, about some of the recordings we re-released on the Cliff album remaster series for EMI, including the backing vocals she contributed to the <i>Cliff Live in Japan 1972</i> album, so with all that in mind, it was nice to hear her talk about recording <i>Don't Move Away</i>, her first B-side duet with Cliff in 1970, on the Radio 2 programme, as we had very little information about the recording apart from what Cliff told us, and what we found on tape boxes and recording sheets at Abbey Road. What I did find interesting to hear her say was how petrified she was about going into the studio with such a big star as Cliff and having to record with an orchestra, neither of which, she had ever done before. For the purists, the track was recorded at the same session as the two other songs that appeared on Cliff's <i>Sunny Honey Girl</i> maxi-single. And even though <i>Don’t Move Away</i> was the first track to be completed with the third and last take being used to make up the final master, it wasn't remastered until we added it as a bonus track to the the reissued <i>Tracks ‘n’ Grooves</i> album in 2004.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IoXy_j4BehY/WSQy5PZhR0I/AAAAAAAACLA/TPSmkoggSNo2SxDdsPAepctRscmNAtmbQCLcB/s1600/ONJ.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="388" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IoXy_j4BehY/WSQy5PZhR0I/AAAAAAAACLA/TPSmkoggSNo2SxDdsPAepctRscmNAtmbQCLcB/w400-h388/ONJ.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">EMI Abbey Road tape box for <i>Don't Move Away </i>session<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">It was a great shame we didn't get to speak with her as we found quite a few alternate takes, some with Cliff, and some of her own recordings for singles and albums, and even though we wouldn't have included any info about her early work with Bruce Welch and John Farrar in a book about Cliff's sessions, it would have satisfied my curiosity to have had the opportunity to listen to them, discover their history, and find out why certain takes were chosen over others, and why some remained unreleased, but sadly it was not to be. </div><div class="western" style="text-align: justify;"><div class="western"><br /></div><div class="western">What is strange is that she didn't mention the backing vocals she did on the Shadows version of Cliff's <i>The Day I Met Marie </i>on the EMI 1967 <i>From Hank, Bruce, Brian and John</i> album on which she provides an ethereal rendition of “baby, go to sleep now” on the chorus. Neither did she mention her playing recorder as an accompaniment <i>on Music Makes My Day </i>on the 1973 <i>Hank Marvin and John Farrar </i>album, which was also released as a single that same year! If any readers don't have the original vinyls, both tracks can be heard on Spotify.</div><div class="western"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Cp7FMDh-cII/X8zu8EebZ1I/AAAAAAAAEvU/fwMV3_Dj2borvoxTwrwEuY9HNC0nrX5_QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1383/IMG_20201206_013108.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1370" data-original-width="1383" height="396" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Cp7FMDh-cII/X8zu8EebZ1I/AAAAAAAAEvU/fwMV3_Dj2borvoxTwrwEuY9HNC0nrX5_QCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h396/IMG_20201206_013108.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="western"><br /></div></div></div>
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Probably one of the most interesting things we uncovered about her recording work with Cliff was the recording of <i>Suddenly</i>. For those who have read our book, you will know that Olivia's vocal for the duet was recorded in a garage located in Los Angeles, which obviously created some acoustic problems with traffic noise levels outside. Compounding the technical problems was the recording method used of Cliff and Olivia taping their vocals simultaneously onto a pre-recorded backing track. We were told that Olivia returned at a later date to re-record her vocals due to her track containing the noise levels mentioned. We were unable to trace the origins of the backing track or the musicians featured and never found any tape boxes or recording paperwork, and although it would have been something we would have asked Olivia, as we did Cliff, like Cliff, she may not have remembered. </div>
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As Cliff said in the first episode, everybody loved her when she first burst onto the scene 50 years ago, and I was one of them. For me it started back in 1971 when I bought her first album, simply titled <i>Olivia Newton-John</i>, and went to see her live in concert at the Brighton Dome in November the following year, for which she wasn't top of the bill, but shared supporting act duties with Labi Siffre to headliners Cliff and Marvin, Welch & Farrar. Her set included <i>If Not For</i> <i>You</i>, <i>Angel of the Morning</i>, <i>If</i>, <i>Everything I Own</i>, <i>What Is</i> <i>Life,</i> and her then latest single, <i>Banks of the Ohio</i>, the third single to be released from her first album.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9RTA0AVHFzQ/X54jhnMa6SI/AAAAAAAAElM/4K9FzrPJjJgMCmDE8Nf7zhrO_nZKehPSgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/ONJ%2BTour%2Bpage%2Bnew.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="2048" height="356" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9RTA0AVHFzQ/X54jhnMa6SI/AAAAAAAAElM/4K9FzrPJjJgMCmDE8Nf7zhrO_nZKehPSgCLcBGAsYHQ/w519-h356/ONJ%2BTour%2Bpage%2Bnew.jpg" width="519" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Double page spread from souvenir brochure featuring full size promo shot and record ad<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></div>Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-78414503292458346892016-11-17T02:56:00.001-08:002020-09-11T12:59:03.072-07:00Cliff At Christmas<div style="text-align: justify;">
Over the years, I have often been asked about Cliff's 2003 Christmas album, how did it come about, whose idea was it, and why no liner notes? Below, is the press release that I wrote for EMI to help promote the album, which hopefully will answer some of those questions, and for those who missed having a liner note, hopefully this be a good alternative...<br />
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When <i>Mistletoe and Wine </i>went to number one and became the best
selling British single of 1988, it also became representative of one of
Cliff’s most successful genres: the Christmas song. Like gospel music,
it is a body of material that speaks directly to Cliff’s roots, and one
he enjoys celebrating. With both new and old recordings, CLIFF AT
CHRISTMAS brings together – for the first time – a collection of
Christmas favourites.</div>
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Due in part to the success of the single <i>Millennium Prayer</i>,
and in part to the almost traditional association of Cliff with
Christmas, even when he had Christmas hits that weren’t Christmas songs,
Cliff has decided, this year, to create an album of purely Christmas
repertoire. The idea was to cut eight new songs and put them on an album
with some familiar favourites. Although four of the ‘older’ tracks
would be remixed to bring them into keeping with the new recordings,
there is the handful that appear in their original form, all digitally
remastered, to remind us of the unprecedented run of Christmas hits that
Cliff’s had ever since his version of <i>O Little Town of Bethlehem </i>was
released in 1982. After all, no Christmas album by Cliff could be
considered complete without the Christmas number ones like <i>Mistletoe And Wine</i>, <i></i><i>Saviour’s Day </i>and <i>Millennium Prayer</i>.</div>
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Nor could a Christmas album by Cliff be considered complete without his own stylish arrangements of seasonal standards like <i>Silent Night</i>, which interestingly enough, includes his own additional lyric of <i>Mistletoe And Wine </i>‘just being played on the radio’ – but now with a new hidden extra.</div>
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Another is<i> White Christmas</i>, the Irving Berlin favourite that Bing Crosby recorded in 1942 for the film <i>Holiday Inn</i>,
and has since been in the charts every year at Christmas from its first
release all the way through to 1962. Though dozens of artists have
recorded it over the years, Cliff has given his own originality to the
song. As with the other traditional selections on the album such as <i>Winter Wonderland</i>, <i>When A Child Is Bor</i>n and<i> Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas</i>,
Cliff says, ‘if you’re going to do a cover version, it should be
distinct from the original. So you bend or change the melody, the
arrangement, and all the guitar riffs. There’s no need to do it the same
way. In everybody’s mind, the original way is always going to be the
definitive version. There’s no point in making it sound exactly the same
as the original.’</div>
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From the list of new material, <i>Let It Snow </i>and <i>Walking in The Air</i>,
recorded in Nashville, are probably among Cliff’s favourites. ‘I did
those tracks with Michael Omartian and I loved working with him. He was
fantastic. They were really done as test cases to see how we would gel
together, and it worked really well. The piano on those two sound
great.’</div>
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One listen to this 17-track album, which
also includes a duet with European star Helmut Lotti, should forever
put to rest the question of Cliff’s deep-rooted feeling for Christmas
songs and for the traditional simplicity that they represent.</div>
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With Cliff’s proven instinct to spot potential hit material, and Christmas number one songs, a special radio edit of <i>Santa’s List</i>, co-written by Chris Eaton, who also penned<i> Saviour’s Day</i>,
will be released on 8 December as the single Cliff has chosen to
promote the album, and more importantly, to echo his own distinctive
feeling for Christmas.</div>
Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-77132501993770086172016-06-11T15:50:00.010-07:002021-03-29T01:10:36.122-07:00Me, Elvis and The Sun Collection<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Before I was a writer and got published, one of my dreams was to write a sleeve note for an Elvis Presley album, and in the early part of 1975, I thought I was pretty close to fulfilling that dream. The album in question was <i>The Elvis Presley Sun Collection, </i>which was<i> </i>going to be released that summer and would collect together all of the recordings Elvis cut at Sam Phillips' famous Sun Studio in Memphis between 1954 and 1955 and place them on a 16 track album, that would also launch the then new RCA mid-price Starcall label. It would also mark the first time that all the Sun sides had appeared together on a single album. Previously the tracks, with the exception of <i>I Love You Because (2nd version)</i>, had been spread over a couple of earlier compilations in 1959 on<i> A Date With Elvis</i> and <i>For LP Fans Only, </i>while Elvis did his national service in the U.S Army, and were then new to LP.<br />
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What is perhaps surprising, or maybe it wasn't when you consider the wealth of its material, is that the album was Elvis's most successful album of that year in the UK. It was released one month after his then latest studio album <i>Today </i>and fared much better in the British album chart, and for the first time in four years, was packaged without the usual live picture of Elvis in a white jumpsuit, but in a sleeve with a striking illustration that reflected the music inside, and was, in fact, based upon a photo that had been taken during Elvis's historic performance at the <span class="null">Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas on 11 October 1956. </span><br />
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I can't remember where or when I first heard about the project, but if my memory serves me correctly, it was probably through the pages of the <i>New Musical Express</i> as the project was the brainchild of <i>NME</i> writer Roy Carr, who had collected all the tracks together and had somehow persuaded RCA Records in the UK to release them. Neither do I remember if the project had to be approved by Colonel Tom Parker before it got green-lighted for release, but let's presume it was, and they usually were, isn't it strange that Elvis seemed genuinely surprised and amazed about the album's existence when a British fan handed him a copy during his Dinner Show performance at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas on 13 December 1975, and despite what some have assumed on various Elvis internet forums that I was that British fan who handed Elvis the album, I wasn't.<br />
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Back in Britain, before any of that, my first port of call was to Shaun Greenfield, then the RCA product manager in the UK, who looked after all of Elvis's UK originated albums, and as this was a UK only release, Shaun whom I knew and had met previously in London's RCA offices, was my best bet. I asked him about the project, and whether or not he was looking for any sleeve notes for the album. Shaun gave me all the details, and told me that it was Roy Carr's baby, and although it was expected that Roy would write the liners, he told me I was most welcome to submit some of my own. At that stage it was uncertain whether Carr was going to write any notes, but when you consider it was his project, and as he was one of Britain's most respected music journalists, it was pretty obvious to me that he wouldn't want some wannabe rock journo treading on his feet for a project that was obviously close to his heart.<br />
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The offer that RCA made me was simple. If Roy wrote the sleeve notes then they would be used, but if he didn't, and if the notes I was going to write, were good enough, then they would use them on the album. In the end of course, and as we all now know, Roy ended up writing the notes, and they were the ones, along with a detailed discography that appeared on the back sleeve of the album. It was the first time ever that such a lengthy, informative and factual sleeve note had appeared on an Elvis album. At the time I started to write my notes (which weren't anywhere near as detailed or as lengthy as Carr's), it still wasn't certain if and when Roy would supply his, but as luck would have it, by the time I had written mine and sent then to Shaun, Roy had already completed his, which were now in the hands of RCA.<br />
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<i><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Listen <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_0ioirZR9TlYVlvYTN6eklMVHM/view?usp=sharing">here</a> to a live audio recording of the British fan giving Elvis the album </span></b></i></div>
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The only copy of the notes I kept was my own personal copy which I had printed on the back of a blank white 7-inch record sleeve, which I decided in the end to send off to Elvis's father Vernon, while he was in Las Vegas during Elvis's December 1976 season at the Hilton Hotel. I thought this was the best bet to get my work seen by Elvis and acknowledged with his autograph, which in my letter to Vernon I had asked for. The sleeve was returned to me, duly signed "Best Wishes Elvis Presley" from Memphis Tennessee in February 1977, the same month that Elvis's new single <i>Moody Blue </i>was released in the UK. Unfortunately the signed sleeve got lost in a house move during the early 90s, and the only photographic evidence I still have to this day is in a picture cutting that my local newspaper, the <i>Evening Argus, </i>ran in September 1977, when I was the Sussex branch leader for the official fan club, in which I can be seen holding the signed sleeve, a scan of which I have included below. <br />
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Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687904350045772049.post-55881488894900846582015-12-07T01:38:00.002-08:002020-09-11T13:23:23.866-07:00Christmas with Elvis in 1970<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When Elvis released his first <i>Christmas
Album</i> in November 1957, he probably didn't expect it to be
reissued and repackaged as much as it was during his lifetime - and
still is to this day. The original album featured eight Christmas
songs recorded at Hollywood's Radio Recorders in September 1957, and
the four gospel songs that were first released on the <i>Peace in the
Valley</i> EP at Easter that same year. In the U.S, the album had a
book style cover that opened up to reveal a 10-page album of full
colour promotional photos from Elvis's third movie <i>Jailhouse Rock</i>,
and had a gold gift sticker attached to the front of the shrink
wrapping. The two sides of the album were divided into a selection of
secular Christmas songs on side one, with two traditional Christmas
carols and the four spirituals on side two. It was first reissued two
years after its first release, replacing the iconic cover of the
original with a close-up of Elvis posed against an outdoor, snowy
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The first time it appeared as a budget
album was fourteen years after it was first released, and apparently
came about when Harry Jenkins, then RCA's vice president in charge of
Elvis, began talking about a new Christmas album, to which Elvis
asked what was wrong with once again repackaging the original one
from 1957. By now, Elvis was ensconced in Memphis, had received his
special U.S narcotics badge from Richard Nixon, was basking in a new
film documentary about his August 1970 Summer Festival in Vegas, and
was about to go back out on the road, so the idea of a new Christmas
album held little interest for him, so instead, RCA did what he
suggested and repackaged the original LP, but with some changes that
upgraded the set. After all, fourteen years in the music business is
a long time, which in this case, had encompassed everything from the
Beatles to the Vietnam war. </div>
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The album, this time, was repackaged in
a completely new look front and back sleeve with an altered track
listing and was put out on RCA's budget label, RCA Camden in November
1970, which retailed in the UK on Camden's International imprint for
just under one pound. But of course, it was actually a different
album than the original LP even though it used the same title and
some, but not all, of the original songs. I first came across it when
I was browsing through the Elvis section at HMV in Brighton. By this
time, the original album had been long out of print, and widely
unavailable, unless you could find a copy in a second-hand record
store. Although the new cover echoed that of the 1959 reissue, we now
had a more recent 60s photo of Elvis taken on the set of his 1967
movie <i>Speedway</i>, wearing a blue racing jacket with two white
stripes down the left-hand side, which once again, was set against a
wintry scenic background. The back sleeve art, which differed to the
U.S version, had also been given a make over. Now, all in
black-and-white, it featured a cropped close-up of Elvis from his
comeback special, an advert for his previous two Camden albums, and
the new altered track listing.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_qjfahRlFfs/WCu-DWiL0RI/AAAAAAAACFI/aA3Q5khImfs6O7dmZjhpz_eZusxTej2XQCLcB/s1600/Image371trim%2B%25282%2529%2Btweak.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_qjfahRlFfs/WCu-DWiL0RI/AAAAAAAACFI/aA3Q5khImfs6O7dmZjhpz_eZusxTej2XQCLcB/s200/Image371trim%2B%25282%2529%2Btweak.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MRaLodqpIx0/WCvC5LTpV9I/AAAAAAAACF0/aqdGRtjn1dcw_4txk5PuZznHg3Dwg8fGQCLcB/s1600/ep%2Bxmas%2Blabel%2Bgreen2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MRaLodqpIx0/WCvC5LTpV9I/AAAAAAAACF0/aqdGRtjn1dcw_4txk5PuZznHg3Dwg8fGQCLcB/s200/ep%2Bxmas%2Blabel%2Bgreen2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> <i><b>US and UK label variations </b></i></span></div>
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The four gospel songs
from <i>Peace in the Valley</i> had now been eliminated and replaced
with two newer tracks. One was Elvis's festive single from 1966, <i>If
Every Day Was Like Christmas</i>, and the other, was <i>Mama Liked
The Roses</i>, a 1970 non-seasonal B-side that had been out earlier
in the year as the flip to his #1 UK hit, <i>The Wonder of You</i>,
which the front cover announced had been added "By Request!"
The other noticeable change when comparing this version to the
original was the number of tracks. It had now been reduced to ten
songs instead of the original thirteen, due to the industry
requirements for shorter running times on budget albums. The running
order of the Christmas songs were also changed. All the same, it was
a fine release, with a good selection of tracks, a great looking
sleeve, and released in the original mono sound of the original. In
the year after its release, it peaked at #7 in the UK top ten album
chart, and over the following years, would go on to sell seven
million more copies than the original album, although according to
EPE (Elvis Presley Enterprises), it sold nine million. Not
surprisingly, it also became Elvis's biggest selling album of all
time, and his first to attain a Diamond disc award from the Recording
Industry Association of America (RIAA).</div>
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Camden re-released the
album the following year in a modified cover that now had a cropped
version of the Elvis <i>Speedway</i> picture in a circle in the
middle of a white sleeve, with the title and song selections in red,
plus a sleeve note on the back underneath the album title and track
listing. Even when it was reissued in 1975 by Pickwick, the sleeve
again was updated, which this time, echoed the second Camden version,
but now with a more elaborate royal blue background decorated with
red ribbons around the picture of Elvis in a circle. Although the
1970 RCA Camden release remained in print until the late 1980s, with
the same track listing, and has since appeared in various different official and bootleg combinations, not once in all that time, has it ever appeared in its
original 1970 cover art despite the sleeve being one of the most
popular and a firm favourite among fans. It's certainly one of mine!</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">With thanks to Tony King for the sleeve and label restoration and scanning.</span></div>
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Nigel Goodallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15525399727973629612noreply@blogger.com1