Update: Still inching along slowly, with your help and your donations. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it and all the kind words that have gone with it. You're making a difference and it's huge. And that's why we can't stop now, a little less than halfway to our goal. It's crucial that every penny counts in chipping away at the potential disaster. Without your help, this whole site could go away and the archive could be lost. I don't want either of those things to happen and that's why I'm making this appeal. Any amount you're willing to donate will be deeply appreciated. We can do this, and we can make it happen. Just a little more way to go. Please help keep Newstalgia from disaster; consider any amount - but please consider an amount. We need you!

Staying with some of the "bad boys" of The British Invasion. Wildly popular and influential in their native UK, The Pretty Things were relegated to the more-or-less/ also-ran category. And it stuck with them for the better part of their careers - which was a shame because it wasn't true. The Pretty Things were true originals and, as legend has it, The Pretty Things and The Rolling Stones were very much in competition with each other even to the point of members crossing over briefly into each others bands.

With all that in mind - here is the rundown of what's up on the player tonight.

The Pretty Things - BBC Saturday Club - Jan. 8, 1966

1. Sitting All Alone
2. Midnight To Six Man
3. Buzz The Jerk
4. L.S.D.

The end of the week is coming. Play this one loud and get ready for Friday Night.

(Georgie Fame and The Blue Flames - In 1964 riding the epitome of cool)

(The Rolling Stones - in 1964 - not fooling anybody with the squeaky clean act)

If I haven't already screamed the praises of BBC 6 Music on an almost daily basis, forgive me. Without them a lot of incredible and incredibly rare material would probably never see the light of day. Because of that, you really need to bookmark their site and refer to it every few hours or so and prepare to be amazed.

This weeks installment of the Backstage Weekend takes us back to 1964 and a recently discovered program that hasn't been heard since it first aired on the BBC World Service March 18, 1964. Called The Mike Raven Rhythm & Blues Show it featured, at the time, many of the up-and-comers from the British Invasion period. As far as I can gather, Mike Raven is actually a pseudonym for Alexis Korner who sings one song with the Blue Flames. The half hour show is pretty evenly split between Georgie Fame and The Rolling Stones. Georgie Fame is probably not as well known now as the co-billed band, but in 1964 he had a top ten hit in the U.S. (Yeah-Yeah) and a pretty good following in Europe. The Rolling Stones were slowly evolving. Still very much in the Chicago Blues mold and featuring co-founder Brian Jones on guitar, they played mostly covers of other songs and hadn't really hit yet in the U.S. (It's All Over Now, they're first big hit really didn't until around August, if I remember). So this is an interesting, and very historic glimpse of a band on the way up and what the scene was generally like in the U.K. on a typical March day in 1964.

And it's in stereo.

For all intents and purposes, a normal day in history. August 2nd 1994 saw Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell unveiling his plan for Healthcare as something of an alternative to what was already being bandied about. The infamous Whitewater Investigation was rolling on. Primaries were being held around the country as a prelude to the upcoming Fall Off-Year elections. The CIA let it be known it was aware of Aldrich Ames a good three years before he was finally unmasked as a Russian spy. Zaire had the ominous distinction of replacing Cholera with Dysentery as a major epidemic sweeping the African nation. And on the subject of epidemics, AIDS was now an official threat to Asia, mostly from all the sex-tours and rampant needle use. Wild fires were raging out of control in the Pacific Northwest. Baseball soon-to-be-legend Cal Ripkin had just tied the record set by Lou Gehrig for 2,000 consecutive games played. And The Rolling Stones kicked off their 1994/1995 Voodoo Lounge Tour in the U.S.

As August 2nd's go - this one wasn't so bad. At least according to the CBS World News Roundup, as it was broadcast on that day seventeen years ago.

If, by some strange reason you may have forgotten, today marks what would have been Rolling Stone founding member Brian Jones birthday - Number 69 to be exact. Those of us who were fans since Day One remembered how much the sound had changed when Brian left the band (actually kicked out over his drug excesses which, for The Rolling Stones was really saying something). And how saddened we all were when we learned of his death some weeks later (a death disputed over the years as either overdose, suicide or murder). Little did we know it would be the start of a trend that also saw the untimely deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison - all going down that same road. Things just up and changed in a very short period of time.

But that's another story.

Tonight it's celebrating the work of an incredible talent whose contribution to Rock will never be short-changed, despite what's been said over the years and all the rumors to the contrary. He did some great work and he was one of the masterminds, if not the mastermind behind what The Rolling Stones were all about.

Because their history goes back such a long way, and because there have been so many albums released by them over the decades, it's possible, if you've come to their music the past twenty years, that you may have missed the formative period of The Rolling Stones. Those early years when they were raw and knee-deep in Chicago Blues.

To give you an idea of what they sounded like in 1965, here's a track from one of their milestone albums, Out Of Our Heads, and a song made popular in 1962 by Solomon Burke, but given the distinctive Mick Jagger touch and the inimitable Brian Jones accompaniment, Cry To Me.

Happy Birthday Brian Jones. You're still missed.

(Paul Butterfield Blues Band - 1966 - defined a movement)

In 1966 when East-West by The Butterfield Blues Band came out, it defined a growing interest and awareness on the part of American bands to re-discover what had been largely co-opted by British bands during the previous few years by the likes of The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds and countless others. In short, Paul Butterfield brought it all back home. East-West (the title of the album and the title of tonight's track) was, and still is, one of the masterpieces of 60s blues-rock. Backed by guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop, Butterfield rounded off the band with Mark Naftalin on keyboards, Billy Davenport on drums and Jerome Arnold on bass from Howlin' Wolf's band. Bloomfield, Bishop and Naftalin would go off and pursue careers with other bands or solo endeavors a short while after this album came out.

Perhaps neglected for no particular reason some 45 years later, in 1966 East-West was required listening for every musician and every garage band in the country. At a time when AM radio was confined to the 2:30 format, the 13+ minutes of East-West made it perfect for the newly established FM Underground audience and it was played constantly for years.

Although Paul Butterfield is gone (he died in 1987 at the age of 44), his contribution to the music world is inestimable. And East-West got the ball rolling.

(If they only had Mick - they would have out Rolling Stoned The Rolling Stones)

Of all the so-called "British Invasion" bands of the 1964-1965 period, the one that stands out as being criminally ignored by U.S. audiences would have to be The Pretty Things. They were without question one of the most raw, loud and rowdy bands of the period, which may have been the reason they weren't picked up by any labels in the States until the late 60s. Reading press reports from New Musical Express and Melody Maker, their concerts and club dates were near-riots and their personal exploits became stuff of rock n' roll legend. It was said The Rolling Stones, whom various members of The Pretty Things were associated with early on, paled by comparison. They were, above all, a huge influence on a number of blues-based bands of the period - not only The Rolling Stones, but The Yardbirds and several others.

This track, Can't Stand The Pain, epitomized who they were during those early days when I picked up one of their first eps on import "The Pretty Things On Film".

If you're not familiar with them - now's the time to get acquainted with a legend.

(The Rolling Stones - 1971 with Mick Taylor, guitar - Heading off to France shortly)

Something to go along with your post-Thanksgiving weekend - a live concert (via the BBC) from Leeds University on March 13, 1971.

Aside from this being one of the last stops on their infamous "Goodbye To Britain Tour" of 1971, I don't think any other explanation is necessary other than turn up the volume and enjoy the show.

(Blur - put Britpop on the map - and we're glad they did)

Blur tonight. From the Popscene ep from 1992 - Mace. I always loved this band. I could never quite figure out the whole Blur vs. Oasis thing - I suspect it was more a publicity device than anything else. It was a bit like the Beatles vs. Rolling Stones supposed rivalry in the 60s. It was and is still possible to like both bands and their music and not play favorites. Especially on a Friday night.

Life is too short anyway.

(Madder Rose - overlooked and under-appreciated)

I don't think any decade can lay claim to the one where the most music was the least appreciated. Sometimes it's just rotten timing. I could understand a lot of 60s bands being lost in the shuffle since, let's face it, every time The Beatles or The Rolling Stones released something it overshadowed just about anything else on the charts at the time. And I can sort of understand a lot of 90s bands getting lost in the shuffle - as I said last night, radio was falling down huge flights of stairs in their commitment to break acts, or even say who they were. But the 70s and 80s had their fair share of overlooked acts (we'll get into the 80s soon, I promise)as well. So it just makes for a lot of interesting discovery, since the world is crammed full of it.

So tonight I thought I would put up a track by the New York band Madder Rose, who released a string of albums from 1993 to their breakup in 1999. Most of their material has faded from view, for absolutely no good reason. They were a good band with some great music.

This track, Roland Navigator doesn't appear on any of their albums, or their singles. It was issued on a CD Magazine in the 90s called Volume in the UK, probably one of the more adventuresome and well written publications to come and go in the fickle world of publishing, and certainly one that turned a lot of people on to some great music they would never normally know about. It wasn't widely available in the U.S. - just showing up at Tower, Virgin Records and a couple of hardcore music stores.

At any rate - Roland Navigator appeared only on this compilation in 1994 and, apart from a few spotty downloads, isn't available anywhere else.

It's a nice tribute to a band who left before their time was up.