Let's Go Round One More Time!
During 1993 three New Seekers' CDs find their way into the record stores.
Perfect Harmony, licensed by Polydor Records and released by Spectrum Music (550 084-2), this CD / cassette features 14 of the New Seekers' original recordings and includes all four of their singles on which Lyn Paul sang the lead vocal.
The New Seekers Collection (COL 037) features Kathy Ann Rae on the cover photo (Kathy had replaced Lyn in the line-up when the New Seekers re-formed in 1976). The CD is a mix of original recordings and re-recordings. It includes two tracks (both Paul Williams' songs) with Lyn Paul on lead vocal - Perfect Love and Just An Old Fashioned Love Song. Talk about confusion though - the CD even includes a couple of tracks by the original Seekers!
The third CD, Gold (GOLD 041), features Lyn Paul on the sleeve photo but all of the tracks are re-recordings which do not include any of Lyn's vocals. Licensed from Livingstone Productions, the CD carries the following warning:
"Some tracks of this compilation might not be the original hit recordings, but anyhow recorded by the original artists."
This is not the first time this had happened (nor would it be the last). In 1989 Lyn Paul had complained to The Stage about the release of the New Seekers' Greatest Hits - a CD which featured inferior re-recordings of the original hits by a later line-up of the New Seekers but which included Lyn on the cover photo. Another Greatest Hits CD had appeared in 1990 (again re-recordings with a cover photo including Lyn). And in 1994 the same would happen yet again.
On 10th April Lyn is a guest on Vince Hill's Solid Gold Music Show (BBC Radio 2).
On 4th September she tops the bill again in the Palace of Variety Show at the Palace Theatre, Kilmarnock.
On 20th December she begins two weeks of pantomime, appearing as Jack in Jack & The Beanstalk at The Venue, Borehamwood. The cast includes 17-year-old Clare Buckfield, known to TV viewers as Natasha Stevens in Grange Hill and as Jenny Porter in 2 Point 4 Children. It also features Stuart Miles (from GMTV's Saturday Disney) as Simple Simon. In 1994 Stuart became better known to the public when he landed a job as a presenter on the BBC children's programme Blue Peter.
Jack & The Beanstalk
The Venue, Borehamwood
(promotional leaflet).
 
Incidentally...
Madonna has a Top 10 hit in April with Fever, the Otis Blackwell / Eddie Cooley song made famous in 1958 by Peggy Lee. Although it had been recorded first in 1956 by Little Willie John, it was Lee's version (which used an arrangement featuring only bass, drums and finger-snapping) that became the blueprint for most of the subsequent recordings, including the version by Lyn Paul and The Nocturnes (recorded live at Tiffany's in Manchester and released in 1969). Other artists who have recorded Fever include the Cramps, Chaka Khan, the McCoys, Elvis Presley, Helen Shapiro and even Freddie Starr.
Don Black, who co-wrote two of Lyn Paul's singles (Sail The Summer Winds and If Everybody Loved The Same As You), has further success on the stage working in collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber. Black had previously collaborated with Lloyd Webber on the musicals Tell Me On A Sunday (1980) and Aspects Of Love (1989). During 1992 he spent much of the year working with Christopher Hampton on the libretto for Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard. The show opens at the Adelphi Theatre, London on 12th July with Patti Lupone in the lead role of Norma Desmond. The part is later played by Betty Buckley, Elaine Paige and Petula Clark.
On 16th September the National Theatre production of Carousel, directed by Nicholas Hytner, transfers to the Shaftesbury Theatre. The West End cast includes Joanna Riding as Julie Jordan, Michael Hayden as Billy Bigelow, Katrina Murphy as Carrie Pipperidge, Clive Rowe as Enoch Snow and Meg Johnson as Nettie Fowler. Lyn's sister Nikki Belsher joins the cast as a member of the Ensemble. The show runs until 27th March 1994.
At Christmas Lyn Paul is not the only Jack on stage with a beanstalk. Also appearing in pantomime as Jack are: Linda Robson (Tracey Stubbs in the BBC sitcom Birds Of A Feather) who braves the stage with Rod Hull & Emu at the Cambridge Corn Exchange; Helen Atkins (from the children's television programme Parallel 9) with The Grumbleweeds at the Southport Theatre; Bonnie Langford with Rolf Harris, Carmen Silvera and Dame Hilda Bracket at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth; Denise Nolan with Tom O'Connor at the Mansfield Palace; Lucinda Cowden (Melanie from Neighbours) at the White Rock Theatre, Hastings; and Stefan Dennis (Neighbours) with Little & Large at the Wimbledon Theatre.
| In the News - 1993 |
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| Jan |
On New Year's Day Czechoslovakia officially splits itself into two new nations - the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
David Owen and Cyrus Vance present a peace plan on 2nd January based on the division of Bosnia into ten autonomous provinces.
On 5th January an oil tanker runs aground in heavy seas off the Shetland Islands.
On 11th January British Airways agrees to pay £500,000 in damages to Richard Branson and a further £110,000 to his airline Virgin Atlantic, apologising "unreservedly" for an alleged "dirty tricks" campaign.
Van Morrison is inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, though he fails to show up for the induction dinner, which takes place without him on 12th January.
In Somalia, on 14th January, five women are stoned to death for adultery.
The revival of the 1937 musical Me And My Girl closes on 16th January after 3,303 performances in London's West End.
Audrey Hepburn, who reached the pinnacle of her career when she played Holly Golightly in the 1961 film Breakfast At Tiffany's, dies from cancer on 20th January, aged 63.
On the same day Bill Clinton is sworn in as the 42nd President of the USA. Fleetwood Mac re-form to perform at his inauguration.
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| Feb |
Two ten-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Vennables, are charged with the abduction and murder of two-year-old James Bulger, whose dead body had been found on railway tracks near Walton in Liverpool.
England footballer Bobby Moore dies from cancer on 24th February, aged 51.
The World Trade Center in New York is bombed on Friday, 26th February. Six people are killed.
On 28th February the US Air Force begins airlifting humanitarian aid supplies to war-torn Bosnia.
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| Mar |
On 12th March 257 people are killed in a series of bomb explosions in Mumbai (Bombay). The first of the 15 explosions occurs in a basement garage at the Stock Exchange. Other targets include government offices, hospitals, hotels and the headquarters of Air India.
On 17th March a bomb attack in Calcutta kills 86 people.
Two children are killed when two IRA bombs explode in Warrington, Cheshire on Saturday, 20th March. Johnathan Ball, aged 3, dies at the scene; 12-year-old Tim Parry dies on 25th March. 56 other people are injured.
Unforgiven wins the Oscar for Best Picture at the 65th Academy Awards ceremony on 29th March.
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| Apr |
Chris Hani, a member of the African National Congress National Executive Committee and Secretary-General of the South African Communist Party, is assassinated on 10th April.
In a late-night emergency session on 16th April the United Nations' Security Council votes to make the Bosnian town of Srebrenica a 'safe haven' for Bosnian Muslim refugees.
On Monday, 19th April US federal agents attempt to break into the fortified compound of the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas. The attempt leads to a massacre as cult members set fire to the compound. 76 people die, among them the leader of the Branch Davidians, David Koresh.
A black teenager, Stephen Lawrence, is stabbed to death in south-east London on 22nd April.
On Saturday, 24th April a bomb planted by the Provisional IRA explodes in Bishopsgate in the City of London, killing one person - Ed Henty, a News of the World photographer - and injuring more than 40 others.
All 30 passengers and crew, including 18 members of the Zambia football team are killed in a plane crash off the coast of Gabon on Tuesday, 27th April.
On 30th April, four years after it was devised by British scientist Tim Berners-Lee, the World Wide Web is put into the public domain by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and made freely available for anyone to use.
On the same day the world number one women's tennis player, Monica Seles, is stabbed in the back during a quarter-final match in Hamburg.
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| May |
On 15th May police rescue six girls and their teacher, who had been held hostage for two days by an armed man at a nursery school in Paris.
At the Eurovision Song Contest (held in Cork on the same day) Niamh Kavanagh wins for Ireland with the song In Your Eyes. Sonia, representing the United Kingdom with the song Better The Devil You Know, finishes in second place. It is Ireland's fifth victory and the UK's fourteenth second place finish.
Eritrea declares independence from Ethiopia on 24th May.
A car bomb explodes outside the Uffizi Gallery in Florence on 27th May, destroying and damaging many of the gallery's priceless works of art. Five people are killed by the blast.
On 27th May Kenneth Clarke replaces Norman Lamont as the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer.
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| June |
Former Formula 1 Champion James Hunt dies of a heart attack at his home in Wimbledon on 15th June, aged 45.
Tansu Ciller becomes the first woman Prime Minister of Turkey on 23rd June.
On the same day Lorena Bobbitt cuts off her husband's penis while he is asleep. John Bobbitt has his penis surgically reattached after the police recover it from the roadside.
The Northern Ireland Minister Michael Mates resigns from the UK government on Thursday, 24th June, following the publication of newspaper reports linking him to the fugitive business tycoon Asil Nadir.
Kim Campbell becomes the first woman Prime Minister of Canada on 25th June but remains in office for only 132 days.
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| July |
On 16th July the Director General of MI5, Stella Rimington, poses for cameras at the launch of a brochure outlining the organisation's activities. It is the first time that journalists have ever been invited to an official briefing by a senior MI5 official.
Britain is the last of the EC member states to ratify the Maastricht Treaty after the Prime Minister, John Major, calls for and wins a vote of confidence in the House of Commons on the controversial Social Chapter of the Treaty. Having threatened Tory rebels that he would resign as Prime Minister, dissolve Parliament and call a general election if they voted against him, he wins the vote on 23rd July by 339 to 299.
John Demjanjuk, who had been sentenced to death in 1988 for running the Nazi gas chamber at Treblinka, where more than 870,000 Jews were murdered, has his conviction overturned on 29th July by an appeal court in Israel.
On the same day charges are dropped against two youths accused of murdering black teenager Stephen Lawrence, on the grounds that there is "insufficient evidence" to secure a conviction.
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| Aug |
Buckingham Palace opens as a tourist attraction on 7th August.
Tampa Bay is polluted by oil on 10th August, following the collision of three ships off the Florida coast.
Actor Stewart Granger dies on 16th August, aged 80.
On 18th August Los Angeles police begin a criminal investigation into allegations of child abuse made against singer Michael Jackson. Among those interviewed by the police is the twelve year-old star of the Home Alone films, Macaulay Caulkin.
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| Sep |
In Washington, on Monday, 13th September, Israel and the PLO sign a historic Declaration of Principles on the rights to self-government of Palestinians living in the Israeli occupied West Bank and Gaza. Afterwards, the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat are photographed shaking hands on the White House lawn.
On 18th September the British National Party (BNP) wins its first council seat in a by-election held in Millwall, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Derek Beackon beats the Labour Party candidate J.J. Hunt by just seven votes.
On 23rd September the International Olympic Committee chooses Sydney to host the 2000 Olympics.
General Colin Powell retires as the 12th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 30th September. Addressing the US President, Bill Clinton, at his Retirement Ceremony, he says: "we’ve dealt with some very, very difficult issues but Mr. President, as you once said to me, if the issues were easy, if the problems were so quick to receive a solution, they would have been solved earlier by somebody else."
On the same day an earthquake strikes the Latur-Osmanabad region of India, killing approximately 10,000 people and injuring 30,000 more.
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| Oct |
Fierce fighting erupts in Moscow on Saturday, 2nd October as troops loyal to President Boris Yeltsin crush an attempted coup by ministers occupying the Russian parliament.
On 13th October Gunter Parche, a 39-year-old unemployed lathe operator, is convicted for the stabbing of tennis star Monica Seles. He is given a two-year suspended sentence.
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk on 15th October.
On 25th October the Canadian Conservative Party led by Kim Campbell is swept from power when it loses all but two of its seats in the parliamentary elections.
Actor River Phoenix dies of a drug overdose on 31st October, aged 23.
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| Nov |
The Maastricht Treaty comes into effect on 1st November.
Jean Chretien becomes the new Prime Minister of Canada on 2nd November.
On 9th November the Princess of Wales sues the Daily Mirror for publishing photos of her in a gym.
60 people are killed by a suicide car-bomb attack in Tyre on 11th November.
On 18th November South Africa's Multiparty Negotiating Forum (MPNF) ratifies an Interim Constitution, which paves the way for a final constitution by laying down the principles with which it would have to comply.
On 24th November in Preston, Lancashire Robert Thompson and Jon Vennables are found guilty of murdering two-year-old James Bulger, whom they had lured away from his mother on a shopping trip in February.
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| Dec |
M11 road protesters are evicted from a 250-year-old chestnut tree on George Green in Wanstead on 7th December.
On 9th December US astronauts successfully complete the in-space repair of the damaged Hubble telescope.
On 15th December the Prime Ministers of Britain and Ireland, John Major and Albert Reynolds, sign a historic declaration designed to bring peace to Northern Ireland.
The MGM Grand, the largest hotel in the world, opens in Las Vegas on 18th December.
The South African Parliament ratifies the country's new constitution on 22nd December.
On 28th December British customs officials seize cocaine from Columbia worth £70 million.
Shania Twain and Mutt Lange get married on the same day.
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| In the Charts |
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UK Chart débuts |
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- Ace Of Base
- Cranberries
- Eternal
- Gabrielle
- Pulp
- Radiohead
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| UK Best-selling Singles |
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- Ace Of Base
All That She Wants
- Bluebells
Young At Heart
- Cappella
U Got 2 Know
- Cappella
U Got 2 Let The Music
- Culture Beat
Mr. Vain
- D:Ream
Things Can Only Get Better
- Chaka Demus and Pliers
Tease Me
- 4 Non Blondes
What's Up
- Gabrielle
Dreams
- Gloria Gaynor
I Will Survive (Remix)
- Haddaway
What Is Love
- Rolf Harris
Stairway To Heaven
- Whitney Houston
I Will Always Love You
- Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince
Boom! Shake The Room
- Billy Joel
The River Of Dreams
- Elton John and Kiki Dee
True Love
- Lenny Kravitz
Are You Gonna Go My Way
- k.d. lang
Constant Craving
- Annie Lennox
Little Bird / Love Song For A Vampire
- M People
Moving On Up
- M People
One Night In Heaven
- Bitty McLean
It Keep Rainin' (Tears From My Eyes)
- Madonna
Fever
- Meat Loaf
I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)
- Freddie Mercury
Living On My Own
- George Michael and Queen with Lisa Stansfield
Five Live EP: Somebody To Love / These Are The Days Of Our Lives / Calling You / Papa Was A Rolling Stone - Killer (medley)
- Mr. Blobby
Mr. Blobby
- Pet Shop Boys
Go West
- Radiohead
Creep
- R.E.M.
Everybody Hurts
- RuPaul
Supermodel (You Better Work)
- Robin S
Show Me Love
- Shaggy
Oh Carolina
- Sonia
Better The Devil You Know
[Eurovision Song Contest: UK entry]
- Rod Stewart
Have I Told You Lately
- Sub Sub featuring Melanie Williams
Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use)
- Sybil
When I'm Good And Ready
- Take That
Babe
- Take That
Pray
- Take That featuring Lulu
Relight My Fire
- 2 Unlimited
No Limit
- UB40
(I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You
- Ugly Kid Joe
Cats In The Cradle
- Urban Cookie Collective
The Key, The Secret
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One Hit Wonders |
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- West End featuring Sybil
The Love I Lost
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| Hit Albums |
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- Carlene Carter
Little Love Letters
- Beth Nielson Chapman
You Hold The Key
- Cranberries
Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?
- Sheryl Crow
Tuesday Night Music Club
- Kenny G
Breathless
- Nanci Griffith
Other Voices, Other Rooms
- Chris Isaak
San Francisco Days
- Janet Jackson
Janet.
- Billy Joel
River Of Dreams
- Elton John
Duets
- M People
Elegant Slumming
- Meat Loaf
Bat Out Of Hell II - Back Into Hell
- Bette Midler
Gypsy
- New Order
Republic
- Pet Shop Boys
Very
- Right Said Fred
Up
- Rod Stewart
Unplugged... and Seated
- Sting
Ten Summoner's Tales
- Take That
Everything Changes
- Tina Turner
What's Love Got To Do With It
[Film Soundtrack]
- U2
Zooropa
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| At the Movies |
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- Accidental Hero
- The Bodyguard
- Demolition Man
- The Fugitive
- Groundhog Day
- Home Alone 2: Alone In New York
- Indecent Proposal
- Jurassic Park
- Made In America
- Malcolm X
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Passion Fish
- The Piano
- Sleepless In Seattle
- The Secret Garden
- Sommersby
- Tina: What's Love Got To Do With It?
- The Wedding Banquet
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| On Stage |
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Tony Award for Best Musical:
Kiss Of The Spider Woman
Olivier Award
for Best New Musical:
Crazy For You
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| On Television |
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- Birds Of A Feather
(Series 5)
- Brace Yourself Sydney
(Julian Clary)
- Brighton Belles
- The Brittas Empire
(Series 3)
- Cheers
(last episode)
- Cracker
- Dave Allen
- Eurotrash
- Frasier
(USA)
- French And Saunders
(Series 4)
- Have I Got News For You (Series 5 and 6)
- Jeeves And Wooster
(Series 4)
- Keeping Up Appearances
(Series 4)
- Last Of The Summer Wine
(Series 15)
- Lipstick On Your Collar
- NYPD Blue
(USA)
- One Foot In The Grave
(Series 4)
- Peak Practice
- Seinfeld
- Spitting Image
(Series 17 and 18)
- Tales Of The City
- Wallace & Gromit
The Wrong Trousers
- Waiting For God
(Series 4)
- The X-Files
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| Sporting Heroes |
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BBC Sport
BBC
Sports Personality
of the Year:
Linford Christie
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Darts: John Lowe wins the British Darts Organisation (BDO) World Darts Championship for the third time.
Rugby Union: France win the Five Nations Championship.
Rowing: the University of Cambridge crew wins the annual Boat Race against Oxford.
Horse Racing: the Grand National is disrupted by animal rights protesters. After two false starts the race is declared void.
Drum Taps, ridden by Frankie Dettori, wins the Ascot Gold Cup for the second year in a row.
Snooker: Stephen Hendry beats Jimmy White in the final of the World Snooker Championship for the second year in a row. This year the score is 18-5.
Ronnie O'Sullivan wins the UK Championship for the first time, beating Stephen Hendry 10-6 in the final.
Golf: Bernhard Langer wins the US Masters in Augusta for the second time.
Lee Janzen wins the US Open at Baltusrol Golf Club, Springfield.
Greg Norman wins the Open Championship at Royal St. George's with an aggregate score of 267.
The United States team wins the Ryder Cup, beating the Europeans at The Belfry, 15:13.
Football: Manchester United end the season as Champions of the new Premier League, which had supplanted the Football League First Division as the highest level of football in England.
Arsenal win the FA Cup, beating Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 in a replay of the final.
Terry Venables is appointed England Manager.
Cycling: Miguel Indurain wins the Tour de France for the third time.
Tennis: Pete Sampras wins the men's singles title at Wimbledon for the first time. He beats fellow American Jim Courrier in the final in four sets (7-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-3). Sampras also wins the men's singles title at the US Open.
Steffi Graf wins the women's singles title at Wimbledon for the fifth time. She defeats Jana Novotna in the final in three sets (7-6, 1-6, 6-4). The Duchess of Kent offers Novotna a consoling shoulder to cry on. Graf also wins the women's singles titles at the French Open and the US Open.
Athletics: the Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson is banned from athletics for life on Friday, 5th March after failing a second drugs test.
Colin Jackson sets a new World Record for the Men's 110m Hurdles (12.91 seconds).
Sally Gunnell breaks the World Record in the Women's 400m Hurdles, setting a new time of 52.74 seconds.
Motor Racing: Alain Prost wins the Formula 1 World Drivers' Championship for the fourth time.
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| Page-turners |
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Man Booker Prize
Winner:
Roddy Doyle
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
Tibor Fischer
Under The Frog
Michael Ignatieff
Scar Tissue
David Malouf
Remembering Babylon
Caryl Phillips
Crossing The River
Carol Shields
The Stone Diaries
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