August, one of two months named after a Roman Emperor (Augustus) - the other being July (named after Julius Caesar). Curiously, Julius Caesar introduced both months in 45 BC, in order to more accurately count the days of the year. Prior to that time a group of people known as Pontiffs used to tell people which days would be which, year-by-year, a totally (and deliberately) misleading system designed to extend (or reduce) the term of office of Roman officials! Originally, the month of August had only thirty days - but when Emperor Augustus took power he added one day to make it equal to July! All of this (I suppose) means that if you ever wake up wondering what day it is, you could easily blame the Romans!

Well so much for the History lesson. I looked up most of these facts on the Internet, which shows what a powerful tool this has become; especially for Square Dancing. Many (most?) Record Labels now have a web-site, which is great to see - very useful resources. Here at Stingproductions.com we are trying to make ours the best web-site; you must decide whether we are achieving that aim. We have added as much as we could think of to add, whilst attempting to avoid "clutter". Judging by the many positive comments that we receive from callers (and others) who read the site, we are heading in the right direction!

To be honest, I am "up to my eyeballs", this month with final preparations for our next trip to Nashville. This task- whilst being a "labour of love" - is still very demanding and time consuming and - I must confess - that I may be getting close to "over-doing" the fine tuning; it's very necessary to prepare for the studio but a good part of the creative process, still happens on the spot - you can't plan for everything but you should try…

BEST SELLER LISTING: One of our June releases - "Jukebox Joe / Star Karta", came in at No.4 on the combined Hanhurst's/Palomino listing on the dosado.com web-site; our second release "Feel" (based on the Robbie Williams hit) achieved a very respectable No.6. - another good result!

INDIVIDUAL RECORD HISTORIES including ALL THE ADDITIONAL LYRICS:
The histories contain details about each original song, including it's production and provide the extra lyrics - as featured on the called side. You can access these by "clicking" on the open-book picture , on the Catalogue, Latest Releases and Future Releases pages.

The Ninth batch - featured this month - are:

• Please, Please Me
• Wild Weekend
• Livin' On Love
• Goodnight Irene
• This Old House Will Be Our Home
• Gonna Have A Party
• Peaceful Easy Feeling
• If You Got Love
• Love Is All Around
• With A Little Help From My Friends

For details of the titles featured in previous months, check out the News-Letter and - if there are any that you would particularly like to see added just let us know.

NEW RELEASES:
Our new vinyl releases for August are: - "Livin' On Love" (vocal by Kenny Reese and the Silver Snow-Belles). This is a new version of the old Alan Jackson hit and features an excellent instrumental. Also featured is "Please, Please Me" (vocal by Paul Bristow); based on the hit record by The Beatles, which took the U.S. charts by storm in 1963.

Our re-release for July will be "Goodnight Irene" (vocal by Ingvar Pettersson).

Our MP3 releases will be "If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body (Would You Hold It Against Me?)" (vocal by Anders Blom) and "Kettle-Of-Fish / Bucket-Of-Worms" (a double instrumental hoedown/patter record); this tune has a Traditional (although slightly "New Country") sound on side A, with a modern "Electro-Techno" sound on side B - visit the Listen To The Music link on the web-site, to hear this on the Sting and Snow page at Hanhurst's Tape and Record Service.

FUTURE RELEASES:
Please check out the Future Releases link for full details)

Okay, I am off to see what the Internet can tell me about the month of September. I wonder if it contains anything about trips to the "temple of great music" by "pilgrims, in search of good sellers"..? Now that would be interesting! Have a great month, talk to you again on the September News-Letter.

Go Squareful! - Paul Bristow (Owner and Producer Sting and Snow Records)