I was happy to discover today that the MP3 files in the audio section which I’d thought were corrupt are in fact not. I suppose that’s why I haven’t gotten many complaints lately.

Still, when I try to download an MP3 using Netscape, I get a Netscape text page filled with binary code and not a seperate download window. To play the MP3, I save the binary-filled text page to disc and then drop it into RealPlayer. Works beautifully. If anyone has any rare or historically important Bacharach recordings to donate to the archive, please feel free to send them to me. Thanks!

Gosh time flies.

Has it been almost two months since an update? Oh, well. I’ve got a few things to add in the next few days, including lots of rare lyrics and tabs courtesty of Rob and some nice photos of Burt sent in by Alberto. The prospect of Napster shutting down last Friday got me fired up enough to do some furious downloading, and one of the first things I looked for was this lovely rendition of “This Guy’s In Love with You” sung by Noel Gallagher with Burt accompanying.

I did a minor update on the bio page. I’d appreciate it if you Bacharach fanatics could check it for factual errors on my part as well as write me with additional facts or trivia you think should be added.

Here’s a little something special–Dueling Burts. In the far corner we have Canadian heavyweights Barenaked Ladies. In the near corner we have American heavyweight Barbra Streisand (with a little help on vocals…). Who wins? You decide.

This is the official statement from Burt’s spokesperson regarding his schedule:

Los Angeles, June 7, 2000 — For the first time since partial replacement of his left shoulder in April, Burt Bacharach performed this past Saturday at a show for a charity with which he’s personally involved, with the intent of resuming touring. Unfortunately, after shortening the show because of the pain and discomfort he felt during the performance, as well as the following day, Mr. Bacharach has cancelled his June engagements to allow another month of recovery and healing time.

I updated the trivia question. Give it a shot; it’s pretty easy.

(Opening of the National D-Day Museum here in New Orleans, by the way)
I have three announcements. First of all, I have a call and an e-mail in to Burt’s spokesperson to shed some light on the discrepancies between the tour itinerary supplied to me by Bob Fead yesterday and the information that’s been gathered by fans in the U.K. and elsewhere. Hopefully, I’ll have an answer within 24 hours.

Secondly, for those of you who curse this site’s cumbersome URL, I have gotten a new address you can use, http://welcome.to/bacharach. I’m not on a new server; the welcome.to address simply redirects traffic to this page. Hopefully, this will make remembering AHINAH’s address a little easier. Thirdly, I’ve fixed the problems with the audio/MP3 section. It should work properly now, although since I’m running it off of my office computer, the speed of downloads could vary considerably (depending on whether I’m playing online Jeopardy or reading the Onion or something). A few of the MP3s, “Nikki” and “My Little Red Book” to name two, continue to give me (and I’m sure a lot of you) problems. I will most likely have to re-encode them, that is if Art Boonparn ever gives me back all the Burt CDs I lent him ;). Finally, I know you’ve all heard this before, but as of right now, I plan to work on the site quite a bit in the next month or two, upgrading it where I can and keeping it up to date, so as usual, I deeply appreciate all the kind words and Burt-fo-mation that you share with me through e-mail or the discussion forum. Thanks.

This may be old news among you Burt congnoscenti, but I just got off the phone with Bob Fead of the Burt Bacharach Music Group who informed me that, due to his recent shoulder injury, Burt has canceled all immediate upcoming engagements. He will still appear at the Royal Albert Hall tribute show, but he will most likely not perform.

The dates for which Bob says Burt expects to be recovered and able to perform are as follows:

July 21-23
National Concert Hall
Dublin, Ireland

July 27
Westbury Music Fair
Westbury, N.Y.

July 28
Mann Center for Performing Arts
Philadelphia, Penn.

July 29
Count Basie Theatre
Red Bank, N.J.

Oct. 5
Phoenix Celebrity Theatre
Phoenix, Ariz.

Oct. 7
Louivsille Symphony Hall
Louisville, Ky.

Any mistakes above are not Bob’s fault but mine due to sloppy note taking.

Welcome to the new millennium! I’m back from the dead, my computer problems mostly worked out and with a backload of Burt stuff to add. Davide Bonori recently sent me updated discographies which I’ll be adding shortly and I’ve also got lots of other stuff to add to. Sorry for the lack of updates, but as usual the Discussion Forum has kept everyone up on the latest Burt news.

If anyone has anything they’d like to see added, please e-mail me and I’ll do my best to get it up in a timely fashion (i.e. before the next new millennium).

Doug Feldman sent in another rare Bacharach MP3, Ben E.

King’s rendition of “Yesterday’s Heros.”

Cable network Bravo will air an episode of its Arena program featuring Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello on Wednesday, Oct. 20 at 10 p.m. (ET), to be repeated at 1 a.m. The show features performances originally recorded for PBS’s Sessions at West 54th broadcast, but as Omar and Scott B.

report in the discussion forum, it features behind-the-scenes footage, interviews and additional performances, namely “In the Darkest Place” and “The Sweetest Punch.”