St. Louis Union were a Manchester six piece fronted by impeccably-coifed singer, Tony Cassidy. Shortly after forming they won a Melody Maker beat contest in 1965 which scored them a deal with Decca. They were billed as "THE Group on the Northern Soul Scene." Their sound was centered around Alex Kirby's tenor saxophone and Keith Millar's electric guitar backed by some serious organ by Dave Tomlinson, John Nichols on bass and Dave Webb on the skins.

Their live set was built around "Turn On Your Lovelight," "Woke Up This Morning," "Every Day I Have the Blues" and "Get On the Right Track Baby."

Their name seems to be a reference to the St. Louis Union Station, a train station famous, like many things in St. Louis, as having been the biggest and busiest thing in its field way back when. Its archways are designed so that one can whisper into them and someone else can hear you clearly on the other end, a design feature with no apparent practical applications, save simple amusements in a simpler time. It was largely built of limestone taken from Indiana, probably just to remind the Hoosiers who's boss, as the state of Missouri is entirely made of limestone and they're the nation's leader in lime production.


In the 1970s, the station was bought by Amtrak. They ended operations soon afterward and relocated their operations to a building the unhealthily train-obsessed refer to as Amshack. Now it's a mall where tourists watch the guys at the Fudge Factory put on a show and the Footlocker has a basketball hoop with the backboard autographed by the D.O.C.

Music, one of the best things about music, is that it touches everyone in it's own way. Like a prayer sent up to heaven, once you release a song, it belongs to the universe. This is truly a beautiful video:



As you may know, we are big supporters of the ukelele here at Amoeba, and most of us are crazy about Those Beatles. This video and his amazing prowess on the instrument sure brightened up my day.

If you want to see more of Jake Shimabukuro, or others on Uke, you can hop over here to this website and uke your holidays away: http://www.ukuleledisco.com/jake

No doubt you're already aware that Paul McCartney played a surprise free show at Amoeba Music Hollywood on Wednesday, June 27th.

Check out on this website how Paul McCartney Rocked Amoeba Hollywood in a great review by Marcus Kagler that also includes pics from outside the store as fans lined up to see Sir Paul. And also check out AMOEBLOGGER Miss Ess' (All The News That's Fit to Sing) review (with great pics) nearby here on the AMOEBLOG.

The ex-Beatle's instore got tons of media coverage, including from the Los Angeles Times and Access Hollywood. In fact, some media outlets reported that McCartney's Amoeba appearance upstaged Paris Hilton's appearance at the CNN building, where she was Larry King's exclusive guest, literally right across the street on Hollywood's Sunset Blvd. In addition to all of the TV coverage there have also already been several first-hand video postings on YouTube -- as of Saturday a search under "McCartney Amoeba" netted 21 video links, many of which are not the best audio-video quality, but regardless capture the vibe and excitement of the day-- makes you wish you were there if you were not one of the lucky ones to make it. There are other Paul McCartney Amoeba Hollywood clips found on YouTube, including one with Ringo Starr (yes, he was in the house but didn't perform) in the parking lot and one of Paul on the Amoeba instore stage saying "thank you....Amoeba --  a great shop or wot?" Note that the must-watch video below of Paul @ Amoeba is good professional quality, as it is courtesy of McCartney's YouTube Channel.