1953, Mantovani and his Orchestra were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Song From The Moulin Rouge’, (from the film of the same name). The first ever instrumental No.1 on the UK chart.
1958, Britain’s answer to Elvis, 17 year old Cliff Richard, signed a record deal with EMI records. Also on this day Cliff Richard started a four-week residency at Butlins Holiday Camp in Clacton-On-Sea, Essex as Cliff Richard and the Drifters.
1963, The first ever edition of ‘Ready Steady Go! was shown on UK TV. Introduced by Keith Fordyce and 19 year-old Cathy McGowan. The first show featured The Searchers, Jet Harris, Pat Boone, Billy Fury and Brian Poole and The Tremeloes. The final show was in Dec 1966 after 175 episodes. Originally 30 minutes long, it expanded to 50 minutes the following year, and soon attracted the most popular artists, including The Beatles, The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Rolling Stones, The Four Tops, The Kinks and many others.
1964, The Rolling Stones appeared at the New Elizabeth Ballroom in Belle Vue, Manchester. Two policemen fainted and another was taken to hospital with broken ribs after trying to control over 3,000 screaming teenagers.
1967, Scott McKenzie was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair).’ The singers only UK Top 40 hit was written by John Philips of Mamas & Papas.
1967, The Small Faces entered the singles chart with ‘Itchycoo Park’, the single peaked at No.3 in the UK chart. The song was one of the first pop singles to use flanging, an effect that can be heard in the bridge section after each chorus. Most sources credit the use of the effect to Olympic Studios engineer George Chkiantz who showed it to the Small Faces regular engineer Glyn Johns.
1968, Deep Purple, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Ten Years After, The Nice, Ginger Baker, Traffic, John Mayall, Spencer Davis, Taste, Jerry Lee Lwis and Arthur Brown all appeared at the 3 day National Jazz & Blues Festival, Kempton Park Racecourse, Sunbury On Thames, England.
1968, After the other Beatles had gone home for the evening (2.00 am), Paul McCartney stayed behind and recorded ‘Mother Nature’s Son’, taping 25 takes at Abbey Road studios. The song was included on The White Album.
1969, During a North American tour Led Zeppelin appeared at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. Jethro Tull who opened for the band were at No.1 on the UK album chart with their second release ‘Stand Up’.
1975, The Bee Gees started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Jive Talkin’, the group’s second US No.1 it made No.5 in the UK.
1975, Typically Tropical were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Barbados’, the acts only hit making them One Hit Wonders.
1980, ABBA scored their eighth UK No.1 single with ‘The Winner Takes It All’. Taken from their ‘Super Trouper’ album. By this time, both couples were divorced.
1980, AC/DC scored their first UK No.1 album with Back In Black. It was the first AC/DC album recorded without former lead singer Bon Scott (who died on 19 February 1980 at the age of 33), and was dedicated to him. The album has sold an estimated 49 million copies worldwide to date, making it the second highest selling album of all time, and the best selling hard rock or heavy metal album, as well as the best selling album ever released by a band.
1980, Ten original Gerald Scarfe drawings for Pink Floyd’s album The Wall were stolen from the foyer of Earls Court, London, England where they were being exhibited.
1986, 250 Gary Numan fans picketed BBC Radio 1 in London, demanding more airtime for their favourite pop star.
1986, Queen ended their Magic European tour at Knebworth Park, Stevenage, England, with over 120,000 fans witnessing what would be Queen’s last ever live performance. On this, their final tour, Queen played to legions of established fans, plus many new ones gained as a result of their show-stealing performance at Live Aid the previous year. The support acts were Belouis Some, Big Country and Status Quo.
1994, During an Oasis gig at The Riverside in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, guitarist Noel Gallagher was hit in the face by a man who had jumped on the stage. Noel refused to carry on playing and after leaving the stage a mob of over 300 people attacked the bands bus as they were leaving.
1995, Jerry Garcia guitarist and singer from The Grateful Dead died from a heart attack at the Serenity Knolls rehabilitation clinic in San Francisco aged 53. Garcia co-founded the New Riders of the Purple Sage and also released several solo albums. He was well known for his distinctive guitar playing and was ranked 13th in Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarist’s of All Time”
1999, Spice Girls manager Bob Herbert was killed in a car crash in Windsor, England. Herbert was behind the formation of The Spice Girls and Five and had managed Bros during the 80’s.
2005, The Magic Numbers walked out of an appearance on UK music show Top Of The Pops after presenter Richard Bacon said the band had been put in a “fat melting pot of talent.” The band left the studio in protest at the “derogatory, unfunny remarks”.
2005, Marc Cohn survived being shot in the head during an attempted car jacking as he left a concert in Denver, Colorado. Cohn was struck in the temple by the bullet but it did not penetrate his skull. Police said a man tried to commandeer Cohn’s tour van as it left after a show, the attacker was fleeing police after trying to pay a hotel bill with a stolen credit card.
2007, Amy Winehouse cancelled a series of European shows after being admitted to hospital suffering from “severe exhaustion”. The 23-year-old singer was taken to University College London Hospital and later discharged. In the past few weeks she had pulled out of the T in the Park festival – also citing “exhaustion”, Liverpool’s Summer Pops event and concerts in Norway and Denmark.
2007, Jennifer Lopez won $545,000 in a case against her first husband, who planned to publish a book claiming she had several affairs. Lopez claimed Ojani Noa had violated a previous legal settlement preventing him from revealing private details about their relationship. The star claimed Mr Noa offered not to publish the book in return for $5 million.
2007, Baltimore’s mayor Sheila Dixon proclaimed today as the city’s official Frank Zappa Day, citing Zappa’s musical accomplishments as well as his defense of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
2015, Little Mix were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Black Magic’. It was released as the lead single from their third studio album, Get Weird.
(This Day in Music)
