1961, Del Shannon was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Runaway.’ His only UK No.1 and the first of 14 UK Top 40 hits.
1964, Touring Australia The Beatles played two shows at the Festival Hall, Brisbane. Over 8,000 fans had waited until after midnight to greet the group as they landed at Brisbane Airport.
1967, Rolling Stone Keith Richards was found guilty of allowing his house to be used for the illegal smoking of cannabis. He was sentenced to one year in jail and a £500 ($850) fine, (prison number 5855). Mick Jagger was also fined £100 ($170) and given three months in jail on drug charges. Jagger and Richards were both released and granted bail of £7,000 the following day.
1968, A free concert was held in London’s Hyde Park with Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Tyrannosaurus Rex and Roy Harper. This afternoon concert was the first free festival to be held in Hyde Park. The concert was held to coincide with the release of Pink Floyd’s second album, A Saucerful of Secrets.
1968, The Small Faces started a six week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake. A concept album with a round cover designed to look like a tobacco tin. The album featured the hit ‘Lazy Sunday.’
1969, American soul singer Shorty Long drowned aged 29 after his boat capsized on the Detroit River in Michigan. Had the 1968 US No.8 single ‘Here Comes The Judge.’ He acted as an MC for many of the Motown Revue shows and tours.
1974, Charles Aznavour was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘She’, the French singers only UK No.1. At the time it made Aznavour the oldest living male chart-topper in the UK charts (at fifty years old).
1975, American singer songwriter Tim Buckley died of an overdose of heroin and morphine aged 28. Released nine albums including the 1972 release ‘Greetings from L.A.’ Buckley is the father of singer songwriter Jeff Buckley.
1979, American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, Lowell George died of a heart attack. The Little Feat front man was found dead at the Key Bridge Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. George joined Zappa’s Mothers of Invention as rhythm guitarist in 1968, played guitar on John Cale’s 1973 album Paris 1919, Harry Nilsson’s Son of Schmilsson album and Jackson Browne’s The Pretender.
1984, Bruce Springsteen kicked off the first leg of his Born in the USA Tour with a three night run at the Civic Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. Springsteen would play a total of 156 shows ending on October 2, 1985 in Los Angeles.
1985, David Bowie and Mick Jagger recorded a version of the Martha Reeves and the Vandellas 1964 hit ‘Dancing In The Street.’ for the forthcoming Live Aid fundraising event. The single went on to become a No.1 UK hit. The original plan was to perform a track together live, with Bowie performing at Wembley Stadium and Jagger at John F. Kennedy Stadium, until it was realized that the satellite link-up would cause a half-second delay that would make this impossible unless either Bowie or Jagger mimed their contribution, something neither artist was willing to do.
1985, John Lennon’s 1965 Rolls-Royce Phantom V limousine, with psychedelic paintwork, sold for a record sum of $3,006,385 at a Sotheby’s auction in New York.
1988, Brenda Richie, the wife of Lionel Richie was arrested in Beverly Hills, California after allegedly hitting the singer and a young woman after she found them in bed together. She was released on $5,000 bail and charges against her were eventually dropped.
1991, Jason Donovan had his third UK No.1 single with ‘Any Dream Will Do’ a song written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice for the 1968 musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Donovan was playing the lead role in a new London production of the musical.
1994, Oasis made their debut on BBC TV’s Top Of The Pops performing their new single ‘Shakermaker’.
1999, Michael Jackson suffered severe bruising after falling over 50 feet when a bridge collapsed during a concert at Munich’s Olympic stadium. Jacko was singing ‘Earth Song’ at the time of the accident.
2000, Eminem’s mother went to court claiming defamation of character in a $10 million civil suit, after taking exception to the line “My mother smokes more dope than I do” from her son’s single ‘My Name Is’.
2002, American singer and actress Rosemary Clooney died of lung cancer. Had the 1954 UK No.1 single ‘This Ole House’ appeared in the 1954 movie White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. Her nephew, George Clooney was a pallbearer at her funeral.
2003, Destiny’s Child singer Beyonce started a five week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Dangerously In Love’, also a US No.1.
2004, Courtney Love was reprimanded by Los Angeles Judge Melissa Jackson for turning up five hours late to a hearing. Love pleaded guilty to a single charge of disorderly conduct and was given a discharge, on condition she paid the victim’s medical bills, joins a drug programme and stayed out of trouble.
2007, Lily Allen was questioned by police over an alleged assault on a photographer outside a nightclub in London. She was freed on police bail after she was quizzed about an alleged assault on a male photographer in his 40s near the Wardour club in London’s Soho in March.
2012, Photographers were planning to boycott the forthcoming Stone Roses reunion concerts in Manchester in a dispute over the use of their images. They claimed a contract issued by the band was unfair as it expected them to surrender all rights to their pictures. The National Union of Journalists was also supporting the boycott.
2016, Elvis Presley’s daughter Lisa Marie filed for divorce from her fourth husband, Michael Lockwood, just months after the couple celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary last January. Lisa Marie had previously been wed to Danny Keough from 1988 until 1994, Michael Jackson from 1994 to 1999 and to actor Nicolas Cage from 2002 to 2004.
