1963, The Beatles recorded a television interview at Westward Television Studios in Plymouth, Devon, for a local teen program “Move Over, Dad”. Due to a large crowd of excited fans outside, The Beatles had to be smuggled from their dressing-room at the ABC Cinema, where they were scheduled to appear that night, into an adjacent building, then through a tunnel, to get to Westward Studios for the interview taping.
1964, Decca Records released The Rolling Stones’ ‘Little Red Rooster’. Written by Willie Dixon (as The Red Rooster), and previously recorded by Howlin’ Wolf and Sam Cooke, the single was recorded at Chess Studios in Chicago. The single was a No.1 hit in the UK and remains the only time a blues song has ever topped the UK pop chart.
1965, The Castiles, which featured a young singer called Bruce Springsteen appeared at The Fire House, Hazlet, New Jersey. The night was billed as a Teenage Go, Go Dance.
1968, Rolling Stone Brian Jones bought ‘Cotchford Farm’ in Sussex. The author AA Milne who wrote Winnie The Pooh had owned the house.
1968, Hugo Montenegro was at No.1 in the UK singles chart with ‘The Good The Bad And The Ugly’, the soundtrack from a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western film. The first instrumental No.1 since 1963.
1970, Syd Barrett released his second solo album Barrett only 10 months after his debut The Madcap Laughs. David Gilmour produced the whole album, which also featured performances by Pink Floyd’s Richard Wright on keyboards. The album has since been reissued in remastered form with extra tracks from the sessions.
1976, Led Zeppelin scored their seventh UK No.1 with the film soundtrack double album The Song Remains The Same, peaking at No.2 on the US chart. The tracks were recorded at Madison Square Garden, New York City in 1973.
1976, Rod Stewart started an 8 week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Tonight’s The Night’. It was Rod’s second US No.1; it made No.5 in the UK after being banned by many radio stations due to song being about the seduction of a virgin. The song features whispers from actress Britt Ekland who was Stewart’s girlfriend at the time.
1976, The Melody Maker announced UK dates for the first major punk tour with The Sex Pistols and the Ramones co-headlining along with Talking Heads, The Vibrators and Chris Spedding. The 14-date tour which was due to start at Newcastle City Hall on Nov 29th never took place.
1981, U2 kicked off a 23 date North American ‘October’ tour at JB Scott’s in Albany, New York.
1982, Men At Work started a 15-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with their debut album ‘Business As Usual’, which went on to sell over five million copies in the US.
1990, Patricia Boughton filed a lawsuit against Rod Stewart claiming that a football he kicked into the crowd during a concert at Pine Knob Music Theatre had ruptured a tendon in her middle finger. And as a result the injury had made sex between her and her husband difficult.
1992, Ronnie Bond drummer with The Troggs died. Scored the 1966 US No.1 & UK No.2 single ‘Wild Thing’ and 1966 UK No.1 ‘With A Girl Like You.’
1999, A report showed that The Spice Girls were the highest earners in pop during the 90s with their debut album ‘Spice’ selling over 20 million copies. Elton John was second with 14 million sales from ‘The Lion King’.
2000, The Beatles launched their first official website www.thebeatles.com. The site went live on the same day as the release of their retrospective ‘Compilation 1′ album.
2004, Rap artist Ol’ Dirty Bastard, (real name Russell Jones), collapsed and died at a Manhattan recording studio in New York aged 35. A spokesman for his record company, said the rapper, had complained of chest pains, was dead by the time paramedics reached him. ODB was a founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan in the early 1990s.
2005, Simon Cowell was named Show Business personality of the year by the Variety Club at the show business charity’s annual awards show in London. Katie Melua won recording artist of the year at the event, hosted by singer Myleene Klass.
2012, The original collage that was reproduced and included in copies of The Beatles’ 1967 classic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band record sold for $87,720. The piece, which was designed by Peter Blake, was sold to an unnamed bidder as part of an auction of modern British art at Sotheby’s in London.
2015, Adele’s comeback single ‘Hello’ achieved platinum sales status in the UK, just three weeks after it was released after the chart-topping song sold more than 600,000 copies.
2016, Leon Russell died in Nashville, he was 74. He led Joe Cocker’s band Mad Dogs & Englishmen, and appeared at George Harrison’s 1971 Concert for Bangladesh. Many of his songs became hits for others, among them ‘Superstar’ (written with Bonnie Bramlett) for the Carpenters, ‘Delta Lady’ for Joe Cocker and ‘This Masquerade’ for George Benson. More than 100 acts have recorded ‘A Song for You,’ which Russell said he wrote in 10 minutes.
