1964 – A riot broke out in Hamilton, Scotland during a Rolling Stones UK tour when over 4,000 fans with forged tickets gate-crashed the bands gig at the Chantingall Hotel.
1966 – The Castiles (with Bruce Springsteen on vocals), made their first recordings at Mr Music Inc in Brick Town, New Jersey. They cut two Springsteen songs, ‘Baby I’ and ‘That’s What You Get’. The songs were cut directly to disc, of which seven or eight test pressings of the studio takes were made.
1966 – During his 1966 world tour, Bob Dylan and Robbie Robertson from The Band were filmed singing several songs in a hotel room in Glasgow, Scotland, the footage turning up in the film Eat The Document. The film was originally commissioned for the ABC television series Stage ’66, but after Dylan edited the film himself ABC rejected it as ‘incomprehensible for a mainstream audience’.
1967 – The Beatles were selected to represent the UK for the first-ever global-wide satellite broadcast. The group agreed to be shown in the studio recording a song written especially for the occasion, scheduled for June 25. John Lennon wrote ‘All You Need is Love’ which was thought to sum up the 1967 ‘summer of love’ and The Beatles’ sympathies. With the satellite broadcast being broadcast to many non-English-speaking countries, the BBC asked The Beatles to ‘keep it simple’.
1967 – Pink Floyd started recording their forthcoming single ‘See Emily Play’ at Sound Techniques Studios, Chelsea, London. Syd Barrett was inspired to write See Emily Play, by the ‘looning about’ of the early Pink Floyd fan Emily Young, (who is now a renowned sculptor). Guitarist David Gilmour, playing gigs in France with his own band in that period, visited Floyd in the studio during a trip to London.
1968 – The first Miami Pop event took place with an estimated 100,000 people attending the concert, which was promoted by Richard O’Barry & Michael Lang (later famous as the promoter of Woodstock). Bands featured at the festival included Steppenwolf, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Mothers of Invention, Blue Cheer, Chuck Berry, The Blues Image, Pacific Gas and Electric, Three Dog Night and the Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
1974 – Ray Stevens started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with the novelty song ‘The Streak’ which capitalized on the then popular craze of streaking. Also No.1 in the UK.
1975 – Five times married US country singer, Tammy Wynette was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Stand By Your Man.’ Originally released as a single in 1968 in the USA. It proved to be the most successful record of Wynette’s career and is one of the most covered songs in the history of country music.
1980 – Joy Division singer and guitarist Ian Curtis hanged himself in the kitchen of his house in Macclesfield, England at the age of 23. Curtis had the Iggy Pop album ‘The Idiot’, playing on his stereo and left a note that said, ‘At this very moment, I wish I were dead. I just can’t cope anymore.’ Joy Division released the critically acclaimed debut album Unknown Pleasures in 1979, and recorded their follow-up ‘Closer’ in 1980.
1985 – Simple Minds were at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Don’t You Forget About Me’, (a No. 7 hit in the UK). Written by Keith Forsey (who won an Oscar for “Flashdance… What a Feeling”) and Steve Schiff (guitarist and songwriter from the Nina Hagen band, the track was featured in the
1985 American teen drama film The Breakfast Club.
1993 – Janet Jackson released Janet. The album’s first week sales of 350,000 was the highest for a female artist at that time. The album went on to sell over 14 million copies worldwide. It’s one of only seven albums to have Six Top Ten Hits in the Billboard Hot 100 charts.
1997 – Blur won pop music’s equivalent of the FA Cup, the Music Industry Soccer Six. The band’s win at Fulham’s FC’s ground Craven Cottage saw them beating off competition from Robbie Williams, My Life Story and The Prodigy.
2000 – Madonna’s boyfriend Guy Ritchie was arrested after attacking a fan outside the superstar’s London home. Ritchie was said to have kicked and punched a male fan after the couple returned home from a night out.
2004 – Clint Warwick the original bass player with The Moody Blues died from liver disease at the age of 63. Clint left the band in 1966 after playing on their only number one hit, ‘Go Now’.
2008 – Ting Tings scored their first UK No.1 single with ‘That’s Not My Name’. Taken from the Manchester duo’s debut studio album ‘We Started Nothing’.
2011 – John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics for the 1967 Beatles song ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ sold for $237,132 at an auction in the US. The sale of the sheet, which featured the song’s third verse and the opening words to ‘She’s Leaving Home’, took place at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills. Both songs feature on the 1967 album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was speculated the song was about the drug LSD, however, The Beatles denied this, with Lennon saying the inspiration had come from a picture his son Julian had drawn of a classmate named Lucy Vodden – who died of the immune system disease Lupus in 2009.
2017 – It was announced that The Killers’ ‘Mr Brightside’ was the most-streamed song released before 2010 in the UK. The 2004 single was streamed 26 million times last year, beating any other song released before 2010, according to music industry body the BPI.
