1962, The Konrads (featuring Dave Jay later to become David Bowie) made their live debut when they played at Bromley Technical School in Kent, England.
1964, The Rolling Stones paid £1,500 ($2,500) in return air fares from America back to the UK to honour a booking made a year earlier for £100 ($170) at Magdalen College Oxford. Local group, The Falling Leaves were the support act, and the Stones’ bass player, Bill Wyman, had to use one of the Oxford band’s amplifiers because of a malfunction with their equipment.
1965, Bob Dylan recorded ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ at Columbia Recording Studios in New York City, in the sessions for the forthcoming ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ album. Session musicians included Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper, whose Hammond organ on ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ became one of rock’s most recognizable sounds.
1966, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (featuring guitarist Eric Clapton) appeared at The Marquee Club London, England.
1966, The Beatles made a surprise live appearance on the UK television program Top Of The Pops performing ‘Paperback Writer’ and ‘Rain’. It became The Beatles’ last live musical television appearance, with the sole exception of the June 1967 worldwide transmission of ‘All You Need Is Love’.
1967, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown and Soft Machine both appeared at The Liverpool Love Festival in Liverpool, England.
1967, The three day Monterey Pop Festival in California began. All the proceeds went to charity when all the artists agreed to perform for free, the ‘Summer of Love’ was born. The festival saw the first major US appearances by The Who, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Also on the bill: The Byrds, Grateful Dead, Otis Redding, Simon & Garfunkel, The Steve Miller Band, Canned Heat, The Mamas And The Papas, Jefferson Airplane, Buffalo Springfield and The Electric Flag. John Phillips, of The Mamas and The Papas wrote, ‘San Francisco, (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)’ to promote the festival, which later became a hit for Scott McKenzie.
1967, Pink Floyd released their second single ‘See Emily Play’ which was written by original frontman Syd Barrett. The slide guitar work on the song was done by Barrett using a plastic ruler.
1970, Mungo Jerry were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘In The Summertime’. It went on to become the best selling UK single of 1970 spending seven weeks at No.1 and was a hit in 26 other countries. The UK release was a maxi-single playing at 33 rpm, (whereas singles generally played at 45 rpm).
1972, David Bowie released his fifth studio album The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars a concept album telling the story of a fictional bisexual alien rock star named Ziggy Stardust. The album which reached No.5 in the UK and No. 75 in the US has been consistently considered one of the greatest albums of all time.
1973, Suzi Quatro had her first UK No.1 single with the Nicky Chinn & Mike Chapman song ‘Can The Can’. 10CC were at No.2 with ‘Rubber Bullets’ and Fleetwood Mac at No.3 with ‘Albatross.’
1976, The Jackson Five four-week summer variety show premiered on CBS- TV featuring The Jacksons plus sisters Latoya, Rebbie and Janet.
1977, Kenny Rogers was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Lucille’. It was the American Country music singer’s first of two UK No.1’s.
1979, The Electric Light Orchestra started a five-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Discovery’ their first No.1 LP, featuring the tracks ‘Shine A Little Love’, ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’ and ‘The Diary Of Horace Wimp’.
1980, The Blues Brothers film starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd premiered in Chicago. The film also featured Aretha Franklin, James Brown and Ray Charles in the role of a streetwise storeowner.
1982, Pretenders guitarist James Honeyman-Scott died following sustained cocaine and heroin addiction.
1982, Donny Vanzant of 38 Special was arrested on stage in Tulsa, Oklahoma, (a dry town) for drinking alcohol in a public place.
1984, Frankie Goes To Hollywood had their second UK No.1 single with ‘Two Tribes.’ It stayed at No.1 for nine weeks making Frankie Goes To Hollywood the first band to have their first two singles go to the top of the UK chart. During this run the group’s previous single ‘Relax’ climbed back up the charts to No.2.
1988, Vince Neil of Motley Crue married mud wrestler Sharisse Rudell.
1989, The first day of the UK three day Glastonbury Festival took place featuring Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Throwing Muses, Pixies, All About Eve, Hot House Flowers, The Waterboys, Suzanne Vega and Fairground Attraction. Tickets cost £28 ($48).
1990, After a court battle, pop duo Bros paid over £40,000 in settlement of a legal dispute over management.
1990, Roxette started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘It Must Have Been Love’. The song, taken from the film ‘Pretty Woman’ became the duo’s third US No.1 and a No.3 hit in the UK.
1994, Kristen Pfaff, bass player with Hole was found dead in her bathtub due to a heroin overdose aged 26.
1994, Oasis played at The Erotika Club, Paris in France, the bands first gig outside the UK.
1996, Metallica went to No.1 on the UK album charts with their album ‘Load’.
1996, Rage Against The Machine, Beastie Boys, Smashing Pumpkins, Fugees, Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Lee Hooker, Beck, Sonic Youth, Yoko Ono, De La Soul and Richie Havens all appeared at the two-day Tibetan Freedom Concert, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco: A sell-out crowd of over 100,000 made it the largest US benefit concert since Live Aid in 1985.
1999, Screaming Lord Sutch was found dead after hanging himself. The singer turned politician was 58. He was the first long-haired pop star-boasting hair over 18 inches long and the self-styled lord (real name David Sutch), was Britain’s longest-serving political leader, standing in nearly 40 elections.
2000, On the first night of his ‘Up in Smoke’ tour in Chula Vista, Snoop Dogg’s tour bus was stopped at the Temecula border checkpoint in San Diego after the border patrol smelled marijuana wafting from the tour bus. One member of the crew was arrested.
2001, Four-year-old Daniel Karven-Veres drowned in Tommy Lee’s swimming pool while attending a birthday party for Lee’s 5-year-old son, Brandon. His parents, James Veres and Ursula Karven, sued Lee for negligence, claiming they should have been told that a swimming pool was involved, (their son could not swim). Lee was cleared by a jury in April 2003.
2002, 46 years after his first hit, Elvis Presley started a four week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘A Little Less Conversation’, (Elvis vs. JXL), giving Elvis a total of 18 UK No.1 singles, the most by any artist in chart history. This also set a new record for the longest span of No.1 hits with 44 years, 11 months and 9 days. His first UK No.1 single was ‘All Shook Up’ in 1957.
2007, Rod Stewart married model girlfriend Penny Lancaster on the Italian Riviera just outside the resort of Portofino. The 62 year old singer was previously married to models Alana Hamilton and Rachel Hunter and has seven children in total.
2008, Coldplay kicked off their Viva la Vida, 161-date world tour at the Brixton Academy in London, England.
2010, American musician and guitarist Gary Shider died from cancer of the brain and lungs. He was musical director of the P-Funk All-Stars and as a member of Parliament-Funkadelic he scored the hit ‘One Nation Under A Groove’.
2013, Black Sabbath established a new UK chart record for the longest gap between No.1 albums when their new release, 13 debuted at the top of the charts, 42 years and 8 months after their second album Paranoid reached No.1.
(This Day in Music)
