1958, The Quarrymen, featuring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, John “Duff” Lowe on piano and Colin Hanton on drums, recorded a vanity disc at a small studio in an electronics shop owned by a man named Percy Phillips. The band recorded ‘That’ll Be The Day’ and ‘In Spite Of Danger’ in one take each. With the names of the tunes and the song’s writers hand written on the label, each band member was to keep the 10-inch 78 rpm disc for a week before passing it on. Both recordings eventually ended up on Anthology 1.
1962, The Beatles played their first ever gig in Wales when they appeared at The Regent Dansette in Rhyl. Tickets cost five shillings, ($0.70).
1964, The Rolling Stones were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘It’s All Over Now’, the group’s first of 8 UK No.1’s. Written by Bobby Womack and Shirley Womack, it was first released by The Valentinos featuring Bobby Womack in the same year.
1967, The Who began their first full North American tour at the Memorial Coliseum, Portland, Oregon, appearing as support band to Herman’s Hermits on 55 dates.
1967, David Bowie released the single ‘Love You Till Tuesday’ which failed to reach the charts. Bowie’s 1969 showpiece film Love You till Tuesday took its name from the song, which also featured over the opening credits.
1973, A drunk driver killed Clarence White of The Byrds while he was loading equipment after a gig in Palmdale, California. White joined The Byrds in 1968, after the group had recorded ‘Mr. Tambourine Man,’ ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’ and ‘Eight Miles High’.
1973, During a concert at the John Wayne Theatre in Hollywood, California, Phil Everly smashed his guitar and stormed of stage, Don finished the set by himself and announced that The Everly Brothers had split. This was the last that the duo performed together for nearly ten years.
1977, Elvis Costello and The Attractions made their live debut supporting Wayne County at The Garden, Penzance, Cornwall, England.
1979, Donna Summer scored her third No.1 US single with ‘Bad Girls’ the album of the same name also started a five week run at No.1. The inspiration for her to write the song came after one of her assistants was offended by a police officer who thought she was a street prostitute.
1982, The movie premier for Pink Floyd’s The Wall was held at The Empire, Leicester Square, London, England. The film which centers around a confined rocker named Floyd “Pink” Pinkerton earned $22 million in its first year and won two British Academy Awards.
1984, Phillippe Wynne lead singer with The Detroit Spinners died of a heart attack while performing at Ivey’s nightclub in Oakland, California, aged 43. With The Detroit Spinners had the 1980 UK No.1 & US No.2 single ‘Working My Way Back To You.’
1986, Madonna was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with her second No.1 ‘Papa Don’t Preach’. Madonna also had the UK No.1 album with ‘True Blue’.
1988, Michael Jackson gave himself a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for setting a new attendance record, when he played the first of seven nights at Wembley Stadium in London. The shows on his Bad World Tour were attended by a total of 504,000 fans beating the record previously held by Genesis, with four sold out nights.
1989, At The Peach Festival, South Carolina, 432 guitarist’s broke the world record for the most guitar players appearing in unison for the longest period of time, when they performed ‘Louie Louie’ for 30 minutes.
1989, Tom Jones lost a paternity suit and was ordered to pay $200 a week in child support to 27 year old Katherine Berkery of New York. The judge in the case was Judge Judy Sheindlin, who was still serving in her 15 year tenure as a New York Family Court judge before appearing in her court TV show, Judge Judy.
1997, Walkers Spice Girls crisps went on sale in the UK, over 16 million bags were sold by the end of the year.
2000, Five became the latest pop idols to call for the legalisation of cannabis. J and Richie from the band told Sky magazine that the drug should no longer be outlawed ‘No one who smokes a spliff goes out and starts fights like someone who’s been drinking.’
2003, Plans for Sting to write an official anthem for Tuscany came under fire by locals who insisted the job should go to an Italian and not a foreigner. The British pop star owned a house in Tuscany and had been nominated to compose the anthem by Franco Banchi who lived nearby.
2006, Primal Scream singer Bobby Gillespie had his nose broken when he was attacked in a hotel bar in Madrid in Spain. The singer had to postpone a Top Of The Pops recording due to the injuries.
2007, A pair of glasses worn by former Beatle John Lennon sparked a bidding war after being offered for sale online. The circular sunglasses were worn by Lennon during The Beatles 1966 tour of Japan, where the band played some of their last ever live dates. Anonymous rival bidders had pushed the price as high as £750,000 at online auction house 991.com.
2009, Michael Jackson fans from all over the world congregated at London’s O2 arena, where the star had been due to begin his run of 50 concerts. Fans who left messages to a wall of tributes and conducted Jackson sing-a-longs, held a minute’s silence at 1830 BST to mark the time when the doors to the concert would have opened.
2015, Arthur Cave the 15-year-old son of musician Nick Cave died after a fall from a cliff in Brighton, Sussex, England.
2015, The Las Vegas coroner’s office confirmed that B.B. King died of natural causes primarily stemming from Alzheimer’s disease and was not murdered. Two of his daughters had alleged King was poisoned by long-time associates.
