1963 – The Beatles started a 30 week run at No.1 on the UK album charts with their debut album ‘Please Please Me’, making it the longest running No.1 album by a group ever. The bands follow up ‘With The Beatles’ replaced it at the top of the charts on 7th December 1963 and stayed there for 21 weeks.
1964 – During a UK tour The Rolling Stones were refused lunch at The Grand Hotel, Bristol, where they were staying because they were not wearing jackets and ties. The following day the Daily Express ran the story with the headline, ‘The Rolling Stones gather no lunch.’
1965 – Roger Miller was at No.1 on the US Country charts with ‘King Of The Road.’ The song has been covered by many other artists, including George Jones, Dean Martin, Boxcar Willie, Randy Travis, the Statler Brothers, and Rufus Wainwright & Teddy Thompson. The Proclaimers had a UK No.9 hit with their version of the song in 1990.
1967 – The Bee Gees made their Top Of The Pops debut performing ‘New York Mining Disaster’ on the UK TV show.
1970 – The triple soundtrack album Woodstock was released in the US, going gold within two weeks. The album featured tracks by; Canned Heat, Richie Havens, Country Joe McDonald, Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, Santana and others. The couple on the album cover are Bobbi Kelly and Nick Ercoline.
1972 – John Lennon appeared on the US television ‘Dick Cavett Show’, claiming he was under surveillance from the FBI.
1974 – Led Zeppelin attended an Elvis Presley show at the Los Angeles Forum in California. After a shaky start to the show, Elvis stopped the band and jokingly said: ‘Wait a minute, if we can start together fellas, because we’ve got Led Zeppelin out there, lets try to look like we know what we’re doing.’ All four members of Zeppelin met with Elvis after the show, spending over 2 hours backstage. Elvis asked for all the group’s autographs for his daughter Lisa Marie.
1981 – Jamaican singer-songwriter Bob Marley died aged 36. In July 1977, Marley was found to have a type of malignant melanoma under the nail of a toe, Marley’s health deteriorated as the cancer had spread throughout his body. Marley had the 1981 single ‘No Woman No Cry’, plus over ten other UK Top 40 singles. In 1990, the 6th February was proclaimed a national holiday in Jamaica to commemorate his birth. The compilation album, Legend, released in 1984, is the best-selling reggae album ever with sales of more than 20 million copies. Time magazine chose Bob Marley & The Wailers’ Exodus as the greatest album of the 20th century.
1985 – UK producer and keyboard player Paul Hardcastle was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ’19’. The title referred to the average age of American soldiers in the Vietnam War and features dialogue by television narrator Peter Thomas, and a strong anti-war message.
1985 – Bruce Springsteen and a small group of friends went out for a boy’s night out in Lake Oswego, Oregon, two nights before his wedding to Julianne Phillips. Drinking in the Gemini pub Springsteen sang a number of songs, karaoke-style, to his own records in the jukebox.
1991 – Roxette scored their fourth US No.1 single with ‘Joyride.’ The song was inspired by an interview with Paul McCartney who said that writing songs with John Lennon had been ‘like a Joyride.’
1996 – Bill Graham the Irish journalist credited with discovering U2 died of a heart attack aged 44. He was also the co-founder of the Irish music paper Hot Press. Members from Clannad, U2, Hothouse Flowers and Gavin Friday all attended his funeral.
2001 – Oasis, The Black Crowes and Spacehog kicked off ‘The Tour of Brotherly Love’, a North American tour at The Hard Rock in Las Vegas, Nevada. (The three bands featuring pairs of brothers, (Noel and Liam Gallagher, Chris and Rich Robinson, Royston and Antony Langdon, respectively).
2002 – Over 500 Michael Jackson fans held a demonstration outside the Sony records building in Berlin complaining that the label hadn’t promoted the singer’s latest album ‘Invincible’.
2003 – Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding died at his home in Ireland aged 57. Redding played on the classic Hendrix albums ‘Are You Experienced’, ‘Axis: Bold as Love’ and ‘Electric Ladyland,’ Right up until his death, Redding had been taking legal action against the Hendrix estate for payment estimated at £3.26 million for his part in recordings and for ongoing royalties. Had also been a member of Fat Mattress and formed The Noel Redding Band.
2004 – US songwriter John Whitehead was killed by a gunman. He co-wrote ‘Back Stabbers’ for the O’Jays and as McFadden & Whitehead wrote and sang ‘Ain’t No Stopping Us Now’ which sold more than 8 million copies and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
2006 – George Michael was involved in his second minor car crash in a month after a tabloid photographer found Michael asleep in his parked car in central London. The singer crashed into a bollard after he woke up and was driving away.
2011 – One of the rarest rock t-shirts in the world sold for $10,000, the largest sum ever paid for a vintage t-shirt. The record-setting sale of a 1979 Led Zeppelin t-shirt on eBay was sold by Kyle Ermatinger of Stormcrow Vintage. The recent completion of the transaction placed the purchase as the world’s rarest and most expensive vintage t-shirt.
2011 – Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall’s daughter Elizabeth appeared on the cover of Playboy magazine’s June issue. Her six-page, eight photo spread showed the 27-year-old completely nude, wearing a pair of thigh-high boots and bunny ears, and seductively smoking a cigarette.
