Rock History September 26
1965, The Who are scheduled to play an 8 pm show at the Aarhus Hallen in Aarhus. The audience pelts the opening acts with bottles and trash and turns into a rioting mob by the time The Who take the stage. The band makes it through half of one song before fleeing for their lives, as the audience storms the stage and smashes the instruments.
Pete later calls it “the best concert we ever played in Denmark.” Backstage Roger angrily blames the others for the group’s problems calling them “pillheads,” an appropriate description at the time. Roger grabs Keith’s supply of speed tablets and flushes them down the toilet. Keith goes for Roger’s throat. Security has to be called in break up the fisticuffs. Nevertheless, they all rush to Aalborg, taking the Fredrikstorv stage to play a 9:30 pm show. Back in the UK, Pete, John and Keith demand that Roger be kicked out of the Who. The managers talk them into allowing Roger to continue for now while they look for another singer.
1965, During a UK tour, The Rolling Stones appeared at Colston Hall in Bristol.
1967, Pink Floyd played the first of three nights at the Fillmore in San Francisco, the band’s first ever live dates in the US.
1968, Rolling Stone Brian Jones was fined £50 after being found guilty of possession of cannabis.
1969, The Beatles released Abbey Road, the final studio recording from the group. It featured two George Harrison songs “Something” and “Here Comes The Sun.” In their interviews for The Beatles Anthology, the surviving band members stated that, although none of them ever made the distinction of calling it the “last album,” they all felt at the time this would very likely be the final Beatles effort, and therefore agreed to set aside their differences and “go out on a high note”.
1969, Fleetwood Mac, East Of Eden, Family, Edgar Broughton Band, Grisby Dyke and Glass Menagerie all appeared at an all night indoor festival at The Pavillion Gardens, Buxton, Derbyshire, England. John Peel hosted the night.
1970, Pink Floyd kicked off their third North American tour at The Electric Factory in Philadelphia.
1970, The Allman Brothers Band at Municipal Auditorium in Charleston, South Carolina
1970, The Who’s “See Me Feel Me” backed with “Overture From Tommy” hits the US charts. The 16-month old A-side is released to cash in on the popularity of the movie Woodstock and becomes one of The Who’s biggest US hits, reaching number 12 in Billboard and number 8 in Cash Box.
Rock History September 26
1971, The Allman Brothers Band performed at Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas.
1972, J. Geils Band released Live – Full House, their first live album. They built their reputation as one of the best live bands on the tour circuit. This great hard rockin’ document proved it. Featured “First I look At The Purse”, “Hard Drivin’ Man”, “Whammer Jammer”, “Lookin’ For A Love”, and more.
1972, Cheech & Chong appear at the Keith Albee Theater in Huntington, West Virginia.
1973, The Grateful Dead performed at War Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, New York.
1973, The Allman Brothers Band played at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. Marshall Tucker was the opening act.
1975, Black Oak Arkansas played at the Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee.
1976, Hawkwind appeared at the Capitol Theatre in Cardiff, Wales.
1977, Eric Clapton performed at the Festival Hall, Osaka, Japan.
1978, Bob Dylan played at the Civic Center in Springfield, Massachusetts.
1980, U2 appeared at the Cedar Ballroom, Birmingham, England on their Boy tour.
1981, It is officially announced that Samson’s Bruce Dickinson has replaced Paul Di’Anno as the singer for Iron Maiden. Dickinson would leave the band in 1993 and rejoin in 1999.
1981, Blue Oyster Cult played at the Capital Centre, Landover, Maryland.
1982, Van Halen performed at the Events Center, Casper, Wyoming.
1987, Michael Jackson started a six-week run at number one on the US album chart with Bad. Released nearly five years after Jackson’s previous studio album, Thriller, Bad, went on to become the world’s best-selling album, having sold between 30 to 45 million copies worldwide. The album produced five US number one hits, the first album to do so.
1989, Paul McCartney started his world tour at The Drammenshallen, in Drammen, Norway. It was McCartney’s first major tour outing in ten years, since Wings UK Tour 1979, and would mark his first appearances in North America in thirteen years.
1995, AC/DC released Ballbreaker, their 12th international studio album. The album which was produced by Rick Rubin, featured the return of former drummer Phil Rudd, who had been fired from the band in 1983 as a result of drinking and drug problems and a fight with founding rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young.
2003, English singer, songwriter Robert Palmer died of a heart attack aged 54 in Paris France. He was a member of Vinegar Joe and Power Station (with Duran Duran members Andy Taylor and John Taylor, as well as drummer and former Chic member Tony Thompson.) As a solo artist had the 1986 US number one and UK number five single “Addicted To Love” and the 1988 hit “Simply Irresistible.”
2004, Green Day scored their first UK number one album with American Idiot the band’s seventh release.
Born on September 26: Marty Robbins, country singer (1925); Joe Bauer, drummer, The Youngbloods (1941); Bryan Ferry, singer, Roxy Music (1945); and Olivia Newton-John (1948)
Link to Today in Rock History main page.
Black Oak Arkansas, Cheech & Chong, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, Green Day, Pink Floyd, Robert Palmer, The Allman Brothers Band, The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones, The Who, U2.
