Rock History February 5
1966, The Who, with support acts Screamin’ Lord Sutch & the Savages, the Merseys, the Fortunes, and the Graham Bond Organization, perform at the Odeon Cinema in Southend-on-Sea, England.
1967, The Beatles filmed part of the promo clip for “Penny Lane” around the Royal Theatre, Stratford, London and walking up and down Angel Lane.
1967, The News Of The World reported that Mick Jagger, Pete Townshend, and Ginger Baker had taken LSD at The Moody Blues’ home in the UK. Jagger sued the paper for libel in an on-going feud between the News Of The World and The Stones.
1969, The Move were at number one on the UK singles chart with “Blackberry Way,” the group’s only UK chart topper.
1970, David Bowie recorded four songs at the BBC Paris Cinema, London, for the John Peel Sunday Concert radio show. This was guitarists Mick Ronson’s first appearance with Bowie.
1971, Little Richard, The Allman Brothers Band, and The Chambers Brothers were scheduled to appear at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Little Richard didn’t play, but disrupted ABB’s set, complaining that the promoter wouldn’t pay him.
1971, Black Sabbath started recording what would be their third album, Master Of Reality at Island Studios in London, England. Released in July, it is sometimes noted as the first stoner rock album. Guitarist Tony Iommi, decided to down tune his guitar down three semi-tones, Geezer Butler also down tuned his bass guitar to match Iommi. The result was a noticeably darker sound that almost two decades later would prove hugely influential on at least three of the biggest grunge bands, namely Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, and Nirvana.
1972, Pink Floyd played at Colston Hall in Bristol, England.
1972, T Rex were at number one on the UK singles chart with “Telegram Sam,” the group’s third UK number one which was taken from their album The Slider. The song is also known for bringing the term “main man” into popular culture.
1972, Paul Simon released his first new song without Art Garfunkel, “Mother and Child Reunion,” which peaked at number four in the US.
1974, Genesis appeared at the Palaeur, Rome, Italy.
1974, KISS played at North Alberta Tech, Edmonton, Alberta.
1976, David Bowie appeared at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena, Oakland, California.
1977, Queen performed at Madison Square Garden, New York
1978, The Grateful Dead performed at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.
1980, Blue Oyster Cult played at the Onondaga County War Memorial, Syracuse, New York.
1980, Bob Dylan appeared at the Civic Auditorium, Knoxville, Tennessee.
1983, Def Leppard’s album Pyromania started a 92-week run on the charts. It never reached number one, but sold over 6 million copies in the US alone.
1983, Toto went to number one on the US singles chart with “Africa,” a top three hit in the UK.
1989, The Grateful Dead played at the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center in Oakland California.
1992, Nirvana appeared at the ANU Bar in Canberra, Australia, during their one and only tour of Australia and New Zealand.
2006, The Rolling Stones played three songs during the half-time show of The Super Bowl in Detroit. After the event, the Stones expressed their displeasure over having Mick Jagger’s microphone turned down during the song “Start Me Up.” The line “you make a dead man come” was cut short and a barnyard reference to “cocks” in the new song “Rough Justice” also disappeared.
2007, Producer Phil Spector won $900,000 after settling an embezzlement claim. Spector said former assistant Michelle Blaine removed $425,000 from his pension and did not repay a $635,000 loan. Ms. Blaine claimed the loan was a gift, and the pension funds were for a film aimed at improving Spector’s image. As part of the settlement, she dropped a counter-claim of sexual harassment.
2015, INXS guitarist Tim Farriss said he may never play the guitar properly again after severing his finger in a boating accident. Farriss caught his left hand while operating a winch on his boat in Sydney, severing his ring finger. He had undergone surgery twice to try to reattach the finger but had been left with permanent hand damage
Born on February 5: Hal Blaine, the Wrecking Crew (1929); Alex Harvey (1935); Corey Wells, Three Dog Night (1942); J.R. Cobb, Atlanta Rhythm Section (1944); Al Kooper (1944); David Denny, Steve Miller Band (1948); Cliff Martinez, drums, Red Hot Chili Peppers (1954); Duff McKagan, bass, Guns N’ Roses (1964); Keith Mosley, bass, String Cheese Incident (1965); and Bobby Brown (1969)
Link to Today in Rock history archive
Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, David Bowie, Def Leppard, Kiss, Paul Simon, Pink Floyd, Queen, T Rex, The Allman Brothers Band, The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, The Move, The Rolling Stones, Toto.
