Bee Gees

Today in Rock History – April 29

April 29, 2020 by Mitch Michaels

April 29

1967, The 14-hour Technicolour Dream benefit party for The International Times was held at Alexandra Palace, Muswell Hill in London. Seeing the event mentioned on TV, John Lennon called his driver and went to the show. Coincidentally, Yoko Ono was one of the performers. More than thirty acts appeared included The Move, The Pretty Things, Soft Machine, Tomorrow, The Flies, The Creation Arthur Brown, and The Graham Bond Organisation. All the bands played for free. Members of Pink Floyd drove all night from an gig in The Netherlands arriving at 3 AM, and taking the stage at dawn. The entire event was documented by BBC Television.

1967, Aretha Franklin releases her interpretation of the Otis Redding song “Respect.”

1967, Jimi Hendrix, The Walker Brothers, Engelbert Humperdink and Cat Stevens played two shows at Bournemouth Winter Gardens, England.

1969, While working on tracks for the forthcoming Beatles Abbey Road album, Ringo Starr added his vocal to “Octopus’s Garden.”

1970, The Allman Brothers Band played at Aliotta’s Lounge in Buffalo, New York.

1971, Promoter Bill Graham announces he’s closing the Fillmore Auditoriums in San Francisco and New York.

1972, David Bowie performed at Town Hall, High Wycombe, England.

1973, John Denver began a weekly live UK BBC 2 TV special, The John Denver Show.

1973, The Bay City Rollers appeared at The Odeon Theatre, Edinburgh in Scotland.

1974, King Crimson performed at the Stanley Theater, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

1975, Yes played at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, England.

1975, After suffering the indignity of having an album rejected by their label, the Bee Gees release their career renaissance Main Course, featuring the disco hits “Jive Talkin'” and “Nights on Broadway.”

1976, Genesis performed Community Theater, Berkeley, California.

1976, After a gig in Memphis, Bruce Springsteen took a cab to Elvis Presley’s Graceland home and proceeded to climb over the wall. A guard took him to be another crank fan and apprehended him.

1976, Bob Dylan appeared at Expo Hall, Municipal Auditorium, Mobile, Alabama.

1977, The Grateful Dead played the first of five nights at the New York Palladium, New York.

1977, The Kinks appeared at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ontario.

1979, Van Halen played at Market Square Arena, Indianapolis, Indiana.

1980, Black Sabbath began their first tour with vocalist Ronnie James Dio, who had replaced Ozzy Osbourne.

1983, Roxy Music performed at the California State University, Fresnom, California.

1984, Yes appeared at the Civic Center in Erie, Pennsylvania.

1993, Guitarist, producer, Mick Ronson died of liver cancer aged 46. Ronson recorded and toured with David Bowie from 1970 to 1973. He released the 1974 solo album Slaughter On Tenth Avenue. Ronson co-produced Lou Reed’s album Transformer. He was also part of the Hunter Ronson Band with Ian Hunter. Among the talent Ronson worked with were Morrissey, Slaughter & The Dogs, The Wildhearts, The Rich Kids, Elton John, Johnny Cougar, T-Bone Burnett.

1995, Rapper Tupac Shakur married Keisha Morris inside the Clinton Correctional Facility, where he was serving a four-year jail term for sex abuse.

2001, A blue plaque was unveiled at 38 Aubrey Walk, Kensington, London to honor the musical heritage of the address where British singer Dusty Springfield lived between 1968 and 1972.

2007, Arctic Monkeys started a three week run at number one on the UK album chart with their second album Favourite Worst Nightmare.

Born on April 29: Duke Ellington (1899); Carl Gardner, American singer, The Coasters (1928); Willie Nelson (1933); Klaus Voorman, Manfred Mann, Plastic Ono Band (1942); Tammi Terrell, singer (1945); Tommy James (1947); Michael Karoli, German guitarist, songwriter, Can (1948); Francis Rossi, Status Quo (1949); Mark Kendall, American guitarist, songwriter, Great White (1957); Carnie Wilson, American singer-songwriter, actress Wilson Phillips (1968); China Forbes, American singer-songwriter, Pink Martini (1970); Mike Hogan, bass, The Cranberries (1973)

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Today in Rock History – March 17

March 17, 2020 by Mitch Michaels

1967, Otis Redding, Eddie Floyd, Carla Thomas, Sam & Dave and Booker T and The MG’s appeared at London’s Finsbury Park Astoria on the first night of a 17-date UK tour.

1967, Working at Abbey Road studios in London, The Beatles finished the recoding of “She’s Leaving Home” after adding backing vocals to the track. Harpist Sheila Bromberg who was part of the string section on the track became the first woman to play on a Beatles recording.

1968, The Bee Gees made their US television debut when they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.

1968, A Pink Floyd show to be held at tUniversiteit Leuven, in Leuven, Belgium was cancelled just as the band was about to take the stage when fighting broke out between French and Flemish members of the audience.

1971, Peter Gabriel married is girlfriend Jill. They were together on and off for 17 years.

1973, Eric Weissberg started a three-week run at No.1 on the chart with ‘Dueling Banjos.’ Taken from the film ‘Deliverance.’

1973, Dr Hook’s single ‘On The Cover Of Rolling Stone peaked at No.6 on the US chart. The single was banned in the UK by the BBC due to the reference of the magazine.

1976, Bob Dylan’s protest song “Hurricane” leads to boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter’s murder case being reopened.

1978, U2 won £500 ($850) and a chance to audition for CBS Ireland in a talent contest held in Dublin. The Limerick Civic Week Pop ’78 Competition was sponsored by The Evening Express and Guinness Harp Lager.

1981, Blues Project, with Al Kooper, Steve Katz and Roy Blumenfeld, reunite for one-off concert at Bonds in New York.

1988, The Grateful Dead performed at the Henry J. Kiser Auditorium in Oakland, California.

Born on March 17: Nat King Cole (1919); Paul Kantner, Jefferson Airplane (1941); John Sebastian (1941); Harold Brown, War (1944); Billy Corgan (1967)

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Today in Rock History – March 10

March 10, 2020 by Mitch Michaels

1965, Davie Jones (David Bowie) and the Manish Boys appeared at the Bromel Club, Bromley Hill, England.

1965, The Beatles’ “Eight Days a Week” goes to number one. It’s the first single by a British act to top the American charts but not make the charts in Britain, where it was unreleased.

1966, The Who played at the Ram Jam Club in Brixton, England.

1967, Jimi Hendrix appeared at Club A Go Go in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England.

1967, The Monkees held the number one position on the album chart with More Of The Monkees.

1968, The Who play the Opera House in Aurora, Illinois. The show is filmed by a BBC camera crew for a Tony Palmer documentary, They also film that night’s performance at the Exposition Gardens in Peoria, Illinois.

1968, Jimi Hendrix performed at the International Ballroom in Washington, D.C.

1970, Genesis played at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, London.

1971, Beatles manager Allen Klein is barred from involvement in the band’s affairs as the Fab Four’s career together winds down. According to legend, it is also on this night that John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr go to Paul McCartney’s London townhouse and throw a brick through one of the windows.

1972, America awarded gold disc for “Horse with No Name.”

1972, Black Sabbath and Yes appeared at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco.

1972, The Allman Brothers Band performed at the Convention Center, Tucson, Arizona.

1973, the Pink Floyd album Dark Side Of The Moon was released in America, it spent over 740 weeks on the chart over a 14-year period.

1973, This week’s UK Top 5 singles: number 5, Focus, “Sylvia,” number 4, Detroit Emeralds, “Feel The Need In Me,” number 3, The Strawbs, “Part Of The Union,” number 2, The Faces, “Cindy Incidentally,” number one, Slade, “Cum On Feel The Noize.”

1973, The Who played at the Sporthal de Vliegermolen, Voorburg, The Netherlands.

1974, David Bowie performs the Philadelphia concert that is later released as the album David Live.

1975, John Lennon releases his cover of Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me” as a single in the U.S.

1975, Led Zeppelin played at the Sports Arena, San Diego, California.

1977, at 7am in the morning on a trestle table set up out-side Buckingham Palace, London, The Sex Pistols signed to A&M Records. The contract lasted for six days.

1977, AC/DC appeared at St. Andrews Hall, Norwich, England.

1978, The Bee Gees’ “Night Fever” is the number one single in America. In a great turn of pop events, the record actually knocked the band’s own “Stayin’ Alive” out of the top spot.

1979, Rush appeared at the Hollywood Sportatorium, Pembroke Pines, Florida.

1981, The Who performed at Wembley Arena in London.

1982, King Crimson played at Dora Cohen Hall, Oxford Polytechnic, Oxford, England.

1985, The Grateful Dead performed at the Community Theater in Berkeley, California.

1988, Younger brother of The Bee Gees, Andy Gibb, died in hospital. His death from myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) followed a long battle with cocaine addiction, which had weakened his heart.

1997, LaVern Baker, a rhythm and blues singer died from complications of coronary artery disease at age 57. She had several hits on the pop charts including “Tweedlee Dee” (1955), “Jim Dandy” (1956), and “I Cried a Tear” (1958).

2002, Alanis Morissette went to number one on the US album chart and number two on the UK chart with Under Rug Swept.

2003, During a concert in London, England, Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines said that the band was “ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas” (referring to Maines’ hometown of Lubbock and President Bush hailing from the same state). This was during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, the comment sparked intense controversy and outrage among Americans, including a large share of country music fans.

2009, Tickets for a one-off gig by Sir Paul McCartney in Las Vegas sold out seven seconds after going on sale. The former Beatle was booked to perform at the opening of the New Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on April 19th to an audience of 4,000 fans. Tickets cost $750 (£468.75) each.

2010, Pink Floyd won a court battle with EMI that prevented the record company from selling single downloads and ringtones on the Internet from the group’s albums. Pink Floyd’s back catalog was second only in sales to the Beatles.

Born on this day: Dean Torrence, Jan & Dean (1940); Tom Scholz, Boston (1947); Jeff Ament, Pearl Jam (1963); Robin Thicke (1977); and Carrie Underwood (1983)

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Today in Rock History – March 3

March 3, 2020 by Mitch Michaels

buffalo-springfield-1966 — Buffalo Springfield

1966, Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay formed Buffalo Springfield in Los Angeles.

1966, The Who played at the Victoria Ballroom in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England.

1967, The Doors appear at the Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco.

1967, A twice-nightly tour kicked off in the UK at The ABC in Romford Essex featuring, The Small Faces, Jeff Beck, Roy Orbison and Paul and Barry Ryan.

1967, In London, guitarist Jeff Beck debuts his new group featuring bassist Ron Wood, drummer Aynsley Dunbar, and a new singer by the name of Rod Stewart.

1967, Pink Floyd performed at Market Hall in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England.

1967, After a promoter refuses to pay the Animals an advance for their concert in Ottawa, the band decides not to play. The audience riots and causes $5,000 in damages

1968, The Jimi Hendrix Experience played at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Columbus, Ohio.

1968, Blood, Sweat & Tears appeared at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan.

1969, The Who end the recording of Tommy at IBC Studio A after almost five months in the studio.

1969, Led Zeppelin recorded their first BBC Radio 1 Top Gear session during the afternoon at the Playouse Theatre in London, England. Songs recorded were “Dazed And Confused,” “Communication Breakdown,” “You Shook Me,” and “I Can’t Quit You Baby.” Free, The Moody Blues and Deep Purple were also in session on the show.

1970, Genesis plays at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, London.

1972, The Allman Brothers Band performed at Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco

1973, Slade’s “Cum On Feel The Noize,” entered the UK charts at number one, making Slade the first act to achieve this since The Beatles.

1973, winners at the Grammy Awards included, Roberta Flack who won Song of the year and Record of the year with “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and Harry Nilsson won Best pop vocal performance for “Without You.”

1974, Lynyrd Skynyrd played at Ellis Auditorium North Hall, Memphis, Tennessee.

1975, Led Zeppelin appeared at the Tarrant County Convention Center, Fort Worth, Texas.

1976, David Bowie performed at the International Amphitheater, Chicago.

1977, the first night of an UK tour with Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, Cherry Vanilla, and The Police kicked off at the Roxy Club, London. John Otway and Wild Willie Baratt played at The Speakeasy, London and Iggy Pop supported by The Vibrators appeared at Huddersfield Poly.

1978, Van Halen opens its first tour at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. The group’s contract specifies that M&Ms be provided to the group during the stint with the brown candies removed. Part of this first tour was to open up for Black Sabbath in several locations.

1979, The Bee Gees scored their fourth number one single with “Tragedy.” Also today The Bee Gees went to number one on the album chart with ‘Spirits Having Flown‘, the group’s second chart topping album.

1980, A napkin signed by Elvis Presley fetches £500 ($800) at a Sotheby’s auction in London. Four dollar bills signed by the Beatles sell for £220 ($350), as does a packet of letters written by the Rolling Stones.

1984, Nena started a three week run at number one on the UK singles chart with “99 Red Balloons.” Originally sung in German, “99 Luftballons” was re-recorded in English as “99 Red Balloons.” The song was a number two hit in the US and the only UK hit for Nena making her a one-hit wonder.

1990, During a world tour Paul McCartney played the first of 6 sold-out nights at the Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan. The final night was broadcast live to venues in 10 other Japanese cities; Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Kumamoto, Matsuyama, Nagoya, Niigata, Osaka, Sapporp, Sendai and Takamatsu.

1994, The Smashing Pumpkins were banned from appearing on BBC TV’s Top Of The Pops, due to the content of the song’s lyrics. The bands single “Disarm” was this week’s highest new entry.

1995, Foo Fighters made their live debut during a benefit show at The Satyricon in Portland, Oregon.

2008, The Beatles’ engineer Norman Smith died at the age of 85. Smith who worked on every studio recording the band made between 1962 and 1965 was nicknamed “Normal Norman” by John Lennon. As a producer in 1966, he signed Pink Floyd and produced some of their early albums including Saucerful of Secrets and as Hurricane Smith had the 1971 UK number two hit “Don’t Let It Die.”

2009, To celebrate the release of U2’s twelfth studio album and their appearance every night for a week on The Late Show with David Letterman, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg temporarily renamed part of 53rd street in Midtown Manhattan U2 Way.

Born on March 3: Junior Parker, bluesman (1927); Mike Pender, The Searchers (1942); Jance Garfat, Dr. Hook (1944); Jennifer Warnes (1947); Snowy White, Thin Lizzy (1948); and Robyn Hitchcock (1953)

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Today in Rock History – February 7

February 7, 2020 by Mitch Michaels

1963, The first Beatles single “Please Please Me” was released in the US on the Vee Jay label.

1964, The Beatles’ Pan Am flight was greeted by over 5,000 as it arrived at New York’s JFK airport. This was the Fab Four’s first US visit.

1967, Robin, Maurice and Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees returned to the UK after living in Australia for nine years.

1967, Mike Nesmith and Mickey Dolenz from The Monkees appeared on UK TV’s Top Of The Pops.

1969, John and Yoko were featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, on sale for 35 Cents. John was named as Rolling Stone’s “Man Of The Year.”

1969, Vanilla Fudge, Led Zeppelin, and Jethro Tull play the first of two nights at the Kinetic Playground in Chicago. Admission was $5 (£3.33).

1969, The Who play the Top Rank Suite at the University in Bath, England.

1969, Doors singer Jim Morrison was arrested for drunk driving and driving with no license in Los Angeles, California.

1969, George Harrison enters London’s University College Hospital to have an operation on his infected back molar and tonsils.

1970, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull married record company secretary Jennie Franks.

1970, In London, Yes performed at Royal Festival Hall, while Pink Floyd appeared at Royal Albert Hall.

1970, Led Zeppelin scored their first number one album with Led Zeppelin II. Featuring the single “Whole Lotta Love,” it went on to stay on the chart for 138 weeks, selling over 6 million copies in the US.

1970, The Allman Brothers Band played at Pappaliski’s in Dayton, Ohio.

1970, One hit wonders from Holland, The Shocking Blue went to number one on the US singles chart with “Venus,” making them the first Dutch act to top the US charts. It made it to number eight in the UK. Bananarama also took the song to number 8 on the UK chart in 1986.

1971, Edgar Winter and Grin appear at the Terrace Ballroom in Salt Lake City, Utah.

1973, Hawkwind played at Wandsworth Prison in London.

1975, The Jackson Five appeared at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

1975, Led Zeppelin performed at Madison Square Garden in New York. Tickets were $7.50 and $8.50.

1976, Paul Simon started a three week run at number one on the singles chart with “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover,” the singer’s first solo chart topper.

1977, Genesis performed at Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis.

1979, Stephen Stills became the first rock performer to record on digital equipment at the Record Plant Studio in Los Angeles.

1980, After three weeks of full production rehearsals, Pink Floyd played the first of seven sold out shows performing The Wall at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. The first night’s show was halted during “What Shall We Do Now” while crew extinguished flames caused by the pyrotechnics that caught the stage drapes on fire.

1981, John Lennon was at number one on the UK singles chart with “Woman,” an ode to his wife Yoko Ono. It was Lennon’s third number one in seven weeks after his death on December 8, 1980.

1981, Kool & The Gang started a two week run at number one on the US singles chart with “Celebration,” the group’s first chart topper and eighth top 40 hit in America. It was a number seven hit in the UK.

1984, Neil Young and Crazy Horse played at The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, California.

1999, Blondie went to number one on the UK singles chart with “Maria,” giving the group their 6th UK number one single, 20 years after their first. At the age of 54, lead singer Debbie Harry became the oldest female to make a chart topping hit.

2000, English guitarist and singer Dave Pevertt died from kidney cancer aged 56. He had been a member of Savoy Brown and Foghat who had the 1970’s hit singles “My Babe,” and “Slow Ride.”

2001, U2 played a secret show at London’s Astoria. Stars attending the show included actor John Hurt, Queen’s Roger Taylor, Mick Jagger, Bob Geldof, Chris Evans, and members of Toploader.

2008, Amy Winehouse was told she could not perform at this year’s Grammy awards ceremony because her US visa application has been rejected by the embassy in London. The singer was arrested for marijuana possession in Norway in 2007. Winehouse had been nominated for six Grammy awards.

Born on February 7: Earl King, blues guitarist (1934); Jimmy Greenspoon, Three Dog Night (1948); Alan Lancaster, Status Quo (1949); Steve Bronski, Bronski Beat (1960); Garth Brooks (1962); David Bryan, keyboards, Bon Jovi (1962); Wes Borland, guitarist, Limp Bizkit (1975)