
Rock History December 31
1966, The Monkees started a seven-week run at number one on the singles charts with the Neil Diamond song “I’m A Believer.”
1966, Ray Charles appeared at the City Center Arena in Seattle Washington. The tickets cost $4.50 at the door.
1966, The Move, Pink Floyd, and The Who appeared at the New Year’s Eve All Night Rave, at The Roundhouse, Chalk Farm Road, London.
1967, Songwriter and producer Bert Berns died of heart failure aged 38. He wrote many classic songs including “Twist And Shout,” “Hang On Sloopy,” “Here Comes the Night,” “I Want Candy,” and “Brown Eyed Girl.”
1968, Joe Cocker, Amen Corner, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, The Small Faces, Free and Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band all appeared at Alexandra Palace, London.
1969, Jimi Hendrix unveils his new group Band of Gypsys at New York’s Fillmore East. The concert, featuring the rhythm section of Billy Cox and Buddy Miles backing Hendrix, later appears on the album Band of Gypsys.

1969, The Allman Brothers Band performed at the UNC-Charlotte Cafeteria in Charlotte, North Carolina.
1969, BBC television broadcast the program Man of the Decade, who is … John Lennon! Rolling Stone names Lennon its Man of the Year, while Lennon himself admits to the New Musical Express that he’s considering leaving the Beatles.
1970, Paul McCartney filed a suit against the rest of The Beatles to dissolve their partnership.
1971, Bob Dylan makes a special appearance at the Band’s New Year’s Eve concert at the New York Academy of Music, performing “Down In The Flood,” “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” “Like A Rolling Stone,” and “Don’t Ya Tell Henry” with them.
Rock History December 31
1971, Queen played at the Rugby Club, Twickenham, England.
1972, Roxy Music performed at the Kinetic Playground, Chicago.
1973, Australian band AC/DC made their live debut when they appeared at Chequers Bar in Sydney.
1974, Ron Wood denies reports that he will join the Rolling Stones as a replacement for the recently departed Mick Taylor.
1975, KISS plays at the Coliseum, Evansville, Indiana.
1975, JJ Cale appears at Ebbets Field, Denver, Colorado.
1976, The Cars give their debut performance at Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, N.H.
1978, San Francisco’s Winterland Theater closes its doors after a farewell performance by the Grateful Dead and the Blues Brothers.
1978, Bauhaus gives its debut performance in Wellingborough, England. Bauhaus are an English rock band formed in Northampton in 1978 by Peter Murphy (vocals), Daniel Ash (guitar), Kevin Haskins (drums) and David J (bass). The band took their name from the German Bauhaus art movement, originally going by the name Bauhaus 1919, dropping the latter portion within a year of the band’s formation
1979, Blondie’s gig at The Apollo Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland was broadcast live on BBC 2’s Old Grey Whistle Test.
1979, David Bowie performed an acoustic version of ‘Space Oddity’ on the UK TV Kenny Everett New Year’s Show.
1979, The Grateful Dead played a New Year’s Eve show at the Oakland Auditorium. John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service sat in with the band on three songs in the second set.
1980, Blue Oyster Cult played at Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee.
1981, The Grateful Dead performed at the Oakland Auditorium. Joan Baez joined them for the first set.
1982, Max’s Kansas City in New York City closed down. The venue had been a launching pad for such artists as The New York Dolls, Bruce Springsteen and The Velvet Underground.
1982, The Grateful Dead returned to the Oakland Auditorium for a three-set show, which included guests John Cipollina, Etta James, and the Tower of Power horns.
1984, Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen, crashed his Corvette on a highway outside Sheffield, England. Allen lost his left arm in the accident.
1985, Ricky Nelson was killed along with six others, when his charted light aircraft crashed in Texas. Nelson had played himself on his parent’s US TV The Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet.
1988, B. B. King performed a New Year’s Eve show at the Maui Civic Center. Stephen Stills joined him for the show’s encore.
1991, Pearl Jam, Nirvana and the Red Hot Chili Peppers all appeared on the same bill at the Cow Palace, San Francisco, California.
1999, The Manic Street Preachers performed to 57,000 fans at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. The Guinness Book of Records confirmed that the concert set a new record as the biggest indoor show ever staged in Europe, tickets £30.
2000, Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson married actress Kate Hudson the daughter of actress Goldie Hawn. The couple separated in 2006.
2004, Pete Waterman was awarded an OBE for his services to music. Once part of the Stock, Aitken & Waterman team he also booked the first ever tour for The Bay City Rollers, signed Musical Youth and Nik Kershaw during the 70’s and was promotion consultant for John Travolta. Waterman had written and produced more than 200 hit singles in 25 years for acts from Kylie Minogue to Steps.
2012, A draft of a letter John Lennon written to Eric Clapton on September 29, 1971 asking him to collaborate on a musical project sold for $35,000 (£21,875) at an auction. Still in pristine condition, the latter was originally estimated to fetch somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000
2022, Anita Pointer, a member of the Pointer Sisters died at age 74. Her band had a hit album right out of the gate in 1973 as their self-titled debut release reached number thirteen on the album chart. Their first major hit single was a recording of Allen Toussaint’s “Yes We Can Can,” which narrowly missed the top ten, peaking at number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100 and in the twelfth spot on the R&B chart.
2022, Jeremiah Green, founding member and drummer of Modest Mouse died, just days after the band announced he was diagnosed with stage four cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy. The band, which formed in the 1990’s, released their first album in 1996, and is best known for the song “Float On.”
Born on this day: Andy Summers, The Police (1942); John Denver (1943); Burton Cummings, Guess Who (1947); Donna Summer (1948); Tom Hamilton, bass, Aerosmith (1951); Paul Westerberg, guitar, vocals, The Replacements (1960); Scott Ian, Anthrax (1963)
Link to Today in Rock History archive
AC/DC, Blondie, Blue Oyster Cult, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, De Leppard, Jimi Hendrix, JJ Cale, Joe Cocker, Kiss, Queen, Ray Charles, Roxy Music, The Allman Brothers Band, The Beatles, The Cars, The Monkees, The Rolling Stones, The Small Faces.