Rock History March 31
1967, Jimi Hendrix set fire to his guitar live on stage for the first time when he was appearing at The Astoria in London, England. It was the first night of a 24-date tour with The Walker Brothers, Cat Stevens, and Engelbert Humperdink. The Fender Stratocaster burned on stage by Hendrix sold for £280,000 at a 2008 London auction of rock memorabilia.
1967, Pink Floyd played at the Top Spot Ballroom, Ross-on-Wye, England.
1968, The Who performed at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, DC.
1969, Led Zeppelin performed at the Cooks Ferry Inn, in Edmonton, in north London.
1969, George Harrison and his wife, Patti, appear in an Amersterdam court charged with possession of cannabis. They are fined £250.
1969, In Amsterdam John and Yoko call off their “Bed-In” so they can premiere Ono’s new film Rape in Vienna.
1970, Led Zeppelin appeared at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1972, The Beatles Official Fan Club closed. The Beatles Monthly magazine had ceased three years previously.
1972, Badfinger, King Crimson, along with Ashton, Gardner & Dyke appeared at Municipal Auditorium in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1972, The number one album in the US is America’s self-titled debut, featuring their classic “A Horse With No Name.”
1973, The Grateful Dead played at War Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, New York.
1973, Roxy Music appeared at the Rainbow Theatre, London.
1974, Emerson, Lake & Palmer performed at the Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee.
1975, Aerosmith headlined at the Civic Center, Lansing, Michigan.
1976, Led Zeppelin released Presence, their seventh studio album, on their own Swan Song Records in the UK. Jimmy Page and manager Peter Grant were fearful that Plant might have quit the band during his (and his family’s) recovery from a serious car accident the year before. So, the band rushed to Musicland Studios in Germany (for tax reasons) to get Plant out of his depression and “back in the groove.” After a month of rehearsals, the album was recorded in just eighteen days with Plant in a wheelchair.
1976, The Brotherhood Of Man were at number one on the UK singles chart with the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 1976, “Save Your Kisses For Me.” The group’s first of three UK chart toppers.
1977, An Elvis Presley concert in Baton Rouge, Louisiana is postponed after Elvis doesn’t return from the intermission.
1978, Eric Clapton played at the Civic Center, Baltimore, Maryland.
1979, Roxy Music appeared at the Orpheum Theater, Boston, Massachusetts.
1980, Rush performed at the Brandt Center, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.
1982, The Doobie Brothers break up for the first time.
1982, ZZ Top played at the Salt Palace, Salt Lake City, Utah.
1982, Toto release their number two single “Rosanna.”
1983, Reggae singer and one-hit-wonder Eddy Grant releases “Electric Avenue” in the US. It was released in the UK in 1982, and reached number two in England. It repeated the feat in the US.
1984, Kenny Loggins started a three-week run at number one on the US singles chart with “Footloose,” the theme song from the film with the same name, a top six hit in the UK.
1986, O’Kelly Isley of The Isley Brothers died of a heart attack, aged 48. Had a hit in 1962 original version of “Twist and Shout,” (later covered by the Beatles) and the 1968 UK number three single “This Old Heart Of Mine” and 1969 US number two single “It’s Your Thing.”
1992, Def Leppard released their fifth studio album Adrenalize, the first by the band following the 1991 death of guitarist Steve Clark. Former Dio and Whitesnake guitarist Vivian Campbell, was brought in as the newest member in April 1992. He appears in all promotional videos for the album’s singles (except “Let’s Get Rocked,”) despite not playing on the album.
1995, 23-year-old Mexican American singer Selena was murdered by the president of her fan club Yolanda Sald’var. Warner Brothers made a film based on her life starring Jennifer Lopez in 1997.
2002, Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees bought his childhood home in Keppel Road, Chorlton, Manchester. Gibb said he was going to clean the house up, rent it out and put a plaque on the wall.
2015, Joni Mitchell was rushed to hospital after being found unconscious at her Los Angeles home. The singer songwriter was admitted to intensive care where she underwent tests. Los Angeles fire officials said paramedics had answered a 911 call in Bel Air, where Mitchell lives, and had taken a patient whom they did not identify to hospital.
Born on March 31: Shirley Jones, The Partridge Family (1934); Herb Alpert (1937); Al Nichol, The Turtles (1946); Thiis Van Leer, organ, flute, Focus (1948); Mick Ralphs, Mott the Hoople (1948); Angus Young, AC/DC (1955); Pat McGlynn, Bay City Rollers (1958); Jack Antonoff, guitarist, Fun (1984)
Get more Today in Rock History.
Aerosmith, America, Badfinger, Cat Stevens, Def Leppard, Eddy Grant, Elvis Presley, Emerson Lake & Palmer, George Harrison, Jimi Hendrix, Kenny Loggins, King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, The Beatles, The Doobie Brothers, The Isley Brothers, The Who, Toto.
