Rock History March 9
1967, Pink Floyd and The Thoughts appeared at the Marquee, London, England. The Marquee club has often been defined as “the most important venue in the history of pop music,” not only for having been the scene of the development of modern music culture in London, but also for having been an essential meeting point for some of the most important artists in rock music.
1967, The Small Faces, Family and The Strollers appeared at the Skyline Ballroom, Hull, Yorkshire.
1967, Jimi Hendrix performed at the Skyline Hotel in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England
1968, Bob Dylan started a ten week run at number one on the UK chart with John Wesley Harding. The album marked Dylan’s return to acoustic music after three albums of electric rock music and was exceptionally well received by critics, also reaching the second spot on the US charts. The commercial performance was considered remarkable, considering that Dylan had made Columbia Records release the album without much publicity.
1968, Jimi Hendrix and Soft Machine played at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York.
1968, The Who return to the site of their first non-New York U.S. show, the Grande Ballroom in Dearborn, Michigan, with Soap opening. At this show The Who add “Little Billy” to their show list. They also break all attendance records for the ballroom.
1968, This year’s edition of Who’s Who in America becomes the first to include notable rock stars other than Elvis Presley and The Beatles. Making the cut are the Rolling Stones, the Jefferson Airplane, the Mamas & the Papas, the Doors, Monkees, the Grateful Dead, and Donovan. Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan are inexplicably omitted.
1969, Janis Joplin played at the University of Toledo Fieldhouse in Toledo, Ohio.
1969, CBS aired a rerun of the The Smothers Brothers’ Comedy Hour, a variety show notable for its satiric humor and musical appearances by the Beatles, the Doors, and the Who. The program came under fire when guest Joan Baez used her appearance to publicize the predicament of her husband, who had been arrested for objecting to the draft. The network explained the decision by stating that because that week’s episode did not arrive in time to be previewed, it would not be shown. An edited version aired two months later.
1970, Having recently changed their name from Earth to Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward made their concert debut at The Roundhouse, London.
1971, Led Zeppelin appeared at Leeds University, Leeds, England, during their “Back To The Clubs” tour. This was the first tour which saw Zeppelin performing ‘Stairway To Heaven’, ‘Black Dog’ and ‘Going To California.’
1972, James Taylor, Carole King and Barbra Streisand perform a benefit concert for Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern.
1973, Black Sabbath kicked off an 8-date sold out UK tour at Green’s Playhouse, Glasgow.
1974, Aerosmith appeared at the Orpheum Theater in Boston.
1975, Actor Telly Savalas was at number one on the singles chart with his version of the David Gates song “If.” Savalas was riding the wave of popularity from his hit television show Kojak.
1975, Genesis played at the Nuevo Pabellon Club, Badalona, Spain.
1976, David Bowie appeared at the Memorial Coliseum, Jacksonville, Florida.
1977, The Jacksons CBS show was aired for the last time on US TV finishing at the bottom of the ratings.
1977, The Sex Pistols, with Sid Vicious as their new bassist, sign with A&M in the label’s London offices. The next day they will stage a publicity stunt in which they sign a contract in front of Buckingham Palace.
1978, Bob Dylan performs at the Western Springs Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand.
1981, Robert Plant played a secret gig at Keele University, England with his new band The Honey Drippers.
1984, Yes performed at the Rosemont Horizon, Rosemont, Illinois.
1985, Mick Jagger released his solo single “Just Another Night.” It was a number 12 hit in the US and number 32 on the UK charts.
1985, Dead Or Alive were at number one on the UK singles chart with “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record.”) It was the first chart topper for the production team of Stock, Aitken and Waterman who went on to produce over 100 UK Top 40 hits.
1991, “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” gave The Clash their only UK number one single after the track was used for a Levi’s TV advertisement. The track was first released in 1982 from their album Combat Rock.
1997, Notorious BIG was gunned down and killed as he left a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Born Christopher Wallace, the rapper was pronounced dead on arrival at Cedars Sinai Hospital. He was 24 years old.
2005, 53-year-old Danny Joe Brown, the original lead singer of Molly Hatchet, died from renal failure due to complications from diabetes.
2007, Brad Delp, lead singer of Boston committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in at his home in the New Hampshire town of Atkinson. He died from the smoke of two charcoal grills he’d lit inside his sealed master bathroom. He was found by police lying on a pillow on his bathroom floor with a note paper-clipped to his shirt which read: “Mr. Brad Delp. I am a lonely soul.”
Born on March 9: Ornette Coleman, jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, composer (1930); Lloyd Price, singer-songwriter (1933); Mickey Gilley (1936); John Cale, Welsh singer-songwriter, viola, and producer, The Velvet Underground (1942); Mark Lindsay, Paul Revere & The Raiders (1942); Robin Trower (1945); Robert Calvert, English singer-songwriter, Hawkwind (1945); Chris Thompson, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (1948); Trevor Burton, The Move (1949);Jimmy Fadden, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (1949); Martin Fry, vocals, ABC (1958); Pete Wishart, Scottish singer, politician, Big Country (1962); Brendan Canty, American drummer, songwriter Fugazi (1966); Johnny Kelly, American drummer, Type O Negative, Danzig, A Pale Horse Named Death (1968); Shannon Leto, American drummer, actor, Thirty Seconds to Mars, The Wondergirls (1970);
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Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Dead or Alive, Elvis Presley, Genesis, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Robert Plant, Telly Savalas, The Beatles, The Doors, The Jacksons, The Sex Pistols, Yes.
