1966, Captain Beefheart appeared at the Whisky a Go Go. West Hollywood, California. Supported by Buffalo Springfield and The Doors.
1967, Jimi Hendrix played at Gröna Lund in Copenhagen, Denmark.
1968, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band appeared at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan.
1968, Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull are arrested on charges of marijuana possession. The same day the Stones release “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” generally seen as a comeback record following the flop of Their Satanic Majesties Request. It goes to number three in the US, and the top spot in the UK. Richards has stated that he and Jagger wrote the lyrics while staying at Richards’ country house, where they were awoken one morning by the sound of gardener Jack Dyer walking past the window. When Jagger asked what the noise was, Richards responded, “Oh, that’s Jack – that’s jumpin’ Jack.” The rest of the lyrics evolved from there.
1968, Pink Floyd appeared at The Punchbowl Hotel, Lapworth, England.
1969, Led Zeppelin performed at the Kinetic Playground in Chicago.
1969, Bob Dylan’s album Nashville Skyline peaked at number three in the US charts. The singer’s ninth album, it also scored Dylan his fourth UK chart topper. The album featured “Lay Lady Lay,” which became one of Dylan’s biggest pop hits, reaching the seventh position in the US, his biggest single in three years.
1969, The Beatles started a five week run at number one on the US singles chart with “Get Back,” the group’s 17th chart topper. The song was credited to “The Beatles with Billy Preston,” the Beatles’ only single that credited another artist.
1970, The Allman Brothers Band performed at the Shady Grove Music Fair, Gaithersburg, Maryland.
1970, Peter Green played his last gig with Fleetwood Mac when they appeared at the Bath Festival, Somerset, England.
1971, Bob Dylan’s 30th birthday is commemorated with a Peanuts cartoon commenting on the event. Dylan himself spends the day visiting the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.
1973, David Bowie played at the Odeon Theatre (Lewisham), in London.
1972, Grateful Dead Europe ’72 tour plays at the Lyceum in London, England.
1974, American composer, pianist, and bandleader Duke Ellington, died of lung cancer and pneumonia aged 75. He worked with Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday. He was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1966. In 2009 the United States Mint launched a new coin featuring Duke Ellington on the reverse side of the coin.
1974, David Bowie released his eighth studio album Diamond Dogs. Thematically, it was a marriage of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, and Bowie’s own glam-tinged vision of a post-apocalyptic world. Bowie had wanted to make a theatrical production of Orwell’s book and began writing material after completing sessions for his 1973 album Pin Ups, but the author’s estate denied the rights. The cover art features Bowie as a striking half-man, half-dog grotesque painted by Belgian artist Guy Peellaert. It was controversial as the full painting clearly showed the hybrid’s genitalia
1975, Earth Wind and Fire went to number one on the singles chart with”Shining Star,” the group’s first and only chart topper.
1976, AC/DC performed at The Nashville, London.
1978, Neil Young appeared at The Boarding House in San Francisco.
1979, Yes played at Selland Arena, Fresno, California.
1980, Genesis fans turning up at the Roxy Club box office in Los Angeles to buy tickets for a forthcoming gig were surprised to find the band members Phil Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford selling the tickets themselves.
1981, Van Halen played at Wings Stadium, Kalamazoo, Michigan.
1991, Founding member of The Byrds, Gene Clark, died of a heart attack aged 49. He penned group’s hits “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better” and “Eight Miles High.” He was also a member of McGuinn, Clark and Hillman.
1991, Guns n’ Roses played the first show on their 192-date Use Your Illusion world Tour at Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, Wisconsin.
2003, Paul McCartney made his first ever live performance in Russia when he appeared in-front of 20,000 fans in Red Square
2007, Amy Winehouse, Madonna and Arctic Monkeys were among the winners at the Ivor Novello Awards. Winehouse won best contemporary song for her hit “Rehab,” while Madonna collected the international hit of the year for “Sorry.” Sheffield-based band Arctic Monkeys collected the best album award for Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not.
2010, Paul Gray, the bassist with US metal band Slipknot, was found dead in a hotel in Des Moines, Iowa. The body of the 38-year-old musician was found by an employee at the hotel in a suburb of the city. Police said foul play was not suspected, but an autopsy would be carried out. The nine members of Slipknot wore masks in public and referred to other bandmates by numbers; Gray was number two.
Born on May 24: Bob Dylan (1941); Derek Quinn, Freddie and the Dreamers (1942); Patti Labelle, singer (1944); Steve Upton, Wishbone Ash (1946); Albert Bouchard, drums, Blue Oyster Cult (1947); Guy Fletcher, English keyboard player, guitarist, producer, Dire Straits, The Notting Hillbillies (1960); Dwight Errington Myers, aka Heavy D, rapper (1967); Rich Robinson, The Black Crowes (1969); Alessandro Cortini, keyboards, Nine Inch Nails (1976)
