Rock History November 12
1965, Velvet Underground’s manager and music journalist Al Aronowitz arranged for the group’s first paying gig, $75, to play at Summit High School, in Summit, New Jersey, opening for the Myddle Class.
1966, The Monkees debut album started a 13-week run at number one on the album chart, selling over three million copies in three months. The group would own the album charts for 31 of the ensuing 33 weeks, before the arrival of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
1966, Pink Floyd appeared at the Corn Exchange, Bedford, England, supported by Something Else.
1966, Johnny Rivers went to number one on the US singles chart with “Poor Side Of Town.”
1968, UK book and record chain W.H. Smiths refused to display The Jimi Hendrix Experience album Electric Ladyland due to the naked girls featured on the sleeve. The record was then made available as two albums with changed artwork after the complaints.
1968, Yes played at the Marquee Club, London.
1969, The Who played at the Boston Tea Party in Boston, Massachusetts.
1969, King Crimson performed at the Grande Riviera, Detroit, Michigan.
1970, Pink Floyd appeared at the Falkoner Centret, Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark.
1971, Poco, Gary Wright, along with Aliotta, Haynes & Jeremiah performed at The Warehouse in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1971, The Velvet Underground appeared at Friars, Aylesbury, England
1971, Led Zeppelin appeared at The Locarno Ballroom, Sunderland, England. Admission was 75p.
1971, The Supremes kicked off a 13-date UK tour at The Regal, Edmonton.
1971, Pink Floyd performed at Irvine Auditorium, on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.
1972, The Grateful Dead appeared at Soldier’s and Sailors Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas.
1972, David Bowie played at the Music Hall, Houston, Texas.
1973, Mott The Hoople kicked off a 20-date UK tour at Leeds Town Hall with support group Queen.
1973, Queen appeared at Town Hall, Leeds, England.
1974, Black Sabbath played at Festival Hall, Melbourne, Australia.
1976, AC/DC appeared at the Corn Exchange, Cambridge, England, supported by The Tyla Gang.
1976, Eric Clapton performed at the Convention Center, San Antonio, Texas.
1977, during a UK tour Blondie appeared at Friars in Aylesbury, supported by XTC.
1977, The Sex Pistols went to number one on the UK album chart with their debut LP Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols, the punk group’s only chart topping album.
1978, Aerosmith appeared at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, New York.
1979, San Francisco witnesses the premiere of Rock Justice, a rock opera penned by Jefferson Starship’s Marty Balin. The show runs for four nights at the Old Waldorf nightclub. Balin stars as a rock star on trial for suffering a career nosedive.
1980, AC/DC appears at the Hammersmith Odeon, London.
1981, The Rolling Stones perform at Madison Square Garden, New York.
1983, Bob Dylan’s Infidels album reached its highest position when it peaked at number nine in the albums chart. Dylan’s 22nd studio album was co-produced with Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler. Dylan had also approached Elvis Costello, David Bowie and Frank Zappa as possible producers.
1986, Iron Maiden played at the Ice Hall, Helsinki, Finland.
1988, U2 started a six-week run at number one on the US album chart with their sixth studio album, Rattle And Hum, which went on to sell over 14 million copies.
1997, The Spice Girls were at number one on the UK album chart with their second album Spiceworld, it was also the name of their tie-in film. The album became a huge hit worldwide, lengthening the so-called “Spicemania” fever at that time. It produced 4 singles all of which saw commercial success and has now sold over 20 million worldwide.
2001, The three living former Beatles met for the last time at George Harrison’s hotel in New York City for lunch. Harrison died two weeks later at a friend’s home in Los Angeles on November 29th, aged 58.
2008, Mitch Mitchell, the British drummer with the Jimi Hendrix Experience was found dead in his US hotel room aged 61. Mitchell had been working with Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames in 1966 when he was invited to audition for a new band being formed to back Jimi Hendrix. During the ’70s Mitchell failed an audition for Paul McCartney’s new band, Wings.
Born on November 12: John Walker, The Walker Brothers (1943); Brian Hyland, singer (1943); Booker T. Jones. Booker T and the MG’s (1944); Neil Young (1945); Donald Roeser, aka Buck Dharma, guitar, vocals, Blue Oyster Cult (1945); Errol Brown, singer, Hot Chocolate (1948); Lawrence Juber, Wings (1952); Les McKeown, singer, Bay City Rollers (1955); Nick D’Virgilio, drummer, Big Big Train and Spock’s Beard (1968);
Link to Today in Rock History archive
AC/DC, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, Blondie, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Gary Wright, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Rivers, Mott the Hoople, Poco, The Grateful Dead, The Monkees, The Sex Pistols, The Supremems, The Velvet Underground, The Who, U2, XTC, Yes.
