Rock History November 4
1963, The Beatles topped the bill at The Royal Variety Show at The Prince Of Wales Theatre, London. With the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret in the audience, this was the night when John Lennon made his famous remark “In the cheaper seats you clap your hands. The rest of you, just rattle your jewelery”. The show was broadcast on UK television on the Nov 10th 1963.
1963, The night after The Rolling Stones had just come off a 30-date UK tour with The Everly Brothers, they kicked off another 50-date UK club tour at the Top Rank Ballroom in Preston.
1965, The Who’s performance at Queen’s Hall, Barnstaple is cancelled at 10:15pm supposedly because of a Daltrey sore throat although there may have been other Roger problems as the band is then a hair away from kicking their lead singer out of the band. The support group The Spartans fill in. Evidence that there might have been other reasons for the cancellation are suggested the next day as The Who plus Roger perform “Man With Money,” “My Generation” and part of “Shout and Shimmy” live on Ready, Steady, GO!
1965, The Rolling Stones were at number one on the singles chart with “Get Off Of My Cloud.”
1966, The Beach Boys “Good Vibrations” entered the UK charts. It went on to be a number one hit single.
1967, Pink Floyd finally made their US live debut when they appeared at the Winterland Auditorium, San Francisco, California. Several shows in Los Angeles and San Francisco had to be cancelled due to problems obtaining work permits. Floyd shared the bill with local group Big Brother & The Holding Company, featuring singer Janis Joplin, and singer-songwriter Richie Havens.
1968, Cream played their final US show in Long Island.
1969, The Who performed at Bushnell Auditorium, Hartford, Connecticut.
1970, The Beach Boys played the first of four nights at the Whiskey A Go-Go club in LA.
1971, The Who opened up The Rainbow Finsbury Park, London, England appearing on the first of three nights.
1972, Johnny Nash started a three week run at number one on the singles chart with “I Can See Clearly Now,” his only chart topper.
1973, Roxy Music and Leo Sayer appeared at Newcastle City Hall, England.
1974, Pink Floyd played the first night on a 21-date UK tour at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Scotland.
1975, Bob Dylan appeared at the Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island.
1976, ZZ Top performed at Levitt Arena, Wichita, Kansas.
1977, The Last Waltz, the movie of The Bands final concert premiered in New York. The Martin Scorsese movie also featured Joni Mitchell, Dr John, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, Eric Clapton.
1978, Crosby Stills Nash & Young were sued by former bass player Greg Reeves for over a $1 million claiming he was owed from sales of their album Deja Vu.
1980, Bob Marley was baptised at the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Kingston, converting to a Christian Rastafarian and taking on the new name Berhane Selassie.
1984, Prince played the first of seven nights at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan at the start of his 87-date North American Purple Rain tour. The outing marked the live debut of his new band The Revolution.
1989, Elton John scored his 50th UK chart hit when “Sacrifice” entered the charts. Only Cliff Richard and Elvis Presley had also achieved this feat. Sacrifice was initially released as a single in 1989, but stalled at number 55 in the UK and at number 18 in the US. English DJ, Steve Wright, began playing the song on BBC Radio 1 and the song was then re-released as a double A-side single, along with “Healing Hands.”
1991, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Booker T. & The M.G.s, Johnny Cash, Jimi Hendrix, The Isley Brothers, Sam & Dave and The Yardbirds were all elected to the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.
Born on November 4: Chuck Mangione (1940); Delbert McClinton (1940); Scherrie Payne, singer, The Supremes (1944); Chris Difford, Squeeze (1954); Tom Greenhalgh, singer-songwriter, The Mekons (1956); Jordan Rudess, keyboard, Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, and Dixie Dregs (1956); James Honeyman-Scott, The Pretenders (1957); Sean John Combs, (aka, Puff Daddy & P Diddy) (1970); Cedric Bixler-Zavala, singer-songwriter, drums, The Mars Volta (1974)
Get more Today in Rock History
Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Cream, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, ZZ Top.
