Rock History September 30
1965, Donovan made his US television debut on Shindig! along with The Hollies, The Turtles and the Dave Clark Five.
1965, The Rolling Stones performed at the Gaumont Theatre in Hanley, Staffordshire, UK. Also on the bill were The Moody Blues, The Spencer Davis Group, The End and The Habits.
1966, Pink Floyd, along with Soft Machine, held a concert for the London Free School at the All Saints Church in Powls Gardens, London.
1967, BBC Radio 1 was launched in the UK. Former Radio Caroline DJ Tony Blackburn was the first presenter on air. The Move’s “Flowers In The Rain” was the first record played.
1967, The Doors played at Family Dog in Denver, Colorado.
1967, Pink Floyd appeared at The Imperial Ballroom, Nelson, England. The Imperial was a regular venue in the North West of England during the 1960s that saw many acts appearing, including The Beatles, The Who, Jimi Hendrix and Cream.
1969, Christine Hinton the girlfriend of David Crosby was killed in a car crash near San Francisco.
1971, Rick Wakeman made his live debut with Yes at The De Montford Hall, Leicester at the start of a 23-date UK tour.
1971, The Allman Brothers performed at the Civic Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The opening act failed to show up, so the band performed two sets.
1971, Pink Floyd taped a live show at the Paris Cinema in London for BBC Radio One in which the band played “Fat Old Sun,” “One of These Days,” “The Embryo,” and “Blues.” It was broadcast twelve days later on Sounds of the Seventies omitting only the song “Blues.”
1972, David Cassidy, star from the TV series The Partridge Family, was at number one on the singles chart with “How Can I Be Sure.” It was his first chart topper. The song was originally recorded by The Young Rascals in 1967.
1972, UK Music magazine Melody Maker hosted the Poll Awards Concert at The Oval, Kennington, South London. The headliner was Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Also on the bill, Wishbone Ash, Focus, and Genesis.
1972, The Grateful Dead performed an outdoor show at American University in Washington, DC.
1973, King Crimson appeared at Morris Auditorium, South Bend, Indiana.
1973, The Rolling Stones performed at Festhalle, Frankfurt, Germany.
1974, Police were called to a Lynyrd Skynyrd and Blue Oyster Cult concert after a fight broke out between two sound engineers. The Skynyrd roadie claimed that the sound had been deliberately turned off during the band’s set.
1976, Hawkwind played at Queensway Hall, Dunstable, England. The hall which initially proved a popular venue for banquets and balls, but was less successful when it staged plays and concerts. The district council, faced with the need to pay for huge structural repairs, decided instead to accept an offer to pull down the building and replace it with a supermarket. The money from the sale of the hall went towards building the Grove Theatre, which opened in 2007.
1977, Eric Clapton performed at Shi Kokaido, Nagoya, Japan.
1977, Mary Ford died from cancer after being in a diabetic coma for 54 days. She was one-half of the husband-and-wife musical team of Les Paul and Mary Ford. Between 1950 and 1954, the couple had 16 top-ten hits. In 1951 alone, they sold six million records.
1977, Frank Zappa played at Cobo Arena, Detroit, Michigan.
1978, John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John had their second chart topper from the film Grease with “Summer Nights.” It spent seven weeks at number one, becoming the second best selling single of 1978, beaten only by the Bee Gees’ “Night Fever.”
1987, L.A.’s Coconut Grove plays host to an all-star gathering as Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Tom Waits, and Elvis Costello join Roy Orbison onstage to tape a TV special. The evening’s proceedings are eventually released as A Black and White Night.
1993, Kate Pierson from The B-52’s was charged with criminal mischief and trespassing during an anti-fur protest at Vogue’s New York City offices.
1995, Simply Red scored their first UK number one single when “Fairground” started a four-week run at the top of the charts. It was their fifteenth UK Top 40 hit.
2003, An auction of the contents of Sir Elton John’s London home raised more than £1.4 ($2.24) million. An oil painting, entitled Madison Square Park, sold for £67,200, and a 19th Century portrait of Lieutenant George Dyer, painted by James Northcote in 1817, fetched £55,200. Sir Elton sold off the items so he could redecorate his home in a more modern style.
2004, Mick Jagger held a press conference with Dave Stewart at Essex House in New York City, USA, to promote the soundtrack to the movie Alfie. The re-make of the 1966 film also featured Joss Stone, Sheryl Crow and Nadirah Nadz Seid. The track “Old Habits Die Hard” from the soundtack co-written by the two won the BFCA Award, Golden Globe, Sierra Award and the World Soundtrack Award.
2006, Justin Timberlake started a two week run at number one on the US album chart with his second solo album FutureSex/LoveSounds.
2007, Foo Fighters went to number one on the UK album chart with Echoes Silence Patience & Grace, the band’s sixth studio album and second UK chart topper. Reba McEntire was at number one on the US album chart with Reba: Duets.
Born on September 30: Johnny Mathis (1935); Gus Dudgeon, producer (1942); Frankie Lymon (1942); Dewey Martin, The Dillards, Buffalo Springfield (1942); Marc Bolan, T-Rex (1947); Robby Takac, bass, Goo Goo Dolls (1964); Trey Anastasio, Phish (1964)
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Bruce Springsteen, Donovan, Eric Clapton, Frank Zappa, King Crimson, Lynyrd Skynryd, Pink Floyd, Rick Wakeman, Roy Orbison, The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones.
