Today in Rock n' Roll History

[Koala]

1960 Paul Hewson (a.k.a. Bono of U2) was born.

1969 Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, The Move, Status Quo, Tremeloes, Marmalade, Love Sculpture, Van Der Graaf Generator all appeared at Nottingham County Football Ground, Nottingham, England. Presented by John Peel, tickets 22/6 on the gate.

1969 Led Zeppelin made their first appearance on the UK album chart when the bands debut album charted at No.6, going on to spend 71 weeks on the UK chart. It entered the US chart the following week at No.10. Now considered one of the most important debuts in rock, creating an entirely new interpretation of the rock and roll genre because of the groundbreaking music and recording techniques. The album was recorded in 36 hours.

1975 Stevie Wonder gives a free concert for 125,000 people at the Washington Monument in Washington, DC for "Human Kindness Day".

1986 Falco was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Rock Me Amadeus.' Falco became the first-ever Austrian act to score a UK and US No.1 hit single and the first German speaking artist to achieve a No.1 on the US charts. 1986 The Pet Shop Boys went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'West End Girls', the duo's first US No.1, also a No.1 in the UK.

[Koala]

1963 The Beatles started a 30 week run at No.1 on the UK album charts with their debut album 'Please Please Me', making it the longest running No.1 album by a group ever. The bands follow up 'With The Beatles' replaced it at the top of the charts on 7th December 1963 and stayed there for 21 weeks.

1967 The Bee Gees made their Top Of The Pops debut performing 'New York Mining Disaster' on the UK TV show.

1974 Led Zeppelin attended Elvis Presley show at the Los Angeles Forum in California. After a shaky start to the show, Elvis stopped the band and jokingly said: “Wait a minute…if we can start together fellas, because we’ve got Led Zeppelin out there, lets try to look like we know what were doing.” All four members of Zeppelin met with Elvis after the show, spending over 2 hours backstage. Elvis asked for all the group’s autographs for his daughter Lisa Marie.

1981 Jamaican singer-songwriter Bob Marley died of lung cancer and a brain tumour aged 36. Had the 1981 single 'No Woman No Cry', plus over ten other UK Top 40 singles. In 1990, the 6th February was proclaimed a national holiday in Jamaica to commemorate his birth. The compilation album, Legend, released in 1984, is the best-selling reggae album ever with sales of more than 20 million copies. Time magazine chose Bob Marley & The Wailers' Exodus as the greatest album of the 20th century.

1985 UK producer and keyboard player Paul Hardcastle was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with '19'. The title referred to the average age of American soldiers in the Vietnam War and features dialogue by television narrator Peter Thomas, and a strong anti-war message.

1997 'Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix,' by Michael Jackson, is released. Containing eight remixes from 1995's 'HIStory: Past, Present, and Future, Book 1' and five new songs, it sells only one million copies.

[Koala]

1948 Steve Winwood is born.

1962 Billboard Magazine reported that last year's most-played jukebox record was ‘Big Bad John’ by Jimmy Dean. The second most-played was Chubby Checker's ‘The Twist’.

1965 The Rolling Stones recorded '(I Can't Get No), Satisfaction' at RCA Hollywood studios. Keith Richards had come up with the guitar riff in the middle of the night a week earlier. It gave the band their first number 1 single in the US.

1973 Sweet hits #2 on the UK charts with "Hellraiser."

1977 Led Zeppelin received the outstanding contribution to British music at the second Ivor Novello Awards held at the Grosvenor Hotel, London.

1983 Meat Loaf filed for bankruptcy with debts of over $1 million.

1985 Don't You (Forget About Me) (Simple Minds) was a hit.

2008 Singer-songwriter Neil Young had a spider named after him. US university biologist Jason Bond discovered a new species of trapdoor spider and decided to name it after his favourite musician. Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi was found in Jefferson County, Alabama, in 2007.

[Prettymaid]

2008 Singer-songwriter Neil Young had a spider named after him. US university biologist Jason Bond discovered a new species of trapdoor spider and decided to name it after his favourite musician. Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi was found in Jefferson County, Alabama, in 2007.

Ah! What every artist aspires to!

[Ive always been a dreamer]

... and so very few achieve!!!


ETA: And Koala - we were thanking Willie over in the birthday thread, but I wanted to reiterate that for you as well. We very much appreciate you keeping us up-to-date in this thread even if there aren't always a lot of comments.

to you for keeping us informed!!!

[Koala]

Thanks Dreamer, it's fun!

1950 Stevie Wonder was born.

1968 John Lennon and Paul McCartney gave a series of interviews to help launch Apple Corps in the US.

1970 The world premiere of The Beatles film 'Let It Be' took place in New York City.

1970 'ABC,' the Jackson 5's second album, is released. Two more -- 'Third Album' and 'The Jackson 5 Christmas Album' -- are released before the year is over.

1985 Bruce Springsteen married Julianne Phillips at Lake Oswego, Oregon. Julianne filed for divorce on Aug 30th 1988.

1989 Bon Jovi went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'I'll Be There For You', the group's fourth US No.1, a No.18 hit in the UK.

[Koala]

1976 Keith Relf of the Yardbirds dies of electrocution in his London home.

1983 Spandau Ballet scored their first and only UK No.1 album with 'True.'

1988 Led Zeppelin reunited for the Atlantic Records 40th anniversary party at Madison Square Garden, New York, appearing with Jason Bonham the son of John Bonham on drums. Other acts performing included Foreigner, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Genesis, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Wilson Pickett and Ben E. King.

1993, During an auction at Christies in London the acoustic guitar that Elvis Presley used to make his first recordings in 1954, ‘That's All Right Mama’ and ‘Blue Moon of Kentucky’ sold for £130,285, ($152,000). And four 'Super Hero', Costumes worn by the group Kiss sold for £20,000, ($35,385).

1998 Frank Sinatra dies of a heart attack.

[Koala]

1953 Mike Oldfield is born.

1967 Paul McCartney met American photographer Linda Eastman for the first time, during a Georgie Fame concert at the Bag O'Nails nightclub in London, England. They married on March 12, 1969.

1971 Crosby Stills Nash & Young scored their second US No.1 album with '4 Way Street.'

1982 This years Eurovision Song Contest winner for Germany 'A Little Peace' by Nicole was at No.1 on the UK singles chart. Her only UK Top 40 hit.

[Koala]

1969 Pete Townshend spent the night in a US jail for assaulting a man during a Who gig at The Fillmore East. What Townshend didn't know was the man who jumped onto the stage was a plainclothes policeman trying to warn the audience that a fire had broken out. The Who guitarist was later fined $30 for the offence.

1974 Brian May collapsed in New York while Queen were on a US tour and was flown back to England suffering from hepatitis.

1998 Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones falls in his Connecticut home, breaking his ribs and forcing postponement of the Stones' upcoming tour.

2009 The Norwegian musician Alexander Rybak won with his song "Fairytale" the finale of the 54th Euro Vision Song Contest in Moscow with a record winning margin.

[Koala]

1966 During a UK tour, Bob Dylan appeared at The Free Trade Hall in Manchester. This was the concert where a member of the audience shouted out ‘Judas’ at Dylan unhappy with the singers move from acoustic to rock. Dylan replied with ‘You’re a liar’, the entire concert was eventually officially released in The Bootleg Series by Sony Music in 1999.

1968 Simon and Garfunkel hit #7 with "The Boxer."

1969 It was reported that for the first time ever album sales had overtaken single sales in the UK. 49,184,000 albums were produced during 1968 compared with 49,161,000 singles.

1975 Elton John was awarded a Platinum Record for sales of a million copies of the LP 'Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy', the first album ever to be certified Platinum on the day of its release.

1996 Kevin Gilbert, multi instrumentalist and songwriter, died of accidental asphyxiation. Member of Giraffe, worked with Sheryl Crow, co-wrote her 1994 UK No.4 hit 'All I Want To Do.'