BIRTHDAYS
1943: Christine McVie (Fleetwood Mac)
1947: Wilco Johnson (Dr. Feelgood)
1950: Eric Carr (Kiss)
1962: Dan Murphy (Soul Asylum)
EVENTS
1954: 19-year-old Elvis Presley signed a recording contract with Sun Records. He also gave in his notice at his day job at The Crown Electric Company.
1962: The Rolling Stones made their live debut at the Marquee, London (with Dick Taylor on bass & Mick Avory on drums ~ no photo available of those two guys).
1979: Ian Paice joined Whitesnake.
1995: Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman & Alan White met in L.A. to re-group as Yes.
1996: Death of keyboard player, Jonathan Melvoin of The Smashing Pumpkins [aged 34].
2017: Death of South African guitarist / singer, Ray Phiri [aged 70]. The jazz / reggae musician was best known for his work on Paul Simon’s ‘Graceland’ & ‘Rhythm of the Saints’ albums and tours.
Happy Birthday to wonderful singer / songwriter / musician, Christine McVie, of Fleetwood Mac. She has been part of the band (on and off) since the late ‘60s and today she turns 77. Here’s one of her classic Mac songs from over 40 years ago…
BIRTHDAYS
1946: John Lawton (Lucifer’s Friend / Uriah Heep)
1953: Rik Emmett (Triumph)
1957: Peter Murphy (Bauhaus)
1959: Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi)
1959: Susanne Vega
EVENTS
1969: David Bowie released his “Space Oddity” single, which coincided with the recent moon landing.
1970: ‘Self Portrait’ gave Bob Dylan his fifth UK No.1 album.
2002: The funeral of The Who’s John Entwistle was held at St. Edward’s Church, Gloucestershire.
2014: Death of drummer, Thomas Erdelyi a.k.a. Tommy Ramone of Ramones [aged 65].
Tommy Ramone was the last of the troops to fall… Ramones R.I.P. ~ “Hey Ho, Let’s Go!”
BIRTHDAYS
1942: Ronald Padavona a.k.a. Ronnie James Dio (Elf / Rainbow / Black Sabbath / Dio / Heaven & Hell)
1943: Jerry Miller (Moby Grape)
1947: Arlo Guthrie
1959: Sandy West (The Runaways)
EVENTS
1968: Eric Clapton announced that Cream would break up after their current tour.
1968: The Nice were banned from the Royal Albert Hall, after burning an American flag on stage.
1969: The funeral of Rolling Stone Brian Jones took place at Hatherley Road Church, Cheltenham.
1974: David Bowie played the first of 5 dates at Tower Theatre in Philadelphia, the recordings of which made up the ‘David Live’ album, released later that year.
1978: Bill Wyman was knocked unconscious after falling from the stage, during a Rolling Stones concert in America.
1987: The Angels & Knightshade played a concert at The Galaxy, Auckland — I was there!
Ronnie James Dio ~ another fine musician we have lost in the last decade. Today we celebrate his birthday. In honour of one of the greatest singers ever ~ DIO!
BIRTHDAYS
1929: Lee Hazlewood
1946: Bon Scott (AC/DC)
1947: John “Mitch” Mitchell (The Jimi Hendrix Experience)
1950: Gwen Guthrie
1959: Jim Kerr (Simple Minds)
1965: Frankie Bello (Anthrax)
1975: John Gillis a.k.a. Jack White (The White Stripes / The Dead Weather / The Raconteurs)
EVENTS
1977: Elvis Costello quit his day job at Elizabeth Arden Cosmetics, to become a full time musician.
1978: The Rolling Stones jammed with one of their early idols, Muddy Waters during a gig in Chicago.
1993: I interviewed Jon Lord of Deep Purple.
2004: David Bowie was forced to cancel a string of European shows after emergency heart surgery.
2017: Death of guitarist, Erik Cartwright, of Foghat [aged 66].
Bon Scott: Born in Scotland, 74 years ago ~ but we lost the AC/DC frontman 40 years ago. A unique, hard rock and rolling singer, witty lyricist and a hilariously rebellious character, Bon will never be forgotten!
BIRTHDAYS
1944: Jaimoe Johanson (The Allman Brothers Band)
1946: Pentti “Whitey” Glan (Lou Reed & Alice Cooper Bands)
1963: Joan Osborne
1970: Beck Campbell a.k.a. Beck
1971: Neil Mavers (The La’s)
1985: Jamie Cook (Arctic Monkeys)
EVENTS
1967: The Monkees began a 29-date tour with The Jimi Hendrix Experience as support act. Hendrix was dropped after 8 shows & informed that his act was not suitable for their teenybopper audience.
1968: Pink Floyd began their first 20-date North American tour at the Kinetic Playground in Chicago.
1972: Lou Reed joined David Bowie on stage for an encore at the Royal Festival Hall, London. They performed “Sweet Jane”, “White Light/White Heat” and “Waiting For The Man” together.
1978: Gerry Rafferty’s album ‘City To City’ went to No.1 on the US chart, knocking off ‘Saturday Night Fever’, which had been at the top of the charts for almost six months.
Happy 76th Birthday to Jaimoe Johanson (pictured left in photo), who was drummer for the Allman Brothers when they started in 1966, right through until they retired in 2014! Following the deaths in 2017 of Butch Trucks and Gregg Allman, Jaimoe and Dickey Betts are the last surviving original members of the band.
Here is 11 minutes very well spent ~ vintage high quality footage of the Allmans at Fillmore East, 50 years ago! Jaimoe (along with second drummer, Butch) is playing on this wicked rendition of “Whipping Post”!
BIRTHDAYS
1928: Mary Ford
1932: Joe Zawinul (Weather Report)
1940: Richard Starkey a.k.a. Ringo Starr (The Beatles)
1945: Jim Rodford (Argent)
EVENTS
1968: The Yardbirds played their last gig, in Luton.
1977: Yes released the album ‘Going for the One’.
1977: Rainbow released their double live album, ‘On Stage’.
1980: Led Zeppelin played their last ever show at the Berlin Eissporthalle, West Germany.
1989: It was announced that compact discs were out-selling vinyl albums.
2006: Death of Syd Barrett, founder of Pink Floyd [aged 60].
2007: ‘Live Earth’ concerts were staged around the world and broadcast live on television.
Happy 80th Birthday to Richard Starkey a.k.a. Ringo Starr! Here are a few photographs of Ringo, with The Beatles and with his wife for the past 38 years, Barbara Bach…
Also, it was 43 years ago today that YES released their ‘Going for the One’ LP, on 7/7/77. The song “Parallels” was a song Chris Squire wrote in ’75 and was going to include it on his solo album ‘Fish Out of Water’. However, he decided to save this fantastic number for YES – check out his amazing bass runs! There are some cool photos of Chris in this collage clip:
BIRTHDAYS
1925: Bill Haley
1939: Jet Harris (The Shadows)
1949: Michael Shrieve (Santana / Hagar Schon Aaronson Shrieve / Go)
1952: Graham Oliver (Saxon)
1954: Nanci Griffith
EVENTS
1957: 16-year-old John Lennon met Paul McCartney at Woolton Parish Church, Liverpool.
1964: The Beatles film ‘A Hard Days Night’ premiered at The Pavilion in London.
1973: Queen released their debut single “Keep Yourself Alive” in the UK.
1976: Deep Purple announced that they had disbanded.
1991: Van Halen started a 3-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with ‘For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge’.
1992: The Black Crowes played a concert at The Supertop, Mt. Smart Stadium, Auckland ~ I was there! I can’t really say that I met them, but we were in the same room as the Black Crowes after the show. They didn’t appear to want to do any socialising ~ just played pool, drank beer and kept to themselves. Was a ripper show though!
1996: Crowded House went to No.1 on the UK album chart with their ‘Very Best of’ album.
2019: Death of Brazilian singer / songwriter / guitarist, Joao Gilberto [aged 88].
2020: Death of Italian composer / orchestrator / conductor / trumpet player, Ennio Morricone [aged 91].
2020: Death of singer / songwriter / multi-instrumentalist, Charlie Daniels [aged 83].
Drummer, Michael Shrieve was only 20 years old when he performed this incredible percussion piece with Santana at Woodstock Festival, 1969. He’s 71 today ~ Happy Birthday to Michael!
BIRTHDAYS
1943: Robbie Robertson (The Band)
1950: Michael Monarch (Steppenwolf)
1950: Huey Lewis
1959: Mark Cohn
EVENTS
1954: Elvis, Scotty Moore & Bill Black recorded “That’s All Right”, Presley’s first release on Sun Records.
1966: Chas Chandler from The Animals went to see Jimi Hendrix play at The Cafe Wha’ in New York City. Chandler suggested that Hendrix should come to England, and soon became his manager.
1969: The Rolling Stones performed for free at a concert in Hyde Park, as a memorial to Brian Jones. A new group called King Crimson opened the show.
1969: The Who, Chuck Berry & Bodast all played two shows (5:30 & 8:30 pm), at the Royal Albert Hall.
1975: Pink Floyd, Captain Beefheart, Steve Miller & Roy Harper performed at Knebworth Festival.
1978: The manufacturing of ‘Some Girls’ by The Rolling Stones was halted at EMI’s pressing plant after complaints from celebrities who were featured in mock advertisements on the album sleeve.
1993: Wedding of Lyle Lovett and Julia Roberts.
Robbie Robertson celebrates his 77th birthday today! He has written many great songs, including “The Weight”, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, and “Somewhere Down the Crazy River”. Here’s Robbie holding his own on guitar, alongside Eric Clapton, as captured in The Band’s final concert, ‘The Last Waltz’.
BIRTHDAYS
1938: Bill Withers
1940: Dave Rowberry (The Animals)
1943: Alan Wilson (Canned Heat)
1948: Jeremy Spencer (Fleetwood Mac)
1954: John Waite (The Babys)
1958: Kirk Pengilly (INXS)
1963: Matt Malley (Counting Crows)
1970: Andy McClure (Sleeper)
1972: William Goldsmith (Foo Fighters)
EVENTS
1973: Slade drummer Don Powell was badly injured in a car crash in which his girlfriend was killed.
1976: The Clash made their live debut, supporting The Sex Pistols at the Black Swan, Sheffield.
1980: Rory Gallagher played a concert at the Regent Theatre, Dunedin ~ I was there!
1982: Wedding of Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne.
1990: Paul Stanley of Kiss sustained back injuries from a car crash in New Jersey.
2003: Death of singer, Barry White [aged 58].
2017: Death of drummer, John Blackwell Jr., best known for his work with Prince [aged 43].
Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson, founder of Canned Heat, was born on this day in 1943. Alan was leader, main composer, singer, guitarist and harmonica player in the band and it was his expertise of the blues that got Canned Heat up and cookin’. Sadly, he died when he was quite young ~ you guessed it, aged 27. Canned Heat have many great songs, but this is the most well known…
BIRTHDAYS
1930: Thomas Tedesco (Session guitarist on thousands of recordings, from Elvis to Zappa)
1940: Fontella Bass
1946: Victor Unitt (Edgar Broughton Band)
1948: Paul Barerre (Little Feat)
1952: Andy Fraser (Free / Sharks)
1952: Laura Branigan
1955: Mike Corby (The Babys)
1955: Neil Clark (Lloyd Cole & The Commotions)
1975: Javier Weyler (Stereophonics)
EVENTS
1969: The 4-day Newport Jazz Festival began, featuring Led Zeppelin, James Brown, Jethro Tull, Sly & the Family Stone, Jeff Beck, Johnny Winter, Buddy Guy, Mothers of Invention & Ten Years After.
1969: Death of guitarist / multi-instrumentalist / singer / songwriter, Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones [aged 27].
1971: Death of singer / songwriter / poet, Jim Morrison of The Doors [aged 27]. Rest in Paris, Jim.
1972: Death of blues singer / songwriter / guitarist “Mississippi” Fred McDowell [aged 68].
1973: Death of Laurens Hammond, inventor of the Hammond organ [aged 73].
1973: On the last night of a 60-date tour, David Bowie announced he was retiring from live performance. It transpired that he was speaking of stage persona, “Ziggy Stardust” and band, The Spiders From Mars ~ not himself.
1986: Death of Greg Carroll, NZ roadie for U2 [aged 26].
1999: Death of bassist / singer / songwriter, Mark Sandman of Morphine [aged 46].
2018: Death of multi-instrumentalist, Richard Swift [aged 41]. He had played with The Black Keys, The Shins & The Arcs.
Man, so many rock related deaths on 3rd of July ~ I’m gonna go with a tribute to the original leader of The Rolling Stones, Mr. Brian Jones. He died on this day, 51 years ago, just a few weeks after being dismissed from The Stones. Brian was found, drowned, at his home at Cotchford Farm, amid mysterious circumstances. He was an amazing musician! Brian contributes mellotron, guitar, percussion, and backing vocals to this Stones classic from 1967…
