Today in Rock History – 14th APRIL:

BIRTHDAYS
1942: Tony Burrows (Edison Lighthouse)
1945: Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple / Rainbow)
1949: Sonja Kristina (Curved Air)
1952: Kenny Aaronson (Rick Derringer Band / HSAS / Blue Oyster Cult / Joan Jett & The Blackhearts / Billy Squier / New York Dolls)
1980: Win Butler (Arcade Fire)

EVENTS
1967: David Bowie’s novelty record “The Laughing Gnome” was released in the UK.
1973: Led Zeppelin started a 2-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Houses of the Holy’.
1975: The Rolling Stones announced that ex-Faces guitarist Ron Wood would be joining the band. Ron became an official member, but was on wages for the next 20 years, becoming a fully paid partner of The Stones in 1995.
1980: Iron Maiden released their self-titled debut LP.
1983: Death of bassist, Pete Farndon of The Pretenders [aged 30].
1983: David Bowie released his ‘Let’s Dance‘ album.
2010: Roger Hodgson performed a concert at ASB Theatre, Auckland. I was there and got to meet him after the show!

2021: Death of guitarist / singer / songwriter, Rusty Young of Poco [aged 75].

Ritchie Blackmore hits 79 today!!! Happy Birthday, Ritchie – the man with the guitar. Such an amazing player on so many incredible songs throughout his career… “Child in Time”, “Highway Star”, “Burn”, “Mistreated”, “Catch the Rainbow”, “Stargazer”, “Gates of Babylon”, “Perfect Strangers”, er, “Smoke on the Water”… the list goes on and on… But I am going to choose a more obscure number from ’71, coz the quality is so good for such ancient footage and I love Ritchie’s really nice clean picking on this one.

Can you believe you’re 79, Ritchie? “No, No, No”!