Today in Rock History – 26th APRIL:

BIRTHDAYS
1938: Duane Eddy
1940: Giorgio Moroder (Producer)
1943: Gary Wright (Spooky Tooth / Solo)
1945: Tony Murray (The Troggs)
1951: Nick Garvey (Ducks Deluxe / The Motors)
1952: Neol Davies (The Selecter)
1957: John Sloman (Lone Star / Uriah Heep)
1961: Chris Mars (Golden Smog / The Replacements)
1976: Jose Pasillas (Incubus)

EVENTS
1969: Led Zeppelin played the second of two nights at The Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco in California.
1974: Sweet released their second album, ‘Sweet Fanny Adams’.
1980: Blondie were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with “Call Me”, the group’s fourth UK No.1

1980: The Beat released “Mirror in the Bathroom”, the first digitally recorded single in the UK.
1984: Death of jazz band leader, Count Basie [aged 79].
1986: Van Halen started a three-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with ‘5150’.
1996: Santana played a concert at The Supertop, Mt. Smart in Auckland. I was there ~ and met Carlos Santana after the show!
2018: Death of David Barraclough, guitarist for Exponents.
2018: Death of Charles Neville, saxophonist for The Neville Brothers [aged 79].
2019: Death of Phil McCormack, singer for Molly Hatchet [aged 58].
2022: Death of composer / multi-instrumentalist musician, Klaus Schulze, of Tangerine Dream [aged 74].
2024: Death of guitarist / singer / songwriter / producer, Robin Sidebotham a.k.a. Robin George [aged 68]. Robin had a solo career and also worked with many artists over the years, including David Byron, Glenn Hughes, Phil Lynott, John Wetton & Magnum.

Santana concerts are never formulaic, with unpredictable set lists that often go off on tangents into improvised sections. I have only experienced Santana live once, but it was quite a trip ~ especially getting to meet the man himself! Of course they did “Black Magic Woman” & “Oye Como Va” and I recall “Open Invitation” too, but most of the show seemed to be a big jam session, which included renditions of Bob Marley’s “Exodus” & “Maggot Brain” by Funkadelic. I wish Carlos had pulled this one out of the bag that night though ~ the beautiful guitar instrumental, “Europa”. This version was filmed on the ‘Moonflower’ tour and features the brilliant Michael Shrieve on drums.