BIRTHDAYS
1951: William “Bootsy” Collins (Parliament / Funkadelic)
1951: Maggie Roche (The Roches)
1952: David Was (Was Not Was)
1963: Natalie Merchant (10,000 Maniacs)
EVENTS
1958: Bill Haley and his Comets played the first rock ‘n’ roll concert in Germany.
1965: Queen Elizabeth II presented The Beatles with their MBEs at Buckingham Palace, England.
2016: Steven Wilson played his first ever concert in New Zealand, at The Powerstation, Auckland ~ I was there!
2019: Death of Little Feat guitarist / singer / songwriter, Paul Barrere [aged 71].
Wow ~ has it been eight years already! Steven Wilson performed a brilliant gig in Auckland, on his ‘Hand. Cannot. Erase.’ tour on this day in 2016. And he returned to New Zealand in 2019! 😀
This live footage gives some idea of the calibre of musicianship required to be in SW’s band. Before this, guitarist Dave Kilminster had recently completed service on Roger Waters’ world tour for ‘The Wall’, keyboardist Adam Holzman had made history and played in NZ with Miles Davis, while Nick Beggs has played bass for Steven since 2011.
Also, Happy Birthday to super-funky bassist / singer, Bootsy Collins. Check out this smokin’ jam session, featuring the late legendary sax man, David Sanborn (y’know Bowie’s ‘Young Americans’ & all that), drummer Omar Hakim and a scorching lead guitar break from Hiram Bullock. Get the funk out, Bootsy!
