Today in Rock History – 19th JULY:

BIRTHDAYS
1947: Brian May (Queen)
1947: Bernie Leadon (Eagles)
1952: Allen Collins (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

1960: Kevin Haskins (Bauhaus)

EVENTS
1967: The Beatles were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with “All You Need is Love”.
1980: Queen scored their third UK No.1 album with ‘The Game’.
1986: Genesis went to No.1 on the US singles chart with “Invisible Touch”. The group’s former lead singer, Peter Gabriel was at No.2 with “Sledgehammer”.
2008: The second concert of the first G-TARanaki Festival in New Plymouth, featured Glenn Hughes, Joe Satriani, Vernon Reid, Uli Jon Roth, and others. I was there!
2020: Death of singer / songwriter / multi-instrumentalist / sound engineer, Emitt Rhodes [aged 70].

Happy 77th Birthday to Mr. Brian May, guitarist / singer / songwriter of Queen! He’s pictured here playing his famous guitar, “The Red Special”, which he built with his father in 1963, and completed in 1965. When I interviewed Brian in 1991, he explained the whole story of the handcrafted guitar. The body was made from an old oak table and the neck constructed from the mantle of a fireplace, which was over 100 years old at the time. So, Brian will always be younger than his guitar and he is still rocking the world with his fantastic playing! But, here is Queen in the glory days…

Remembering guitarist, Allen Collins of Lynyrd Skynyrd on his birthday today. He managed to survive the tour plane crash in 1977, but died in 1990 after a series of tragic events in his life. He wrote this timeless song with Ronnie, back in ‘73… “Free Bird!”