BIRTHDAYS
1940: Astrud Gilberto (Getz / Gilberto)
1940: Ray Davis (Parliament / Funkadelic / The Temptations)
1943: Evangelos Papathanassiou a.k.a. Vangelis
1943: Eric Idle (Monty Python’s Flying Circus / The Rutles)
1945: John “Speedy” Keen (Thunderclap Newman)
1947: Bobby Kimball (Toto)
1949: Randy Brecker (The Brecker Brothers / Frank Zappa Band, sessionist)
1949: Dave Greenfield (The Stranglers)
1959: Perry Bernstein a.k.a. Perry Farrell (Jane’s Addiction)
1963?: Kirk Harding
1968: Lucille Ryan a.k.a. Lucy Lawless
EVENTS
1871: Queen Victoria opened the Royal Albert Hall.
1974: King Crimson released their sixth album, ‘Starless and Bible Black’.
1975: Led Zeppelin had all their six albums in the US Top 100 chart in the same week, with their latest album ‘Physical Graffiti’ at No.1.
1975: Jeff Beck released his ‘Blow By Blow’ LP. Produced by George Martin, the instrumental album remarkably reached No. 4 on the U.S. charts and has achieved Platinum in sales.
1978: David Bowie kicked off his ‘Low / Heroes’ 77-date World Tour at San Diego Sports Arena, California.
1979: Supertramp released their sixth LP, ‘Breakfast in America’. It went on to become one of the best selling albums in the world.
1980: Pink Floyd’s ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’, spent its 303rd week on the US album chart, beating the record set by Carole King’s album ‘Tapestry’.
1993: Throwing Muses played a concert at The Powerstation, Auckland ~ I was there!
2005: Neil Young was successfully treated for a brain aneurysm at a hospital in New York.
2020: Death of singer / songwriter / guitarist / actor / model, Alan Merrill [aged 69]. Alan was a member of pop trio, The Arrows, but was best known for writing the smash hit “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll”.
2024: Death of drummer, Gerry Conway [aged 76]. Over the years, Gerry played for Fotheringay, Steeleye Span, Cat Stevens, Joan Armatrading, Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention, Pentangle, Richard Thompson and many others.
Happy 81st Birthday to Eric Idle! He will always be a kid at heart and forever known for his work with Monty Python (my favourite bunch of comedians). Eric was also one of the pre-fab four, The Rutles, but his most famous song is this gem, which he wrote for Python’s ‘Life of Brian’ movie…
