ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC

1966 - Cream

Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton formed Cream. The three piece group only lasted two years, leaving behind some classic recordings including ‘Sunshine of Your Love,’ ‘Badge,’ ‘Strange Brew,’ and ‘White Room.’

1967 - Newport Folk Festival

Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Judy Collins, Janis Ian, David Blue, Mike Settle, Tom Paxton and Eric Andersen all appeared at the Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island.

Folk Festival programme 67

Joni at Newport

Leonard and Joni (Newport 67)

Leonard and Arlo (Newport 67)

1969 - The Beatles

During recordings for their Abbey Road album, The Beatles worked on two new George Harrison songs, 'Here Comes The Sun' and 'Something.' Harrison was inspired to write 'Here Comes The Sun' when taking a day off from Apple business and spending the day walking around the garden at Eric Clapton's house.

1993 - PHOENIX FESTIVAL

The first of the three day Phoenix festival in Cirencester, England started, featuring Sonic Youth, Faith No More, The Black Crowes, Julian Cope, Pop Will Eat Itself, Radiohead, Living Colour, Manic Street Preachers, Pulp, tickets £49.

2007 - The White Stripes

The White Stripes played their 'shortest live show ever' at George Street, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. Jack White played a single C# note accompanied by a bass drum/crash cymbal hit from Meg. At the end of the show, Jack announced, "We have now officially played in every province and territory in Canada." They then left the stage and performed a full show later that night in St John's.

2007 - Kerry Katona

Three masked men, carrying sledgehammers and crowbars, broke into the home of former Atomic Kitten singer Kerry Katona and escaped with goods including the singers BMW M5 sports car, two laptops, two gaming machines and two televisions. The robbers held a knife to the neck of the former pop star during the raid on her home in Wilmslow, Cheshire.

2009 - Madonna

A stage being built in France for a concert by Madonna collapsed, killing two workers and injuring six others. Technicians had been setting up the stage at the Velodrome stadium in Marseille when the partially-built roof fell in, bringing down a crane. Madonna was performing on her 'Sticky and Sweet' tour in Udine, Italy, when she received news of the incident and was said to be "devastated" by the news.

2012 - Kitty Wells

American country music singer Kitty Wells died in Madison, Tennessee, from complications of a stroke. She was 92. Her 1952 hit 'It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels', made her the first female country singer to top the US country charts, and turned her into the first female country star. Her Top 10 hits continued until the mid-1960s, inspiring a long list of female country singers who came to prominence in the 1960s.

2014 - Johnny Winter

Blues guitarist Johnny Winter died at the age of 70 in Zurich, just days after playing at the Lovely Days Festival in Austria. Winter, who was instantly recognisable by his long white hair, worked with some of the greatest bluesmen, producing several albums for his childhood hero Muddy Waters - with whom he won a number of Grammys.
I saw Johnny twice at festivals in the UK and boy did he make me sit up and take notice of his speed driven rock


BIRTHDAYS

1952 - Stewart Copeland

American musician, multi-instrumentalist and composer Stewart Copeland best known as the drummer for The Police and for his film music soundtracks. He was also a member of Curved Air who had 1971 UK No.4 single 'Back Street Luv'. The Police scored the 1983 UK & US No.1 single 'Every Breath You Take' plus four other UK No.1 singles.


1941 - Desmond Dekker

Desmond Dekker, Jamaican singer, (with The Aces, 1969 UK No.1 & US No.9 single 'Israelites'). Died May 25, 2006.

Other stuff in the News

The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, was published on this date in 1951. It's about a 16-year-old prep school boy named Holden Caulfield, who is fed up with all the "phonies" and wants to go live in a cabin in California. It became a best-seller almost immediately, reaching No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list after two weeks. It has sold more than 65 million copies.

The book begins: "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."

In 1945 on this day, the first atomic bomb exploded at 5:30 a.m., 120 miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. People saw a ball of fire that rose rapidly, releasing four times the heat of the interior of the sun, followed by a 40,000 foot mushroom cloud. The bomb was supposed to give the United States "peace through strength." Officials told the New Mexican citizens that an ammunitions dump had blown up.

Today, radiation levels on the spot are still 10 times that of radiation levels found in nature, and the ground is marked by a lava stone obelisk and a plaque that reads, "Where the World's First Nuclear Device Was Exploded on July 16, 1945."