ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC

1967 - Monkees

A female Monkees fan stowed away on the bands plane between shows in Minneapolis and St Louis. The girl's father threatened to bring charges for transporting a minor across state lines.

1967 - Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd released their debut album The Piper At the Gates of Dawn on which most songs were penned by Syd Barrett. In subsequent years, the record has been recognised as one of the seminal psychedelic rock albums of the 1960s. When reviewed, by the two main UK music papers in the UK, Record Mirror and NME both gave the album four stars out of five. The album which was recorded at Abbey Road studios, London during the same time that The Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper peaked at No.6 on the UK album chart and failed to chart in the US.

Still my very favourite Floyd album  . . . . . . . . . 

and this is why . . . . never mind you're bloody wall, I've got a bike . . . . . . . 

1968 - Newport Pop Festival

The second day of the two day Newport Pop Festival took place in Costa Mesa, California with Blue Cheer, Eric Burdon & The Animals, Grateful Dead, Illinois Speed Press, Iron Butterfly, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service and The Byrds. Over 100,000 fans attended the festival.

Grateful Dead

Dave Crosby just chillin'

Jefferson Airplane

1975 - Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and his wife were both badly injured when the hire car he was driving spun off the road and crashed on the Greek island of Rhodes. Plant smashed both his ankle and his elbow, and was not fully fit for the best part of two years. A forthcoming North American tour had to be cancelled.

1979 - Lowell George

A benefit concert was held to raise money for Little Feat guitarist and singer Lowell George featuring members of his band plus Jackson Browne, Emmylou Harris and Bonnie Raitt.

1984 - Prince

Prince started a 24 week run at the top of the US album charts with 'Purple Rain'. His sixth studio album which features the hits 'When Doves Cry' and 'Let's Go Crazy', as well as the title track has sold over 20 million copies worldwide, becoming the seventh best-selling soundtrack album of all time.

2000 - Craig David

Craig David scored his second UK No.1 single with '7 Days'. At the age of 19, he became the youngest male artist to score two No.1's since Donny Osmond in 1973.

go on then tell me you never heard it . . . . . . . 

2001 - Dave Stewart

Dave Stewart married fashion photographer Anouska Fisz on a private beach on the French Riviera. Guest's included Elton John, Mick Jagger, Oasis brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher and his former Eurythmics partner Annie Lennox.

errr . . . . went for the traditional look then Dave?

2001 - Mariah Carey

The News Of The World reported that Mariah Carey had hired a private eye to spy on her ex husband, record boss Tommy Mottola. Investigator Jack Palladino told the paper that Mariah believed her ex husband was conducting a smear campaign against the singer.

Mottola even denies the claims completely, saying: "I am deeply saddened by Mariah's illness, and I remain completely supportive of her. Any allegations I have tried to hinder her career are completely untrue." 

2007 - Lee Hazlewood

US singer, songwriter Lee Hazlewood died of cancer, in his home near Las Vegas aged 78. Hazlewood wrote and produced many of Nancy Sinatra's most famous hits, including These Boots Were Made For Walkin', 'Jackson' and 'Did You Ever’ He also produced Duane Eddy and Gram Parsons and 'Something Stupid' - the duet Nancy recorded with her father Frank in 1967. One of my favourites and written by Lee and sung by Nancy was this one . . . . 

BIRTHDAYS

1952 - Moya Brennan

Moya Brennan from Irish family band Clannad who had the 1982 UK No.5 single 'Harry's Game'. Clannad have recorded in six different languages, and scored eight UK top-10 albums. They are widely regarded as a band that have brought Irish music and the Irish language to a worldwide audience. Again much music in later life has come from soundtracks and TV or film themes and this extraordinary  voice always struck me and whilst I don't go for the full Clannad thing, the voice of its main singer in Moya Brennan is a gift that it is hard to ignore and first heard it in '82 when the thriller 'Harry's Game' caught out attention 

1953 - Vini Reilly

Vincent "Vini" Gerard Reilly, English musician and leader of the post-punk group The Durutti Column. Reilly was Tony Wilson's first signing to Manchester's iconic label, Factory Records and played guitar on fellow Manchester artist Morrissey's first post-Smiths album Viva Hate in 1988. Notoriously self effacing to the point of self harm Reilly has struggled in later life and the Gurdian featured an article in which his nephew was mentioned fundraising for him on Facebook much to his unending embarrassment I imagine. A favourite of Ian Curtis some consider Reilly the "best guitarist in the world" [Chilli Pepper John Frusciante] with Brian Eno citing Reilly's album 'LC' as his all-time favourite album and for me he was always of interest and the ethereal guitar and bitter sweet fragile vocals on stories at once romantic and melancholic means we ignore him at our peril. He has suffered much in the past ten years or so and suffered ill health that included several heart attacks and a stroke but has been creating still as far as we are aware. 

The Duritti Column

1958 - Ian Broudie

Ian Broudie, English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Broudie was a member of Big in Japan and later The Lightning Seeds who twice took football anthem 'Three Lions' (with comedians Frank Skinner and David Baddiel) to No.1 in the UK.

1901 - Louis Armstrong

Today is the birthday of jazz musician Louis Armstrong (1901), who earned the nickname “Dippermouth” as boy singing for pennies on the streets of New Orleans. He would scoop up the coins and stuff them in his mouth so the bigger boys couldn’t steal them. Later, his effusive style of playing, in particular the way he blew high C’s on his trumpet, would earn him the name “Satchelmouth,” later shortened to “Satchmo.”

Armstrong was born in Storyville, the poorest neighborhood of New Orleans. He worked for a family of Russian Jews delivering coal to prostitute’s rooms. The Karnovsky’s were kind to him, helping him buy a tin trumpet. Because of them, he wore a Star of David pendant for the rest of his life.

As a teenager, he honed his skills playing dances, funeral marches, and riverboats. He met jazz greats like Bix Beiderbecke, Sidney Bechet, and King Oliver, who welcomed him to Chicago in 1924. From 1925 to 1928, he and his band, Louis Armstrong and The Hot Five, made more than 60 records, which influenced everyone from Wynton Marsalis to The Beatles, whom he displaced in 1964, when his rendition of “Hello, Dolly!” knocked them off the number-one spot on the Billboard Charts. (The Writers Almanac)

Me? I prefer the earlier work . . . . . 

Buenaventura Durutti