ON THIS DAY IN MUSIC

October 20th

1961 - The Beatles

The Beatles played a lunchtime show at The Cavern Club, Liverpool and tonight they appeared at The Village Hall in Knotty Ash, Liverpool. For those (probably Brits only!?) who wondered if there was an actual Knotty Ash where Ken Dodd's Diddy Men came from . . . . . there was, it's true  . . . . . . although I think the Jam Butty Mines were a fiction (USA: Jello sandwiches) . . . . . . . possibly

1962 - Boris Pickett

Bobby 'Boris' Pickett and the Crypt Kickers started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Monster Mash', it became a No.3 in the UK eleven years later in 1973. The song had been Banned by The BBC in the UK, deemed offensive (go figure!). 

1964 - The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones played their first live concert in France when they appeared at the Paris Olympia. 

Stones at The Olympia

The Stones in '64 on the Tammi Show (USA?)

1967 - Davy Jones

Davy Jones of The Monkees opened his own 'Zilch', boutique in Greenwich Village, New York City.

1969 - The Who

The Who played the first of six nights at New York's Filmore East performing a two-hour show featuring the songs from 'Tommy.'

1973 - The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Angie', the group's 7th US chart topper. A No.5 hit in the UK.

1976 - Led Zeppelin

The Led Zeppelin film 'The Song Remains The Same', premiered in New York City. The charity night raised $25,000 for the save the children fund.

1977 - Siouxsie Sioux

Siouxsie Sioux and Kenny Morris from The Banshees were arrested and held overnight at Holloway police station for causing an obstruction after a London gig, they were both fined £20.

1977 - Ronnie Van Zant

Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines from Lynyrd Skynyrd were all killed along with manager Dean Kilpatrick when their rented plane ran out of fuel and crashed into a densely wooded thicket in the middle of a swamp in Gillsburg, Mississippi. The crash seriously injured the rest of the band and crew who were due to play at Louisiana University that evening.

1978 - The Police

The Police made their US debut at C.B.G.B.S, New York. The trio had flown on low cost tickets with Laker Airtrain from the UK, carrying their instruments as hand luggage.

1984 - Wham!

Wham! started a three week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Freedom', the duo's second No.1. The song was used in a Japanese commercial for Maxell audio cassettes, with altered lyrics.

2003 - Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse released her debut album 'Frank', (named after Frank Sinatra). The album has now sold over one million copies in the UK.

2003 - Cheryl Tweedy

A jury found Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Tweedy guilty of assaulting a nightclub worker but not guilty of racism in her mould mouthed attack.  The singer was sentenced to complete 120 hours of unpaid community service and was ordered to pay her victim £500 compensation, plus £3,000 of prosecution costs. The singer had denied attacking toilet attendant Sophie Amogbokpa, saying she only punched her in self-defence . The charges stemmed from an incident over some lollipops at the Drink nightclub in Guildford, Surrey, on 11 January.

2005 - Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson received a jury summons at his Neverland ranch in California four months after he was acquitted on child molestation charges. A spokesperson said it was likely he would be excused from serving due to the fact that he has lived in Bahrain since the trial.

2006 - George Michael

George Michael openly smoked a cannabis joint during an interview on a TV show. The singer was filmed backstage in Madrid, Spain where the drug is legal. Michael said ‘It’s the only drug I’ve ever thought worth taking, this stuff keeps me sane and happy. But it’s not very healthy.’


2007 - Killing Joke

Paul Raven, bassist with post-punk band Killing Joke, died of a suspected heart attack aged 46 in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was recording. He left the band in 1987 before forming Murder Inc and joining Ministry, Prong and Mob Research.

2011 - Barry Feinstein

US photographer Barry Feinstein, best known for taking enduring pictures of musicians such as Bob Dylan and George Harrison died aged 80. Feinstein was responsible for capturing more than 500 record sleeves, including Harrison's All Things Must Pass album and the cover photograph for Dylan's album The Times They Are A-Changin. The Rolling Stones sleeve for Beggars Banquet shot in a graffiti-covered toilet, was also Feinstein's work.

Classic Feinstein shot of Bobby

George photo shoot for All Things by Feinstein

2014 - John Holt

John Holt, reggae singer and songwriter who first found fame as a member of the Paragons, died aged 67. Holt penned 'The Tide Is High' made famous by Blondie.


2014 - George Harrison

The childhood home of former Beatle George Harrison sold at an auction at The Cavern Club for £156,000, ($250,000). The three-bedroom mid-terrace home was where The Quarrymen held some of their first rehearsals before the band evolved into the The Beatles in 1960.

BIRTHDAYS

1955 - Mark Feltham

Mark Feltham, harmonica player with UK R&B group Nine Below Zero. Feltham has also worked with Rory Gallagher, Roger Daltrey, Deacon Blue, Roy Harper, Annie Lennox, Oasis, Robbie Williams and many other artists. I do like a harp player . . . . 

1950 - Tom Petty

Tom Petty, American singer and songwriter. He was the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup the Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers had the 1977 single 'American Girl', the 1989 UK No.28 single 'I Won't Back Down', and the 1991 UK No.3 album 'Into The Great Wide Open'. With the Traveling Wilburys, the 1988 UK No. 21 single 'Handle With Care'. Petty has also released a string of solo albums, and Throughout his career and has sold over 60 million albums. Petty died on 2 October 2017.

1940 - Kathy Kirby

Kathy Kirby, UK singer, (1963 UK No.4 single 'Secret Love'). Died 19th May 2011.

With her Hollywood looks, shiny lip gloss and sequinned dressed Kathy Kirby was one of those early chanteuses who made a young man sit up and take notice of his telebox, not least that fact she had a distinctive voice too. It is said Gavin Bryars (the contemporary composer) started his career as a bass player covering the Working Men's Club circuits with Kathy's band headed by her partner Bert Ambose and Gavin recalled that he paid his dues where the expectation was to take an intro to pretty much any song from the universal songbook of ballads and torch songs expect to keep up with a introduction much like "OK it's 'Let Me Go Lover' in G, ah-1, 2, 3, 4.  . . . . . 

She also sang the theme for an early teatime thriller I loved as a kid  'Adam Adamant' with Gerald Harper an attempt to design our very own Batman type hero or precursor to John Steed in the Avengers

1890 - 'Jelly Roll' Morton

Jelly Roll Morton, US pianist, arranger, bandleader, the first great composer of jazz, born in New Orleans Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe, Morton's piano style was formed from early secondary ragtime and "shout," which also evolved separately into the New York school of stride piano. Morton's playing was also close to barrelhouse, which produced boogie-woogie, stabbed by a rival in 1938 he suffered many hospialisations in the following couple of years largely through being left untreated for such a long time by a white's only hospital and attendant complications, asthma and ongoing respiratory problems, so that he died 10th July 1941. It is said he was so arrogant and 'bumptious about his place in music history no other musicians attended his funeral. Despite this he wrote many classics including some personal favourites like the Black Bottom Blues, Tiger Rag, Finger Buster, I Hate a Man Like You, The Pearls, and Stomps for King Porter and Kansas City.