RANDOM NOTES FROM THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY

March 21st

1961 - The Beatles

The Beatles played their first ever evening show at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, supporting The Swinging Bluegenes, (later to become The Swinging Blue Jeans).

1964 - The Beatles

After 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' had held the No.1 position on the US singles chart for seven weeks, The Beatles started a two-week run at No.1 with 'She Loves You'.

1971 - Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin appeared at the Boat Club, Nottingham, England on their 'Back To The Clubs' tour. This was the first tour which saw Zeppelin performing 'Stairway To Heaven', 'Black Dog' and 'Going To California'. Zeppelin opened the set with 'Immigrant Song' and 'Heartbreaker'. This small club on the banks of the River Trent had also seen performances by Elton John, Black Sabbath, Sex Pistols and Rod Stewart.

1973 - David Cassidy

The BBC banned all teenybopper acts appearing on UK TV show, Top Of The Pops after a riot following a David Cassidy performance.

The BBC destroyed their copy of this. This video was found in Australia and was shown on "Rag

1976 - David Bowie/Iggy Pop

After a David Bowie concert at the Community War Memorial arena in Rochester, New York, Iggy Pop and David Bowie were involved in a drug bust at their hotel room where the police found 182 grams (a little over 6.4 ounces) of marijuana. The pair spent the rest of the night in the Monroe County Jail and were released at about 7 a.m. on $2,000 bond each.

1980 - Hugh Cornwell

Hugh Cornwell of The Stranglers was sent to Pentonville Prison after losing his appeal against a drugs conviction.

1984 - Yoko Ono

Strawberry Fields, an area in Central Park bought by Yoko Ono in memory of her late husband was opened.

2001 - Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson's interior decorator told The Times newspaper that the singer kept 17 life size dolls, adult and child sizes, all fully dressed in his bedroom for 'company.' 

2006 - Solomon Linda

Three South African women whose father, Solomon Linda, wrote ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ in 1939, won a six-year court battle that gave them 25 per cent of all past and future royalties from the song. Linda who was a cleaner at a Johannesburg record company when he wrote the song, received virtually nothing for his work and died in 1962 with $25 in his bank account. The song had been recorded by Pete Seeger (as ‘Wimoweh’), The Kingston Trio, The Tokens, Karl Denver and R.E.M. and was featured in the Disney film The Lion King. It was estimated that the song had earned $15 million for its use in The Lion King alone.

I loved this 'folk' song and had Karl Denver's 'bonkers' version when I was but a little one but the original haunts me especially after Miriam Makeba's version 'Mbube'

2016 - The Beatles

A rare Beatles record found in the loft of Les Maguire - the keyboardist in fellow Liverpool act, Gerry and the Pacemakers sold for £77,500 at auction. The 10-inch acetate of 'Till There Was You' and 'Hello Little Girl' from 1962 was described as 'a Holy Grail item'. It was the first Beatles disc to be cut before the band broke into the national charts

BIRTHDAYS

1943 - Viv Stanshall

English singer-songwriter, musician, author, poet and wit, Vivian Stanshall a founding member of Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band who had the 1968 UK No.5 single 'I'm The Urban Spaceman'. He was Master of Ceremonies on Mike Oldfield's album Tubular Bells. Stanshall died on March 5th 1995 after an electrical fire had broken out as he slept in his top floor flat in Muswell Hill, North London.

1940 - Solomon Burke

American preacher and singer Solomon Burke, known as the king of rock & soul. He had the 1961 US No.24 single 'Just Out Of Reach Of My Open Arms', and the 1963 US No.1 R&B hit, 'Got To Get You Off My Mind'. Burke died on October 10, 2010 at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport while on a plane from Washington Dulles Airport that had just landed.