6 April 1974
Today 51 years ago, on 6 April 1974,
the California Jam festival
presented an impressive bill.
Rare Earth
Earth, Wind & Fire
Eagles, joined by Jackson Browne
Seals and Crofts
Black Oak Arkansas
Black Sabbath
Deep Purple
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
5 April 2025
Jangly heroes R.E.M played their first ever gig today 45 years ago, on 5 April 1980,
at the St Mary’s Episcopal Church, in their hometown Athens (Georgia). The show at
this abandoned church was for a friend’s birthday party.
11 years later Michael Stipe lost his religion.
4 April 2025
VAN MORRISON‘s PR agent invited 133 UK journalists,
to fly to New York to see the Belfast Cowboy and his band
at the Fillmore East.
It costed £120,000 ($204,000) and turned into a disaster. The band planned to leave
a few days before the show to rehearse, but were denied visas on a technicality. They
were finally given visas on the morning of the show, and arrived hours before the concert.
The plane carrying the journalists developed a mechanical fault, delaying the flight and when the journalists arrived In New York 18 hours later, they were all hung over, resulting in a flood of scathing reviews. Promo mission not accomplished.
Van Morrison’s spectacular performance at The Band’s The Last Waltz concert in 1976
3 April 2025
During their first US tour, CHRISSIE HYNDE
and her PRETENDERS were involved in a fight
at a bar in Memphis.
Eventually Hynde was arrested for disorderly conduct. She kicked out the window
of the police cruiser sent to take her away and spent the night in jail. Bad, bad rock
chick, but pretty cool story.
A true warrior, always talk of the town
1 April 2025
Eternal pop legends THE BEATLES began a three-month residency at The Top Ten Club,
in Hamburg, Germany, playing 92 straight nights. The group played for seven hours a night
on weekdays and eight hours at weekends with a fifteen-minute break every hour. Talking about Hard Day Nights.
Even more famous are their countless gigs at the Star-Club, also in Hamburg. From those shows, a double live album was recorded, Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962.
During that long stay German photographer Astrid Kirchherr cut The Fab Four‘s original, Scottish bassist Stuart Sutcliffe‘s hair into the style that became the “Beatle haircut”. .
Book by Spencer Leigh – 2011
Back in time
31 March 2025
RCA Records (now owned by Sony Music Entertainment) introduced
the 45rpm record, which had been in development since 1940.
The 7-inch disc was designed to compete with the Long Playing record introduced by Columbia Records a year earlier. Both formats offered better fidelity and longer playing time than the 78rpm record that was currently in use. Advertisements for new record players boasted that with 45rpm records, the listener could hear up to ten records with speedy, silent, hardly noticeable changes.
Cool thing to know: the colored vinyl wasn’t an invention of the punk era. From the start, back in 1949, each genre of music had its own color. Country releases were on green vinyl, children’s records were on yellow, classical releases were on red and popular releases on standard black vinyl. The very first 45 rpm record created was a child song entitled ‘PeeWee the Piccolo‘, pressed on 7 Dec 1948 and launched months later.
Anyway, on 31 March 1949, today 76 years ago, a country song
titled Texarkana Baby, written by Fred Rose and Cottonseed Clark
and performed by Eddy Arnold was among the first seven-inch
45 rpm records releases by RCA in the USA and given the credit
of being the very first 7″ ever.
Hear history here.
Back in time
26 December 2024
Legendary psych-rock giants PINK FLOYD topped the US Album Charts
this day 45 years ago, on 26 December 1979 with their 11th LP THE WALL.
It occupied the top seat for 15 weeks. In the UK it peaked at #3.
The Wall is a rock opera that explores abandonment, cycles of violence, and isolation, symbolized by a wall. The songs create a storyline of events in the life of Pink, a fictional rock star based on Waters and Pink Floyd‘s former frontman Syd Barrett. The first half of the album largely features events from Waters’ childhood and young adulthood, such as the death of his father in WWII, and his wife’s infidelity.
Melody Maker (UK) wrote : “Not sure whether
it’s brilliant or terrible, but it’s utterly compelling.”
SINGLE
“We don’t need no education
We don’t need no thought control”
ALBUM
Who knows all of them?
11 August 2021
Heavy blues rock giants LED ZEPPELIN played their
last ever UK concert on 11th August 1979 – 42 years
ago today – on the gigantic and legendary green fields
of Knebworth.
What a supporting cast!
the historic concert in full…
LED ZEPPELIN: Facebook
2 November 2020
This day in 1967 Cream came up with
their 2nd album Disraeli Gears…
.
CCR
On 2 November 1969 Creedence Clearwater
Revival dropped third LP Willy And The Poor Boys
.
THE POLICE
The Police unleashed their debut
album Outlandos D’Amour on
2 November 1978…
