1971 - This is the day, almost exactly a year to the day after the appearance of the Faces album, Gasoline Alley, that Rod Stewart released his self-produced masterpiece, Every Picture Tells a Story - his third album. It topped the Billboard album chart for four weeks and did the same in countries all over Europe and parts of Asia, including Australia. All five members of the Faces (with whom Stewart at that time was lead vocalist) appeared on the album, with guitarist/bassist Ronnie Wood and keyboardist Ian McLagan on Hammond B3 organ, being most prominent. The album is a mixture of rock, country, blues, soul, and folk, and includes his breakthrough solo hit, Maggie May, co-written by classical guitarist Martin Quittenton, as well as Reason To Believe, a song from Tim Hardin's debut album of 1966. Reason had initially been the A-side of the single and Maggie May the B-side, until general reaction resulted in their reversal. The album also included a version of Arthur Crudup's That's All Right Mama, (the first single for Elvis Presley) and a cover of the Bob Dylan song Tomorrow Is a Long Time, an outtake from Dylan's 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The album hit 172 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
1973 - On ABC television, USA, 38 years ago tonight you could have watched the TV special, Roberta Flack...The First Time Ever. She had already been to #1 in February with Killing Me Softly With His Song. So here are both songs, both beautifully haunting.
1973 - The Rocky Horror Show, starring Tim Curry, opened in London tonight, the movie opening just two years later. The movie was an adaptation of the British musical show, and written by Richard O'Brien. The film is a parody of B-movie, science fiction and horror films of the late 1940's through early 1970s. Directed by Australian Jim Sharman, who also collaborated on the screenplay with O'Brien, the film introduces Tim Curry and features Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick along with cast members from the original Kings Road production presented at the Royal Court Theatre, London. Also, making his first time ever appearance is Meatloaf. It is the longest running theatrical release in film history, and 38 years later is still in limited release in cinemas around the world. In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
1976 - If you had've lived in the USA 35 years ago, and you watched cable TV station, HBO, tonight you could've could've watched Bette Midler perform live in the new show Standing Room Only. I didn't live there then, and I didn't see the show, but I love Bette Midler, her great sense of humour - and I think she's damned sexy to boot. I'm in the mood, how about you?
1976 - The Bay City Rollers kick off their first U.S. tour in Atlantic City, New Jersey, today, just 12 months to the day prior to Led Zeppelin playing a one-off show in San Diego, in between six gigs in New York and six gigs in Los Angeles. Reports were rife at the time that Jimmy Page was so out of it on something, that he had to be physically carried onto the plane to California, but hey, who really knows these things. Three years later, also on June June 19, Donna Summer became the first act signed by David Geffen to his new Geffen Records label. Here's a special, live version of her song, The Wanderer.
1984 - It's June 19, and tickets for Bruce Springsteen’s 10-night stand at New Jersey’s Meadowlands went on sale. Twenty-four hours later and 202,000 tickets had been snatched up, a phenomenal result for 1984 - pre online booking et al. Four years later, and on the other side of the world, more than 3,000 East Germans gathered at the Berlin Wall to hear Michael Jackson performing at a concert, west of the wall, which if course divided the city in two. First up here we have a young gentleman at the Berlin concert site, then, just for something completely different, we have a very rare backstage look at rehearsals during the Bad 1988 tour, with Cheryl Crow as your hostess, and also as his back-up and co-singer. It's a treat. And even more? Howzabout this montage of his live performance, just to show how good this entertainer was.
2005 - Richard Ashcroft, singer with Bittersweet Symphony hit-makers The Verve, was arrested in Chippenham, England today after bizarrely barging into a youth club and demanding to work with the children. Alcohol may have almost certainly been involved. Guess he still didn't realise the drugs still don't work, and alcohol is a drug...the biggest drug of them all. Here's the Verve doing the song at Glastonbury, three years after the aforementioned incident. Great song, great audience performance.
1973 - On ABC television, USA, 38 years ago tonight you could have watched the TV special, Roberta Flack...The First Time Ever. She had already been to #1 in February with Killing Me Softly With His Song. So here are both songs, both beautifully haunting.
1973 - The Rocky Horror Show, starring Tim Curry, opened in London tonight, the movie opening just two years later. The movie was an adaptation of the British musical show, and written by Richard O'Brien. The film is a parody of B-movie, science fiction and horror films of the late 1940's through early 1970s. Directed by Australian Jim Sharman, who also collaborated on the screenplay with O'Brien, the film introduces Tim Curry and features Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick along with cast members from the original Kings Road production presented at the Royal Court Theatre, London. Also, making his first time ever appearance is Meatloaf. It is the longest running theatrical release in film history, and 38 years later is still in limited release in cinemas around the world. In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
1976 - If you had've lived in the USA 35 years ago, and you watched cable TV station, HBO, tonight you could've could've watched Bette Midler perform live in the new show Standing Room Only. I didn't live there then, and I didn't see the show, but I love Bette Midler, her great sense of humour - and I think she's damned sexy to boot. I'm in the mood, how about you?
1976 - The Bay City Rollers kick off their first U.S. tour in Atlantic City, New Jersey, today, just 12 months to the day prior to Led Zeppelin playing a one-off show in San Diego, in between six gigs in New York and six gigs in Los Angeles. Reports were rife at the time that Jimmy Page was so out of it on something, that he had to be physically carried onto the plane to California, but hey, who really knows these things. Three years later, also on June June 19, Donna Summer became the first act signed by David Geffen to his new Geffen Records label. Here's a special, live version of her song, The Wanderer.
1984 - It's June 19, and tickets for Bruce Springsteen’s 10-night stand at New Jersey’s Meadowlands went on sale. Twenty-four hours later and 202,000 tickets had been snatched up, a phenomenal result for 1984 - pre online booking et al. Four years later, and on the other side of the world, more than 3,000 East Germans gathered at the Berlin Wall to hear Michael Jackson performing at a concert, west of the wall, which if course divided the city in two. First up here we have a young gentleman at the Berlin concert site, then, just for something completely different, we have a very rare backstage look at rehearsals during the Bad 1988 tour, with Cheryl Crow as your hostess, and also as his back-up and co-singer. It's a treat. And even more? Howzabout this montage of his live performance, just to show how good this entertainer was.
2005 - Richard Ashcroft, singer with Bittersweet Symphony hit-makers The Verve, was arrested in Chippenham, England today after bizarrely barging into a youth club and demanding to work with the children. Alcohol may have almost certainly been involved. Guess he still didn't realise the drugs still don't work, and alcohol is a drug...the biggest drug of them all. Here's the Verve doing the song at Glastonbury, three years after the aforementioned incident. Great song, great audience performance.
